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Smoothe move Exlax
- Thread starter RollOver Pete
- Start date
Countryboy
Senior Member
- Joined
- Jun 8, 2006
- Messages
- 3,276
- Location
- Georgia
- Occupation
- Load Out Tech. / Heavy Equipment Operator / Locomo
I see you're enjoying your new job Pete. 
How bad did it bust up that tailgate? We used to have tailgates on all our Cat 775's but it was because of things like that, that they were removed.
How bad did it bust up that tailgate? We used to have tailgates on all our Cat 775's but it was because of things like that, that they were removed.
Ive seen this tooooo many times.
I have seen many operators load the oversize rock in the truck with a tailgate, sometimes even when the next truck has no tailgate.
If this was on my crew, someone would be looking for a job about now. Accidents happen, but senseless destruction of equipment is grounds for a firing.
Also, I have seen teamsters go dump the load purposley, even when they know it will break the tailgate. They know that if they break down, they get to go home for the day with pay:beatsme
I have even heard some of the local teamsters tell me "We do everything we can to break these trucks so we can go home early and get paid for the whole day".:Banghead :Banghead They said that without knowing I owned the trucks they were talking about. (They were on rent to another contractor, who put drivers out of the hall on them)
I have seen many operators load the oversize rock in the truck with a tailgate, sometimes even when the next truck has no tailgate.
If this was on my crew, someone would be looking for a job about now. Accidents happen, but senseless destruction of equipment is grounds for a firing.
Also, I have seen teamsters go dump the load purposley, even when they know it will break the tailgate. They know that if they break down, they get to go home for the day with pay:beatsme
I have even heard some of the local teamsters tell me "We do everything we can to break these trucks so we can go home early and get paid for the whole day".:Banghead :Banghead They said that without knowing I owned the trucks they were talking about. (They were on rent to another contractor, who put drivers out of the hall on them)
Ford LT-9000
Banned
The hoe operator or who ever loaded that rock into the truck should get a swift kick to the gonads.
surfer-joe
Senior Member
Many union agreements, 580bruce, stipulate that if a machine breaks down or the job shuts down, the drivers and operators go home for the rest of the day with a full eight hours pay. Some contracts made them stay on site if there was some possibility that the unit would come back up, or another unit became available. This was also common with weather factors. At a coal mine I worked in back in West Virginia, the hand had to stay on-site whether his machine or another became available or not. This was not a well liked paragraph in the agreement.
However, the problem shown here is easily remedied and it doesn't appear that any real damage was done. Not knowing all the circumstances, management putting haul trucks with tailgates like these into a situation hauling shot rock is probably not the smartest decision made there. They should have been taken off beforehand.
However, the problem shown here is easily remedied and it doesn't appear that any real damage was done. Not knowing all the circumstances, management putting haul trucks with tailgates like these into a situation hauling shot rock is probably not the smartest decision made there. They should have been taken off beforehand.
That's right Joe... but how many contractors do you know who assess the material and payload and take them off (unless they are all bent out of shape and the opening mechanism is wrecked
)surfer-joe
Senior Member
Ya got a point there Wulf, but these things are quite rare you know. I only had six sets of these on any trucks I was ever in charge of. Interesting story though.
We was excavating the site for the Gray's Landing Lock & Dam on the Monongahela River near Masontown, West Virginia and got six older 777B's in from a road job in New Jersey. We had a 992C and a Demag 285 excavator with a ten yard bucket to load with. Also a Cat 245 with an extended stick, it could reach out about 64 feet. The Demag came from a company job in Florida and was beat all to crap busting out coral rock. The 992 came in with slicks on the front. So I had to rebuild the bucket, stick and hoist cylinders on the Demag plus install all new pins and bushings in the bucket linkage and a new edge adapter on the bucket. The wiring was a mess too. After a brain fart came and went with tires I suggested Cat Tracor-Treads or Erlau chains. The chains were quite expensive and so that idea was out, but corporate equipment managements said "you find em, we'll buy em" on the Tracor-Treads. I knew they didn't expect me to find any, but I located two sets in Kentucky at a mining outfit I knew about, one set was good, the other was good for parts.
The material being removed was very wet and slimy and had to go up a fairly steep grade to an abandoned coal strip mine about a couple of miles away. You can guess where the stuff went upon going up hill with a 777. Yep!
So ole Barry, the president of the company says I know where is there some tailgates for those 777's and I'll get them right up to you. They will hold most of the slimes in the beds going up that hill. OK.
Barry was from down under you see, Squizzy will know the name Leighton Inc., that's where he came from, and one of his previous jobs in WA had used these tailgates. So shipping was arranged and the tailgates went from Perth all the way to Philadelphia, took just six weeks to get em.
I picked them up at the dock and got them to the jobsite where we immediately mounted the first one and sent it out to see how it would do. Wow! The Demag loaded the bed brim full and the Teamster took off for the dump. Smiles all around!
Right after crossing the highway he hit the hill going full bore. About the third downshift the slimes all ran to the back of the bed where they was stopped by the tailgate. That's when the front wheels left the ground and the teamster panicked. He let off the thottle and the 777 hit the ground and took a sharp turn to the right as the Teamster had tried to turn the no-longer touching the ground wheels that way to compensate when this little situation started. That slopped a bunch of slimes all over the left side of the truck -- including the Teamster who was leaning out the door window trying to see what was going on. I would have fell down laughing if I'd been standing there, but fortunately I was sitting down in the pickup I was using to follow him up to the dump. As it was I was gulping for air badly.
The Teamster got er stopped finally and after some discussion carefully turned around and got off the hill. Me and the dirt super went back to the shop and fell into a discussion and butt scratching session on what we was going to do next. The answer was fairly simple, but it took several days of trial and error fitting of the tailgates before we found that by mounting the gate right at the bottom of the bed incline, and mounting an extension to the top edge, we contained a good load of slimes and let the truck keep all wheels on the ground. We then fitted the other five and went to work.
The 992 was the quickest way to load so long as there was a rock bottom under the slimes. When the bottom fell out, so did the 992. The Tracor-Treads performed well after about three to four weeks of replacing weak shoe bolts and links. The Demag worked faster on soft footing, but there were places where we had to excavate good material in the old mine to take down hill to build haul roads with. We used rolls of fabric covered with about four to five feet of rock and dirt out of the mine. The further upriver we went, the worse the ground got and the rock ledge we were standing on eventually gave out altogether.
That's where the 245 really began to shine with it's lighter weight and longer reach. We only buried it once, laid it completely over on it's left side and nearly level with the ground. We kept the mud pulled away from the operator's station with a Deere 710B. But all our efforts to pull the thing out with the 992 and two Cat D7H's came to naught. We were afraid to pull on it with the bucket on the Demag for fear that whatever we had a hold of would rip off, but in the end, after two lost shifts, we had no choice and after building a sturdy pad to hold the mighty Demag, reached out and gently hooked onto the bucket of the 245. You never saw a more nervous bunch of management personnel and operators then those of us standing there that day. We all knew there would be hell to pay if we bent that extremely expensive extended stick or the boom of the 245.
In the end, all went well. The Demag never even grunted as it sucked the 245 from it's muddy grave. Once the 245 was on firm ground and sitting on both tracks, everyone fell to with a shovel and started cleaning the mud out. The slimes had gotten everywhere and completely filled the inside of the house and engine compartment. It took two shifts to get it to the point it could be started and then it was a tough job getting it to move about 300 yards to where we could take a water truck and steam cleaner to it for the rest of the muck. A close call.
I left the job just before it was finished and so far as I know the tailgates went to our yard in Allentown, PA. I never saw any tailgates again untill I put several on some Moxy MT-40's in Utah several years later. But those are another story.
We was excavating the site for the Gray's Landing Lock & Dam on the Monongahela River near Masontown, West Virginia and got six older 777B's in from a road job in New Jersey. We had a 992C and a Demag 285 excavator with a ten yard bucket to load with. Also a Cat 245 with an extended stick, it could reach out about 64 feet. The Demag came from a company job in Florida and was beat all to crap busting out coral rock. The 992 came in with slicks on the front. So I had to rebuild the bucket, stick and hoist cylinders on the Demag plus install all new pins and bushings in the bucket linkage and a new edge adapter on the bucket. The wiring was a mess too. After a brain fart came and went with tires I suggested Cat Tracor-Treads or Erlau chains. The chains were quite expensive and so that idea was out, but corporate equipment managements said "you find em, we'll buy em" on the Tracor-Treads. I knew they didn't expect me to find any, but I located two sets in Kentucky at a mining outfit I knew about, one set was good, the other was good for parts.
The material being removed was very wet and slimy and had to go up a fairly steep grade to an abandoned coal strip mine about a couple of miles away. You can guess where the stuff went upon going up hill with a 777. Yep!
So ole Barry, the president of the company says I know where is there some tailgates for those 777's and I'll get them right up to you. They will hold most of the slimes in the beds going up that hill. OK.
Barry was from down under you see, Squizzy will know the name Leighton Inc., that's where he came from, and one of his previous jobs in WA had used these tailgates. So shipping was arranged and the tailgates went from Perth all the way to Philadelphia, took just six weeks to get em.
I picked them up at the dock and got them to the jobsite where we immediately mounted the first one and sent it out to see how it would do. Wow! The Demag loaded the bed brim full and the Teamster took off for the dump. Smiles all around!
Right after crossing the highway he hit the hill going full bore. About the third downshift the slimes all ran to the back of the bed where they was stopped by the tailgate. That's when the front wheels left the ground and the teamster panicked. He let off the thottle and the 777 hit the ground and took a sharp turn to the right as the Teamster had tried to turn the no-longer touching the ground wheels that way to compensate when this little situation started. That slopped a bunch of slimes all over the left side of the truck -- including the Teamster who was leaning out the door window trying to see what was going on. I would have fell down laughing if I'd been standing there, but fortunately I was sitting down in the pickup I was using to follow him up to the dump. As it was I was gulping for air badly.
The Teamster got er stopped finally and after some discussion carefully turned around and got off the hill. Me and the dirt super went back to the shop and fell into a discussion and butt scratching session on what we was going to do next. The answer was fairly simple, but it took several days of trial and error fitting of the tailgates before we found that by mounting the gate right at the bottom of the bed incline, and mounting an extension to the top edge, we contained a good load of slimes and let the truck keep all wheels on the ground. We then fitted the other five and went to work.
The 992 was the quickest way to load so long as there was a rock bottom under the slimes. When the bottom fell out, so did the 992. The Tracor-Treads performed well after about three to four weeks of replacing weak shoe bolts and links. The Demag worked faster on soft footing, but there were places where we had to excavate good material in the old mine to take down hill to build haul roads with. We used rolls of fabric covered with about four to five feet of rock and dirt out of the mine. The further upriver we went, the worse the ground got and the rock ledge we were standing on eventually gave out altogether.
That's where the 245 really began to shine with it's lighter weight and longer reach. We only buried it once, laid it completely over on it's left side and nearly level with the ground. We kept the mud pulled away from the operator's station with a Deere 710B. But all our efforts to pull the thing out with the 992 and two Cat D7H's came to naught. We were afraid to pull on it with the bucket on the Demag for fear that whatever we had a hold of would rip off, but in the end, after two lost shifts, we had no choice and after building a sturdy pad to hold the mighty Demag, reached out and gently hooked onto the bucket of the 245. You never saw a more nervous bunch of management personnel and operators then those of us standing there that day. We all knew there would be hell to pay if we bent that extremely expensive extended stick or the boom of the 245.
In the end, all went well. The Demag never even grunted as it sucked the 245 from it's muddy grave. Once the 245 was on firm ground and sitting on both tracks, everyone fell to with a shovel and started cleaning the mud out. The slimes had gotten everywhere and completely filled the inside of the house and engine compartment. It took two shifts to get it to the point it could be started and then it was a tough job getting it to move about 300 yards to where we could take a water truck and steam cleaner to it for the rest of the muck. A close call.
I left the job just before it was finished and so far as I know the tailgates went to our yard in Allentown, PA. I never saw any tailgates again untill I put several on some Moxy MT-40's in Utah several years later. But those are another story.
CascadeScaper
Senior Member
- Joined
- Feb 27, 2005
- Messages
- 1,162
- Location
- Lynnwood, WA
- Occupation
- 2nd year Operating Engineer Apprentice
I love those stories, they never get old :notworthy
RollOver Pete
Senior Member
Yeah, they should have been removed.
The Ecco salesman should have seen that. But there always seems to be a huge communication problem between the customer, the salesman and our main office.
Been like that for ever, and unless someone has a rectal-cranial removal I don't see it changing.
Truth is....some people just don't give a cr@p about the kind of work they do.
As the Volvo was driving by, I jumped out and tried to get him to stop so I could bust up the rock. Another teamster who was leaving the dump site stopped and tried to hold the driver from dumping.
I'm not sure what all was said, but he continued on to the dump site and the end result is shown in the pics.
