Confession is good for the soul...

[Squizzy246B]

Stupid is not limited to equipment:

https://www.heavyequipmentforums.com/Forum/showthread.php?t=3154

 

[Savage]

Was putting bigger pipe for storm drains to add a sudivision in. Had most of the new pipe in was fixing some sewer sevice line we had to cut when changing the pipe. One of them needed to be dug back a little to put a clean cut on the end. So they call me over. I look for other services on the ground(paint lines). I see a blue one, no big deal. I start setting up backhoe setting outrigger getting it level, When the guys in the hole ask me where the water coming from. I look, the outrigger didn't break the surface of the ground, but there is water coming from the ground and i was a foot away from the blue line. I raise outrigger and move the machine go look. There's a clod of dirt on the ground where the outrigger was. So I move it to see what damage i did. Water Meter. When the trackhoe dug the old pie out this one clump of dirt fell in the right spot with my name on it. Did I mention I was the youngest operator for the company and took a lot of slask everyday.


3 days later finishing up backfill in the same area. Had the road blocked gradeing it off with CAT 307 trackhoe. Traffic building, so I go to move to the nearest drive way. Fold the boom up start tacking. All of the sudden, it looked like black rope fell on the boom. Nope, phone line to the same house I took the water meter out at.:Banghead

 

[440chevy]

When I was 18 and first got my CDL I drove an International with a 10 ton tag with electric brakes. I towed the excavator to a job, and then unhooked the trailer on the hill to haul the dirt away. Well, I blocked up every tire on the trailer and unhooked. The truck had an allison that I wasn't quite used to yet and every once in awhile it would roll back on a hill if you don't hold the brake and really give her some gas.

Well I rolled back, hit the trailer and it took off down the hill. I'll tell you one thing, I have never been so scared in my life as that trailer headed down the hill and turned toward the other side of the street heading right for a house. But, I had left the ramps down and I'm pretty sure I used up all my luck that day because that trailer bounced off the curb went another 100ft or so down the road, crossed another road, and went into the woods on the other side. I was able to back the truck up to it and pull it back out. Scares me to think how lucky I was..deflected off a curb, crossed a busy street, and it just so happened that the other side of the road in only this 100ft stretch wasn't developed yet. Didn't sleep well after that one for a while.

Another one that someone that worked for us did is pretty bad too. He towed a bobcat to a job over the hill as we say in Duluth. Well all he had done is dropped it on the pintle and hooked the lights, never latched it or hooked the chains up. So, he gets up there see's that and then gets distracted with the work. Works all day and never does hook the trailer up, tows it back down the hill. He's just lucky we don't use ball hitches, he would've lost it on the first hill. Still scary though.

 

[Forager41]

Back in the '80s when Kennecott Copper still owned Chino Mines I was a Mining Shift Foreman at the Santa Rita, NM open pit copper mine. After a year as a dispatcher, and another year out in the pit as a junior foreman they assigned me to a turn where I relieved the Dozer Foreman, the Drill Foreman, and the Blasting Foreman on their days off. (I might add that I'm not an "Engineer"--I was a History Major in college, and came up out of the ranks of the Haul Truck Drivers after leaving a career in education in my early 30's.)

One Sunday afternoon I had the Blasting Crew, and we were sent to shoot the oncoming Evening Shift's scheduled ore stations. The previous shifts had over-mined the area leaving a big "hard toe" sticking out that there was no way to get a rotary drill out on top off. I took one look at it and realized that we would be spending the rest of the week trying to get rid of it with secondary blasting every day. Then the light bulb went on in my head and I saw that, the way that rocky rib was sitting, it was right next to some drill holes in the pattern that we were shooting in the softer material next to it. I figured that if the reason to "Delay" a blast hole is to "Relieve" the ones behind it in the pattern, then the same thing could work in reverse to direct the energy back into the pattern (or beside it).

We were using down-the-hole delays on some interval of milliseconds that I've now long forgotten, loading ANFO or IREECO's aluminized slurries. I loaded the holes adjacent to the aforesaid rib "Hot" with a good dose of aluminum, and set them to shoot at an interval behind the ones next to them.

