Confession is good for the soul...

[Grader4me]

confession is good for the soul...continued

I am bringing this subject up again as there has been a lot of new members lately. This is a chance to share some of your stories of comical or maybe not so comical things that you have done, or witnessed on the job.
I for one enjoy reading the stories, and I'm sure everyone else would to. So fess up guy's...what story would you like to share??ointhead

Depending on the response, I could probably think of a few more "stupid" things that I have done over the years and be willing to share:Banghead

 

[Bob Horrell]

I once read somewhere that the number one cause of injury in construction was falls getting on or off equipment. I proved that point today. I was loading my dump truck all day with the bobcat. I got out of the bobcat to check on something when the bucket was full of rocks. As I exited, I used a rock as a step (dumb mistake) and it spun sending me off balance. As I went to step back off the side of the bucket to regain my balance, my heel caught the edge of the bucket and I fell on my left shoulder from the rear. It popped loud enough I could hear it distinctly over the sound of the running bobcat. I either separated my shoulder or tore my rotator cuff.
I am not new to this kind of injury as it has happened to me several times during my bull riding and motorcycle racing stints. I know I am in for some sleepless nights and painful days for a while to come.
You would think I would know better since it wasn't that long ago that I took a similar spill right in front of a customer. I was getting out of the bobcat on the top of a steep hill and caught my toe on a rock in the bucket which got me running down the hill to try to regain my balance. I was a sight like you see on America's Funniest Videos with me running down the hill with my upper body going faster than my legs could unitl I finally hit the ground. I was going so fast I must have rolled for 10 yard before I finally came to a stop. It was pretty embarassing but I didn't get hurt. Just looked stupid. I think the customer wanted to laugh but was afraid to.

 

[OzDozer]

I could fill ten pages of this BB with embarrassing things I've done .. embarrassing things other work associates have done .. and embarrassing things I've seen, or had to fix ..

However, seeing as this is a confessional thread .. I guess I'll have to stick with my personally embarrassing moments.
One of the most memorable, would have to be .. dropping a fully-equipped, 25 tonne (55,000lb) D7F Cat dozer off the lowbed .. at 70 kmh (about 45 mph) .. about 30 years ago ..

Now, the advantages in this confession, are .. it was on a dirt back road .. no-one saw anything .. the damage was minimal .. and I couldn't be fired for this piece of stupidity .. because it was MY machine, and MY truck and lowbed ..

It all started, when as an agricultural earthmoving contractor, in the wheatbelt of West Oz .. with three dozers .. I would engage in a large number of dam (pond) enlargements every Summer, as a large % of my annual work.
I'd often work the tractors together, or close together, on adjoining farms .. so I could keep costs down, and keep better control of what was going on.
Enlargements are always lousy jobs. You generally have 3-4 feet of mud to work around, that you had to avoid getting bogged in, as you widened the dam on either three or four sides.
Sometimes, the inevitable happened, and the mud got too deep .. you accidentally slipped into it .. or you misread the depth ..

On this day, I was working away, on one D7F .. about 3/4 of the way towards completion of one dam enlargement .. and I got a visit from one of my operators, saying he'd bogged the other D7F, on an enlargement he'd been doing, about 6-8 km (4-5 miles) away.

Annoyed that I'd have to stop work on this enlargement, and take my tractor over to the operators job, to haul him out .. I threw the D7F on the back of the Mack and tandem lowbed, and roared off .. taking a little-used back road, and one I hadn't driven on a lot, to get to the other machine.

The trailer was a dropdeck style, about a 1M (3') deck height with 10.00 x 20 wheels .. a full-height deck over the tandem assembly .. and a beavertail with ramps, to load up. The truck was an early 70's, F-700 Cabover Mack.

Now, in those days, we NEVER chained the tractors on. It just wasn't worth the effort, we reckoned .. because the roads we travelled were mostly back country roads, with little traffic .. and the time taken to chain tractors on, was regarded as a nuisance .. and we always reckoned, if a tractor was going to fall off, it would bust any chains, anyway .. or take the truck and trailer with it.

