As the title suggests, I welcome everyone to tell those embarrassing tales of goof-ups, bone-headed mistakes, mis-haps and the downright embarrassing things you've done in your career. This got started over in my thread and Oxbow had the great idea to make the topic it's own thread, so here it is. OK I'll start - I was checking the oil and air filter on a Bobcat 863. I walked around to the front to check the fuel level, upon noticing it needed fuel and since the fuel tank is on the opposite side of where I pulled it up besides my pickup, I had the great notion to crank it up and spin it around... Yep, totally forgot about the heavy steel rear door in the open and locked position. I then had a nice concave dent in the right rear quarter panel of the bed complete with orange accents.:bash I know there are some good ones so if it's been long enough since it happened to laugh about it, share.
Worked late one night and was in a hurry to get home. Locked up and headed for my truck when I realized I'd forgotten something. Set my favorite spun aluminum insulated coffee mug on the back bumper of my new 3/4 ton chevy truck. Unlocked the office and got whatever it was I'd forgotren. Jumped in my truck, and as I was backing out, hit the button on the big commercial garge door remote. The door w/ o a safety reverse. The big wide heavy door. Just as my truck cleated the door I ran over something, so I threw it in drive and quickly pulled forward just as the door was a foot higher than the hood of my truck. Did I mention it was a new truck. Crinkled the door, the hood of my truck and ruined my favorite cooffee mug all at once.
Was digging a footer in for a fireplace along an existing house. Only way in was perpendicular to the house. Oh so very careful not to break the house footing. Got a bucket full, (Bet you can see this coming), carefully coming up out of the hole and crunch.. the stick thru the eave.... sh*t.
I did one similar to you CM1995... Had the Bobcat 732 in the shop one day and doing routine checking... Opened up the back door and went about my business... I got in the machine and went to back it out of the shop... My dad had an old Lincoln buzz box welder sitting right beside the door, it's usual spot... So I go to back out of the shop and forgot to close the door on the bobcat. Only when there was a loud boom, a flash and then instant darkness in the shop did I realize what had happened... I managed to get the welder more or less straightened out and the wires inside fixed up and it works again... To this day I don't think my dad knows how bad it actually was... He did see some dents in the welder but didn't take it any further...
CM, I cheated and copied what I had posted on your thread, and pasted here. Since I am confessing, I'd hate for anyone to miss out! It was a nice sunny day, and I had just done a full service on a Liebherr excavator (don't remember the number, but about an 85,000 pound machine). We were working on a canal for a hydro-electric plant, and I had parked my 1985 3500 GMC crew cab pickup well out of the way, up on the canal bank. I walked the excavator down into the canal, which was about 20' deep, and was working on getting the last 2 feet of basalt excavated from the bottom of the canal. Another fellow was running a 46A, cleaning up and working the material towards me, and I was pulling the rock that was still to high out. I was working close to one side of the canal and needed to move backwards, and wanted to see what I was walking on. I was too close to the bank to swing away from it without hitting the counterweight, so I raised the boom all the way up, stick out, to swing over the canal bank. I could just barely see over the bank, and out of the corner of my eye I noticed a glint of shining chrome coming from the left front wheel of my pickup, right before the bucket struck the windshield above the steering column. As soon as I saw what was about to happen, I instinctively gave it full left swing and up on the boom in an attempt to miss it, but in doing so the right track slipped off of a rock, allowing the track to settle about 6" at the most, but this ended up in letting the bucket drop probably two feet at least, which produced a double-whammy effect on the poor old pickup, which resulted in pushing the steering column down until the steering wheel was touching the seat. It also struck hard enough to blow the bead off of the left front tire. After changing the tire, I did manage to drive it home, but had to strattle the steering wheel to do so. The bright side of the story is: had I not done that I would not have purchased my very first brand new diesel pickup, a 95 F-350 crew cab powerstroke, which I drove until it had 325,000 thousand miles on it. It was still good when I traded it in, and I often wish I had kept it around. Still, I believe I wished I hadn't seen me (or anyone else for that matter) do that.
