Lost my Load!

[dummy]

A better Darwinian. Weekend trip to the beach, me, buddy Mike and my new to me Nissan 300ZX. Eastbound on I-50, about 65 mph I hear a really loud noise and all of a sudden there's more wind in my face. What the heck is going on? Mike wanted to get some sun so he popped the T-top thinking he could lay it down after he took it out /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif. They don't survive that kind of flight very well. Man, are those things expensive!

 

[Golfgar4]

Actually, I'll give an acocunt in the other direction.

I had been doing some work in my garage that required using my socket wrench set. I had the socket case open on the bumper of my truck, alongside a glass of iced tea. after finishing the job, I went and got cleaned up and then jumped in the truck and drove across town (about 8 miles or so) to my mother's house. When I got out of the truck and walked around behind it, there were all of my sockets sitting pretty as you please on the bumper of the truck next to the socket wrench and case AND my cup of iced tea! /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif

Guess you could say I was never known for racing around town. /forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[EastTexFrank]

Now that's some pretty SMOOTHE driving.

 

[Gary_in_Indiana]

Gar,

I have one kind of like that. I've driven two hours to Indianapolis and been parked there for a while when I return to my truck and trailer only to find a big wrench/breaker bar on my trailer next to my winch. My first thought, of course, was that someone was trying to avail themselves of my expensive 8,000 pound Warn when they saw someone coming and ran off. Just then that wrench looks awfully familiar. Sure enough, it was mine and had been there for the entire day and all those miles. /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif

The real satisfaction came the next day when I asked a guy who works for me (who is notorious for leaving tools wherever he goes) to bring me that wrench and breaker bar. When he returned to tell me he couldn't find it I showed it to him and told him where I'd found it. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[Gary_in_Indiana]

Does it count if I lost it while I was loading it? /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif

This definitely qualified as one of life's embarrassing little moments. After a long day in the hot sun (Notice how the excuses start already) I'm loading my trailer so I can meet my daughter for dinner (Another excuse - preoccupied) and I winch the first truck onto the bed, put straps on the rear and cinch it snug with the winch. I then go to drive the second one on and find a dead battery (Another excuse - the unexpected taking me out of my normal pattern) and decide it'll be quicker to use the winch than jump start this one.

I then go to the front of the trailer and release the tension and unhook the winch cable to use it on the second truck. Everything is fine until the front wheels of the second truck contact the trailer. That little bit of jostling was just enough to start the first truck rolling backwards. /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif

Someone, in their haste, had neglected to a) put the first truck in Park; b) chock the wheels; c) attach the safety chain necessary for using the winch as a brake; and d) secure the front end before unhooking the winch. /forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif

Doing any single one of those four things would have prevented this, but, as it was, I did none of them. /forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif I then had to stand helplessly by and watch as one truck I'd just bought rolled, ever so slowly at first, back into the front end of the other truck I'd just bought. /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif /forums/images/graemlins/mad.gif

Fortunately, the rear tie downs caught just as the contact occured. The rear bumper on the first pushed the corner of the front bumper of the second in and only cost me a new bumper strut and rub strip. So, all in all, the damage to the vehicles was minimal. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif The damage to my ego, however... /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[MikePA]

Also good no one was standing between the 2 trucks when the first one began to roll. /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif

 

[KubotaSteve]

My brother puts sheet metal for AC in new houses. He has a company truck that is a short bed Ford Ranger. With the old tool box he had, to get the 6 foot ladder in the truck the tail gate had to stay down. Pulled accross a busy intersection, cars blowing the horn waving and yelling. He just kept the hammer down and when he got to the next jobsite he figured out why they were blowing the horn as his ladder was no where to be found. I stated his old tool box because not too long after that incident his co-worker threw a cigarette out the window and in the back of the truck and set the truck on fire melting the plastic tool box.
One day last year while riding on the beltway in DC (495), we encountered an extension ladder (about 40 foot) laying crossways in the road. I must say my friends Volkswagon Golf handled it quite well jumping over it.

 

[NIXON]

Speaking of Ladders ! I loaded a 24'extension ladder into my truck . Never gave a thought to having it extend . Well anyway while travelling at 70 mph I hear it starting to jack out ! Too late . An 18 wheeler drove right up the rungs /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif At least what was left of it slid into the median . All I could think of was it going through some poor unsuspecting person 's windshield ! John

 

[Gary_in_Indiana]

<font color="blue">"Also good no one was standing between the 2 trucks when the first one began to roll." /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif </font>

That thought crossed my mind as I remembered reaching under the wheels of the first truck throwing the winch hook back and attaching my J hooks under the front of the second truck. I was more than a little vulnerable in both instances. /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif

I guess that's why I didn't even flinch at the damage. I was well aware it could have been a far, far worse day for me. /forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif

I've always said I'd rather be lucky than good and this day showed me why. /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif

 

[Gary_in_Indiana]

<font color="blue"> "I found this amazing that no other drivers that saw the accident didn't chase the truck that had lost the ladder." </font>

I really don't. By the time you eliminate the people who didn't really see it all, those who saw the ladder fall but not the accident, those who saw the accident but not the ladder fall and those who didn't want to get involved you're lucky to have anyone left. I have to say that if I was the one left, I'd have been a lot more inclined to go to the victim to help than to chase someone down to tell them they lost a ladder that was probably trash by then anyhow. It would have been a while before I thought of liability. Stopping to offer aid and assistance would have been my first thought.

 

[NIXON]

Junkman . That was my biggest fear ! I'm glad the ladder (or what remainbed of it was thrown into the median . I did however call the state police and report it . I'm sure that the next guy that brushogged the median "blessed " me /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif
John