I was already on the phone to the office to let them know what had happened. I also sent them some pics via my camera phone.
We had tried to stop the driver from dumping, but he did so anyways knowing that things would go bad.
I can't stand working with people who make our employer look bad. He just didn't care. If I were king, he'd be out of a job.
From the beginning there was little or no communication between the Foreman, the operators/drivers, the salesman and the office.
The gates should have been pulled off or they should have used trucks that had no gates. There were 4 on the job.
The salesman gets the runners up Exlax award for not sending the right equipment.
The foreman also gets a runners up Exlax award for not routing his trucks in a better manner.
The 988 operator who works for the same company as I do gets the 2nd place Exlax award. He should have known better.
If he didn't, he does now. The first place Exlax award goes to the teamster. He should have known better and chances are he did.
He was even warned but went on anyways. That alone tells me that he should be fired. And thats exactly what I let the office know.
One of my biggest pet peeves is people who abuse equipment.
Equipment that I end up running and I end up repairing.
At times a piece will go down thanks to some jerks abuse.
Now my lively hood is at stake. That I will not tolerate.
I'll be the first one to make a call or send a pic or video of someone trashing our equipment. I don't have a problem with someone getting fired either.
Like I said before, I didn't come here to make friends, I came here to make money!
Oh.....I just love my job...:drinkup
RollOver Pete
Senior Member
I see you're enjoying your new job Pete.
How bad did it bust up that tailgate? We used to have tailgates on all our Cat 775's but it was because of things like that, that they were removed.
It was bent up pretty bad.
Ripped all of the bolts out on the left side.
I'm sure it can and will be fixed.
surfer-joe
Senior Member
Left side, or right side Pete? Hard to tell for sure from the pics, but it looks like the right side is hanging down. That's too bad, especially the part about the driver being warned. He ought to get some time off and a written warning at the very least.
Reminds me of another story you know, ain't it funny how Teamsters figure into so many bad stories?
Anyhow, up to the Stewartsville Dam job, we had some Euc R50's that came back from Iraq. Once again I picked these up down at the port in Philadelphia, ten of them. They weren't in bad shape, being mostly maintained by mechanics from Zeppelin in West Germany. They had been working on a huge dam somewhere in Iraq and some gray-market guy picked them up and shipped them to the states. I'm not sure that we rented them or bought them outright.
We did a little shot rock in the intake/outlet trench and used these trucks with some 992C's rented from a quarry outfit there in Jersey. The rock was stockpiled for use as rip-rap later on, the pile being up to the right on the upstream side of the dam.
The shots went off alright, but the rock was already badly fractured and so we got some awful big boulders to load out. The 992 guy was good and usually set one big Colorado Love Stone on the top of a load of smaller rocks and dirt. So "Clutch Teamster" takes off and gets up to the stockpile where he backups and dumps his load. He doesn't pay much attention to this procedure -- you know -- done it a zillion times he has. But he feels a extra thump as the bed tops out, however doesn't pay any attention to it. So -- bed coming down -- he starts to move away from the pile but doesn't get far before the truck lurches to a grinding halt. About that time the bed hits the frame. Ok, no big deal, he tries to move off again. No dice! The engine speeds up and the transmission goes thru the gears, but he doesn't move. He can see the tires rotating alright but he doesn't understand what is going on.
He gets off the truck to take a look see, and flags down another driver to go tell the truck foreman to come up and see what's happened. The truck foreman calls me and we go up together. I couldn't believe my eyes. That extra thump the Teamster felt and heard was that big squarish boulder coming out of the bed on top of the other material. It started rolling to the left and rolled right around till it fell over right under the truck -- directly in front of the transmission. When "Clutch" took off -- bed still up -- the front of the truck was raised up some, just enough to let the transmission guard slide up over the top of our wee rock. The rig had just enough momentum to slide up on top, then the bed hit the frame and the whole unit settled itself on top of the boulder, high-centered as it were! The weight of the whole thing then bent the guard supports till the guard hit the tranny, where it promptly punched a hole thru the bottom. So now there was oil everywhere and a truck that was completely helpless.
I was too stunned to even laugh, but a bit later, after returning to the shop for my pickup and a few mechanics, I went back up and snapped a few pics, which are in my archives someplace. We had to take the rear drive shaft out, then, using a D9, lifted the front of the truck, after which we dragged the rock out using a tow cable and a another D9. We took the R50 over out of the way and removed the trans, which other than the case, was unhurt. The local Allison dealer repaired the case, put it all back together and we had this rig back in the rock a couple of days later.