Since pickup truck abuse (either to or by), seems to be a recurring theme so far... I worked a little late one evening, and the buyer of the new home we were working on had stopped by to check things out. I was finished, and getting ready to leave. I was parked head in, and wanted to back out and cut to the right to go down the road. Started up, turned and looked to the right, saw nothing in the way , (that part's important), cranked the steering wheel over, and backed up. Crunched the left quarter panel of his shiny little convertible. Mercedes convertible. The top was down, and when I looked, the only part taller than my windows, the convertible's windshield, was hidden by my toolbox. And, yeah, I'd walked right past it on my way to the truck. :Banghead
Another pickup story. I had just bought this 2006 F350 crew Lariat and it was just a couple of months old. We were working on a 78 acre site and loggers had clear cut about 1/2 of it and I went out to see how things were going. The landing area was on top of a hill with a nice access road we'd built to get to it. It started raining lightly as me and my partner were discussing the job and planning the schedule. Then it started to rain harder and I thought we should be getting off the hill because this silty clay gets slick when it's wet - too late. So I take off down the access road in 4x4 high and then realize it's slick, real slick. Hit the brakes and it just slides with the antilock hopelessly trying to find something to bite into with no avail. Now at the bottom of the access road it turns to the right sharply with a 4' high bank or so on the upper side of the road and a 5' drop off on the other with stumps, tops and other logging slash.. Two things went through my mind in a split second - 1) just let it go and call the policy man but that airbag hurts.:Banghead 2) Try to stay on the road and pull this out. At this point I was skidding down the road rather quickly. To this day I really don't know how I pulled it off. When the truck came rest, I had managed to slide the back end of the truck off the road towards the drop off side enough to stop the momentum and plant the front right corner into the dirt bank on the uphill side. Only tore up a headlight, bumper and the skirt that goes underneath the bumper - luckily no body damage. Slapped a Ranch Hand on that baby and drove until it was totaled by a VW Beetle. Yeah that story is on HEF too.
At our former location the shop doors were 14 wide 16 high roll up doors. I was working on a Bobcat, loader arms up, safety prop in place. After I finished repairs, pushed the button to raise the door and bring out the Bobcat. It was a really really windy day outside, very blustery, one of those days when you open a shop door it blows everything in the shop that isn't welded or nailed down. Under those circumstances I raised the door to where it was plenty high enough for a Bobcat to clear, but not fully opened to 16 feet. Jumped in the Bobcat, started it up, raised arms slightly to release safety prop, jumped out of the machine, removed safety prop, stowed it, all the steps one does to lower the arms after repairs, then jumped back in. Backed the Bobcat out and something felt wrong, at that point I wasn't sure what I just felt, but I know I felt something. Looked out of the front glass of the machine to see about 5 feet of that roll up door curtain yanked out of the tracks by yours truly because I failed to lower the loader arms, a for real "Oh ****" moment. And yes, it was a regular work day which insured everyone was at work to see my handywork. And me, being a commercial door installer in a former life, got the job of getting it back in the tracks on that windy day and fixing the damage to the door.
I had a "blonde moment" a while back, working at a site shop. picked up after a long day there. the owner was out unloading a truck with their forklift. for some unknown reason parked it 2' away from my back bumper & came around to bat the bull before I left.. about a hour later I got in truck to leave, he went inside to do something. I put truck into reverse gave it fuel let out on the clutch & CRUNCH!! he came out I had that OH S%^T look.... he was laughing it didn't hurt anything but a little paint.. but now I always walk around the truck before I move it!!
Built a new storage shed that fall. First job of the spring getting loaded up for monday. Crawling the mini up the skid trailer and get to the tipping point. Stopped and thought, why hasn't it come down yet??? Gave er a bit more then I hear crunching from above and saw the toothpicks falling down. Then there's the time with a loaded dumpruck in a forward direction and a concrete light base.
