Share Pics of People Hauling or Towing Something Wrong

   / Share Pics of People Hauling or Towing Something Wrong #6,591  
When I was still in the mechanic shop at work, some young engineers turned a truck in for repair. They got it stuck, then hooked a tow rope to the brush guard. It just pulled the bar off the middle. So much for the 4 years of college.

It's not really being stupid, it's just a lack of exposure to the workings of certain things. If you've never had to crawl around under a vehicle to work on things or never had to fix a problem caused by misuse you'd never get the chance to understand that a lot of stuff under a modern car is just lightweight brackets holding parts in place and isn't structural enough to support pulling with thousands of pounds of force. An alternative example is hydraulics. If you weren't exposed to hydraulic systems and had experience using them you probably wouldn't understand that lines under pressure can't be disconnected nearly as easily as ones where the pressure was released. The real probably is that SO MANY people these days grow up without doing any hands-on repair or working with equipment.

Rob
 
   / Share Pics of People Hauling or Towing Something Wrong #6,592  
travelover said:
Even 4 years of college can't fix stupid. And I say that as an engineer.

It's not really being stupid, it's just a lack of exposure to the workings of certain things. If you've never had to crawl around under a vehicle to work on things or never had to fix a problem caused by misuse you'd never get the chance to understand that a lot of stuff under a modern car is just lightweight brackets holding parts in place and isn't structural enough to support pulling with thousands of pounds of force. An alternative example is hydraulics. If you weren't exposed to hydraulic systems and had experience using them you probably wouldn't understand that lines under pressure can't be disconnected nearly as easily as ones where the pressure was released. The real probably is that SO MANY people these days grow up without doing any hands-on repair or working with equipment.

Rob
 
   / Share Pics of People Hauling or Towing Something Wrong #6,593  
I think there is a lot of people just not thinking. I realize some things are experience based.
Assuming that all will go well when you put a tall box such as a hot water heater in the back of a big moving box like a pickup bed and you really think its not going to move if you turn or stop suddenly? This does not require experience. The best way of tying it down can come with experience.

Throwing hot burning coals in a trash can of stuff that can burn? That’s not thinking at all. But it does lead to some new experiences.

How many just jump into the middle of whatever their doing and DO NOT READ THE INSTRUCTIONS? I suspect it’s why so many of the warning labels that I find silly are stuck all over items. Not that it seems to help as much as one would think. One advantage of todays internet is that one can learn a bit about a lot of subjects easily and quickly. I find it interesting on how few make any effort to learn. That’s one of the nice thinks about this forum and some others. You read and learn of things that one may not see very often. Also you see people coming on here and asking about how to use various items. And they almost always get some good useful information. It’s neat to see their making a effort to learn. Many of my friends go to work and then hang at a bar or in front of a TV. Or both. Then call me when their paint flakes off or their sack mixed Concrete falls apart or the tile comes off the wall. Almost always because they did not follow instructions.
 
   / Share Pics of People Hauling or Towing Something Wrong #6,594  
Is it like "I'll let the grandkid fix the clock on the vcr (or fix the computer or tablet or phone)"

Seems similar to "I'll let grandpa fix the driveshaft".

Not that either can't do the other. Who's stupider? (Stupider said on purpose)
 
   / Share Pics of People Hauling or Towing Something Wrong #6,596  
I have an old copy of Moving The Earth: The Workbook of Excavation. It's surprisingly interesting reading.

One paragraph that sticks in mind: He cautioned his crews to never pull out a stuck dumptruck with just a bulldozer and cable. He had seen too many instances of the truck coming out, but without its still-stuck axles. :(
 
   / Share Pics of People Hauling or Towing Something Wrong #6,597  
I have an old copy of Moving The Earth: The Workbook of Excavation. It's surprisingly interesting reading.

One paragraph that sticks in mind: He cautioned his crews to never pull out a stuck dumptruck with just a bulldozer and cable. He had seen too many instances of the truck coming out, but without its still-stuck axles. :(

In 1974, my BIL had just got a JD 4630, it PTO'ed over 200 HP, and had dual filled rear tires, 2000 pounds of front end weights.

My nephew would pull any stuck vehicle, for a flat rate $50, BUT,,,,
he would hand you the hook, YOU had to connect it.

One day a VDOT F800 Ford truck slid in the ditch, they called my nephew.
He cautioned them, that they should shovel off the gravel,,,
They said "JUST pull it!"

He did, and the front axle came out, they had hooked the chain to the front axle.
The front wheels of the tractor never even left the ground.

We just giggled,, and drove away,,,

That tractor was a beast, it was supposed to be 150HP,, but, something was wrong with the injection pump,,,
we never fixed it,, and ran it over 4,000 hours like that.
 
   / Share Pics of People Hauling or Towing Something Wrong #6,598  
I used to work with someone that was a supervisor at a coal mine. They got a dragline stuck once. This is the kind of dragline that was the size of a building, and I'm talking large building. I saw the bucket this thing had, you could park several pickup trucks in the bucket. His boss told him take all of the equipment you need, just get the thing out. Took them a couple of days but they got it out. It didn't have tracks either, but long out riggers that would pick up and walk forward, then pick up on the outriggers and drag the belly of the machine forward. All electric powered. They built power lines ahead of the machine. It took several D8's to get it out and a lot of digging under it to get it on a solid base. I bet someone got in trouble for getting it stuck.
 
   / Share Pics of People Hauling or Towing Something Wrong #6,599  
All electric powered. They built power lines ahead of the machine. It took several D8's to get it out and a lot of digging under it to get it on a solid base. I bet someone got in trouble for getting it stuck.

This was electric powered,, it pulled a 6,600 volt extension cord.

IMG_0014.jpg


They said the only machine they had that could get this out was the machine itself,,
No number of D8's hooked to it would budge it.

3 scoops of overburden would overload a 200 ton haul truck,,
I rode that machine for 3 days,,,
 
   / Share Pics of People Hauling or Towing Something Wrong #6,600  
In 1974, my BIL had just got a JD 4630, it PTO'ed over 200 HP, and had dual filled rear tires, 2000 pounds of front end weights.

My nephew would pull any stuck vehicle, for a flat rate $50, BUT,,,,
he would hand you the hook, YOU had to connect it.

One day a VDOT F800 Ford truck slid in the ditch, they called my nephew.
He cautioned them, that they should shovel off the gravel,,,
They said "JUST pull it!"

He did, and the front axle came out, they had hooked the chain to the front axle.
The front wheels of the tractor never even left the ground.

We just giggled,, and drove away,,,

That tractor was a beast, it was supposed to be 150HP,, but, something was wrong with the injection pump,,,
we never fixed it,, and ran it over 4,000 hours like that.

I've pulled out a few with the Dozer... as your nephew, I handed the hook to the vehicle owner... one was down to the door sills in soft dirt/mud. They had tried various wheeled tractors... the old Deere 350 Dozer walked it out.

I always insist the owner Drive the vehicle at the same time I'm pulling... seems to work better that way.
 

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