The Teamster, by the way, pulled duty in our warehouse for those several days, never missed a lick of time and didn't do diddly-squat, other than take up space.
Reminds me of another story you know, ain't it funny how Teamsters figure into so many bad stories?
Anyhow, up to the Stewartsville Dam job, we had some Euc R50's that came back from Iraq. Once again I picked these up down at the port in Philadelphia, ten of them. They weren't in bad shape, being mostly maintained by mechanics from Zeppelin in West Germany. They had been working on a huge dam somewhere in Iraq and some gray-market guy picked them up and shipped them to the states. I'm not sure that we rented them or bought them outright.
We did a little shot rock in the intake/outlet trench and used these trucks with some 992C's rented from a quarry outfit there in Jersey. The rock was stockpiled for use as rip-rap later on, the pile being up to the right on the upstream side of the dam.
The shots went off alright, but the rock was already badly fractured and so we got some awful big boulders to load out. The 992 guy was good and usually set one big Colorado Love Stone on the top of a load of smaller rocks and dirt. So "Clutch Teamster" takes off and gets up to the stockpile where he backups and dumps his load. He doesn't pay much attention to this procedure -- you know -- done it a zillion times he has. But he feels a extra thump as the bed tops out, however doesn't pay any attention to it. So -- bed coming down -- he starts to move away from the pile but doesn't get far before the truck lurches to a grinding halt. About that time the bed hits the frame. Ok, no big deal, he tries to move off again. No dice! The engine speeds up and the transmission goes thru the gears, but he doesn't move. He can see the tires rotating alright but he doesn't understand what is going on.
He gets off the truck to take a look see, and flags down another driver to go tell the truck foreman to come up and see what's happened. The truck foreman calls me and we go up together. I couldn't believe my eyes. That extra thump the Teamster felt and heard was that big squarish boulder coming out of the bed on top of the other material. It started rolling to the left and rolled right around till it fell over right under the truck -- directly in front of the transmission. When "Clutch" took off -- bed still up -- the front of the truck was raised up some, just enough to let the transmission guard slide up over the top of our wee rock. The rig had just enough momentum to slide up on top, then the bed hit the frame and the whole unit settled itself on top of the boulder, high-centered as it were! The weight of the whole thing then bent the guard supports till the guard hit the tranny, where it promptly punched a hole thru the bottom. So now there was oil everywhere and a truck that was completely helpless.
I was too stunned to even laugh, but a bit later, after returning to the shop for my pickup and a few mechanics, I went back up and snapped a few pics, which are in my archives someplace. We had to take the rear drive shaft out, then, using a D9, lifted the front of the truck, after which we dragged the rock out using a tow cable and a another D9. We took the R50 over out of the way and removed the trans, which other than the case, was unhurt. The local Allison dealer repaired the case, put it all back together and we had this rig back in the rock a couple of days later.
The Teamster, by the way, pulled duty in our warehouse for those several days, never missed a lick of time and didn't do diddly-squat, other than take up space.
Truckie
Senior Member
I'll be the first one to make a call or send a pic or video of someone trashing our equipment. I don't have a problem with someone getting fired either.
Like I said before, I didn't come here to make friends, I came here to make money!
Oh.....I just love my job...:drinkup
Pete you hit the nail on the head.
I’m the same way.
The thing that even gets me more fired up is when you complain to the upper and they look at you like you’re the one causing the trouble or problem.
Now on Monday I have to go to our yard and check out the machine they are sending to the job I’m on right now because it has been beat so bad. I carry extra parts and supplies but I need a parts store for this piece of equipment. I figure it is a lot easer for me to stop at the yard and check it out before it gets to the job.
Then I will help them trans port it to my job.
Sorry about jacking you thread there ROP.
mtb345
Well-Known Member
back in the 80 s i worked for a company that put stickers inside the cab that read [ if this machine does not work niether do you]
mikef87
Senior Member
- Joined
- Aug 22, 2007
- Messages
- 433
- Location
- waltham
- Occupation
- owner/operator/mechanic/laborer/truck driver
The words " Who cares it ain't mine" send a chill down my spine and make me feel like ripping someones spine out. I have little stickers in all my machines that say " If this machine doesn't work, neither do you."
thejdman04
Senior Member
some people just dont care