The calls you'd rather not have gotten.

[RobVG]

You know the ones:

“My driveline is laying in the street. Be sure you have fittings and hose, it tore off the relay valve. Oh and I’m partially blocking Eastbound 124th .”

“I’m in the ditch and broke a tie-rod end……on the haul road”

“Backed over a short stump, I’m gonna need and oil pan and oil.”

“His front end is in a utility ditch we didn’t know was there. I think the tie rod is bent, cant tell…there’s mud up to the leaf springs.”

“My bucket fell off…it’s hanging by the hoses…”

“There’s a housecat stuck in the backhoe. He’s still alive…”

“Can you weld up an air tank?”

“Backed over a rock….gonna need an oil pan“……..


Remember any calls that left you with "Momentary Turrets Syndrome"?

 

[Muffler Bearing]

"It just died and now it won't click or do anything, I've got 8 yards on and I'm blocking the 270 Exit" Translation: I've spent all morning driving with my voltmeter @ 11 volts, But I never once looked at it.

 

[willie59]

Remember any calls that left you with "Momentary Turrets Syndrome"?

Yeah...one day at work when OCR called me. Suffered from temporary lapse of concentration.


The calls I'd rather have not gotten?

Easy, any call after 3:59 in the afternoon. Pretty much a sure bet it's a call about a rental machine that is down. No, it couldn't do it first thing in the morning, has to happen 2 hrs before quitting time. :tong

 

[OCR]

Yeah...one day at work when OCR called me.

LOL... God, that was good... loved it... :lmao

Suffered from temporary lapse of concentration.

Heck, I thought you did good... you're kinda hard to fool...

Course, my 'story' was none to good... :tong



OCR... lol

 

[RocksnRoses]

Two of our men were loading rocks out in a farmer's paddock and bringing them back to the yard.
My phone call went something like this.

'The truck and trailer are stuck on a sand hill.'

'Ok, well maybe tip the trailer off, get a chain and try and ease the truck out with the loader, carefully. I'm on my way.'

On my way out there I meet the truck and trailer coming home fully loaded.

'So you got it out then.'

'Yep, took it easy'.

'No worries, take it home, dump the rocks off, load the truck and trailer with rubble, and bring it over to where I am working.'

Next phone call.

'The truck won't start.'

Under my breath: 'For Christ's sake, now what?'

'Ok, wait there , I'm on my way home.'

I get back there, turn the key, and the starter just took off like it wasn't engaging.
The reason, the engine was laying over far enough that the pinion was completly missing the ring gear and the bell housing was totally smashed'

The reply: 'It must have been from fatigue.'

I think we can all draw our own conclusions as to what really happened out there on that sand hill, because no one was volunteering any information.

RnR.

 

[John C.]

Hey I just met a friend from high school I haven't seen is fifteen years. Send a tow truck.

Why do I need to send a tow truck?

He was driving a logging truck when we met.

 

[mitch504]

Driver called me yesterday, "I was just sitting still beside the scales in the scrapyard, and my new steer tire just got cut."

"I dropped my loaded dump trailer on 2 concrete blocks, I thought sure they would hold it up."

"My tailgate won't unlock", get there, see tailgate is bowed out in the middle, and the whole load is piled against it. "Hell no, I didn't dump it with it latched"

and about a thousand more I can't think of now.

 

[HarrisEquipment]

Got a call once, "The skid steer fell off the back of the flat bed. We need it ASAP"

Driver had tried to take it under a 10' railroad trussel. 2 weeks later I got a new ROPS/cab fabricated for it and the cylinder towers on the tree spade straightened out.

2 years on a large farm with lots of unexperienced operators yielded lots of those stories.

 

[cutting edge]

cust: yeah, my swing bearing just tore apart...the machine is in two pieces.

me: where are you?

cust: halfway onto the lowbed.



10:30 pm...300 km out in the bush ,-33 celcius, 70 km/h winds

 

[digger242j]

From the days before cell phones, as relayed by the job superintendent: "Your dump truck ran out of gas."

The rest of the story--I let the builder put a driver in it, to take it to another site. I'd told the guy it was low on gas, and the gauge wasn't reliable; dip the tank. (Upon further questioning, it was revealed that he had, and was sure that the one and one half inches that showed on the stick would be plenty.) I found the truck, sitting in the right hand lane of the expressway, windows up and doors locked, no driver anywhere, and smokey impatiently waiting with it. I had to break into it, and smokey was kind enough to steer it while I drug it off to the shoulder. The driver had walked to a pay phone and called the super, and then walked to the other job, taking the keys with him. :Banghead

 

[2stickbill]

The D6R I think has a bad idler it's trying to lock up.Four bottem rollers bolts broke holding them to roller frame and the idler bearings shot.Boss asked if they could run it till parts came in.Told him yea three days ago maybe but now nope.

 

[Komatsu 150]

Truck driver: "Hey boss"

Me: Yea,

"They got a really cute girl at the (blank) quarry"

Yea and,

"She was wearing these short shorts"

OK whats your point?

