How long should things last?

[2manyrocks]

Back in the early 1980s I was driving behind a couple of other drivers following a local fuel delivery truck. This was the kind of truck that had the fuel tanks right behind the operator's cab.

I heard a backfire and then saw flames shooting from under the hood while the truck driver bailed out. Every car following the truck suddenly turned down side streets to get away.

After running some errands in town, I was amazed to later see that they got the fire out without the tanks catching fire.

 

[MossRoad]

I recall sitting in the office at the FBO I worked for at the airpor watching one of my coworkers driving a large straight fuel truck that had about a 2000 gallon tank of 100 octane on it (the big 100, as we called it) down the taxiway coming back from the fuel farm. It was a beautiful evening, nice sunset, clear sky, that perfect time of night where the sky is deep blue in the west and dark black in the east, stars and planets becoming visible, a nice orange glow under the middle of the truck.... fire!

He pulls up right next to the office/hangar as usual, not knowing the truck was on fire. I met him as he got out, and I jumped in and drove it to the center of the ramp, then fled.

I called the fire department and they came over and put it out.

Apparently, it had a parking brake on the driveshaft, and he forgot to take it off. It heated up and started some greasy stuff under the truck on fire. Fortunately, that's all it was. They put it out and we had it repaired the next day.

That was the mid 80s. I'm pretty sure the fuel truck was from the late 50s. It lasted long after I was gone.

 

[Dftodd]

Nope. I won't post his name.

It was just a matter of time. He'd been caught smoking in the fuel trucks a couple times. The boss wouldn't let me fire him because the boss was friends with the guy's dad.

Those idiots are the worst. They think they are untouchable because of who they know.

I seen a guy who was the brother in law of someone big in a company. This guy ignored the new guy who pointed out that he should probably reset his tracks before he got stuck.

Guys reply was that he's been doing this for 20 years. He knows what hes doing.

Dude went to mave a 1/2hr later and buried a million dollar trackhoe in the mud.

Guys brother in law walks a high reach trackhoe over there to help him get unstuck.

Loosened up all the sand around them in the 5 acre pond they were digging.

Afternoon sun shower came through around 3:30 that afternoon and washed all the sand down onto the trackhoe.

4:30 pm, i'm driving by that pond and all I see is a trackhoe boom and about 6" of cab and the roof

I stopped and inspected it. They buried a Kumatsu PC 400 trackhoe.

They had to have a wellpoint company come in and put a wellpoint system around the trakhoe to suck out the ground water.

Give it a week and then dig it back out.

Cost the company $40k to get the trackhoe unstuck.

They had to have caterpillar come over with their filtration truck, filter all the fluids.

Then a mechanic had to bypass all the trackhoes safety measures, fire it up and walk it out of the hole and right onto a low boy trailer to haul it back to their shop.

Their mechanic figured they did about $150k worth of damage to the trackhoe, all because the operator wouldn't listen to the new guy

 

[MossRoad]

I have a relative that dropped a Case 580 off of a flatbed trailer when turning a corner because he didn't chain it down. He was only going 2 blocks. He worked for another relative of ours that was trying to do him a favor by employing him. That ended.

 

[Dftodd]

I have a relative that dropped a Case 580 off of a flatbed trailer when turning a corner because he didn't chain it down. He was only going 2 blocks. He worked for another relative of ours that was trying to do him a favor by employing him. That ended.

As it should I had my boss get mad at me for strapping a tire down to the bed of the flat bed just to haul it a mile up the road to a tire shop.

This was literally right after he stated that it was up to me on whether or not I strapped it to the bed of the truck

After he got mad, I told him it's was my license or worse if it flies off the bed of the truck. And if it kills someone, then it's my conscience as well as my butt going to jail.

If you want to haul it up there unsecured, be my guest..... it's your license and your consequences if it comes off the truck.