Anyway, I set off .. at speed .. because there was rain forecast within 12 hours, and time was the essence of everything we were doing .. and I wanted to get back and finish my enlargement, ASAP ..

On this little-used, dirt back road, there was .. unbeknowns to me .. one of those wondrous pieces of local Shire Council (county) works of unprofessional road art .. called a variable-radius curve ..
These variable-radius curves are caused by someone not surveying a curve properly .. but by 'roughing' the curve in, with a grader, by eye .. with the result, that if you travel one direction around the curve .. it starts off tight .. then gets easier .. but travelling the other direction .. it starts off, a wide easy curve .. then suddenly gets tighter and tighter ..

I guess you're starting to see the next stage of the story here?? .. Yep .. I came into this R/H curve, with the Mack and lowbed, at about 90 kmh (55 mph) .. from the easy end .. then all of a sudden .. HOLY MOLY! .. this bend is getting tighter and tighter!! ..

I backed off the loud pedal, but I was just a little too late. I couldn't wash off enough speed .. all I could do, was steer into the curve .. and hope like hell, the D7F stayed on.
I dropped back to 70 kmh, and hanging onto the wheel like grim death, I thought I'd made it .. but I forgot one thing. Those track shoes on the D7F were coated in nice greasy clayey mud .. and she took off .. right over the L/H/S of the trailer, blade first (we always loaded up, blade forward) ..

Now comes the amazing part. I watched in horror, in the L/H mirror, as the L/H corner of the blade gouged into the dirt road .. and the D7F stood up .. almost vertical .. rotated 180° .. and bounced, BACK UP INTO THE AIR! .. above the trailer .. while the truck and trailer shot out from underneath .. !!

However, the D7F wasn't to be airborne for too long .. no sirreee .. she came back down again .. facing the opposite direction (backwards) .. and landed on the beavertail of the trailer, with 2 of the 3 ripper shanks, ripping straight through the 5/16" plate on the beaver tail .. and bringing me to a VERY rapid halt!! ..

Climbing out of the truck, somewhat shook up .. I carefully inspected the damage .. and was amazed to find that the D7F was undamaged .. and the only casualty, was the ripper holes in the beavertail of the lowbed!!

I started the tractor up, backed it up the beavertail, and extracted the ripper shanks .. drove it forward off the trailer .. levelled off, the almighty great gouge in the road .. .. loaded up again .. and took off for my original destination ..

Despite a careful inspection, I could not find one single piece of damage to the dozer .. possibly due to the dirt road gouge slowing a lot of the impact .. and the holes in the beaver tail were repaired within the next month, to avoid answering any embarrassing questions ..

I can honestly say, this is the only time I have known a large dozer to fall off a trailer .. do a full 180° flip in mid-air .. and land facing back the other way, with minimal damage.
It's not something I'd ever wish to repeat .. and if an operator had done it, he'd probably have been fired, unless he was a particularly good operator ..

I must admit, the crux of the accident resulted from excessive speed, for the conditions .. however, the bottom line is .. that some proper road engineering, with a constant radius curve .. would have not added to the problem .. and most likely would not have resulted, in the tractor falling off.
As always, I was young and over-enthusiastic, and the years have seen caution come to the fore. One thing I am particularly wary of nowadays, is travelling with great care, on roads I'm not fully familiar with ..

 

[alan627b]

