What is the most terrifying thing that taught you a lesson?

My Ram park brakes are ok with the truck on moderate grades. Trailer? Yeah no. Darling wife gets out to use the restroom while I sit with my foot on the brake. When the egts get down to low 300s I'll shut it off and go to the bathroom myself. I've learned to look for spots on the side of the road that are after a long downgrade so the engine is cool.

I had a driveline parking brake on the f650 I had in Texas. Pulled off the road, downhill to a closed gate. Set the brake, got out to open the gate, and as I started around the front of the truck it rolled into the gate. That was the last time I trusted it.

Never had time to be terrified but did teach me a lesson. DON"T TRAM WITH THE SPROCKETS AT THE FRONT.

John C. said:

The drive line brake reminds me of a close encounter of the dangerous kind.

It was a Saturday and I was coming home from a job way up in the Snoqualmie tree farm. It was an excavator that got a rebuilt pump that had to be adjusted properly. The machine was up about six miles basically on a cat trail. First gear the last three miles, steep and on shale type rock that was sharp. The job was done and I had got back down to I90 and was heading west up the hill out of North Bend when the left rear inside dual blew out. Pulled over, set the parking brake and had the tranny in first gear when I looked underneath the truck. The spring clip bolt that holds the spring leaves in line had lost the nut and worked its way out into the side wall of the tire and wore through it. At any rate I proceeded to put the bottle jack under the axle and started the process of lifting the tires up for changing when the truck rolled off the jack. It hadn't occurred to me that a drive line brake is useless when one tire is lifted off the ground. Two things were in my favor. The first is that the tranny was in gear. The second is that I was in front of the tires on the up hill side. I guess I was too stupid to realize that I was lucky until a little while later.

I brought the incident up at the next safety meeting and all of the rest of the field guys did the oh split kind of reaction. The service manager put wheel chocks in all the service trucks after that.

Click to expand...

You wouldn't be the first to be caught out with a driveline brake.
Several years ago, a local rubbish collection company were up a steep driveway with an Isuzu NPR. The driveway was wet, and when the hydraulic bin lifter on the rear gave the truck a shake, the rear wheels broken traction and the truck headed down the driveway, launched off a retaining wall at the bottom and nosedived onto the main road. It's amazing nobody else was caught up in it.
I had similar in an old truck with one wheel on grass. Luckily, it only rolled forward a few meters.
IMO driveline brakes on trucks are downright dangerous.

Geez Tones, that's gotta wreck your day.

Pony said:

Geez Tones, that's gotta wreck your day.

Click to expand...

It was a fair while ago since that happened. My injured pride still hasn't healed.

JBrady said:

These are great stories and lessons. We have a saying at work "learn from your mistakes, but it is far easier to learn from others mistakes". I was hauling a 85hp ag tractor to my place before we built a house and moved there. I had already loaded and unloaded this particular tractor without any problems, but on this day, I had a pretty heavy brushhog on the back. I parked on a slight downhill grade, put the truck in park and set the parking brake. Just as my rear wheels hit the ramps, I noticed that everything was moving. My mind momentarily froze as it tried to process what was happening. When my mind finally clicked in, I looked forward to see the rear axle of the truck several feet in the air and the truck, trailer, tractor, and me were all rolling downhill. You'd think with all the land around and nice pasture that we could have coasted to a nice gradual stop. Unfortunately, the oil company that had the lease had decided to park their old grader just off the road. The truck was headed right for the front wheel of that grader. I remember thinking well, this will stop us. Instead, that stupid F-250 decided to climb the front grader tire. Next thing I know, the truck is at a 45 degree angle and the trailer ball snaps. Me and the tractor roll down a now very steep trailer and the truck rolls over on its side. Nothing left to do but put a chain on the truck, pull it back over and drive it into town to buy a new trailer ball and drive back to the house. Thank the Lord no one was hurt or I didn't have my kids in the truck or something like that. Lessons learned: Always chock wheels, load/unload on level ground, consider what the worst thing that could happen is before doing a task.

