• Thank you for visiting HeavyEquipmentForums.com! Our objective is to provide industry professionals a place to gather to exchange questions, answers and ideas. We welcome you to register using the "Register" icon at the top of the page. We'd appreciate any help you can offer in spreading the word of our new site. The more members that join, the bigger resource for all to enjoy. Thank you!

Confession is good for the soul...

Jeff D.

Senior Member
Joined
Nov 9, 2005
Messages
1,280
Location
MN.
Well,if we're allowed to fess up to non heavy equipment boo-boo's,I'll add this one.(although the securing load part would apply to HE)

When I was 16 my dad bought an Arctic Cat El-tigre snowmobile.He asked me too pick it up for him,since he had to work,and I had a Toyota flatbed pick-up.

I picked it up,but decided it didn't need to be strapped down,I'd just set the little parking brake lever(and I knew EVERYTHING when I was 16,you just had too ask me!)I drove home like I always did,and turned the corners like I always did,as fast as you could go without tipping over,when whoosh the sled slid off the side off the bed,and rolled several times,flinging windshield,hood,and handlebar pieces with every flip,until it ended up in the ditch.

I then loaded it back up,piece by piece,and brought it home.My old man was not impressed.He hadn't even ridden the sled once,and it already looked like it went through a car crusher.Luckily he was way more understanding than I had any right to expect.
 

xkvator

Senior Member
Joined
Apr 9, 2005
Messages
258
Location
pa.
V10Fordman said:
...me and the little woman were in my truck leaving the local Wal-Mart.

...couldn't even make somethin' up..........and what did the little woman have to say?
 

Grader4me

Senior Member
Joined
Jan 11, 2006
Messages
1,792
Location
New Brunswick, Canada
Maybe we can get this one going again as I am sure there are lots of storys(confessions) out there.
Here is a story that happened to one of my co-workers....

We were laying down asphalt and I was leveling it with the grader. We rented a double drum walk behind roller.
My co-worker was rolling on the edge of the mat that was about 6 inches thick. He lost control and the roller flipped over in the ditch. Of course we all had a good laugh (you would have to know this guy) then we lifted it out of the ditch with the backhoe. A few dents but otherwise okay.
Now you would think that this would be a learning experience for this guy right? Nope! fired her back up and rolled the exact same place and....you guessed it ..over she went again! The whole crew went down on all fours from laughing so hard with the exception of the Supervisor!
So...we picked it out of the ditch again and loaded it onto the Supervisors pickup as it never survived the second flip unscathed.
The Supervisor was in a hurry to get it back and get another one so that we could finish the job. He forgot to block the drums on each end...took off fast and the roller shot off the back, hit the road and into the ditch again!! The poor roller was tore all to pieces. I think this had to be the most comical thing that I have ever experienced on a job site :laugh
 

Squizzy246B

Administrator
Joined
Sep 9, 2005
Messages
3,388
Location
Perth, Western Australia
Occupation
Digger Driver
peterrp said:
My co-worker was rolling on the edge of the mat that was about 6 inches thick. He lost control and the roller flipped over in the ditch. Of course we all had a good laugh (you would have to know this guy) then we lifted it out of the ditch with the backhoe. A few dents but otherwise okay.
Now you would think that this would be a learning experience for this guy right? Nope! fired her back up and rolled the exact same place and....you guessed it ..over she went again! The whole crew went down on all fours from laughing so hard with the exception of the Supervisor!
So...we picked it out of the ditch again and loaded it onto the Supervisors pickup as it never survived the second flip unscathed.
The Supervisor was in a hurry to get it back and get another one so that we could finish the job. He forgot to block the drums on each end...took off fast and the roller shot off the back, hit the road and into the ditch again!! The poor roller was tore all to pieces. I think this had to be the most comical thing that I have ever experienced on a job site :laugh

That one takes the cake..:laugh I'd have like to have seen the hire guy's face when the sup get the roller back:)
 

Cat420

Senior Member
Joined
Oct 11, 2004
Messages
527
Location
Pine Bush Ny
Occupation
Construction, small engine and machine shop work
I don't intend to top that one, but my dad was telling me about this one the other day.

Years ago when he drove trucks, they sent him to go somewhere with the dump truck and trailer. The problem was that the ramps got left down and were shooting sparks everywhere. One of the guys went running between houses and caught him about half way around the block. The helper then proceeded to go to the back and attempt to pick up the now very hot ramps. Needless to say his hands hurt for a while.
 

Jeff D.

Senior Member
Joined
Nov 9, 2005
Messages
1,280
Location
MN.
I was reminded while reading other post concerning safety and the unintentional movement of equipment,about a situation that happened to me on my backhoe,which would fit into this post.

