Best/worst operating story

[littledenny]

Is it me, or is the level of banter down a little lately?

I was discussing operator stories on another forum, relating an episode of breaking up a near fight between co-workers. In this case it was nearly a conflab between a small dozer and a big backhoe -- thought this would be the place to go to the source for equipment operating experience.

What's the best/worst/scariest story you have from your operating experience. Bonus awarded if you can document it.

One of mine from years ago was operating an ancient Wabco scraper. I was 19 at the time, early in my second summer of operating, had been on this scraper for all of a cpule days.

For those of you who remember, this scraper had no steering wheel, just a toggle switch above the grabbar, which you thumbed left or right to turn. Brakes were nothing to write home about, built well before ROPS cages.

On this fateful day, I was running empty down a haul road, when the steel grid above the generator just behind my set broke loose, fell down into the well, and shorted out everything electrical. After the initial shock at the spitzen-sparken going on behind me, I suddenly realized I was without steering, brakes, seatbelts or airbags. A fairly sweeping turn was in my immediate future, and my present course was gonna miss that turn by just enough to put me over the bank, and down into the trees. I remember thinking that this scraper was probably heavy enough to roll through those trees, and down into the lake below.

Not having the presence of mind to do anything else, I reached over and dropped the bowl, which, by the way, is a pretty effective brake. My stop wasn't too pretty, but was good enough to prevent the EMT's from having to take me home in baggies.

I'm sure you guys can come up with a few stories to top this one.

 

[digger242j]

I'm sure that I'll think of a few of my own, but one that comes to mind immediatly is probably because you mention dropping the bowl to stop the machine. The story was told to me by an old operator many years ago. (I think Jay was in his late 60's back then, and that was 25 years ago.) I have no reason to disbelieve what he was saying. He was warning me of the dangers of a diesel engine ingesting natural gas--something I've thankfully never experienced, but his story was the first time I'd been warned about it.

(For those who don't know what will happen--the way you shut off a diesel is to shut off the flow of fuel. If gas starts entering through the air intake you effectively have no control over either RPMs or any way of shutting it off. It'll wind right up til it scatters. The exception is that certain models have an emergency shut off that closes off the air supply. Do you know where to find it on the machine you're running?)

Anyway, he was trimming a dirt embankment on a highway project with a D-9 and caught the gas service line to a nearby house. He immediatly hit the engine shut off, compression realease, shifted into highest gear, and dropped the blade. He told me that that dozer dug a four foot deep hole before the engine would stall.... :eek2

 

[littledenny]

Similar thing happened here in the Atlanta area something like a year ago. Several guys were grading a mall, or some other such big area, one of the excavators hit a good sized gas line. Was either a dozer, or a scraper, can't remember which, moved thorugh the vapors, and similarly "took off". If I remember right, it traveled quite a ways before running into something immovable and finally stopped. Remember seeing the news flash of a burned out scraper, all the tires burnt off, but think it was a runaway dozer that got the big story.

 

[Bob Horrell]

Any of you guys running any kind of turbo diesel should make a note of how to shut off the air supply. The turbos are lubricated with engine oil and if there is any kind of failure in this system, engine oil is sucked into the diesel and it will run away until it destroys itself or runs out of engine oil (most always will self destruct first). I knew a guy who had this happen with the cummins engine in his truck. He said it was the scariest thing he ever had happen and he was helpless to stop it.

 

[glsahl]

no parking,means no parking

I was working in a mine just south of Nipton,CA,back in the late 80's.Got a call that there was a retarder problem on a haul truck, in the pit.We were running 5 UnitRig 120 ton electrahauls,built back in the 50's.I got picked to bring it down to the shop yard,which consisted of five 40ft refer trailers,refer units removed,of course,buried to make the rear doors at ground level.
Between them and our fuel pumps,was enough room for two haul trucks to sit abreast of one another,not pass,mind you,but you could fit two in there.
While I was headed up to the pit,the second shift pit boss came up to the "office" to get his check.He parked his two week old Ford F-350 between the trailers and the pumps,just in front of two runaway berms,with a 4'x8' "no parking" sign,mounted to 2 4" steel pipes,buried in the first ramp.
It was almost a quater of a mile from pit to yard,most of it at 6%.I hit the bottom at 30+ mph,looked up from the dash,just in time to see a blue pickup disappear under the front end.
We cut the sign off of the pipe,and welded them to what was left of the Ford,and reformed the first berm on top of it.Guess that made a better warning,I worked there for another year,and never saw anything parked in that spot again.

