I haven't used my Champion 730A for a few month's and the batteries didn't have enough power to turn it over. I cleaned all the cables and battery posts but it didn't help. Thankfully boosting it and using a lithium booster got it started. I put the tools and booster in my truck and drove up to the shop to put them back. I got back in the grader and it made a weird noise when I went move. I thought something was wrong with the trans. but backed up and it went away. 15 minutes later it dawned on me I never put the battery cover back on. It was sitting against the tires and got pushed back behind the batteries on the chain case but wasn't rubbing. It did get bent and twisted though. I think I can straighten it but I'm kicking myself for forgetting to put it back on. I don't really like it because I have to pry it off to get at the batteries. I'll make a better cover if I can't straighten it. I'm glad it didn't cause any other damage and is just a battery cover but still feel dumb about forgetting about it.
I can report the articulation is still working and makes it a lot easier to turn around in tight spaces. It's the first time I've used the grader since freeing the spool that wouldn't move in one direction. I think I'll probably need new batteries. I want it to start easily in the winter.
It seems when you get older you need to really think and double check every thing. If its something that isnt going to get done right away it needs to be wrote down on a list.
I remember when my dad left the pristine batt box cover off my old 46a sitting on the track. Squashed it flat. I had a hell of a time straightening it out. It never did fit quite like it used to
A 953 will do a number to the tools let on the track A 943 will smash a can of paint stripper all over the tool trailer Ran over some tractor side screens A gallon of oil will make quite the mess in a cab of a f750 if the seat won't move should properly look as to why it won't move
Man Tyler you make me feel better about my skid steer fuel cap. Thanks!!
Bear in mind this was over the course of quite a few years
You are slow ,I can mess up that much in a week.lol
I’m a stickler for putting battery covers and the like far away from what you’re working on. I’d rather run the cover to a customer because I forgot to install because it wasn’t right there than buy a new one.
Creeper stood up between drive tires on tandem. Door flopped open on tire shop service truck 1" gun hit the pavement at 70. Tow truck operators towing from rear and forgetting to check hood latches-hood pops up at 45 or doors not latched all the way. Forgetting the bar over tools and firing it up.
On my little crane I had the front out riggers off it and had the lines plug then I drove over them and tore them off it now has 4 new hoses
A friend of mine was working on his septic tank pump truck when he got a call cop pulled him over about a mile from his shop and politely ask why are you dragging a welder .
Stuff left on tracks doesn't fair well. Had a socket set in nice metal case. Well I saved the plastic tray and sockets. The case was bent up pretty good. Ran over a paint can with the tractor a long time ago. Splattered a bunch of red paint on the tractor wheel. Somewhere buried at the bottom of a dozen loads of black dirt is a ball pein hammer and a pair of pliers I forgot to take off the passenger side step on the dump truck. I thought about trying to spread the dirt piles out to find them but it would be marginally easier than finding a needle in a hay stack. The battery cover on the grader is a heavy awkward chunk of steel and you have to go between the tandems to take it off. It's easier to just lift it off out of the way. I got it straight enough it still works but thinking of getting a new cover made of aluminum. Used the backhoe stabilizer as a hyd. press. I bent some rebar for handles to make it easier to remove. Hoping to weld them on tomorrow.
I got a paint story. Young surveyor. Winter. Frozen survey pain. Places can on heater defrost. Leaves it there for a couple hours. Jumps in truck to go grab a coffee. Pulls away. now hot paint can rolls off dash, Hits floor, and boom. Beautiful bright pink truck interior, and surveyor.
I welded the handles on today. A little awkward but should make it easier to get the cover loose so it can be removed. Grader started right up so not sure if the batteries are still good or not.
I've driven over battery chargers (yes, more than one), grease guns, grinders, and an air compressor. I've left the side doors open on Deere 772A and Case 621B and bent them all to hell when they caught the tire. Ran over a couple battery box covers for trucks, and forgot to unhook hoses and light cord on the RGN at least three times over the years. I've buried tape measures, saws, nut drivers, torches, and ladders. Can't remember how many vice-grips, pliers, hammers, and wrenches over the years got left in the dirt or on whatever was being worked on, never to be seen again. It's really kind of embarrassing to admit some of this, but over the course of being in the field for almost 40 years, and being an operator for 35 of them, stuff happens. The worst, though, is when you pull away and have to watch **** happen because you can't react fast enough to stop it. Times like that you just stop and sit there for a minute wondering how you could be so stupid.
Mistakes are made i guess if they can be fixed they are not so bad. I was backing my F600 in the building i had plenty of room between the bed and the door way but i didnt think about the top of the side board leaning out . Now i need a new piece of trim .
In response to your stories I can relate to all of them, Been there done that and it will happen more and more often as I get older. Seems worse under stress that's caused from more and more idiots out there that one has to deal with.
I’ve wrecked several creepers like that. I’m still looking for a source for those old style wood creepers. New ones are too expensive. One prankster in the shop thought it was funny to slide someone’s lunchbox between the tandems on their truck. We almost had a fistfight that day.
I lost track (pun intended) of a burner phone I got for selling an RV on Craigslist. Now I know why that one was a burner phone. It caught fire after I tracked over it with the 325. I think it may be broken.
That'll buff out.
Tracking a 14a into a shop one day was supposedly steering odd. As got to shop door tried to correct LIGHTLY to the right, the shop wall protection bollard did NOT fare well, Snatched it off at grade Almost Instantly. Steering brakes were coming apart in housing, would ball up at off timing. Lost my own creeper and a IR 3/4 drive to the same infernal machine.
How many 5 gallon pump buckets with 50wt or in the old days stinking 80/90 were left under a truck, then dragged out the shop spreading goo. * One shop I worked had a oil rack consisting of 4 100 gallon square tanks with lever drains to fill containers. I came back to the shop after a parts run to see about 80 gallons of 15 x 40 covering the shop floor. Guy was setting on the phone in the office and forgot he put a bolt through the lever to fill a 2.5. About thirty five bags of floor dry later, that was 28 years ago. * Ag tank delivery truck--old term a rail truck same as old septic tank delivery trucks years ago. New hire was told to run it out of the fertilizer shop and park next to the back side of main office building. He backed it in, the secretaries in the office just about jumped out of their skin as the rail punched a hole through the office wall.
I backed up into the power saw sitting on the ground with my tractor. I remembered it and stomped on the brake a second too late and bent the short bar.
First time I was sent out on a wrecker call to pick up a car for service. Maybe a ‘56 four door with a Ford-o-frantic tranny. I remembered the instruction to tow it backward with the wheels off the ground and the shifter in neutral. I didn’t pay attention to the warning to tie the steering wheel straight. Never made it out of the parking lot before the Ford‘s nose swung over and smacked a pole. Shop owner didn’t make me pay for the fender and paint, but I did work late for nothing changing the fender and learning how to prep the car for the painting. Never forget lessons like that.......
I know a guy who used to own a repair shop. Some guy offered to tow cars cheaper than who he usually used. Same thing, never tied the steering wheel and scraped the side of a parked car. Absolute stupidest thing I ever saw involved towing a gooseneck trailer. The idiot was driving through the lane between the shop and parking lot. A Honda that was just finished getting fixed was parked in the end stall for pick up. My friend had to call the owner and say they couldn't pick their car up after all. The idiot pulling the trailer forgot he was pulling a trailer and turned too sharp clipping the Honda and dragging it 4ft. sideways. I just happened to be there at the time and saw it. My friend knew who the driver was but ran out to stop him because it sure looked like he was planning to just drive away. I'd guess there was a couple thousand bucks damage at least. Some pretty wrinkled metal for sure. It wasn't really an oops. It was a major @#%! up.