Bgott, sounds a lot like back in '68 at a local limestone quarry. I had a Euc do the reverse thing down over the stockpile. Brakes were of no use on those things - especially when loaded. Engine didn't help either, it started running in reverse and blew oil from the oil-bath air cleaner out on the fender.
Worst wreck I had bruised me up some, but didn't phase the Euc. We only dumped (from the crusher bins) and stockpiled #3 or #4 never both at the same time. The bins were designed to return overflow from the bins to the small rotary crusher and recrush it to finer material. For a long stretch, we had been dumping #4's. The pile had grown to where the boss said to let the #4 go and dump #3. I was on my way to deliver the first load of #3 to the #4 pile, temporarily forgetting the change. As I approached the ramp to head up the #4 pile, I remembered my error, hit the brakes, and turned the wheels to go past the pile instead of onto it. The steering was about as bad as the brakes, and I ended up with the driver's side headed up the ramp, and the other side on the access road. The truck went up on my side, hesitated for a bit (almost like it couldn't decide which way it was going to go), then slammed down on the right side. I just bounced across the cab, hitting gearshift and every hard surface along the way. I climbed out and limped back to the office to report what happened - figured I was history. In a normal tone of voice, Boss told me to be more careful. He sent the big loader out to scrape the load out of the way and push the Euc back up on its wheels, and had the mechanic check what fluids it lost. Luck for me it didn't go the other direction. It was hot that Summer, and I used an old piece of V-belt to tie the driver's side door open for ventilation.
They let us help the blasting outfit, too. I recall DuPont Pourvex was the stuff we used. There were some exciting blasts when the well driller got some info recorded wrong on his charts. They enjoyed getting us new guys there so they could throw the boxes of explosives out of the truck and onto the ground, just to watch us flinch. After they had their fun, they'd explain that the Pourvex needs a primer, and the primer needs a cap, so tossing the materials around is no big deal, and it's OK to burn the boxes and plastic bags with traces of Pourvex left in them.
The scariest/most fun job was when they were getting ready for the blaster to come. They'd pan off the soil first, then use a track hoe to clean out as best they could. This left the place with a worse than "lunar landscape" look. The driller needed a better surface to get his rig in, so we'd back around the lip of the quarry dumping many loads of 2A Modified stone. You would back onto the last guy's stone pile and dump yours. They had a guy on a Cat there to tidy things up every couple of loads..................chim