It was in the spring,and I'd put the battery back in,and was getting the backhoe ready for summer.I'd parked it fairly close to the wall in front inside the barn,and after starting and warming up a few minutes I decided I'd put it in gear,and back it out.When I tried to put it into reverse it would just grind.The clutch doesn't seem to release correctly after sittting for an extented period,for some reason.It's a two stage clutch,and I'm not up on the principles of it's design,but it is slow to disengage initially,but after will work normally until sitting for months again.

I decided I'd shut it down,apply the brakes,put it in gear,and restart while in gear with the clutch depressed to break it free.I made the mistake of putting it in first gear instead of reverse(as if that was my only mistake),and when it started it moved forward far enough to put the front end nearly through the wall,before the clutch finally let go.I ended up replacing a few studs,and straightening some sheet metal before it was over.

Obviously there are plenty of oversights I made that led to this(maintenance,safety)and I'm aware of that.It still doesn't stop the fact that people do stupid things,myself included.
 

PSDF350

Senior Member
Joined
Oct 18, 2004
Messages
725
Location
Richmond NH
I had one this winter (if you can call it that) with my truck and plow.

I was readjusting plow becuase blade was sinking in mud. Got it hooked up and was trying to posistion it so I could just pull into it. Anyway I am in and out of truck raising and lowering to make sure it is right (driveway not the flatest). Well I get out forget to put in park:Banghead :Banghead It is still in reverse I go to plow and raise it with manifold switch (blizzard) and as soon as it is up off ground there goes truck like bat out of hell backwards. I run jump in truck slam on brake and becuase I am standing in door as truck stops dead I fall on ground and truck shoots back again even faster. I need to duck so as to not get hit by door then plow. Well she goes off edge of driveway into a whole in woods I had made to put a crap truck I have. But when made hole it was to muddy for it. Anyway she goes in there and by pure luck door missed the phone poll that was there. When she came to rest door was actually past where pole (If you drew a line) is. Had to get tow truck up to pull me out. Only damage was to my pride. I actually laughed. I quess it's true small things amuse small minds. But then again if I couldn't luagh at my dumb mistakes I would always be crying becuase I seem to make a few.
 

Grader4me

Senior Member
Joined
Jan 11, 2006
Messages
1,792
Location
New Brunswick, Canada
I have another one that I can share, seeing we are talking about backhoes. I am going to pick on my buddy again (same guy that flipped the roller).
I was trying to teach him how to operate a backhoe but you know some people just can't seem to catch on no matter how hard you try.
This was in the winter and we had a frozen culvert (under the road) and water was backed up and running into a residents basement. The lower end of the culvert had to be cleaned out so we could get the steamer into the pipe to unthaw it.
My buddy thought this would be a good place to show his stuff. Keep in mind that it was approx. 8 to 10 feet from the top of the road to bottom of the culvert and pretty much straight down and he had to clean a lot of heavy snow away from the pipe. We set the machine up cross ways and at a slight angle up on the shoulder(some ice) of the road. He scooped his first bucket and instead of bringing in his boom and dipper then swing and dump, he fully extended his dipper and boom then made the swing to dump his bucket. The backhoe came very close to going down into the hole as his bucket was filled with heavy wet snow and fully extended when he swung it around. I stopped him and told him that he was very lucky and explained the proper way to do this task. Yes, he said that a person has to learn from his mistakes and this was a learning experience for him.
Okay..his next bucket full...fully extended his boom and dipper, made the swing and away went the backhoe down in the hole...front bucket looking at the sky:Banghead He was not hurt except for his feelings.
Its nice to be able to look back and tell some of the stupid things that we all do once in a while, and its also nice to say that no one got hurt:yup
 

tylermckee

Senior Member
Joined
Jan 9, 2006
Messages
768
Location
washington
So did you have to hop on the hoe and push it up out of the hole or did you let him try to fix it himself.
 

Grader4me

Senior Member
Joined
Jan 11, 2006
Messages
1,792
Location
New Brunswick, Canada
I had seen enough, also he was pretty rattled so I got it out for him. I shouldn't be telling so many stories about this guy but he is just so dam comical. He wants to operate machinery but he just doesn't have what it takes and he has proved it over and over again.
Just like the old saying for truck drivers that can also be applied to backhoe operators..."there are backhoe operators and there are people that drive backhoes"
He would qualifiy in the latter:yup
 

murray83

Senior Member
Joined
Jan 23, 2006
Messages
260
Location
new brunswick canada
Occupation
jack of all trades....master of none
stupid things operators do thread yay...

doing a sewer job in town and let the new guy run the breaker never ran an excavator before forman says what the heck lets have some fun i basically went :confused: and this outta be fun so off he went decided he'd break rock around a fully charged watermain beside it so he put the bit on the ledge and let her rip,but woopsie he lost control and drove it into the watermain in no time flash the was water spraying no less than 20 feet in the air i started laughing and looked at my forman and told him we found our new operator.

