The calls you'd rather not have gotten.

[Randy88]

Sunday it rained all day, freezing rain, about mid afternoon a friend called and asked if I could pull him out of the ditch, we chatted awhile on the phone, told him probably not but since he was a friend, I'd come take a look anyhow, when I got there, he was on the cell phone with his boss telling him what happened and his boss said, I'll call right back another driver is calling me. So in the meantime we assessed the situation, he had a quad axle milk truck, nearly loaded and stopped to put his chains on, after setting the brakes, and about to get out, the truck took off and slid sideways across the road and swung around and backwards into the ditch, no harm done, but noway I'd ever get him out with anything I had, not to mention I'd never get anything I had there anyhow due to the icy conditions. As we chatted about options, which were very few, along comes a pickup and stops short of the accident, that slides and is in the ditch behind the milk truck, another car does the same thing and in about five minutes, its total mayhem. We locate a wrecker who'll come to do the pull and form a plan how to get it out, but need a sanding truck pretty badly, once out, nobody's going anywhere without one, nothing damaged, nobody hurt in anything, looks like a good day thus far.

As we wait for the wrecker, my friends boss calls back, confirms to get the wrecker and to hurry it up, another route guy, just dumped his fully loaded quad axle truck on its side in the ditch about 40 miles away, trucks a total loss and the third one's also in the ditch, still upright, but not for much longer 60 miles the other way, and two semi tankers are in about the same shape and my friends the only unit they can use to off load the rest, plus do the remaining routes that day, so don't hurt the truck and get a sander to drive ahead of him to each accident so his isn't totaled as well, after getting off the phone with his boss, he asked me if he'd figure he'd get fired over the deal, I told him I doubt it, the accident was't his fault, and besides it sounded like there were other coworkers in far more distress than he was and his boss was far busier with them right at the moment and if he needed a person to vouch for him, I'd be glad to tell his boss what happened, as would the wrecker operator.

On the way back home after the ordeal I was thinking now that would have to be considered having a bad day for the boss on every level, then I got to thinking, you know, it was just starting to rain and ice up, they had the whole day and most of the night yet to go and the sander trucks were pulled off the roads everywhere, so it could have gotten a lot worse after I left the equation, I was sure glad to be back home and not be directly involved.

 

[Knepptune]

Any call that starts with, hey um, we have this crane here....

The worst was a hydraulic pump split wide open. Crane has a 150 gal hydraulic tank. It was a bad day.

Still don't know what made that pump split in half.

 

[Spangles]

Most recent call:

me: "Hello, this is Sean"

cust: "hi sean, my name is ......., I hear you like challenges"

me: "haha, who told you that?"

cust: "doesn't really matter, I've got a 345B with basically every hydraulic component off the machine and sitting on pallets all around it ready to be put back on"

me: "doesn't sound all that bad, just time consuming"

cust: "Well, the guy that took it apart is no longer employed with us and the bolts are all in 5 gallon buckets on one of the pallets."

me: "FML" I muttered to myself, customer just heard silence.

:roll

 

[Pipelinemech]

had a lowboy hauling an excavator up a steep winding road, went to drop a gear and ripped out the driveline. i get there and the operator is in the hoe with his bucket in the ditch pushing the whole rig up the hill. bucket down, release brakes and push, set brakes reposition bucket and continue. another driver gutted both differentials hooking up to an empty float in a freshly layed and packed rock yard. got a call that a stringing truck had a bad starter. when i get on site its mud knee deep. the truck is 3-400 yards down the right of way with a trail of oil leading to it. had a ball valve for the oil drain that opened when they drug it through the mud. hoes flipped upside down in the ditch with fuel and hydraulic tanks blowed. i could go on and on lol

 

[Me1magoo]

Let me prefice with "I am a service manager for a large equipment RENTAL company....
10k reach forklift with "hoses and chains hanging out the back and we ran out of oil, it won't even move in and out now"
200C excavator "slid off in the hole sideways and pulled a wrecker in behind it, you're probably going to need a few cranes"
6k reach forklift "chains fell out the hole in the bottom of the boom and it looks bent, oh and it won't go in and out any more"
310J backhoe "we parked it Friday and after the rain this weekend there is no dirt under it, it's just sort of sitting in mid air on one tire and the buckets"
Haul truck driver "the wheel loader slid off my trailer sideways, but it's not my fault it just went sideways, can you bring a big forklift or something and another truck?"
225D excavator "I was unloading it and it went sideways off the trailer ramp, it's ON IT"S ROOF, you're going to need a crane and another truck and a hazmat crew"
310J backhoe "we were crossing the RR tracks and it quit moving, something is hanging under it- oh yeah, they are live tracks and the RR company is PISSED and says we have one hour or they will push it off the tracks"
60' boom lift "the crane ran into the boom basket, we have the boom back on all four tires now but we're going to need another one out here"
8k reach forklift "it has a bent wheel, it got tipped onto ONE wheel, and the boom (s) might be bent a little"
50' towable boom lift, delivery driver "I turned at the light and heard a screaching sound and when I looked in the mirror I saw the tires of the boom lift instead of the top, I don't know how that happened"
Haul truck driver "I think something broke, I was winching the backhoe on my trailer b/c it wouldn't start and there was a big bang and then it rolled really easy, so I just finished loading it and now it's unloaded out in the yard, you should go check it out, it's a piece of junk"
Haul truck driver "the dump truck I just brought in won't run over 1000 RPM's and a bunch of lights are on, it's a piece of (expletive)--- turns out the customer put diesel fuel in the DEF tank and ran it until it locked down and then said "come get it I'm done with it"
Yard hand "the roller was smoking pretty bad so I tried to get it to the line and it just quit--- right in the middle of the parking lot, I think "somebody" put diesel in the gas tank"......yeah, somebody....
Shop mechanic "I think I need more parts" Me "ok, what" Mech "well, that seal you bought for the axle housing, well it wouldn't come loose then when it did I "found" the housing was cracked" Me "sure, that sounds about right"--- and about a MILLION of Those!
There is a lot of story to each one and hundreds of more stories like them. I get a good one about once a week literally it seems.