I don't think I can top that one, but here goes...
I personally have
1) Taken out a set of temporary traffic lights,over a 4 lane city street at lunchtime, with a 613B paddle scraper, by trying to cut a roadbed for a highway exit ramp. We needed a loader but didn't have one...snagged a guywire with the draft arm. Did this deed, then left for another job. Sorry, gotta go!
2) Found out a Raygo Rascal roller, in high gear, will do 0-30 mph down a 3-1 slope in about 3 seconds....
3)Had to road a brand new 613C off of a flooded jobsite. The only way out was ramp built over a curb. Who knew someone else was stupid enough to build a ramp over a water main? The water poured out, the formean had dropped me at the scraper and had already left, and there was no one around to tell...and I had no cell phone then...
The site was really flooded after that...
4) Roaded a tractor and disc with a low tire, through rush hour traffic. Nerve racking, but no problem. Diced up a bloated dead Raccoon all over the front of a white car, that was tailgating me ..still no problem.
Went over a couple of wooden decked bridges, on a closed county road, being used as a haul road for bottom dump trucks. Took 2 planks out of each one. Big problem.
5) My crowning achievement. As a first year apprentice, I was running a JD 700 (industrial 5020) 2wd tractor with a pull sheepsfoot roller. A very used piece of equipment. This thing had a bad electrical system. Wouldn't charge the battery, so we had to pull start it. I had a cable slung across the nose for this purpose, and fiqured out that if I parked in back of a scraper at night, I didn't have to drag the cable so far in the morning.
So, one morning, i walked past the 627E that Ralph ran, as I did every morning. I waved at Ralph, and I THOUGHT he acknowledged me. Looped the free end of the cable over a hook on the rear of the scraper, hopped on board, put it in gear, opened the throttle a little, and waited for Ralph to pull me.
He started off, I started the tractor, and it was then I realized Ralph did not know I was back there! He set off at a slow pace, headed for a 3 foot vertical drop off! Fortunately, he broke that off as he went over it, so the path was clear. Then the ejector slid back and I figured out that he was loading. I start thinking it's gonna be real bad if he makes it to the haul road, as the old JD didn't usually travel at 23 mph!
Fortunately for me, a dozer was heading the other direction, I flagged him and got him to stop Ralph, and I got a stinging lecture for that one.
But, the story ain't over yet.....
About 3 weeks later, it's getting cold in the mornings, and the old JD still hasn't been fixed yet. We are still pull starting it in the mornings. I am now running this things bundled up in coveralls and winter gear. I have the throttle held open with a bungie cord, since the linkage is worn out, and otherwise you'd spend an entire shift with one hand holding it open. Not practical. But important to the story, as you'll soon see.
My boss comes up to me and hands me a can of ether to help start the JD.
This thing has a flat deck, no toolbox, and there isn't room in my pockets, so
where to put the ether? I look around, and spy this hole in the dash, where the tach once was...dead center in the dash, about a foot or so in front of my face.
And since the electrical system is dead, and I have the master switched off, all the wiring is dead, right?
Wrong.
A couple of hours later, I am rolling the fill, in 4th or 5th gear, wide open, and I came up to the end and make a right to go back the other way.
I see the nozzle of the ether can pop off, and WHOOSH! There is a huge fireball, point blank in my face! The can is spouting fire like a blowtorch!
I smell burning hair, I can't lean back, so I thought, F*CK THIS!!!! and over the side of the tractor I went, jumping hard so the roller wouldn't get me!
My boss looks over and sees the tractor going full tilt in a circle, nobody on it, and me nowhere to be seen! He and one of the mechanics, set a new speed record, coming across the fill in the boss' truck, mostly airborne.
Meanwhile, I'm on the inside if the circle, warily watching the tractor in case it hits a clod and comes after me. They arrive, and the mechanic blasts the tractor with an extinguisher, and manages to put the fire out, but by now the fire has eaten through the oil line, and oil is spraying all over the cab.
I am wondering how we are gonna stop this thing? Maybe ram it with a scraper?
My boss wound up getting a shovel out of his truck, and speared the bungee cord, which allowed the tracor to idle down to where I could jump back on and kill it. It turned out, that in the past someone had put a jump wire across the disconnect switch, so the system was live all the time, regardless of where the switch was set. A bare wire had shorted against the side of the can, and set it afire. I'm lucky it burned, and didn't just explode.
At the end of the whole thing, my boss didn't blame me, he said if the tractor hadn't been such a POS, it wouldn't have happened! Then they fixed the starting problem! Turned out to be dead batteries.
I had one hell of a first year.
alan627b

 

[CM1995]

alan627b-

:lmao :lmao :lmao Those little rascal Raygos! How many sets of underwear did you go through on those adventures?

 

[alan627b]

Nothing Wrong That A Good Insurance Fire Wouldn't Fix...