Click to expand...

This one hits home. A number of years ago we were loading out to come home from Colorado where we had been elk hunting. I was towing my 30 ft enclosed gooseneck that did double duty as a hunting shack and as my Unimog transport. My 406 Unimog only has a couple inches of clearance and once loaded I would have to crawl out the back cab window. We were parked on the mountain trail near the highway as we pulled the trailer out empty before loading the Mog for the trip home. The road was covered with snow and ice and running slightly downhill to the highway and then a 40 ft. drop off on the other side. The truck was parked in neutral with the parking brake on. I had loaded the Mog many, many times before with no issue. My BIL was standing in front guiding me as I inched it in. I seen the landscape moving out the open side door behind the BIL. I waved franticly at him as he kept motioning at me to keep coming. The tires had started skidding on the icy road as the rear of the truck lightened up. I was chasing reverse and trying to back out when my wife jumped into the cab and hit the brakes stopping us. My BIL nearly fell down. It started moving so gently that he never noticed. I had taken the hubs out before I loaded the Mog so I wouldn't forget and have to stop up the road. Maybe we would have stopped once the rear truck tires hit the asphalt? I hope we never find out, but in any event I wouldn't have wanted to be sitting on that heavy traffic, truck road, sideways at the base of a steep mountain downhill. After that I always put it in low range 4 wheel drive and shut the truck off with the e-brake on.

skyking1 said:

There is no test, there is no "
that is good enough ". If you want to classify soils you have to be an engineer for that purpose. Best practices to treat all soils as class c, and act accordingly.
Undisturbed soils will stand up like a slot cut in wood, if there's any binder in it. It can also collapse and those kinds of ditches lull people into a false sense of security. The other thing that happens is you'll be digging parallel to another trench that was dug many years ago, and let's say your four feet down and 2 ft over from that trench, that entire loaf of dirt between you and that other trench can fall in in one piece. All you have to do is be buried up to your belt to die. The pressure from the soil is so tremendous, that it will restrict your ability to breathe even down there that low on your body.

Click to expand...

Well said skyking1. You are 100% correct that all soils must be treated as class C soils unless an engineer has provided a written document stating otherwise. Buried to the belt has resulted in many fatalities from blood clots moving to the wrong places right after the person gets dug out. Dirt chest high results in death in only a couple minutes and often less from suffocation. Trench safety rules are there for a reason.

I've done stupid more than anyone else.

Flipped a backhoe on its side, left it propped up on one stabilizer. Happened so fast I couldn't grab something. I got tossed under it. At worst, a bit of road rash.

I was offering a 10' X 10' square frame of 9" I beam to frame a fuel tank shed. I had it suspended on a utility tractor loader. It snagged on the ground & came toward my seat. Mangled the exhaust. I near had 500 LBS of steel in my lap.

Pushed down a 50' tall dead pine with a dozer. Top ten feet of trunk came out, landed on the air intake 2' from me.

Wood splitter spit out a block I was cutting sideways to test power. Popped me in the nose. Ripped my nose off top down, didn't quite tear it completely away. 6 cracks in my skull radiating outward from the bony hole where cartilage had been attached. Still stuffy at night.

Safety begins with thinking. All the safety gear in the book will only contain the mess if you do something truly stupid.

JBrady said:

These are great stories and lessons. We have a saying at work "learn from your mistakes, but it is far easier to learn from others mistakes". I was hauling a 85hp ag tractor to my place before we built a house and moved there. I had already loaded and unloaded this particular tractor without any problems, but on this day, I had a pretty heavy brushhog on the back. I parked on a slight downhill grade, put the truck in park and set the parking brake. Just as my rear wheels hit the ramps, I noticed that everything was moving. My mind momentarily froze as it tried to process what was happening. When my mind finally clicked in, I looked forward to see the rear axle of the truck several feet in the air and the truck, trailer, tractor, and me were all rolling downhill. You'd think with all the land around and nice pasture that we could have coasted to a nice gradual stop. Unfortunately, the oil company that had the lease had decided to park their old grader just off the road. The truck was headed right for the front wheel of that grader. I remember thinking well, this will stop us. Instead, that stupid F-250 decided to climb the front grader tire. Next thing I know, the truck is at a 45 degree angle and the trailer ball snaps. Me and the tractor roll down a now very steep trailer and the truck rolls over on its side. Nothing left to do but put a chain on the truck, pull it back over and drive it into town to buy a new trailer ball and drive back to the house. Thank the Lord no one was hurt or I didn't have my kids in the truck or something like that. Lessons learned: Always chock wheels, load/unload on level ground, consider what the worst thing that could happen is before doing a task.

Click to expand...

Yes & trailer ramps should have a foot extends under the trailer. I've had a wild ride when the trailer tongue lifts the spring brake equipped axle off the ground. Better ramps, better linkage to the trailer cure this phenomenon. Blocking ALL tires also helps.

suladas said:

Had a close call with a cave in on one of my first basements many years ago. Two service trenches, about 10' apart. Dug one, backfilled it, dug other and as I started to backfill a massive part of the bank between the two let go, it was like 9' high bank, if someone was in the trench they would have been dead absolutely no question about it, and I was in there only maybe 45 minutes prior. Was a big wake up a call, and good lesson about banks that I thankfully didn't learn the hard way. 5' is legal here, over the years i've got where I know when i'm digging if the dirt is stable and what i'm comfortable going in. For virtually all my sewer and water trenches I keep the 5' bucket on to make it safer, and bench down the sides. Problem is the bank against the city property is always going to be over 5' and you can't dig it to slope or bench it back, had some as deep as 13'. Did a repair a few weeks ago 13' down no possible room to bench or slope so rented a trench box, they sure are handy. It's amazing how dumb some people are though, the customer figured I was going to do the repair without a trench box, a hole 13' down only 4'x6' in size, ya let's just dig my own grave.....

A temp worker got buried and died here a few years ago, contractor went to jail I believe, and even the builder got it really bad. One "new Canadian" company I watched doing services here they had a 2' wide trench it was 12' down easy, no slope or benching and they were driving the 200 hoe back and forth at the top while guys were in the trench. Baffled they haven't killed someone yet.

Click to expand...

The jailed contractor was the lucky one here. He is a lot better off than the worker he killed and the employees family that was left hurting.

Breaking chain saw safety rule #1 on a daily basis - Never Work Alone With A Chain Saw. I have NO employees and I work alone 99% of the time. It's up to me to survive so I always try to think several steps ahead and follow some good safety measures if I am going to break rule number 1. I'm pretty good about wearing safety gear when using my 385XP. It's the only saw I carry and it is unforgiving.

1) That day that I tripped while carrying a running saw and went head over heels with my head hitting the saw bar - I ALWAYS set the chain brake when the cut is finished and the hard hat saved my head. Simple safety rule that I set in my ways early in saw operations - the brake is there to be used when the saw is not cutting.

2) That day the running saw slipped onto my thigh just above the knee - cut right through my jeans but drew NO blood because the saw chaps did what they were designed to do. Gear or gore - you make the choice.

3) That day I did not refuse to help a "buddy" take down a 36"+ red oak on a right of way clearing job. The night before, I tried talking him into using my "open face cut method" that I was introduced to at a timber school. The bore cut and setting the hinge operation would have clued him into the rot within the tree and we could have approached the problem tree differently. Instead, he used his usual method and we set his 200 excavator up to brace the crown of the tree while he cut and I braced with my PC200 from the other side. When the tree popped from the rot and blew the anticipated hinge, it was too top heavy and all it did was relieve my swing circuit. At that point, I could do nothing more than watch the show. He got out of the way in time but his excavator did not as the tree's crown toppled over the stick, then the butt end slid down the stick, bent the stick cylinder, then down the boom and crushed the cab down about 2 feet. Part of the top landed in the highway with traffic running uncontrolled. No one was hurt but my tongue - after hearing, "I've been cutting timber for over 20 F'in years. I don't need some new method to get trees on the ground!" the night before. We always cabled any questionable trees after that.

