I've said it before; operators are like peanut butter, they come in two flavors...smooth and crunchy. :tong Had our old Cat 320B L on rent. When it came back, the manual thumb was destroyed. Near everything about it was bent. Cracked welds that had been rewelded. Basically transformed into scrap iron. And what did the customer have to say about it? You guessed it...it was delivered like that. :umno Oh well, get the torch out and cut the thumb off, then cut the back plate off with a gouger. Some guys could tear up an iron ball with a rubber hammer. :yup
I know a few rental places here that would send him a bill on damages.No machine leaves the yard with damage.
Yep 2 stick, he had to pay for the thumb. It's just funny, though, that they say "it was like that", when it was a good thumb when it left here, and it was a bent up piece of scrap when it came back. Oh well, nice try. :tong BTW, do you still drive 2 sticks?
im no genius, but how exactly to you tear a manual thumb up, i have done some serious work with a manual thumb and i really dont see how you can tear it up...must be a super duper crunchy bad motorscooter operartor to do that kind of damage and what size bucket is on that 320, looks like a big'n
When we rent out equipment it gets digital pictures taken when it gets loaded. When it comes back damaged we can review the pics and show the customer it was not in that condition when it left.
So about that iron ball and rubber mallet, is it on the way boss?
Thats what i was thinking! Good idea!
Over here the old saying is "to bend a crowbar in the bog" I've seen it done!
It's got a 36" on it right now for doing brush clearing, or, would that be for destroying thumb. LoL. We're putting a 24" back on it for a customer that want's to rent it for digging trenches. And was for sure a super duper crunchy operator. :yup Still trying to find an iron ball with Ziebart rust protection for you to use in Michigan Turbo, wouldn't won't the iron ball to rust from road salt before ya get it broke ya know. :tong Hmmm, reckon Stock has ever done that? :bouncegri
some people can mess up a bowling ball
only a 36? i thought it was a 48, looks bigger in the pic we have had some of those operators at work before, you could put them in a 40 acre field without a tree for miles and they would put a limb through the windshield, throw 1 track off, and crack the bucket in 4 places
LoL...and put a dent in the right rear door panel. :lmao
Out here that operator could bust an anvil. I've seen lots of other stuff break before the thumbs do out here. I had one operator try to feed a thumb into a Diamond Z. The thumb survived for the most part but the stick had a real big twist in it. I actually liked fixing stuff like that. The more is cost the more the owner hated the operator and the easier it was to get paid. Since yours was a rental actually fixing the machine might be the easy part. Good Luck!
i would get my money or satisfaction out of the guy one way or the other... does the guy you rented the hoe to have any other equipment, if so, do any of the jacks or batteries fit anything you have, hey im sure you could use some of his fuel...hahaha, just some ideas. Dont listen to me i'll get you thrown in jail...lol:drinkup
Actually it was pretty easy, they simply charged a new thumb to the customers credit card. Same if one comes back empty on fuel. Gotta hold that card number until the machine is checked back in, there's a lot of crunchy operators out there. I guess they figure, "it ain't my machine, so, I don't really care". Then their boss gets the credit card bill from us. Oh to be a fly on the wall. :tong
Not in a long time.You don't see many of them any more.Make a truck pull a big load with ease though.
You got that right. This first "big truck" I drove had a 5 x 4 Fuller. Folks thing your crazy when you tell them you could drive them just as easy as a splitter tranny. But once you got the hang of it, they really weren't hard to operate.
yep Atco I bent rod iron in a bog did ya............... over a lever pullers head .....
You could shift with one hand or two.You could pull a hill better.And if you had a winch you had more speeds to run it.The good part you could put fancy shifter knobe on them.
Oh...I see. Uh, wasn't Mule was it? That's a yep on the fancy knobs. Went to work for a crane company in the mid 80's, one crane was a small Grove hydro on a Crane Carrier chassis. Yes, the small, single cab for the operator. Had a 5 x 3 in it. Problem was, the main stick was right beside you. The aux stick was behind, kinda behind the seat in an awkward position to operate. Both shift levers were very short, not good leverage for changing gears. Operators hated to drive that rig because the hog box stick was just goofy to operate, they all tried just driving the crane with the main tranny. The first time I drove the rig, I was like "pfffttttt, this is stupid!" Went to a nearby truckstop and purchased some goodies. Put a straight handle on the main stick, which increased it's length just a bit. On the aux stick, put a short chrome extension on it, then a chrome 45 degree elbow, then a chrome 6" extension, lastly another straight handle. Now the aux stick was oriented just a little behind but above the main stick. Totally changed how that thing operated. The other operators were amazed at how much better it was to operate now, and no one grumbled about having to drive it now. It was actually kinda fun.
I drove a International like that.Friend bought it at a city auction.Hauled some tractors to an auction in it.Hate that truck.Shifters are set up like your talking about and in the main box the springs are gone.Got to be careful are you will be backing up.But he paid $2,000 and thinks it is better than a Peterbilt.
How did you know??
:lmao :falldownlaugh
I have also been on the other side of this story though... had an equipment co. send out a 330 w/ a brand new thumb on it (not gonna mention the brand) operator peeled the mounting plate off of the stick, which led to bending everything else on the thumb... all this while moving an 18"-24" tree with it... Equipment co. brought out another machine with another brand new thumb (same manufacturer) Same thing happened. Equipment co. brought out a third machine with a used Solsbee thumb... no problems for the rest of the job. Turns out the first thumb manufacturer had gotten a batch of crappy chinese steel for cheap... they tried to get me to pay for it at first, but eventually worked it out between the Equipment co. and the Thumb co.
Good to hear you got it worked out Acivil. What part of TN are you in?