Working on a 1967 TD25. Radiator was dirty so I unbolted the radiator door and washed it out. Went to move the machine off the pad I was on so just pushed the door closed. I DIDN'T BOLT IT SHUT Jumped into the seat, flashed it up, lifted the blade up off the ground and started moving. When I came off the pad, the machine tipped forward and the blade was going to dig in to the ground so up I go on the blade. Wheel the dozer around to the front of the shop, drop the blade shut down and hop off. Now the bad part. On this dozer, the hydraulic tank was the radiator hard nose. When the dozer tipped forward, the door that some unthinking twerp had left unbolted swung forward. When I went up on the blade it hit the door and bent it all out of shape but it also ripped one of the hinges out out the hard nose that as I mentioned was the hydraulic tank. Hydraulic oil puking out of it everywhere. OH CRAP Took a bit, but I got it fixed. The hardest part was the explanation to the boss
I was doing some work here at home with the wheelbarrow and violated my own rule of not parking tools around the truck. I can't remember why but I parked the wheelbarrow right in front of the truck. Got busy with something else and then went to go somewhere in the truck when I hear "CRUNCH!!" Got out to look and the wheelbarrow that was parked too close to see was now protruding from the truck grill. It went right between the slats in the grill and didn't damage it but the wheelbarrow handle punched through the A/C condenser and intercooler. That one cost me a few bucks!
This is not profound but my dad always said that the man who does not make mistakes is not doing anything.I have had my share but am trying to pick a good one before I post it.I might not be able to match the ones already posted though.Ron G
Been there, done that.
This wasn't me really! But one of the guys at the shop had finished cleaning and pressure testing the radiator out of an old IH truck we used as a water truck. He gave it a nice paint job with black paint, looked real nice! As we were in a hurry to install it he took a torch and keeping a "safe distance away" encouraged the paint to dry a little faster. You know where this is heading right? Well when we pulled it back out due to some odd reason it was leaking he got to practice soldering skills. This time did not worry about how fast the paint dried!
Statistical analysis: Number of members who've posted to this thread: 13 out of 48763 That's roughly 0.000287 % Number of active staff members of HEF: 4 Number of active staff members of HEF who've posted to this thread : 4 That's roughly 100%. (One of them posted twice.) :tong I can't imagine what conclusion that might lead to.... :beatsme
Those that can, do, those that can't staff HEF? (Kidding) :tong
Not to mention one staff member started the thread..:tong
Wow, how did I miss this thread? Here's a pickup oops that I'm reminded of every day since I still have the truck. A few years ago when things were pretty slow, I picked up a hay cutter, rake and square baler. I actually got busier than I wanted to be, which led to the oops. With rain in the forecast and after finishing baling about 11:00 one night, I pulled up to the truck...and for some reason decided to pull the and baler under the trees. The tractor quit moving, so I gave her more juice and drug the baler down the side of my truck. I was pretty pissed, so I caved in the small dent in the rear quarter panel with my fist. I have more, but trying to post on my phone is rediculous. Not like I have a temper or anything.
One Friday, the boss sent me to dig the footers for an addition to a house. I'm sure he didn't like the look I gave him when he told me the homeowner would be my laborer. I stressed to the homeowner the importance of hand digging when we got close to the underground utilities feeding the house. He kept getting lazy and I had to keep reminding him to pay attention. It was about 4 o'clock in the afternoon and we were digging close to the utilities when all of a sudden he freaks out. I pulled out the electric, phone and cable with one tug. Nothing I could do to fix it. Called the boss and headed over the hill about 430 on a Friday afternoon and the guy went all weekend without utilities. That was the last time I was asked to work with a homeowner/laborer
Had to cut a tree that was rubbing my garage. It was 30ft tall or so. It was also between my power and cable tv lines and my neighbors lines. I climbed the tree over half way up and tied a rope to it. Hooked the rope to my jeep and pulled till the tree bent over. Now there was nothing that could stop it from ending up in the middle of my driveway away from all of the overhead lines..... That is where that ******** Murphy comes in. I notched it perfect, started cutting on the back and just as I cut through it did a spin/twist enough for the rope to get loose. Needless to say I got to meet my neighbors when they came out to see what the crash was and why they had no power! Sunday afternoon service calls to the power company, electrician ( since it was ripped out of the house) and the cable tv company wasn't cheap!