Well it worked like a charm. It knocked that rocky rib down like Joshua did the walls of Jericho! The only teeney-little problem was that I had forgotten Newton's Law of Physics..you know? The one about how "For every action there is an 'Equal' and 'Opposite' Reaction.. The shiock wave hit the rib and flattened it to smithereens. Then it bounced back into the adjacent ore body and scattered the next day's production out three feet deep for 100 yards!

As I was leaving with the "accolades" of my colleagues ringing in my ears, they had every rubber-tired dozer and front-end loader in camp down there trying to buck up a face for the shovel to dig in!

 

[kyle82]

the reason why confession is good for the souls is it makes the person peaceful inside.. our conscience works automatic and sometimes when we are bothered about something.. the conscience makes us worry too much. :usa

SPAM REMOVED

 

[Finish Blademan]

My worst one and most dangerous mistake.I was cleaning out silt from a dry stock tank with an 1150 Case dozer..The one with the safety levers ya have to push down to allow the machine to operate.I had the doors open and noticed a piece of weather stripping had come off and was on the ground.
Like a moron who knows better.I left the dozer wound out at high idle and jumped out to get the stripping.I am used to Cat dozers with a real parking brake.I had left those levers in the down position.
I start to get in the dozer and throw the stripping inside.
I hit the shifter and knocked it into reverse.
She took off in reverse in fifth gear while I`m on the tracks.It tried to pull me under the fuel tank.Somehow I managed to get onto the cab deck and get it stopped.
When I got in the seat it hit me what had almost happened.
I had to stop for about 10 minutes to get my composure back when I realized how close to getting killed I had came.
Stupid,stupid mistake for anyone,especially someone who has been on machinery for 20 plus years.
Use the parking brake on any machine,and idle one down..Just,'I`ll jump out for a second,I don`t need too"..almost killed me.

 

[Hendrik]

My worst one and most dangerous mistake.I was cleaning out silt from a dry stock tank with an 1150 Case dozer..The one with the safety levers ya have to push down to allow the machine to operate.I had the doors open and noticed a piece of weather stripping had come off and was on the ground.
Like a moron who knows better.I left the dozer wound out at high idle and jumped out to get the stripping.I am used to Cat dozers with a real parking brake.I had left those levers in the down position.
I start to get in the dozer and throw the stripping inside.
I hit the shifter and knocked it into reverse.
She took off in reverse in fifth gear while I`m on the tracks.It tried to pull me under the fuel tank.Somehow I managed to get onto the cab deck and get it stopped.
When I got in the seat it hit me what had almost happened.
I had to stop for about 10 minutes to get my composure back when I realized how close to getting killed I had came.
Stupid,stupid mistake for anyone,especially someone who has been on machinery for 20 plus years.
Use the parking brake on any machine,and idle one down..Just,'I`ll jump out for a second,I don`t need too"..almost killed me.

My cousin had his legged ripped off by a dozer many years ago up in Cooper Pedy.
Stupid idiot left the machine pushing to get a pack of cigarettes out of the ute, this particular machine had a beam across the tracks and his foot slipped off that and was caught by the tracks, thus pulling his leg under this beam. Luckily there was Royal Flying Doctor plane in the area and got him down to Adelaide pretty quick.

 

[Finish Blademan]

I hear ya Hendrik,lucky he is to be alive.
I have a friend who runs a crew in a landfill in Waco ,Texas.He showed me some pics he had taken last year.One of his operators on a D-7 ran over a man on the ground.He didn`t know it till he seen the mans arm come up on the track.
The fella had been warned about getting so close to where the dozer was working before.Supposedly he was squatted down unhooking a chain he had used to pull some trash off a trailer with.He was still there trying to free it from some garbage and the operator didn`t see him.
My buddy told me the operator knew he was in the vicinity and was looking for him ,but he had already pivot steered on the man.
He said the guy jumped out of his machine and took off running,then just sat down and started crying.Bad deal there,the guys family got a lot of money for that deal.

 

[carlm933g]

Ok, I'll add one... I used to own a Deere 8875 skidloader. I had a 4n1 bucket on it, along with steel grouser tracks over the tires. I had a long driveway that sloped towards the house. One day I was clearing snow and was heading up the hill. Well somehow I managed to get sideways and let me tell you, that skid headed down the hill sideways faster than any sled that I can remember. I was getting set to clip all of my light posts and finish up in my garage. I kept trying to dig the bucket edge into the driveway to spin my self around and it finally worked. At that point, I decided that the drive was clean enough so I went inside and poured myself a stiff drink...

 

[Grader4me]

Ha Ha..thats a good one carlm933g! Did ya have to change your underwear as well??
Welcome to the forum and what a way to come in!

 

[carlm933g]

Thanks for the welcome. That one shook me up a little - mostly because I kept thinking how much $$ this was going to cost to fix. Been lurking here for a while... I got a few more stories that I've experienced over the years - all in due time.

 

[Grader4me]

Okay, I just noticed your join date. You must be a shy little fella Look forward to your stories..

 

[carlm933g]

Not really shy, my friends think that I'm sort of a loud mouth...
Anyway, I was grading crushed asphalt around my shop with a small utility tractor with a loader and a rear blade. I was running parallel with the shop and grading right against the foundation with the rear blade. I was watching the rear blade when all of a sudden I heard a loud cracking noise so I stopped, only to see that the front bucket caught the wood sheathing on the corner of my shop and ripped several boards off. I was able to see into my shop around the corner stud. Luckily, I didn't even touch the studs or the foundation. A couple of replacement boards, a little caulk, some nails and it was as good as new (my pride was hurt more)...

 

[hooklifttrucks]

Here's one . . .Always check ALL OF your mirrors!!!! I pulled my Expedition into our commercial property driveway up behind my husband's '05 pretty white 350 dually - one of our employees was parked in the other front spot. My husband was in and out of the back yard a lot as I was working in the office. Suddenly, he came in and with a tone I'm not fond of said, "Get your car OFF my truck!" I (being a true ever-inquisitive woman) asked, "What do you mean?" Again, "Come and get your car OFF my truck!" I walked outside and saw that in his hurry to go put out some "fire" somewhere, he had backed up and lodged his pintle hitch into my bumper and grill. It took multiple employees, hammers, yelling, and many minutes to separate the two vehicles! While the vehicles are no longer together, my husband and I still are - and I NEVER park behind his truck : )

 

[hooklifttrucks]

Haven't laughed that hard in awhile - THANKS FOR SHARING!

 

[carlm933g]

Yeah, they are never funny when they happen but sometimes make for very funny stories...

 

[pigpen60]

in my days as a dumptruck op. my boss was the tightest fella id ever met. id come home at everynight tellin him we need a new tailgate as i was havin to hammer one corner shut and it still leaked. he'd tell me we didnt have the money. so one day im cranked about poundin every dump and i wacked the gate as hard as i could with a 32 oz. plumb sledge. well all the world got fuzzy suddenly and i had this pain tween my eyes. seems i had hit the gate and it bounced and hit me tween the eyes! quick as i defuzzed i looked around for witnesses to kill! the next day we got the material for the new gate.

 

[grandpa]

Well poop......When i first start on a backhoe my first job with a 1010 john deere was digging a footing for a fireplace alongside an existing house. I

 

[grandpa]

POOP AGAIN.....i was so careful when i got down to the bottom of the basement as not to bust the footing that when i came up with a bucket full i stuck the boom right thru the eve of the house.. good thing i was the bosses son of he,d a fired me ha ha.

 

[grandpa]

Gotta share this one. I was running a crusher crushing road base for a township road. After a couple hours one of the truck drivers that was hauling the base to the road got out of his truck and came over to me and said the grading forman said there wasnt enough binder in the material. I climb up the surge pile and tell the dozer operator what the truck driver said. About an hour later the same driver stops again and says the forman still says theres not enough binder in the material. I climb the pile again and tell the dozer operator that they still want more binder. He says so its binder they want huh! This operator grabs a shovel,, squats right there and poops in the shovel.... then walks over to the stockpile and sprinkles just a little gravel over the top of it. About the same time the same driver comes back into the pit and the operator takes the shovel over to him and says grab this and see if there is enough binder in it now. The driver did and he never ever stopped us again.........