Plowing hurts

[hammerdwn20]

I was plowing a new lot last week in a 580e case and was stopped abruptly. it was an asphalt lot so i had the cutting edge slightly down and was in 2nd at half throttle. scared the **** out of me. turns out a fence must have been there and a little concrete footing was sticking up about 3/4 of an inch. This was my first winter plowing and im a relatively new operator. after that i pulled the snow out in reverse where i thought more would be and im glad i did. (about6 more) My boss said he knocked himself out once with his foot on the throttle burning the tires down.

Whats your story?
Frank

 

[Turbo21835]

Been there, done that. Scraping ice with a JD 410D. Plowing warehouses that have concrete pads for trailer landing gears. Nothing like trucking along at the top end of 2nd and coming to a dead stop. As uncomfortable as they are, I always wear my seatbelt while plow in a machine, I dont want to kiss the windshield

 

[Canadian_digger]

I'm not sure what my father hit but once he sheered all but two of the bolts right off for the cutting edge on his 310SE:Banghead

 

[digger242j]

I did pretty much the same thing plowing a street in a new development we were working in, using a 680. Hit a water valve box that was maybe 1/2 inch above the rest of the pavement. It ended up a good 1 1/2 inches out of the pavement on one side, (until I sat on it with one of the stabilizers. ) It put a nice ding in the cutting edge too...

 

[hammerdwn20]

we also use a 410d for plowing. i think if i would have hit it with that i would have ripped it out. the difference between the two machines is night and day

 

[Little Jon]

Last year I got knocked out in a bobcat ss, after hitting the stub of an old street sign that was cut off on a sidewalk. I was leaning forward looking at the bucket when bam! got launched forward, head hit the glass & lights out!

 

[milling_drum]

Up there in Metro Toronto, I was working for the contractor that had city streets AKA Metro Transportation area 4. (Scarborough) All of the plowing I have ever done has been with a motor grader CAT 140 or a Champion 740.

While cleaning up one Feb night, I was running with just the main mouldboard down on float as usual, just pushing it back tight against the curb for rush hour in the morning and....hit a little chunk of some really hardpacked ice. it snapped the mouldboard back about a foot and it sprung back into place. I didn't think anything of it because I had seen this before. Low and behold I lift the blade at the end of the pass and go to swing it, it only goes a few feet. oh oh!

I ran for another few hours and took her in around 4 am. They pulled the cover off the turntable gearbox (CAT) around 9 am, and the crown gear is not only made of aluminum, its broken into 4 big chunks....BUT to save my ass slightly, there wasn't a drop of gear oil in the gearbox and the mechanic showed where a seal had gone bad along time ago and not been fixed. (they wouldn't have fired someone over that anyways)

Now living in the south I look back at the snow removal and miss it alot. But I'll be a rats ass if I plow in a truck. That would be horrible.

 

[knucklehead98]

Dad was plowing a lot with a 550 Ford several years ago when he hit a manhole that was up a little bit. It broke the bottom hinge pin on the bucket and folded the ears completely over. That same manhole has broken several cutting edges!!!!!!!

 

[Steve Frazier]

I was sent to plow a culdesac for the town I was subbing to, they neglected to tell me the final course of asphalt had yet to be laid. There was a catch basin dead center of the culdesac that was raised up about an inch and I hit it with the center of the blade of my pickup with a full load of snow. I think the front of the truck went in the air about a foot as the truck tried to run up over the plow, I ended up on the dashboard and the hoist frame folded up under the truck. Fortunately I wasn't injured, I chained up the plow and had to buy a new hoist frame.