It's just 2 days old.:tong Come on and share some more. I have no words but I know the look you gave him.:cool2
Those statistics are very interesting digger242j. What is your conclusion? On the thread topic I will say I have been very fortunate in the field because of my control obsession and I just check and re check my moves but I did one time watch a 631 back into my truck at work one day years back. Now I have seen some here on my property that I've caused from just being distracted and too relaxed. A couple Saturdays ago we were working here at home on maintenance and such. I got in the dump truck to pull it up on the concrete from the gravel. After stopping I looked in the passenger window and noticed the tailgate had swung out. Hmm I thought after seeing the wife's Honda Accord also in that same mirror but the view was blocked by the tailgate. In the same mirror I saw my wife appear. That was that I guess. My guys were already in the back of the dump truck and didn't latch the tailgate but I didn't check.
In the early 70s we were harvesting a state timber sale on top of a steep river bluff over the Saint Croix River between Minnesota and Wisconsin. I was running our brand new 931 Cat outfitted with long, wide tracks, counterweights, winch, woods protection package, and a Allan tree shear. State of the art for the time. I was happily cutting away, life was good. I always wore my seat belt, mainly because it kept my butt planted in the seat and not sliding around. After a number of days on the machine, I got to the point that the surrounding area awareness become natural, and I very seldom looked behind me. Imagine my surprise when I backed up, turned, and dumped a large tree starting a new jag. When the heavy tree left the clamp my front end went up and I was looking at the sky while I slid down the near shear bank backwards. Fortunatly I hit a large tree stopping me about with the shear about 10 ft down from the top. I nearly sh*t my pants. I shut the machine down concerned about oil pressure. I was literally laying on my back with the machine facing almost straight up. After crawling out and chasing him down the skidder operator pulled me up and after leaving the 931 set for an hour I fired up and went back to work. I got lucky that time. It was a long way down to the river and not a lot of trees big enough to stop me on the slope. I would not have wanted one then but to have a picture now would be historic.
I think I've posted this story before but I'll recount it anyway. We were hauling rip rap one winter, using the old 1080B to load with. About -10°F during the day so we would bring the hoe back into the yard at night to plug it in. I was walking the hoe to the road to load it. It was dark, the ditch was too steep to climb so I had to take it to an approach. Closest one was on the other side of a pond. So, I thought I'd be smart and walk on top of the hard snow next to the road. About halfway I started to sink in deeper than I was comfortable with. I'm sure everyone knows where this is going. Spun around to get out of there and pretty soon I was stopped. I was close enough to the road that I could reach the opposite shoulder so in my infinite 16 year old wisdom I thought I could get it up on the road. Bad idea. Ended up throwing a track. So, for the next two hours, Dad and I proceeded to put the rail back on. Did I mention we were in water and mud up to our knees? We got the track back on, but the shoulder was froze too hard to get up on the road. So, Dad had to go home to get the rubber tire (25 miles away) and we called the county blade man to bring the blade down to help pull with. Used the backhoe to dig a ramp in the shoulder, and pulled it up with the blade. For the next 10 yrs, the county guy would ask me if I was fishing with my excavator lately.
I haven't posted in a while simply because I haven't had anything to share. But, here it goes. One of the first foundations that I dug was for a small 8x6 mudroom addition that was situated by the backdoor of a small ranch right next to the kitchen. It was a modest house that was well looked after with painted shutters and wooden flower boxes in front of some of the windows. I was still pretty green as an operator and I didn't own any equipment at the time. I'd rented a Bobcat with open ROPS. Now just to set the scene, it was early December in New England, and it was getting into the 20's at night and low 30's during the day. On the day I dug the foundation, it didn't get out of the 20's, the wind was blowing and there were flurries in the air. I was wearing insulated Dickie's coveralls that added about 2" in every direction to my 6'5" frame. Everything was going as planned up until the point where I leaned forward to fiddle with one of the pedals with my left hand. My right elbow was bent which meant that my sleeve was sticking about 3" past my elbow. I didn't feel my sleeve pushing the joystick forward, but that's what happened. All I could do was stare in horror as the dipper swung out and the bucket pushed the planter box through the kitchen window and into the kitchen sink. The owners weren't home at the time. I cleaned the flowers and broken glass out of their sink, washed their dishes and boarded up their window. I apologized half dozen to a dozen times and I bought them a new window and planter box. Thankfully the homeowners were understanding. They thought it was a little bit funny- they weren't happy about the window, but they were smirking a little when I explained what had happened. They of course told my friend who had referred me to them. He thought it was REALLY FUNNY. Since we both were in the Fire Department, there really wasn't anyway that he could be expected to not say anything at the FD. I could have sworn that I was working alone that day, but within a week I figured out that I'd miscounted. It seemed more like 15 people had watched it happen. This might not actually belong in this thread, because I really didn't see me do this. I was looking down and fiddling with the foot pedals and it just sorta happened.