 

[3rdgendslmech]

"I'm gonna need a chainsaw, some tail lights, black spray paint, and some cat yellow spray paint"

Driver didnt set the brakes on the trailer, unloaded it on a steep hill in a wooded development, with a D6 on it. The rest explains itself. Oh but the dozer was chained down good, it rode the trailer all the way to the bottom of the hill.

 

[mljohn]

I got a radio call one rainy afternoon operator said his wipers were not working. I told him to try a different speed, his reply was that he has been running from 10 mph to 70 mph and it didnt make any difference!
I reached down turned the radio off and proceeded home.

 

[oldtanker]

Not construction related but while in the Army I was the SGT of the guard for an ammo storage area when we were the detail BN for 2 weeks. Now in the Army you can be reduced in rank and forfeit money for running out of fuel.The Duce and a half we were issued had a bad fuel gauge. I ordered the driver to fuel it twice a day. The lazy SOB didn't and I got the call that he was broke down (out of fuel). He was about 2 miles from the motor pool. I got out there after getting the call that he was broke down and first thing sticked the tank.....dry. I gave the guy the option of carrying 2 five gallon cans back and forth to the truck or of me writing him up for disobeying an order plus running out of fuel. I made him fill the tank. 5 trips with the 2 fuel cans and one with just one can. It was only 55 gallons but he always followed orders after that and always made sure anything he drove had fuel!

But serving in the Army for 20 years the worst calls were always at 2AM and when something like this, SGT this is the commander, you need to go the the police station in (whatever town) or MP station and pick up______________. Knew darn well I was going to be in the commanders office explaining why this guy got busted for drunk and disorderly or a DUI.

Rick

 

[Hughie]

Some of these calls ring very familiar.
I work in u/g mining and have had a few crackers. One that springs to mind was an LHD (Cat R2900G) operator called mid shift "copy fitter Hughie", " yeah copy". "Mate I'm up in the 5100 level, I just tipped a load into a truck and she won't steer" " righto...". I get up there to find this big metal pin sitting in the level access, " this will be good" find the lights of the machine.
Long story short, the bottom articulation pin had fallen out and so the weight of the load in the bucket had been keeping the machine together.the operator tipped the load, the bottom clevises open up and the middle of the loader hits the ground and snaps the ends of the steering cylinder rods and bends the top clevises so it can't be jacked back together. Had to cut the loader in half with the oxy and drag it piece by piece the 4 km tunnel back to the surface workshop. What a day!

 

[RobVG]

That'z a good one Hughie

Welcome to the forum.

 

[alrman]

3pm in the afternoon after hot day in the sun -

"We had a small problem with the track on the Trex, but we managed to get it back to the yard. Do you reckon you could take a look at it for us? ........ Not sure if we can have anyone there to give you a hand, will you be OK?"


I'm gettin' too old for this cr@p .... :deadhorse

 

[tuney443]

This actually was me making the call to the highway dept. when I was slipping on ice going up a VERY steep hill with my 10 wheel dump and backhoe on the trailer: ''I'm stuck at almost the top of your f------ **** Rd.with a big rig because you guys apparently didn't salt the road.'' Highway super." Ummm,that's in our jurisdiction,but you are on a private road,don't you see all the sand/salt barrels around you?'' Me,[sheepishly now of course] ''Yeah ,I do,but there's a problem--my maxis will not hold that load plus the ice is making me slide some,there's no way I can get out of the cab and I'm so nervous my feet are jumping on the pedals and if I start backpedalling any faster and get out of control,I can wipe out houses on either side below me.'' He says he'll be right there in 5 and he was.At first he stupidly said to unload the hoe after he chocked a few tires--I said NO WAY on that steepness.So,we both went over to those sand barrels and put some salted sand in front of the drive tires and I made it up that hill.

 

[JDOFMEMI]

Hey boss, you might need to come have a look at this.
What happened?
Well, the hoe is a little stuck, and we cant get it out.
I will be right there.
This is what I found: