This isn't good

[ianjoub]

Not sure if this is the right forum or not, move as needed.

It appears that my CAT 287B fits perfectly into a 900 gallon concrete septic tank. We spent the time to find the septic tank before working the job so this wouldn't happen. Apparently, there were 2 septic tanks on site.

Sorry, no pics. I have a flip phone and refuse to come into the 20th century (yes, I know it is the 21st).

I collapsed the lid. The right track sunk in, thankfully a dry tank. I didn't drown. The machine is sitting at about a 75 degree angle listing to starboard. The right track is perfectly in the tank. The left is out, but no moving her from here. I have an excavator coming in the morning to pull it out.

I left the key in it. I figure no one can steal it!

Maybe I can bring a cam tomorrow and get pics so we can all have a laugh.

 

[DIYDAVE]

no sh!t?

 

[Kiwi-truckwit]

As the saying goes, s$&t happens.
At least there's no damage to man or machine

 

[Georgia Iron]

Dam, That sucks. I have a customer that did the same thing. His went completely on its side. He was smart enough to shut it down and he loosened the glow plugs i think, once up-righted to empty the oil out of the cylinders. If your gets hard to turn over. Check your cylinders first..

 

[ianjoub]

Dam, That sucks. I have a customer that did the same thing. His went completely on its side. He was smart enough to shut it down and he loosened the glow plugs i think, once up-righted to empty the oil out of the cylinders. If your gets hard to turn over. Check your cylinders first..

Thanks for the advice.

This is also an example of how things can go tits up, like you are saying about towing. I understand. We all just try to minimize risk.

After an hour or so, I fired it up to see if I could do anything with the bucket/lift functions. It started fine, but wouldn't help itself out of the hole. No oil pressure light. I ran it for 30 sec . or so.

I will keep a watchful eye tomorrow when I try to crank it. I have no intention of causing more harm by running it in an oil starvation mode.

If it doesn't want to turn over, I will look into the oil in the combustion chamber issue. I had not thought of that prior to your post. Hydro lock is not a good thing.

Thanks!

 

[Kxnate]

Whoops, something I would have watched for in my own yard since I have septic and cisterns, but probably would not have thought of it if I happen to run mine anywhere else. I will now though. Thanks for sharing your misfortune!!

 

[Nige]

Machines are only lumps of metal. They can always be fixed by the application of time & money.
People on the other hand are much more fragile and repairs to them are much more difficult.........
So long as you're OK put it down to experience, learn from it and move on.

 

[ianjoub]

Someone came by with a loader/backhoe. A trucker's chain on the back corner and the loader bucket lifted it right up. My loader fired right up, 1 second of cranking. There was no smoke from the exhaust.

Pics for your amusement:

The first pic has the septic tank that we located in the foreground. We were digging around the edge of the lid.

 

[DIYDAVE]

Good to see it didn't sink any further and that all is OK!

 

[AzIron]

Could always be worse

On a job a year or 2 ago and the front axle of a mixer fell into an old dry well that got ugly it busted the oil pan.

The funniest one I heard of was scrapers were doing pad work for a new subdivision on an old dairy. Apparently when they scrapped the dairy they shot all the sick cows and barrier them in the silage pit fast forward almost a year and they were making a cut across the old pit and the rear 637 feel into a 2 or 3 foot void of about 20 or 30 dead cows I guess both drivers threw up all over the cab before they got them out