first ever construction job i worked on we were pulling tanks out of an old gas station was on a small hill and ramped down towards the street,we had a operator that was kinda forgetfull at times so these guys we outta towners and rented the areas largest contractor to use 2 brand new mack CH 613's just off the lot even the owner was there and smiling like he just won the lottery anyways the backhoe was on the top of the hill pointing downward towards the truck.....the excavator operator asked if he set the parking brake on the hoe? he swore up and down he did even got kinda ticked we kept asking....all of a sudden the hoe started rolling and smash right into the side of that brand new truck the owner was almost in tears and the old operator walked over and playfully joked he guess he didn't pull the parking brake.

hmmm dump truck drivers not locking their gates and half the load on the streets,an operator releasing the Q/C bucket while dumping into a triaxle dump trailer couple operators falling into raw sewage its just another day in paradise.
 

digger242j

Administrator
Joined
Oct 31, 2003
Messages
6,628
Location
Southwestern PA
Occupation
Self employed excavator
Murray83, you had to mention a water main, didn't you? :Banghead

This one's gonna take some detailed explanation.

A picture is worth a thousand words.

The projest originally consisted of 79 townhouses, and 5 condo buildings. Condo #1 was three stories, but the two intended to be built where #4 and #5 are located were to be six stories.

The townhouses sold well, but the condos sold really slowly. The developer decided to cancel the larger condos and finish up with more townhouses--buildings #3, 4, and 5, in the picture.

We'd already installed sewer, shown in green, to service condo building #3. It was supposed to simply be a lateral, directly to the building. When the change was made to townhouses, it was necessary to add a manhole at the end of our existing pipe, and run across the frontage of #3, with seperate sewers for each house. This shouldn't have been a big deal... :rolleyes:

The condos required a sprinkler system. In the basement of building #1, they built a pump room, and ran 8" ductile iron out of the building, and around to where the other buildings would later be tied on. Building #2 was built and tied on prior to the decision to switch to townhouses. I was busy on the site at the time that sprinkler system was being installed, but it was done by others.

When the time came to start the sewers for building #3, I asked the developer if he had a location of the 8" sprinkler system pipe. (It was privately owned, and on private property, so it wouldn't have been identified by a one call locate anyway.) The developer said, in no uncertain terms, that the 8" pipe ended in front of building #2, just beyond where it entered the building. (Indicated be the yellow arrow.) I said my recollection was that it was a looped system, and ran the entire perimeter of that center area. I was told I was mistaken.

Well, I was, but so was he.

Understand, that this was an urban site, and had been built up, and torn down many years prior to our work. There was plenty of buried rubble, and old stone and concrete foundation work still left in place.

I began to excavate for the proposed manhole. At about 4 feet deep, I scratched across a piece of concrete. This was not at all unusual. I grabbed onto it and yanked it out. The amount of water that followed it out of the ground was highly unusual. :eek:

That concrete was a thrust block at the end of the 8" ductile iron sprinkler line...

It gets worse...
 

Attachments

  • VSS courtyard-detailed.JPG
    VSS courtyard-detailed.JPG
    54 KB · Views: 1,608
Last edited:

digger242j

Administrator
Joined
Oct 31, 2003
Messages
6,628
Location
Southwestern PA
Occupation
Self employed excavator
One stroke of good luck that day, was the fact that there was a technician on site, doing routine maintenance work on the sprinkler system. In fact, the system was under only static pressure--the pressure of the city water main that fed the site. Also, since he was working on the system, the alarm system was disabled--otherwise, we'd have had firetrucks rolling as soon as the water started moving through the sprinkler system.

One of the guys went running to find the fellow in charge of grounds maintenance, so we could get in and shut off the water. (There was no valve outside the building--a wise precaution against somebody inadvertantly shutting down the sprinklers while trying to shut down something else.) The guy looking for the mauntenacne man was met at the door by the sprinkler tech, who expressed surprise at the fact that, as he worked, all of a sudden the pump started turning as if by magic. (Our opening of the pipe had allowed the water to run through, spinning the pump.) Once he understood what had happened, he shut the whole mess down pretty quickly.

We dug around the end of the 8" pipe, and found a bell, with about a 2 foot piece coming out of it, and a cap on the end. Since it would've been in the way of the future manhole, we took the piece out, and put a plug in the bell. This was secured by a retaining clamp, behind the bell, with two pieces of threaded rod holding a bar across the plug. All bolted up nice and tight, there was no way that plug was going to push out of there, even without a thrust block. Right?

Now, the sprinkler system had a "jockey pump" that kept it charged at whatever its specified operating pressure was. (I'm thinking 190 PSI, but it's been a few years.) Keep in mind, that this system was designed to be able to push water up to the top of a six story condo building.

The tech put the system back online, and came back outside. We all stood and watched... Ever so slowly, the threaded rods began to bend, and the plug backed out of the bell, maybe half an inch, and then stopped. Everyone began to breath again. Until we watched the entire end of the pipe move six inches...

Just about that time, we were interupted by a roar, from the side of building #1, and a puff of black diesel exhaust. Had I mentioned that this whole system was powered by a 6 cylinder Cummins?

About 18 feet back (the length of a section of ductile iron pipe), a geyser erupted from the lawn. :eek:

That Cummins had been patiently waiting for the chance to do what God had intended it to do, and it wasn't going to be denied. The jockey pump had pushed the next joint back right apart, and the diesel took over from there.

The tech took off at a dead run for the pump room, and by the time he got it shut off there was two feet of water against the basement garage door of building #2.

We dug that section of pipe out, and re-installed our plug assembley, but this time we poured a yard of concrete against it, and left the backhoe bucket pushing against it all night til the concrete was hard enough....


:eek:
 

tylermckee

Senior Member
Joined
Jan 9, 2006
Messages
768
Location
washington
digger242j said:
One stroke of good luck that day, was the fact that there was a technician on site, doing routine maintenance work on the sprinkler system. In fact, the system was under only static pressure--the pressure of the city water main that fed the site. Also, since he was working on the system, the alarm system was disabled--otherwise, we'd have had firetrucks rolling as soon as the water started moving through the sprinkler system.

One of the guys went running to find the fellow in charge of grounds maintenance, so we could get in and shut off the water. (There was no valve outside the building--a wise precaution against somebody inadvertantly shutting down the sprinklers while trying to shut down something else.) The guy looking for the mauntenacne man was met at the door by the sprinkler tech, who expressed surprise at the fact that, as he worked, all of a sudden the pump started turning as if by magic. (Our opening of the pipe had allowed the water to run through, spinning the pump.) Once he understood what had happened, he shut the whole mess down pretty quickly.

We dug around the end of the 8" pipe, and found a bell, with about a 2 foot piece coming out of it, and a cap on the end. Since it would've been in the way of the future manhole, we took the piece out, and put a plug in the bell. This was secured by a retaining clamp, behind the bell, with two pieces of threaded rod holding a bar across the plug. All bolted up nice and tight, there was no way that plug was going to push out of there, even without a thrust block. Right?

Now, the sprinkler system had a "jockey pump" that kept it charged at whatever its specified operating pressure was. (I'm thinking 190 PSI, but it's been a few years.) Keep in mind, that this system was designed to be able to push water up to the top of a six story condo building.

The tech put the system back online, and came back outside. We all stood and watched... Ever so slowly, the threaded rods began to bend, and the plug backed out of the bell, maybe half an inch, and then stopped. Everyone began to breath again. Until we watched the entire end of the pipe move six inches...

Just about that time, we were interupted by a roar, from the side of building #1, and a puff of black diesel exhaust. Had I mentioned that this whole system was powered by a 6 cylinder Cummins?

About 18 feet back (the length of a section of ductile iron pipe), a geyser erupted from the lawn. :eek:

That Cummins had been patiently waiting for the chance to do what God had intended it to do, and it wasn't going to be denied. The jockey pump had pushed the next joint back right apart, and the diesel took over from there.

The tech took off at a dead run for the pump room, and by the time he got it shut off there was two feet of water against the basement garage door of building #2.

We dug that section of pipe out, and re-installed our plug assembley, but this time we poured a yard of concrete against it, and left the backhoe bucket pushing against it all night til the concrete was hard enough....


:eek:
Had a similar problem once but wasnt as bad as yours. We had just finished putting in the 8" ductil iron water main and all the services for a 9 lot development, we backfilled everything except the services because those are usually where the system will leak. So we get the test pump hooked up, fire it up, pressure starts climbing, hits 150psi then drops to about 5 and keeps bouncing around. so we go through and check all the saddles for the services and re tourqe them. still only 5 pounds. the main was a straight shot at the end and dead ended with a hydrant with a thrust block behind it. Turns out that at only 150 psi it pushed about 40 feet of halway burried pipe and our thrust block apart. You should see the thrust block we have now, 2 ecology blocks and about a yard of concrete.
 

digger242j

Administrator
Joined
Oct 31, 2003
Messages
6,628
Location
Southwestern PA
Occupation
Self employed excavator
Yeah, you don't appreciate what that water pressure can do until you've seen it at work...
 

tylermckee

Senior Member
Joined
Jan 9, 2006
Messages
768
Location
washington
dayexco said:
mega-lugs
We would have, but the plans didnt call for them, just the thrust block. Our pipe supplier said that it would be fine. What do you guys have to test your water line at? we have to pump it up to 225PSI and it cannot drop more than 5psi in a two hour period.
 
Top