Not thinking clearly once my first divorce was getting underway, I did not think to relieve the pressure on a hydraulic circuit with quick disconnects. There is a button on the joystick to do exactly this and I had done it many times but my head was elsewhere. When I could not disconnect the couplers by hand pressure, I tapped the release collar with a hammer. Again, my head was in the wrong place, my hands were not on the coupler when it released and my two upper front teeth caught the quick coupler when it did release. I thought for sure that I blew the teeth out of my head but they were only fractured with visibly evident cracks across both. Surprisingly, after 7 years or so, the teeth healed and no fracture lines are evident any longer - but I STILL remember that lesson. ALWAYS relieve pressure before working on it.

Not thinking to wear gloves one winter's day just before unloading my PC200 to start a ditch clearing job. I stepped over a creek bank to inspect and plan my route for cutting out the brush. The edge of the bank was steep and slippery. When gravity sucked me down, my hands naturally tried to catch myself and reduce the impact to the ground. Unfortunately for my left hand, there was a dead annual plant that broke off the main stem from the collision and jammed the resultant stubble into my palm. I had a 1/2" hole plus numerous smaller holes in my hand oozing blood and foaming. I can be stubborn at times so I continued to unload the machine and attempted to consider working. After 30-45 minutes, it was still foaming and starting to really hurt. I gave up and called my wife to come get me. I wound up with about 4 inches of incision and lots of stitching where the surgeon had to peel open my hand to remove the debris that got imbedded within my palm - all because I did not wear a $10 pair of gloves. I was out a good 4+ weeks on that one.

And the list goes on.... Remember, safety gear makes the difference. There are two types of motorcycle riders: Pirates and Armadillos. I wear the gear, not the eye patch. Life is less painful with a measure of protection.

That wood splitter one sounds rough @Willie B and the quick coupling one sounds rough, too, @treemuncher !

I've done my teeth similarly where I've yanked on something heavy or stuck, from straight under my head, and ended up punching myself in the face. Sadly, it's taking me more than one try to learn that one.

I'm also a fan of using the chainsaw brake any time the saw is not sawing, too many times I've almost tripped and fell over sticks or branches as I'm bucking stuff up.

Excavator had standard front grid pattern guarding across the front window area. I was building log skidder trails 30 years ago, had mud on the front lower window in the excavator. I didnt see a 4 inch broken ended log that was too close in my swing area. Swung around and the log caught in the lowest center square opening in the guard and fired straight through the tempered glass, snapped both travel levers and pedals clear off their casting hinges on the foot control valve, and the log poked between my legs and stopped at the heater right squarely under the seat. happened do fast, I didnt't even know what had occured for a moment. Worst part was trying to walk the machine out of the bush with nothing but 4 heavily spring loaded plungers sticking out of the floor to operate the tracks.

Another close call: While mulching with the PC200 and cutterhead at a powerplant job, I was doing some technical work near a spillway where they had containment booms, managed with ropes. Whenever I run that machine, I ALWAYS wear safety glasses and a hard hat, and a good thing too that day. I sucked up a piece of rope, no big deal, usually, but that one had a swivel snap hook at the end. The hook was furthest away from me but once the rope had spooled up on the drum, at roughly 100 mph effective rotational speed, the hook broke free of the rope and went through my mesh guard and right through my windshield. Instantly, I could not see as the glass was completely shattered. I checked myself for blood and impact marks but I was lucky enough that it hit the seat base between my legs. The safety glasses saved my eyes from flying glass.

The same guy who lost the battle with the oak tree had his son on a later phase of the same job running another excavator mulcher. I suggested to him to put a mesh guard in front of the windshield of his excavator and wear the hardhat/safety glasses. "No, we never have any problems like that. Wood just bounces off the glass and we don't have rocky ground." was the response. Within a day or two at the most, I hear a call over the CB radio that he had an incident. While working a sycamore tree, a 12" long chunk of 4"-5" diameter wood came right through the cab glass and the jagged, sheared end of the log punched him in the cheek just below his eye. He had a circle of bloody holes in his face but not bad enough for a hospital visit. He mounted the guard and new glass the next morning and borrowed safety glasses and a hard hat from me for the rest of the job.

Darwin had it right because eventually, like fuel, luck will run out and leave you empty.

when I first started operating excavators there were 2 things that happened.
1. when pulling up a good size tree i grabbed on the lower part of trunk with thumb and lifted high in the air. I quickly realized that it was a bad idea as in slow motion the tree lost its balance and came down on the top the the cab all the while I was saying to myself I hope it dosn't crush me too much SMH.
2. when hooking on to one end of a large log (18" diameter 12' long) with a chain and having the other end attached to my bucket I started to move it and lifted one end maybe 8ft off ground I started to swing direction but the log started going the wrong direction and headed straight for the cab at face level I almost crapped myself and at the last second realized i need to boom down to stop the log and the log dropped to the ground (about 2ft infront of the cab)
these things may not sound scary but i was only in a 16,000 lb machine

Welcome to HEF,
dadanddaughterexcavation

Tinkerer said:

Welcome to HEF,
dadanddaughterexcavation

Click to expand...

Yes! a second Welcome to the Nut House.....I mean heavy equipment Forum.

Well while we are talking about teeth, this is not all that terrifying but more embarrassing!

A few years back I had got the old Yam XS650 running after repairing the engine out of another bike. This XS650 was a barn find and had probably not been on the road for a few years before I bought it in 2000 and now it was another 15 or more years old!

One cold day, maybe just slightly above freezing, I finally got to the point I could start it. I actually sounded pretty good so I decided to run it down the driveway, about 175 feet, and back to the garage.

Ran good in first gear to the highway and did the u-turn and gave it a little throttle in first up the slight rise. About 75 feet from the garage let off throttle and touched the brakes. I am in the habit of using both front and back brakes, guess it was not a good idea with light rust on front disk and 15+ year old tires. Bike slammed to the ground hard on the right side with rear brake punching a hole in side case of the engine soaking the drive with oil. Then I notice the red fluid that was not coming from the bike but me! Some skinned knee's and such and also a gap where my right upper front tooth used to be, well at least the upper half was still there!

Guess one moral of the story is don't touch brakes too hard when riding on cold blacktop with rock hard 15+ year old tires! Good things were had spare side case for engine on the shelf and a very good dentist that could fabricate a new section of tooth to replace the missing part, and she didn't laugh too much. And yes bike had new sticky tires before the next ride!

Here is a thing through excavator glass story. I was tasked with loading out the scrap steel and wood from about 4 million pounds of form panels for the 520 bridge job from the Tacoma site. They got me a 225 John Deere, it was too small and I told them so. They disagreed. No guarding either, and the trash trucks were 13'6" high siders.
That short arm put the stuff uncomfortably close above me. I had a ball of rebar and embedded in it was a 4" x 1/2" by 10' steel strap that I put there, make no mistake I knew it was in there. Lofting that ball of crap over the trash truck, the strap slipped out and speared through the lower glass, snapping off the foot rest casting. It would have likely destroyed my left foot, except my feet are always on the travel pedals.


Job came to a full stop, and arrangements were made for guarding and a different excavator. The 20-something nephew ( major nepotism! ) said the excavator was big enough, I disabused him with absolute disregard about my future employment, and when the new machine arrived I was well pleased.
He said he got me another 200, but he was clueless enough to mistake a brand new 329 Cat for a 200. It was a long ways better.

I was lofting 29' x 5' x .25 sheets and where the 225 barely had it, this thing it was way out at arm's length. That crap would bow and bend back and forth.