Just the one pair! The one I had to run is a worn out POS, when I got on it none of the controls were marked, I kept fiddling with it until I could get it into a gear so it would move, and had to get it down a 30 or so foot 3-1 slope, to the bottom of a landfill cell we were building.
I got up to the edge of this thing, and I really did not want to go down it, but could see no other way. I knew I'd done the wrong thing, as soon as it nosed over...and the POS 4-71 Detroit died...it flew down the hill, did a jump over a windrow of dirt at the bottom, and rolled to a stop.
I bashed my knee into the windshield frame, and limped off, swearing I'd find a railroad flare to put into the fuel tank....or that i was going to quit!
This thing is still so worn out, you can watch bubbles leak from under the head gasket, it leaks oil from every pore, and the center pin is toast, so the steering valve turns the wheel if it hits a bump, and will rip the wheel out of your hand. It's a joy to maneuver in a tight spot, and will cheerfully gas you to death...they put a tall stack on the muffler. to get the fumes up higher...thank God I very seldom have to run it.
The laborers thought it was funny, and wanted me to do it again.
Out of consideration for my fellow man, I got a paint pen and marked all the controls.
I also painted "Death From Above" on one side....
alan627b

 

[alan627b]

I think, in times of extreme stress, the ol' spincter tends to slam shut, preventing leakage. Pulling the seat cushion out of your @ss is usually the problem.....

 

[CM1995]

OK here is a few-

1 - It was a cold Feb. day and I pulled the T250 bobcat up to the truck to get some fuel. Like any wannabe operator I first opened the rear door to check the oil, etc. I went to get the hose to fuel the bobcat and realized the fuel fill is on the opposite side. So I hop into the machine to turn it around and unfortunately I didn't realize that the back door was still open. Bobcat orange steel door 1, white sheet metal ford right rear corner panel 0. $4000 and a body shop later you couldn't tell a thing.:Banghead

2- I was using a 420D to install a section of corrugated pipe on a lot we were filling. The existing pipe was as deep as an extendahoe would reach. Got the pipe in and hooked and proceeded to backfill. Everything was going well until I decided to reach out a little farther and pad the end of the pipe. The outrigger gave way - since I was sitting on a soft fill slope at the top- and over the machine goes down a step bank, into the woods and a brush pile. When the machine stopped moving, I was standing on the right side glass, still in the seat, with the machine on its side. All I could think about was not letting the limbs and logs break through the glass and rob my family jewels. I figured I could do without my feet.

3- As a youngster getting use to running a skid steer, I was backfilling topsoil around a new house for the landscaping. I am dumping dirt with the bucket and sort of shaking the bucket to somewhat spread it behind the sidewalk. I do this with about 2 buckets, come back with the 3rd bucket to repeat the process. As I am marvelling in my operator skills I back up to reveal the 4 tooth holes with insulation hanging out of them in the side of the new house - you could see inside on one of them. To make matters worse the house was set to close later that week.ointhead

Later
CM

 

[OzDozer]

Talking about open doors and disasters .. I knew a farmer who had a 5000 gallon, ground level, fibreglass water tank, for stock water, set up in the field. It was mounted on a sand pad, on a slight slope.

He drove into the field one day, in his 1970's model Landrover, to check the water level in the tank .. and pulled up fairly close to the tank, facing uphill. He threw the drivers door wide open, towards the tank .. started to get out .. but had forgotten to set the brake.

The Landrover started rolling backwards .. the door is still wide open, remember? .. and as he reaches for the brake, the edge of the door comes into contact with the fibreglass tank .. at just the right angle for it to commence digging in ..

The Landrover continues to roll back for another 3 to 4 feet, as he commences to apply the brake .. but meanwhile, the sharp edge of the door is being forced into the tank, further and further .. with excellent leverage from a rolling 1½ ton 4WD .. .. until something has to give ..

And something DID give .. and it wasn't the door! .. .. the tank split open .. a full 6' high split .. and 5000 gallons of water said .. "Hey! .. we're outta here, guys!!! .. .. right through the cab of the Landrover!!! ..

He reckoned, it was bad enough getting wet .. and getting the interior of the Landrover flooded .. but he said, the worst part .. was getting hurled against the passenger side door by 5000 gallons of escaping water .. and thinking he was going to drown like a rat, in a sinking ship ..

