What is the most terrifying thing that taught you a lesson?

[sled dog]

Long long ago when I was a younker, I was helping a friend pull the rear diff on a triaxle. I knew nothing about dump trucks and very little about wrenching. Bed up, him on one side, me on the other between the tandems, one foot in front of the other. Both of us turning out u joints and diff bolts. The max extend cable was in the way, the one that pulls the valve to neutral when the cylinder hits max stroke. I didn't know, so I asked him "if we bump this cable will the bed come down?" He said "no, it only pulls the valve to neutral, see?" AND HE PULLED IT. One heartbeat, I see the bed start down and hear a rush of oil thru the line, two heartbeats, I begin to raise up, reach across and push his head, three heartbeats SLAM, the bed is down. Nothing....no sounds, no screams....And I ask "are you alive?"..... And he says "You better come'ere". You can all see this, see it as it happens, here the slam and feel the sick rising in your throat. I ran around the a$$ of that truck to see him standing, unhurt, whole, not bleeding. IN HIS SOCKS. His work boots were still between the tandems, one in front of the other. I SHOVED HIM OUT OF HIS BOOTS !!! My lesson? BLOCK IT UP!!! Block it, chain it, support it, do something to make it safe. If you don't know, take a minute, crack the books. Think about what can or could happen. If you take a minute and think, and remember, none of us should be alive....

 

[skyking1]

i was doing all the oil services a few weeks ago, bed block in the rest and setting there. Thank you for reminding me why.
I have had a few close calls in aviation mostly. Don't trust the other guy to do the right thing there.

 

[westerner]

I was new to the game, and was working on the gates of a R-Way belly dump, electric over air gate valve.
Landing legs are welded to the front of the gates, NOT attached to the frame of the trailer. The means to lock the gates out was there, but I did not sense the need.
Tractor was nowhere near under the thing, when I applied the appropriate voltage to the valve, at a REALLY inappropriate time....Air system charged, of course.

When the gates opened, the trailer pogo sticked, or pole vaulted about 6 feet left. Landed MOSTLY on the leg/belly, but a little on my co-workers' high dollar tool box.
No human was injured, but one human's pride and wallet got the **** beat out of 'em for a while....

 

[funwithfuel]

Tire safety. Something we all take for granted. Almost lost my head 'cuz i was too stupid to demand a cage. That and the rim was a half inch bigger than the tire.

 

[skyking1]

not me, but someone at a job i worked at was looking for something to do, and tried taking apart a jetway two piece rim, without deflating it! They had no business messing with it. No training, no clue.

They were so lucky.

 

[DMiller]

Know of two that died as a bed settled on them unable to get away from it, know of one that was thrown from a dozer as it slid off a trailer sideways and was crushed by it, saw the after effects of a split rim killing a tire man. I am not one to slouch on short cuts either where have utilized 'Old Ways' to perform work and damned near lost an eye. Becomes a no excuse no brainer to working Smarter not faster and the work gets done just as fast.

 

[colson04]

I learned one from my great uncle. He ran a small excavation business when I was young and had an old Deere dozer (450/550 size, I don't remember). He was doing some site prep and went to get off the machine. He was around 70 and not as spritely as he used to be. Just as soon as both feet were on the track, the dozer started rolling forward. He went to move and his boot got caught in the track somehow. Just as the track was about to go over the idler, he got free and jumped off, hit and rolled away from the dozer. He sat there and watched it roll until it hit a tree. I don't remember if he hit the powershift lever and knocked in gear, or if the parking brake was shot and just didn't hold the machine anymore. Either way, I do remember the blade was off the ground, allowing it to roll. I get reminded of it often by my dad when I'm getting off equipment to ground the bucket/blade before exiting the machine.

 

[aighead]

I mentioned both of mine in the "What's your hoe doing?" thread but I was trying to pull down/knock over a tree on the property line. My son was on my lap as we reached up to a branch, maybe 6" in diameter, that I thought we could pull down. I hooked the bucket up over the branch and proceeded to lift the machine into the sky until the bucket wasn't hooked anymore and we slammed down pretty good. My son fell off my lap where he was pretty close to moving levers with his legs and doing who knows what to the machine in the process. Very scary.