 

[digger242j]

One day a few years ago I had a little bit of fun.

I was on my backhoe digging a trench for the main electric line into a new home project. At a point near the intersection with the existing road the builder had an office trailer set up. It was just your standard small office trailer, with two side doors, one at either end. They'd built a small set of wooden steps to each of the doors.

Eventually I came to be digging right alongside of the trailer. Somehow, my right hand stabilizer gave just a little nudge to the steps at the rear door of the trailer, which in turn gave just a little nudge to the trailer itself. No damage done at all, but the superintendent was inside at his desk, which was just inside the front door. He objected to me rocking his trailer, and opened the door and told me as much. (At least I think that's what he was yelling about--I really couldn't hear any of it over the engine noise anyway.) Once he was done yelling, he went back inside and closed the door.

A couple of minutes later, I was a little further along. As a matter of fact, I had the swing pin of the hoe lined up exactly with the front door of the trailer. I took another bucketful of dirt, and gestured to my laborer to open the door of the trailer. I swung the hoe all the way to the right, and stretched the extendahoe out. The 18" bucket fit through the open door with room to spare. I curled out and dumped the whole bucketful on the trailer floor. I withdrew the bucket, and without needing to be told, the laborer closed the door again.

Of course, we had to shovel the dirt out of the trailer, but it was worth it...

:bouncegri

 

[Steve Frazier]

I had my JD 410 at my sister's doing some work and was digging a pit to bury debris. The pit was on a side hill and I was on the uphill side pulling the debris into it.

Well, the wall gave way and the machine started sliding in the hole. I somehow manage to swing the boom to the high side quick enough and slapped it in gear at the same time to drive out of the pit on one wheel!!

My brother in law was watching and it was quite a sight to see the shade of white his face turned, and then watch him retreat inside for a change of underwear!!

 

[littledenny]

Of course, we had to shovel the dirt out of the trailer, but it was worth it...

:bouncegri 0

That sure beats the age-old story of lifting the jobsite thunderhut with the forklift.

 

[will_gurt]

My worst was when I was dumping the spoils for a foundation excavation. I had been hauling all day when this happened. I was backing up onto the pile when the roadway gave out. Next thing I know was that I was looking out the windshield sideways. It was a fall of only ten foot. the only good thing out of it was I land into the site office trailer. Made them deside that they really didn't need it after all :bouncegri . The "OH MY GOSH" here was the same superintenant, that Digger242j loaded the dirt for, left only ten minutes before this all happened.

 

[PAYTON]

where do i start?

let see in 98 i was runnin a d10 at a landfill job in southern indiana we were building a new cell it had 60 foot slopes there was one spot where we always entered and exited the cell everyone knew it. well there was a survery out doing his job around lunch time in his brand new dealer tags still on f350 crew cab dually with nice matching fiberglass topper.. im guessing 45k or so total. not counting the equipment in the truck. well he parked in the spot where we always enterd/exited the cell so here i come tracking up this 60 foot slope top of slope had a 5 foot wide top section that was flat.. then a 10 foot drop back to established grade. well i break over the top not being able to see anything with a 18 ft wide blade and 9 ft tall blade u cant see anything coming over its just one of those step on decelerator wait for it to break over and take the drop. well i didnt feel the drop and was still semi- level.. hmm this isnt right so i stop looking around.. finally see a shiny black item between the track on the left and the blade then see a couple guys coming full on sprint. i was parked on top of his new rig..ooops..