Oh that qualifies.:yup
I was running a Kobelco 907 one winter and had another worker in the bucket with a grease gun to grease something,I cannot remember what.Well,the sleeve on my Carharts caught the stick joystick and my passenger in the bucket dropped about 3 feet kind of sudden there and created some exitement among two guys who were probably not really awake yet.Well that changed that and taught me what not to do when I could kill someone with my little finger by not paying attention.Respect is the word I guess.Ron G
I never did any of that stuff except when I bought D8K to replace an H while getting used to the intergraded steering and brake controls smacked the side of a garage with the side of the dozer while clearing brush around it on the neighbors dairy. Eventually it got demolished I just gave it a head start
I have more than I care to remember. Experience is what you get when you mess something up the first time. I recall once backfilling the curb on a freshly paved road. We were using a 980C loader, since it was what we had. I knew that turning on the freshly paved road would damage it, so I was driving and letting the laborer shovel the dirt out. This was working out fine, since there was only a couple hundred feet to do, and it did not need much dirt, just about a one foot wide strip between the back of the curb and the choker. Being the boss involved much phone time, and this day was no different. My laborer would get my attention when it was time to move up, and I would then wait for his next signal. I was keeping the bucket close to the ground so he didn't have to work any harder than needed. What I forgot was that the boom would drift down. I had the tip rolled up a little, but the heel plates on the bucket started to drag on the asphalt, and do to being distracted by the phone, I did not notice until we (I) had managed to scar up about 50 feet of the fresh asphalt. When this was found out by the inspector, he first wanted ALL of the road torn out and repaved. He then backed down to just the damaged section, and after some negotiation with his boss it was reduced to a several thousand dollar deduct from our payment. That was one expensive phone call!
Most of the things I've seen me do were small stupid things that didn't cause much major catastrophic damage :tong Just watch, now that I've posted this I'll screw something up :Banghead
It was about 1982 or so and we were re-facing the back of Soil Conservation dam in Utah. We were running DW 15 scrapers and pushing with a D7G. In the evening it was my job to strip topsoil in the area that we would be cutting the next day. This story is similar to Old Iron Habit's tale about being familiar with one's surroundings and not looking back. There was about a 4' more or less vertical cut where we had been borrowing material that day, and I was stripping an additional area next to it, pushing away from the cut. It was getting pretty dark and yep, you guessed it, I backed right off that edge at a bit of an angle. When the dust cleared and I realized that I was in fact still alive and in the seat, I then had to extract myself from the predicament, as the front left track was still on top and the back right on the bottom. We used to run a gallon overfull in the transmission so that it would not kick out on steeper terrain, but a gallon evidently was not enough, as the tracks would not move. After what seemed like an hour of working the dozer and rippers to try to get myself off of that edge (was probably more like five minutes), and trying to do so before the boss came a looking, I finally extracted myself and the 92V and returned to work, making sure to look back every pass! It really wasn't that bad, but the feeling of suddenly falling backwards on what was fairly flat ground put my heart where it was competing for space with my epiglottis.
