This will be an interesting thread moving forward......

[56wrench]

Years back when i worked for a small city's public works department, i chewed out an operator for not checking the engine oil in a piece of equipment before he started it. He told me thats what they had mechanics for and it deteriorated quickly after that. From then on, he and i never got along. They eventually got the operators trained to do the basic daily maintenance and it made our life a lot easier

 

[Truck Shop]

Years back when i worked for a small city's public works department, i chewed out an operator for not checking the engine oil in a piece of equipment before he started it. He told me thats what they had mechanics for and it deteriorated quickly after that. From then on, he and i never got along. They eventually got the operators trained to do the basic daily maintenance and it made our life a lot easier

Hell even the boss won't do a pre-trip-so there's not much recourse with drivers.

 

[colson04]

Years back when i worked for a small city's public works department, i chewed out an operator for not checking the engine oil in a piece of equipment before he started it. He told me thats what they had mechanics for and it deteriorated quickly after that. From then on, he and i never got along. They eventually got the operators trained to do the basic daily maintenance and it made our life a lot easier

I was in my teens when I got a butt chewing like never before from my grandpa for starting a tractor without pulling the dipstick. I never forgot to pull another dipstick after that.

 

[Vetech63]

I have both the Cat 1055F and the Weiler p385B pavers torn down and parts coming in. Should have the Weiler done tomorrow. I'll get pics tomorrow.
I did see TNH today for the first time. The Weiler paver was parked in front of the 350D excavator that's been sitting there for over 2 months. He got in the cab and tried to start it, no go..........then went and got the battery charger, hooked it up and left. Odd that HNC was with him.... I assume they had been together all day because I didn't see him until TNH showed up. I heard an air compressor in the shop fire up, then die about 15 seconds later. Not sure what's happening there.

I don’t completely fault HNC and TNH.

I can agree to an extent. TNH is new so I will give him the benefit of the doubt for now. HNC on the other hand has no excuse. There have been too many times I've seen him go driving around in his truck, drinking coffee, bullshitting with crew and supers, and generally screwing off. There is more than enough to keep 3 good techs busy. He just doesn't want to work if it takes much effort or thought. You can't fix anything if you don't understand how it works. Even the simplest of small jobs is a major challenge for him. He has 14 months until he can draw full SS (something he told me over a month ago).......he is just trying to ride his time out as easy as he can until he draws his benefits and leaves the company.

I try to be friendly to him, hell....I could have a beer with him and shoot the %$^T for hours. It's the fact that he is NO tech by any sense of the word and when you try to explain how something works or how to go about fixing something "he already knows" or has done it 100 times. I have tried to help the guy out but it goes nowhere. A few months ago I watched him put the tracks on a 650J backwards. I told him which way they went on......"he knew" of course and proceeded to put them on backwards the next day. Screw it, I let him do it.

 

[John C.]

About the most I could get operators to do in the coal mines was get the operators to walk around the machines and look for puddles on the ground. I finally put a man on to check fluids and start the machines in the morning before first shift.

 

[heymccall]

Checking the oil???

I nearly got fired for this one.
I serviced a 330C on a jobsite and only got 4 gallon of oil out (6 gallon crankcase).
So...I taped a $20 to the engine oil dipstick.
Fast forward 3 weeks.
As I pulled onto that jobsite near end of shift, I saw that machine in operation. I told the operator that I needed to check something under the hood. He shut it off. Then he watched me pull the dipstick, unravel a $20 bill, put the stick back, close the hood and leave. Neither of us said a word.
Fast forward 4 minutes. It's the owner calling me. Had to drive two hours back to the office and endure a 20 minute "you can't be doing that" speech.
Then, I get a lecture from a super the next day, back on site, that my "stunt" caused the new guy to quit.

I'm slowly becoming a legend around here

 

[Birken Vogt]

I would have given you a raise for that stunt on the spot.

Then again, I was one of those who got yelled at for not pulling a dipstick when 8 years old.

 

[Shimmy1]

that my "stunt" caused the new guy to quit.

I hope the guy that quit never found a job ever again. What a child.

 

[AzIron]

Checking the oil???

I nearly got fired for this one.
I serviced a 330C on a jobsite and only got 4 gallon of oil out (6 gallon crankcase).
So...I taped a $20 to the engine oil dipstick.
Fast forward 3 weeks.
As I pulled onto that jobsite near end of shift, I saw that machine in operation. I told the operator that I needed to check something under the hood. He shut it off. Then he watched me pull the dipstick, unravel a $20 bill, put the stick back, close the hood and leave. Neither of us said a word.
Fast forward 4 minutes. It's the owner calling me. Had to drive two hours back to the office and endure a 20 minute "you can't be doing that" speech.
Then, I get a lecture from a super the next day, back on site, that my "stunt" caused the new guy to quit.

I'm slowly becoming a legend around here

Is the owner a dumb ass I think I would have quit cause obviously its easier to blame the mechanic then set a standard for operators

On my spread operators do there own daily service and fuel so if something is not right no ones to blame but the guy in the seat that new guy probably would have been fired on the spot for mot doing his job

 

[JD955SC]

Speaking of lazy so called operators…I don’t even know why machines come with climate controlled cabs because the “operator” is going to run it with every door and window open and fill the cab with a yard of dirt and 30 drink bottles and dip cups ( if they aren’t spitting inside the cab of course) plus sunflower seed hulls. and getting one to grease their machine? Perish the thought the zerks are there for decoration apparently.

 

[sfrs4]

Try asking them to read the operators manual.......it's like you just slapped their mother...... Read a manual on how to properly/safely operate the machine their working on and basic maintenance, why on gods green earth would they do something like that, just jump on mash buttons and twist knobs till something either works or breaks.

 

[cuttin edge]

 

[heymccall]

To be fair, the owner's lecture to me changed tone after I explained why and gave my version. It simply became a talk about how fragile and delicate morale is (and operators) and, while my impetus to encourage proper walk arounds was right and actually encouraged, but by doing it in the middle of the day resulted in poor production the rest of the day.

About every 6 months or so, I still tape a twenty on somewhere. I just don't retrieve it the middle of a work shift.

I believe I've done it 15 times, and I've only ever lost one.

 

[56wrench]

Speaking of cab garbage reminds me of another story about the same city public works. Us mechanics had our own designated shop truck. We kept the inside clean and washed it as needed. It was as clean or cleaner than the superintendent's truck. One day we sent an operator to pick up parts in another city 25 miles away. When he came back, he left his garbage in the cab. He always did that with any equipment he ran also. So, i cleaned all his trash out of the cab and saved it. The next staff meeting as i walked by, i dumped it in his lap. When he exploded and asked 'what the hell did you do that for? ' , i replied 'that's your garbage you left in the shop truck last time you used it.' Then he really got mad. The superintendent, supervisors, and the other operators were all bug-eyed. It got kind of loud in the coffee room for a couple minutes until the superintendent got things under control. His agenda for the meeting took a slight detour. After the meeting he came to talk to us mechanics and he asked me why i had taken such a drastic action in front of the whole crew. We told him we had been trying to get them to clean up after themselves for a very long time and they weren't getting the message. The garbage in our shop truck was the last straw. He agreed with us but not necessarily the way i made my point. The operators and supervisors got a memo about equipment and cab cleanliness and that was the end of the problem. Funny thing was, that a few years later, the same operator was promoted to a supervisor and he had to be on the operators about some of the crap he used to do. . That was the best job i ever had- it was never boring and my whole day's work plan usually went out the window about an hour after i started every morning

 

[cuttin edge]

We leave the keys on all the machines and trucks here. Some of the truck drivers leave their keys on the dipstick. The local milk producer will leave a random tag on trucks, forklifts or other machines that require daily inspections.... someplace where it would only be seen if you were doing your walk around. If you bring it back, you get a coffee card or something like that. I am guilty as anyone for breezing through my daily inspection sheet, but I do visually see things when I grease. That's why I hate automatic greasers. We have a general book for equipment, and one for trucks. If your machine doesn't have something you leave it blank. I don't check the tracks, rollers, and drum, on my grader inspection, but the guy that does the sheets, says he still can't figure out where the tires are on the 470 Hitachi, even though the operator keeps checking them off.

 

[John C.]

I inspected some machines for trade at one company that used a program I think was called Zonar. Basically there were these round green nodes attached at various points on the machines where the operator had to do something and then check it off in a phone attachment of something. I thought it was a decent idea if a company had problems but also thought operators would see it as big brother putting the eye on them.

 

[hosspuller]

Cutting edge .. We had a name for the practice... "Pencil Whipping" the check sheets.

 

[kshansen]

Cutting edge .. We had a name for the practice... "Pencil Whipping" the check sheets.

Yea at the quarry some of those check lists would have one long line down all the check boxes!

 

[OFF]

Checking the oil???

I nearly got fired for this one.
I serviced a 330C on a jobsite and only got 4 gallon of oil out (6 gallon crankcase).
So...I taped a $20 to the engine oil dipstick.
Fast forward 3 weeks.
As I pulled onto that jobsite near end of shift, I saw that machine in operation. I told the operator that I needed to check something under the hood. He shut it off. Then he watched me pull the dipstick, unravel a $20 bill, put the stick back, close the hood and leave. Neither of us said a word.
Fast forward 4 minutes. It's the owner calling me. Had to drive two hours back to the office and endure a 20 minute "you can't be doing that" speech.
Then, I get a lecture from a super the next day, back on site, that my "stunt" caused the new guy to quit.

I'm slowly becoming a legend around here

That is the best story I have read in a very long time. Maybe ever. I can't believe they hauled you up on the mat for that.

Even heavy equipment operators are becoming way too delicate these days.

 

[Nige]

Cutting edge .. We had a name for the practice... "Pencil Whipping" the check sheets.

It was often referred to as "Tick & Flick".