He managed to find the door handle on the passenger side, and open it, within seconds .. to release the substantial water pressure on him.
However, by that time, the pressure was subsiding, as the bulk of the water found its easiest path to ground, and cascaded off down the slope.

He had unwittingly .. ruined and almost emptied .. a 5000 gallon tank, in probably just over 15 seconds, by a simple error of judgement .. coupled with an amazing alignment of the door with the tank, that you probably could not have done again, in 200 purposeful tries ..

 

[Grader4me]

lol..I knew you guy's would have some stories to tell...geez alan...you should write a book:lmao Great stories everyone!

 

[Dozerboy]

I ran over 2 stakes today and took out one of the hubs I haven't hit 2 stakes in the the past 2 years.

 

[Countryboy]

I ran over 2 stakes today and took out one of the hubs I haven't hit 2 stakes in the the past 2 years.

Truck driver. :bouncegri

 

[alan627b]

If I was gonna write it, I think I'd use an alias.....

 

[mflah87]

I'd have to say one of the worst things i did was one week we had a blizzard. I went in the shop after plowing for god knows how many hours and I got in one of the ten wheelers, started it up and walked over to the next one, I was sitting there and out of nowhere the first truck started moving forward right towards my 1000 gallon waste oil heater. I ran over jumped in the passengar seat and pulled the engine cut out cord just in time. The truck was in first gear when i started it and had like 30 pounds of pressure, so once it warmed up and built up air it had taken off because the brakes werent applied. Taht was one scary night.

 

[jimmyjack]

never seen a truck stay running in gear with the brakes on :beatsme ,not saying its a story but thats just me

 

[Lashlander]

I'm thinking Allison.

 

[komatsukid]

two years i was in a hurry to get to my wifes college graduation. i finished fueling my loader jumped in and took off ripping the fuel hose right off the pump!!! yeah i forgot to hang the nozzel up. man i still have not lived that down.

 

[mflah87]

it was an old mack with a allison automatic. I bought it from the city of cambridge as a dump truck then turned it into a sander

 

[Grader4me]

Strange but true

Okay, As some more of you stepped up to the plate with more "confession's" I will tell another story.
This story is not funny or something stupid that happened...well...maybe a little, but it's kinda weird.
Years ago I was plowing one of our back roads and at the end of this road was a bad overflow of ice that needed cut out. As I was making my cuts and pushing the material back, I got over to far and slide into the ditch(stupid thing). There was no frost under the snow in the ditch and I was sunk into the mud. Usually I could get out of a pretty bad hole using my moldboard etc. but with this I was down so far that it was hopeless.

I was out of radio contact and this was before the age of cell phones(I think as I never had one anyway). I was about 15 miles from civilization. It was colder than blazes out as well. The old grader (77 Champion piece of...) was laying over quite well making sitting there quite uncomfortable.

I sat there for about 2 hours trying everything to get it out of the hole, only to keep getting myself in worse and tipping over more to the side. Then the strange thing happened...I was wishing so hard that the dam thing would just come out of there so I could go home...I put it in gear, let out the clutch and it came out of the hole, and I felt that something was pushing me. Never spun a wheel.
How do I explain it? I can't :beatsme but I will never forget it....stayed tuned for more tales from the dark side.....:wierd

 

[jmac]

Grader4me, maybe the ground froze up enough for you to get some traction, or something else?
I will add one for you guys. I was loading my dozer on to my tag trailer one day and was using a GMC C6500 dump truck for the pull truck (sold truck). The truck was parked on a side road facing a busy intersection and the road was wet. As I drove the dozer on to the trailer the trailer lifted the back axle of the dump truck off the road and me, dozer, trailer, and dump truck went for a ride down the hill towards the intersection and house at the end of the road. I am still sitting in the dozer just waiting for the big bang! At the end of the road was a planter with dirt and trees and as the truck ran over trees and started to tip over the weight on the trailer kept it from going over and everything came to a stop before it all went into the intersection and house. Had to drive dozer off of trailer and pull truck and trailer back onto the road and reload using wheel chocks this time.