Well here's one I did several years ago, believe it was mid 1980's. Back then company was okay with guys borrowing equipment for personal jobs as long as it was back to work for Monday morning. I was in the process of building a 2 1/2 car garage a mile form the quarry and had wrestled with help from my wife about a third of the 24 foot trusses up into position. Well it was Friday and there was an old Koehring Hydraulic truck crane that was just going to be sitting that one mile away all weekend asked the boss and he said sure no problem! So I jumped in it and drove it home that night. Backed it in to the yard between the stack of new trusses and the new garage with about five trusses already in position. Looked like it was positioned about right but figured I'd do a quick check before we left for dinner appointment with friends. Started up the upper engine and swung the boom over the stack of new trusses and it was good. Next swung over the end of the garage to see how that looked. Not quite far enough so started booming out a bit to reach the far end of the garage. Did anyone notice the missing step?? Yes in my hurry to get done before cleaning up to go out to dinner I had failed to take time to put down the outriggers! Any guess on what happened next? For some reason those 2 by 4 trusses and the end wall of the new garage did not do much to slow that boom as it came down! After the shock of what I had done wore off a bit decided only solution was to boom down the crane enough to allow the outriggers to extend with pads on then boom back up and in to get truck back on it's wheels. Lucky there was no damage to the crane. I then put boom back in cradle and took the crane back to the quarry. A few days work repairing the damaged trusses and end wall and the rest of the work was done by hand with no problems! And the worst part of the whole story? One of the people we were having dinner with that night was a guy know in the area as one of the top crane operators in the state, when GE was setting up a new radar system they always would request him by name. He did offer to set the trusses for me but I figured doing the work by hand was good for me.
Forgiving collective; I think the worst (and like most, there has been a few) was clipping (ahem) a bridge whilst hauling a 4 way screening plant. I was doing wrenching and heavy haulage for the company at the time and had a busy day ahead. I loaded up the screener, and in my haste I forgot, or neglected to lower the tail conveyor... Now I admit, I did think it was a little high heading out of the site as on the smaller roads I was pulling down overhanging branches, but I figured it was just a coincidence. As luck would have it I must have cleared half a dozen, maybe more, over passes on the A1 heading south and was making good progress. There was one however that was sloped, clearly lower on the left (southbound) than the right... As i was passing under said bridge I glanced in my mirror just at the time the tail conveyor hit the bridge... I pulled over immediately to assess the damage and figure out what I was going to do. As to be expected it was all things bad; drum, bearings, frame. I'd screwed up. Big time. I figured it would be a good idea to lower the conveyor... (bit late) and carry on... The twist in the tale is that before dropping the trailer at the yard I turned the machine around 180degrees, thinking that is someone notices the damage, it can't have been a bridge as it is pointing the wrong way. I dropped the trailer, changed out and headed off with my work. Come Monday and all hell was breaking loose, another driver had delivered the machine and, surprise surprise the customer had noticed the biblical balls up I had made. I was duly questioned and pled not guilty, having no knowledge of such damage, and it couldn't have been me, as I had it loaded "the other way" That was pretty much the end of it. The company I was working for paid a contribution to the repair bill and all was forgotten. So; I'd like to ask for forgiveness from the company I worked for; for rushing, for lying, for being devious and turning the machine around, and to the Customer whose machine it was for doing the damage I did.
We're only human.... No blood spilled, it's all good in my book sir.
That's a good one kshansen, for a minute there I thought you were going to say the boom hit the wife's car. That would've been bad, very bad.:cool2 In the end just some wood and labor, ya' got out lucky.:drinkup Simonsrplant, confession is good for the soul.
Just think if you sat behind a desk none of that stuff would happen or worse a computer cubicle. If you can imagine doing that for a living, I for one can not
No doubt Dpete.
Yes, Lucky as car was parked right in front of the garage and was missed by things by a matter of a couple feet.
I did one that ended well. I was 20 or less, driving a 67 Ih 1100 2 wheel drive. I was driving around the Toronto state lake about 4 miles east of town. Road goes NW up a hill and a road at the top of hill goes N. I couldn't see the intersection till near the top of the hill when going towards town until right on it. As I came up the hill and saw the intersection there was a motorcycle with 2 on it waiting to turn onto the highway. There was also a camper coming from town and I saw the biker looking at it and just knew he was pulling out when the camper went by. I didn't think I had a chance of making the corner. He pulled out and at about 60 mph that old Ih hung that corner. I was relatively certain I was going to end up through the fence into a pasture, so was pretty pleased when made it. The cyclist came and thanked me for not running them over. They were like 10 feet from the grill of that old tank when I turned.