then a couple days later same job site im running a hitachi 700 loading bm 35 haul trucks we got a new guy in a haul truck that dont know jack bout them he yelled at me on the cb and told me his breaks werent working i told him to take it to the mechanic.. the mechanic looks it over said theres nothing wrong with this thing go back to work. 2 trips later the guy gets to the ho and gets out comes up to me and tells me theres something wrong with the truck theres no brakes.. so i yell at the mechanic again he tells me if i think theres something wrong with the truck to fix it my self or leave him alone. so i yell at another operator who knew how to run the ho. i jump in the bm 35 take off after its loaded left the operator there . i get half way down a long 20% grade at the bottom of it theres a s curve and the lot is on the right. i start to apply the brakes to go in to the s curve nothing no 50 ft in front of the s curve to the left is a 10 foot drop. another truck coming from the other direction in the s curve so whats left to do be lay the truck over to get it stopped. i cut left and right real hard to get the bed to slide sideways and flip over. it flips over i bust the windsheild out with my head. as im climbing out of the truck the mechanic comes up yelling and screaming at me bout what the f do you think your doing. at this point im walking str8 at the mechainc with blood running in my eyes im gonna kill this guy when i get close enuff to him. this time the vp of the company pulls up im 6'4" 300 pounds and i look up at this guy. he grabs me in a bear hug picks me up takes me to his truck sits me in the pass seat and drives off. we go to the local gas station i was my head up. get a soda he ask if i calm enuff to go back to the job site. yeah but the mechanic is done i wont work on another job site hes on. we get back to the site the mechanic walks up starts talking to steve the vp. telling him how i destoryed this and that on the truck etc. steve looks at him tells him the truck shouldnt have been in operation to begin with and that he needs to make sure he has all his personal property when he leaves the job site cause he wont be coming back nor would he be working for the company after tonight his check would be waiting for him at the shop tonight

hmm what else have i done thats really stupid or funny hmm i was assit site supervisior on a large steal mill job in 99 i was running the back half and the boss was running the front half. well my boss went on vacation so they send another boss out there who thinks im too young to be in charge of anything .. so he tells me you can run the water truck today. we had called the union hall to have some one out there that day but no one showed up. so i said ok what ever. i get in the water truck a nice new cat d500 with water conon ac nice nice truck. so im watering and im not doing it up to his desire. im running the haul road spraying one of the dozer operators stops me and ask bout a berm that had to go up on the back side of the scrap pile. i explained it to him the new boss comes flying up.. what are you doing stopping i was you watering you dont have time to stop. ok so i get back in teh truck and start to take off he goes bout 50 ft stopps gets out and starts yelling at me to start spraying .. so i throw the truck into first at this point hes jumping up and down im bouncing off the rev limiter in first. and i finally throw the switch to let the water flow and i drench the guy from head to toe the inside of his truck everything is drenched theres water standing in his floor boards. he starts screaming and cussing telling me how im never gonna work here again. and that my check is on its way. well my boss just happen to come in that day cause he needed some papers from the office trailer so i go park the water truck goto the office trailer to wait on my check. he ask why im in there and what was going on. i tell him hes rolling in the floor when the new boss walks in.. said i just fired you what are you doing here. my boss said your not firing him. you cant do that. the new boss tells him what i did. my boss looked at him said you told him to turn his sprayers on but werent smart enuff to get in your cab and roll your windows up b4 you got wet sounds like your the idiot.

im sure theres more but thats enuff for tonight.

payton

 

[digger242j]

Not really an operating story, but a little glimpse of human nature at work on the jobsite:

Probably 10 years ago now, we were building a "gated" community. We had a college junior, Steve, helping out as a laborer for the summer. At the time we were pretty well along in the project. The "gatehouse" had been built, and the full time groundskeeper was living and working there.

I don't remember what it was we were digging, only that there was some handwork involved. As it turned out, all any of us had were shovels, and the ground was pretty hard. Frank knew that Wayne, the groundskeeper had a mattock in his garage. He told Steve, "Run down to the gatehouse and get Wayne's mattock." A while later, Steve returns, empty-handed. He said, I couldn't find it". Frank had seen it right beside the door only a few minutes earlier, and knew that since Wayne was offsite, it had to still be there. "Go look again. It's right there inside the door." Steve comes back empty handed again. Frank, by this time a little POed, jumps in his truck and returns a minute later with the mattock. "How the *%$#@ could you NOT find this? It was exactly where I said it was!" College educated Steve looks very sheepish, and fesses up. "Uh, I wasn't sure what you were talking about. I thought I'd find something with a motor, that was called a Waynes-a-Matic."

:dizzy