"She walked out the scale house door"

Now I'm really getting annoyed waiting for the punch line,

"Well, I turned to look at her and ran the front wheel hub cap into the scale post and broke it and all the oil ran out - sorry"

 

[gologit]

Any call between eight P.M. and 4 A.M. It's not going to be good news.

 

[3rdGenDslWrench]

Any call when scraper operators want to cut the machine off in the middle of the cut or fill then it wont restart. Which wouldnt be too bad except they always seem to do it when its really wet material.

My all time best though: at about noon on a friday in Centreville Va. I got a call. "Hey, we need you to run up to Frederick job we've got a D8H the track busted." I get about 15 minutes from the job. "Hey, are you close yet" Me: yea why whats going on? Foreman: "Well we've got a bigger problem than the track off the D8H" Me: Well jeez Larry what could be worse than that?" Foreman (Larry): Well its in the bottom of a barr pitt and you probably wont get your truck down there to it. But thats not even the bigger problem. The problem is the water is half-way up the track frame right now and it doesnt look good for you right now."

The good thing was this happened in the summer and a lil water cooled me down. Took 2 other D8s and a 977 to drag her up on dry ground so I could get the job done.

 

[tootalltimmy]

These are good short stories! Keep them coming. The scale house story is Pricelsss!

 

[Deeretime]

I get these all the time usualy when it gets down to -40 or so and 3 in the morning

Evan where is the big girl?
Uhh its in the yard
Ok c who you can round up, we have a 16" main out of the ground and want it fixed NOW
Do you want a police escort ?
Of course !

Or hey boss yea u remember how i needed a new windsheild in my pick up?

Uh huh

Well i was brush cutting and Uh hit a big tree and well now it's sticking out of the windsheild and the grill


O had a guy spread a belly dump of 3" down HWY 2 and i had to come with blank cheques to buy windsheilds and grilles... And i looked like the arsehole

 

[95zIV]

The one I didn't want but got 10 minutes after I sent a message to my boss that read "I'm not going to make it to Dallas this weekend, it's outrageously priced" and the call:

Me: 481 This is Ray

The boss: Hey Ray how's your day going?

Me: Really well, thanks

The boss: That's good, because you're not going to like what I'm about to say

Me: I'm going to Dallas Aren't I?

The boss: Yup, book the flight!

Me: OK

 

[lgammon]

boss calls me 7:30 on a day i thought i had off because of rain.

boss : do you remember that pump septic system we installed a few years ago on stallard dr?

me : yes?

boss : well the pump truck is on its way, the pump quit.

me : ok....

boss : do you have a ladder that will fit in the tank...and some old clothes?

some days you just hate life!

 

[Randy88]

Had the wife following me in one of the semi's and we were both hauling equipment to the next jobsite, I turned off the busy highway and noticed she wasn't following me anymore, about the same time the phone rang, my wife: hon my truck doesn't move, me:where are you, my wife: half way across traffic turning off the highway blocking both lanes and everyone's really upset, me: any idea whats wrong, my wife: yea I don't have a drive shaft anymore me:where do you think it is my wife:Maybe you should come and see for yourself and while your here you can take care of this.....................did I mention some of them are really upset...........................hon I don't want to drive truck anymore I'd rather go home...................about now would be nice.

 

[KevD815]

This was my first winter in the service truck. I picked a hell of a year to start wrenchin for a commercial/municipal snow removal contractor...

Storm 1 - 24 hours into a 34 hour shift

-Hey Kev, the international 4900 is stuck.
-Ok, are you hung up in a snowbank?
-No im in the middle of the parking lot, someone forgot to mark out an island.
-Mmmmk, did you back over one?
-No no i was doin about 20mph or so and hit the thing head on. But the truck looks like its fine the plow soaked up the hit.
-Holy f%#K hows the plow look?!?!
-I can't tell, its underneath the truck. Its pinned in between the tranny and the island, i guess thats why im stuck...

Storm 2 - 12 hours into a 25 hour shift

-Hey Kev, the state called. They want all 14 trucks at the DOT garage in 45 minutes, if we're late they are back chargin us $200 an hour.
-Ok, ill send the kid out to start em all up
15 minutes later the kid comes back and says...
-Hey Kev, theres a problem with seven.
-Truck seven wont start?
-No, seven of the trucks wont start

Storm 4 - 24 hours before the snow starts fallin'

-Hey Kev, we got big problems with one of the tri-axles!
-Wonderful, what seems to be the problem.
-Well i dont have all the details yet but i guess the plow frame got hung up on a railroad track with a load on.
-How the F#$K...I'm gonna go grab dinner, keep me updated.
2 hours later...
-Yeah so the plow frame tore off the truck, got wedged on the front axle and went through the oil pan. All of the hydraulic and powersteering lines got torn to shreds. The PTO driveshaft tore in half too. Is it hard to re-tube a driveshaft? Oh and can you stay until the truck is all back together?
-:Banghead:Banghead:Banghead:Banghead

29 hours later the truck was on the road and i was in bed...with my phone turned OFF!