I have a few... but just one for starters Before kids I used to work much later into the evening regularly. Often making it home after dark, and because quitting time was so late, I would just take the truck from the jobsite home. In this case I drove the little six wheel International DT home so I could go to the quarry for stone in the A.M. As was often the case my wife would be doing whatever she did, out with friends, home with a book etc etc. This particular night her sister was over visiting. Our driveway at this time was double wide to accommodate the two bay garage we have. It also had a nice sized turn around which a jumbo jet could park in. Anyways - in the dark (pretty weak back up light) I backed straight up my driveway looking in the driverside mirror because I was watching for my wifes car. What I didn't expect was the flash of white in the corner of my eye from the passenger side mirror. I didn't even feel it as my right rear tire went along the Sister-in-laws bumper and grill, busting plastic and generally messing up the nose of her car (which she loved). Hard part was going inside and trying not to smile while telling her what happened. She thought I was joking for a moment. I don't even think the sidewalls got scuffed on the truck side of things Worst part was there was a solid three feet of space behind her car to the evergreen hedge at the back of the turn around....grrr......
Oops.
Kshansen's screw-up thread reminded me of this thread, and how I have a confession to make.
Dang trees! whats the story there Shimmy?
Exactly the first line in your post. Was trying to get ahead of things the Friday deer season opener. I was by myself because other guys were hunting and whatnot, and the trees were too big to move without cutting apart after they were down. Wanted to be ready Monday for a big day with plenty of help, so I was tearing the roots around the trees with the ripper. This job had over 70 cottonwoods that were 24" and bigger, all of them 70-80' tall. Had a small one that started moving when I ripped around it, so I pushed it over. Overlooked the fact that it removed a fair bit of support from a leaner that so happened to be leaning AWAY from the direction of the 25 mph wind that day. Let's just say I'm lucky it didn't land on the cab.
The pics don't really do justice for the size of these trees. The are all 24" diameter and larger, the biggest was a little over 42". I couldn't pick up the rootballs, even with the trunk cut off at the dirt line.
Had a PTO auger on the back of tractor helping a neighbor plant trees for a privacy hedge. Dug about 35 holes and he wanted the last tree right close to the house... next to the 100 gallon propane tank. I asked three times "are you sure we're going to miss the underground gas line." With his third "absolutely okay" I lowered the auger in his indicated spot. Within minutes, the hole was filled with water. As I raised the auger out of the hole, a piece of twisted plastic pipe fell off the auger tip. His wife, who was in the shower, started hollering about that time. I beat a hasty retreat like a coward and left him alone, to take the brunt of a soapy, wet hen.
Wow Shimmy...that's a rough one! Glad it didn't land on your noggin.
I was expecting a delivery at the shop, and we were moving stuff around, and getting ready to leave to a different project (you can hear the excuses coming up in all that, sorry) Anyways, I'm on one forklift, one of the other guys has the big forklift up on the hill in the driveway, and it dies. Out of fuel. I'm ticked, tell him to put it in neutral, delivery is here, and I run up behind it with the other forklift to shove him out of the way. Its a heavy old pig of a forklift, and halfway across the yard, I slipped the fork right up off of the counterweight, and right through the radiator. Speared that sucker like a jousting match.
Yep, 90% of the damage I have ever done to my machines have been from trees. I really hate big cottonwoods. Glad to see it didn't get the cab. could be hard on a guys forehead.
If there is a worse tree to deal with, I'd like to know. I've had (several, over the years) 12" diameter "tree" fall off of the main tree as soon as I put the bucket against the tree. They are the most unpredictable, unruly mess to deal with I've ever had the pleasure to try. To the brave souls out there that think a mini-ex can get any tree or stump out (it just takes time), my hat's off to you. We made the decision a couple years ago that on a tree project, the starting point for any live cottonwood bigger than 18" is $150, per tree.
A few years a go i was driving through a pit where there had been a chrusher set up. This is the hole they dig under the tail pully of the cone? If i remeber right. They had moved out early that morning in and it rained a bit. I was there to fix on a conveyer. Poor jugment. Truck was fine.. the pride rook a beating. Weeks later some one sent me this pic.