D Felix
LawnSite Bronze Member
- Location
- Putnam County, Indiana
I think Peach mentioned in a different thread that we should all share our mis-haps with equipment. I'll be glad to start!
No one has been hurt with anything I've been around or involved with, though it's been close a time or two. I'm trying to think of at least one incident at each place I've worked in the last 10 years or so (though I may not be too successful), so this list could get kinda long.
Worked on the new golf course (under construction) at Purdue between high school and college. Watched a guy roll a skidsteer down the hill on #10 green. Entire time I'm screaming at him to drop the bucket, it was about 3 feet in the air. Hmmmm, I was 18 at the time, the guy running the skidsteer was a "city" kid that thought he was a farm boy. He was probably 22 or older at the time too... Some how or another all of the crews heard about the incident and "just happened" to drive by in the next 15 minutes.
Not really involving equipment, but was using "T"fence posts to stake a tree one day at the company I worked at through college. We were using sisal rope. I think my foreman was pushing on the tree, I was standing behind the post "pushing" the rope around the post. Rope broke and I got a chest full of T post. Ouch.
Job I had one summer in Indy. Walking backwards carrying one end of an 18' 6x6, fell into the 18" wide hole for the timber. Same job, came within 3" of augering through the home's gas line with the Dingo. This was after my boss had already hit it on the other side of the deck. It was his house too!
Same job, same house. Had an aluminum speed square "shot" at me. About took off my head... Nail gun shot a nail through the 2x4, missed the 1x4 and hit the speed square. Two boards later, Jim did it again!
First full time job, we were putting in a stepping stone path through a wooded ravine. Had two access points, one was straight down a hill that would probably have been a black diamond on a ski resort, it was that steep. The other we had a smaller hill, but had a lot of boggy area to cross. Took the stones down the steep hill using a custom built skid on pipe rollers and a winch to lower it. Used a tracked skidsteer to move the stones around. Well, we needed to get a small Lull Skytrack down into the ravine to set some "bridge" stones into place (2+ tons each). Tried taking it through the boggy area, nothing doing. Decided that the only way to get it down into the bottoms was to lower it down the hill using the winch.... Ran the winch cable and hook through a hook point on the machine, hooked the hook back on the cable. OOOPS, big mistake. 3/4 of the way down the hill, the winch cable broke! Fortunately, 30 seconds prior to that, I had just moved to where I was holding the remote for the winch at it's full extension, about 12'. When the cable broke, it shot back up the hill and slammed into the back doors (metal) of the truck. I'm sure I wouldn't look the same now if I hadn't moved to the side when I did.
Same job, got the Lull stuck in the creek. That was a fun 20 minutes til I figured out how to get it out.
Was on a job once where someone from the LA firm came out to lay out the beds for us (still haven't figured out why though...). He was kinda anal about it, used radius points and everything. Well, he drove in a 12" oak hub stake into the ground. Right into the private gas line that fed the pool heater! The grade had been reduced so much that it was only about 6" below the surface at that point!
I'm sure there's more, but I can't think of any right now.
Let's hear somebody else jabber a while! Bring it on!
Dan
No one has been hurt with anything I've been around or involved with, though it's been close a time or two. I'm trying to think of at least one incident at each place I've worked in the last 10 years or so (though I may not be too successful), so this list could get kinda long.Worked on the new golf course (under construction) at Purdue between high school and college. Watched a guy roll a skidsteer down the hill on #10 green. Entire time I'm screaming at him to drop the bucket, it was about 3 feet in the air. Hmmmm, I was 18 at the time, the guy running the skidsteer was a "city" kid that thought he was a farm boy. He was probably 22 or older at the time too... Some how or another all of the crews heard about the incident and "just happened" to drive by in the next 15 minutes.
Not really involving equipment, but was using "T"fence posts to stake a tree one day at the company I worked at through college. We were using sisal rope. I think my foreman was pushing on the tree, I was standing behind the post "pushing" the rope around the post. Rope broke and I got a chest full of T post. Ouch.
Job I had one summer in Indy. Walking backwards carrying one end of an 18' 6x6, fell into the 18" wide hole for the timber. Same job, came within 3" of augering through the home's gas line with the Dingo. This was after my boss had already hit it on the other side of the deck. It was his house too!
Same job, same house. Had an aluminum speed square "shot" at me. About took off my head... Nail gun shot a nail through the 2x4, missed the 1x4 and hit the speed square. Two boards later, Jim did it again!
First full time job, we were putting in a stepping stone path through a wooded ravine. Had two access points, one was straight down a hill that would probably have been a black diamond on a ski resort, it was that steep. The other we had a smaller hill, but had a lot of boggy area to cross. Took the stones down the steep hill using a custom built skid on pipe rollers and a winch to lower it. Used a tracked skidsteer to move the stones around. Well, we needed to get a small Lull Skytrack down into the ravine to set some "bridge" stones into place (2+ tons each). Tried taking it through the boggy area, nothing doing. Decided that the only way to get it down into the bottoms was to lower it down the hill using the winch.... Ran the winch cable and hook through a hook point on the machine, hooked the hook back on the cable. OOOPS, big mistake. 3/4 of the way down the hill, the winch cable broke! Fortunately, 30 seconds prior to that, I had just moved to where I was holding the remote for the winch at it's full extension, about 12'. When the cable broke, it shot back up the hill and slammed into the back doors (metal) of the truck. I'm sure I wouldn't look the same now if I hadn't moved to the side when I did.
Same job, got the Lull stuck in the creek. That was a fun 20 minutes til I figured out how to get it out.
Was on a job once where someone from the LA firm came out to lay out the beds for us (still haven't figured out why though...). He was kinda anal about it, used radius points and everything. Well, he drove in a 12" oak hub stake into the ground. Right into the private gas line that fed the pool heater! The grade had been reduced so much that it was only about 6" below the surface at that point!
I'm sure there's more, but I can't think of any right now.
Let's hear somebody else jabber a while! Bring it on!
Dan