Also, before I realized that huge limbs will fall, I was pushing another very dead ash tree over, it had no limbs until probably about 50 feet up, and I gave the tree a shove. It started tipping over but came back and as I went to push on it again my hoe side windshield exploded from some pretty substantial sized branches that fell off. Next thing I know I'm covered in glass shards and felt real lucky it wasn't worse.

 

[funwithfuel]

We all get tunnel vision. We don't see the "stupid" we're engaging in. (Even when we know better). The guy standing 100 feet away with the camera going, he knows, he sees it, but doesn't say anything. If he did, he couldn't get 200 views on YouTube.

 

[skadill]

Was doing a small logging job in early 90's single handed, running saw and Older style Link-Belt with long levers on the pedestal mounts to the floor. Had to be in and out of the machine constantly, so I got good (or dumb) at jumping from the cab clear down to the ground. Only issue was I had my big leather loose belt on that carried my wedge pouch and chainsaw bar tools. I guess the safety lockout lever didn't quite engage, and I lept out but didn't go far, as my belt went over the swing/arm lever. Instantly I was hanging from my waist in full swing mode with my legs hitting the tracks each quarter swing. I struggled to lift them up and re position enough to grab something and get safely out of the mess while swinging a few full turns. Time stands still at those moments, and the mind takes a weird quick deep journey to a lot of places in a scary situation. Of course the minute I got everything under control, I was most concerned that someone may have seen the logger going merry go round hanging out of the cab looking like a moron.

 

[colson04]

Was doing a small logging job in early 90's single handed, running saw and Older style Link-Belt with long levers on the pedestal mounts to the floor. Had to be in and out of the machine constantly, so I got good (or dumb) at jumping from the cab clear down to the ground. Only issue was I had my big leather loose belt on that carried my wedge pouch and chainsaw bar tools. I guess the safety lockout lever didn't quite engage, and I lept out but didn't go far, as my belt went over the swing/arm lever. Instantly I was hanging from my waist in full swing mode with my legs hitting the tracks each quarter swing. I struggled to lift them up and re position enough to grab something and get safely out of the mess while swinging a few full turns. Time stands still at those moments, and the mind takes a weird quick deep journey to a lot of places in a scary situation. Of course the minute I got everything under control, I was most concerned that someone may have seen the logger going merry go round hanging out of the cab looking like a moron.

Thats why I rarely work alone when I run equipment. Not that someone could have pulled you off in that situation, but at least they could have called 911 right away.

We were doing a roof job and the guys were BS'ing about what they would say if they started to fall off the roof. Best line said was "START THE TRUCK!!!!"

 

[skyking1]

good subject on safety, never work alone. It would be a bummer for your family to have a survivable medical episode and lay there long enough to NOT survive it, let alone an accident.
I won't do it any more. It does not have to be somebody from my company, just somebody around, from another contractor etc.
If you can't, then text your friend or spouse and have them check in on you via phone or text.

 

[sled dog]

Thats why I rarely work alone when I run equipment. Not that someone could have pulled you off in that situation, but at least they could have called 911 right away.

We were doing a roof job and the guys were BS'ing about what they would say if they started to fall off the roof. Best line said was "START THE TRUCK!!!!"

Colson, when I was just a kid, an old farmer instructed me along those lines. He said if you're falling off the roof, just land on one leg. No sense in breaking them both!!!

 

[skyking1]

@aighead dead trees are the biggest hazard. Glad you survived it. The kid on the lap thing we won't talk about........
I will say that my brother's friend Bart had a buddy in the back of his truck who decided to play around with him in the cab through the window. He fell to the pavement and Bart got to watch his head cave in.

 

[aighead]

@skadill that would be pretty scary!

@skyking1 - Yeah, the kid on the lap was a good lesson. Seatbelt would've helped but I've now learned to just not do it.

 

[JBrady]

These are great stories and lessons. We have a saying at work "learn from your mistakes, but it is far easier to learn from others mistakes". I was hauling a 85hp ag tractor to my place before we built a house and moved there. I had already loaded and unloaded this particular tractor without any problems, but on this day, I had a pretty heavy brushhog on the back. I parked on a slight downhill grade, put the truck in park and set the parking brake. Just as my rear wheels hit the ramps, I noticed that everything was moving. My mind momentarily froze as it tried to process what was happening. When my mind finally clicked in, I looked forward to see the rear axle of the truck several feet in the air and the truck, trailer, tractor, and me were all rolling downhill. You'd think with all the land around and nice pasture that we could have coasted to a nice gradual stop. Unfortunately, the oil company that had the lease had decided to park their old grader just off the road. The truck was headed right for the front wheel of that grader. I remember thinking well, this will stop us. Instead, that stupid F-250 decided to climb the front grader tire. Next thing I know, the truck is at a 45 degree angle and the trailer ball snaps. Me and the tractor roll down a now very steep trailer and the truck rolls over on its side. Nothing left to do but put a chain on the truck, pull it back over and drive it into town to buy a new trailer ball and drive back to the house. Thank the Lord no one was hurt or I didn't have my kids in the truck or something like that. Lessons learned: Always chock wheels, load/unload on level ground, consider what the worst thing that could happen is before doing a task.

 

[skyking1]

Wow Brady that's a wild ride! I heard one similar story of a guy who was in a big hurry and forgot to latch the ball down. He and the backhoe and the trailer peeled off the truck and were going backwards away from it. Yes he had forgotten to do everything safety chains etc. Apparently it was a pretty good rollover accident in the ditch and he got hurt.

 

[heymccall]

I've still got several units with dayton wheels (spoke hubs). First time I ever changed one, I took off all the lugnuts. Then, when prying at the tire didn't work, I got the big sledge and swung at the back of the tire. The rim clamp grazed my leg on it's way to never, never land. Never did find it. Man, can those thing fly.

 

[colson04]

These are great stories and lessons. We have a saying at work "learn from your mistakes, but it is far easier to learn from others mistakes". I was hauling a 85hp ag tractor to my place before we built a house and moved there. I had already loaded and unloaded this particular tractor without any problems, but on this day, I had a pretty heavy brushhog on the back. I parked on a slight downhill grade, put the truck in park and set the parking brake. Just as my rear wheels hit the ramps, I noticed that everything was moving. My mind momentarily froze as it tried to process what was happening. When my mind finally clicked in, I looked forward to see the rear axle of the truck several feet in the air and the truck, trailer, tractor, and me were all rolling downhill. You'd think with all the land around and nice pasture that we could have coasted to a nice gradual stop. Unfortunately, the oil company that had the lease had decided to park their old grader just off the road. The truck was headed right for the front wheel of that grader. I remember thinking well, this will stop us. Instead, that stupid F-250 decided to climb the front grader tire. Next thing I know, the truck is at a 45 degree angle and the trailer ball snaps. Me and the tractor roll down a now very steep trailer and the truck rolls over on its side. Nothing left to do but put a chain on the truck, pull it back over and drive it into town to buy a new trailer ball and drive back to the house. Thank the Lord no one was hurt or I didn't have my kids in the truck or something like that. Lessons learned: Always chock wheels, load/unload on level ground, consider what the worst thing that could happen is before doing a task.

I saw a guy do that with a 11k pound skid steer and a trailer that had no drop legs on the ramps. Skid steer hit the ramps, back of trailer went to the ground, nose came up and lifted rear of truck clean off the ground. Truck rolled forward a few feet before he got skid steer off the ramps. He kept backing up and eventually the truck and trailer came back to earth. The worst part is the guy knew that was going to happen and admitted it. My dad asked why he didn't carry a jack, cribbing, or jackstands to place under rear of trailer to stop the drop if he knew it was going to happen. No reply.

 

[colson04]

That said, ill admit my own: I forgot to latch a gooseneck trailer once when I was hauling bales and made the trip from farm to field and back to farm before it was caught. I unloaded from front of trailer first and got to where most of the weight was over the trailer tandems before it lifted off the ball and rolled backwards. I finished unloading and then re hitched the trailer. I got lucky.