 

[RonG]

I was plowing the parking lot at Allied Control at the corner of West st and West Main st in Plantsville for you ct guys with a Trojan 4000 and their maintanance dept. sent a guy out to guide me so I wouldn't do any damage.This might have been the blizzard of '68 but it seems like it was later than that.In any case there was a lot of snow.
Well,I am plowing and stacking and I noticed that the whole area was turning blue so I stopped and asked "Vaughn",their site guy about it and we concluded between us that it might be water that was causing it.LOL
It turns out that I took off a hydrant over near what used to be a phone booth and I did recollect that there was a small blip on one of my passes.......with that 5 yard machine in motion it doesn't get too disturbed with a trivial thing like that and with that 853 screaming,well,what is there to hear?)
We finally got the water department out and after some hassle of finding the gate valves we got it under control.
I had seen that hydrant a million times and so had their official lookout but the one time we needed to know where it was.....duh.Ron G

 

[Grader4me]

Over the years I've hit many things laying under the snow. Manhole covers, survey monuments, stumps, rocks, mailboxs, expansion joints. Been lucky though as damage to equipment has been minimal.

I was shoving back the snow banks one day with the Vee plow and wing extended. I was taking a good cut with the Vee rolling the banks back. The Vee hit a rock and the jar gave my neck quite a snap. This one hurt the most. I was off work for a couple of weeks.

 

[jughead]

not plowing but related. went over a 12 in. log with my loader. dummy didnt drop the bucket. over the dash around the exhaust. all that saved me i have throttle that has to be held in position. never again do i move it without seat belt fastened

 

[telescooper]

I too have hit many things. Always wear your seatbelt, one face plant against a window or being shoved into a steering and you will learn. I have known operators who went to the hospital for stitches. When you hit something and you will, don't feel ashamed tell your coworkers what and where you hit it so they will know.
Telescooper

 

[hammerdwn20]

I too have hit many things. Always wear your seatbelt, one face plant against a window or being shoved into a steering and you will learn. I have known operators who went to the hospital for stitches. When you hit something and you will, don't feel ashamed tell your coworkers what and where you hit it so they will know.
Telescooper

I made sure my boss was aware of it. he was with me at the time and i was pissed because i thought he did this lot last year. the two of us are the only ones who run the equipment and hes doing less the longer im there.

 

[Axman]

About 10 years ago, I was pushing snow with a front end loader at a missile site in Montana. I was in a parking lot so I had the cutting edge tilted down scraping the packed snow and ice off and hit a manhole lid thet was sticking up about an inch...launched that sucker about 50 ft.

Last week, I was clearing a driveway with my TL 130 on a drive that hadn't been touched all winter. The driveway went up hill from the road to the house and was cut into the ground about 3ft with dirt banks on both sides. There was over 3.5ft of snow on it so I started at the top pushing the snow down the dirt shoot to a spot at the bottom that I could pile it. About the third trip down the hill I had removed enouph snow to expose the bare ground which was ice. If you haven't ever been on a rubber tracked machine on the ice on a hill before, it's a real experiance! Anyway, I caught the edge of the bucket in the dirt on the side of the driveway which sent me into a spin, bouncing and spinning me from one side of the driveway to the other all the way down to the bottom, about 300ft. At least I missed the barbed wire fence at the bottom.:woohoo

 

[jimmyjack]

one time plowing a state road with the ten wheeler dump truck i was driving at the time, i caught a manhole just right and shot the cover in the grass and ended up breaking the ring also.... had to go look for the cover in about a foot of snow then gently place it back in the ring... ended up having to get an orange barrel to put on it:beatsme oh well

 

[Deere9670]

, mailboxs, .

Your not the only one grader4me.:drinkup I could fill up pages of threads on all the mailboxs that ive hit while trying to run wide farm equipment up the busy roads around here!


I replaced them all of coarse:falldownlaugh

 

[qball]

ya gotta break a few eggs to make an omlette.

 

[Turbo21835]

Your not the only one grader4me.:drinkup I could fill up pages of threads on all the mailboxs that ive hit while trying to run wide farm equipment up the busy roads around here!


I replaced them all of coarse:falldownlaugh

The draft arms on Terex Ts14Bs do a number on mailboxes too :drinkup

 

[Grader4me]

Your not the only one grader4me.:drinkup I could fill up pages of threads on all the mailboxs that ive hit while trying to run wide farm equipment up the busy roads around here!


I replaced them all of coarse:falldownlaugh

Me too!! :drinkup