What is the funniest thing you ever saw in operating heavy equipment
- Thread starter jix
- Start date
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Heard this one, down at my friend's shop recently....
Many years ago, his dad was moving a diesel Ag tractor on a trailer. Long time ago, and "he wasn't going far" - aka, it wasn't chained down.
HIts a good sized bump in the road, and the tractor jumps and rolls off the back of the trailer. As the guy riding in the truck with him put it "Once I saw those 2 black puffs of smoke, I knew we were done".
Tractor had been left in a high gear..... goes clipping along the road, then deflects right. Drainage ditches are really deep/wide around those fields, so it comes out of the other side of the ditch going pretty much straight up like a rocket. Lands in a cornfield and keeps on going.
Fast as the truck driver runs, can't catch the tractor. It would push down and pile up corn in front of itself, until it would finally deflect left or right. Did this for a long time, while the farmer that owned the field stood on top of a haywagon in the next field, with his arms crossed, shaking his head.
The tractor finally dug itself in, with a mountain of corn stalks piled up. Took down most of 20 acres. The Dad was/is a great mechanic, so he spent the next year or so fixing the neighbour's equipment for free, to pay for the cornfield.
Story was told by an elder mechanic at my friend's shop recently. I had a good chuckle over that one, but also one of the younger guys who was listening..... he was laughing so hard he was bent double trying to catch his breath, tears coming out of his eyes.
True story, and told well by that mechanic.
Rgds, D.
Many years ago, his dad was moving a diesel Ag tractor on a trailer. Long time ago, and "he wasn't going far" - aka, it wasn't chained down.
HIts a good sized bump in the road, and the tractor jumps and rolls off the back of the trailer. As the guy riding in the truck with him put it "Once I saw those 2 black puffs of smoke, I knew we were done".
Tractor had been left in a high gear..... goes clipping along the road, then deflects right. Drainage ditches are really deep/wide around those fields, so it comes out of the other side of the ditch going pretty much straight up like a rocket. Lands in a cornfield and keeps on going.
Fast as the truck driver runs, can't catch the tractor. It would push down and pile up corn in front of itself, until it would finally deflect left or right. Did this for a long time, while the farmer that owned the field stood on top of a haywagon in the next field, with his arms crossed, shaking his head.
The tractor finally dug itself in, with a mountain of corn stalks piled up. Took down most of 20 acres. The Dad was/is a great mechanic, so he spent the next year or so fixing the neighbour's equipment for free, to pay for the cornfield.
Story was told by an elder mechanic at my friend's shop recently. I had a good chuckle over that one, but also one of the younger guys who was listening..... he was laughing so hard he was bent double trying to catch his breath, tears coming out of his eyes.
True story, and told well by that mechanic.
Rgds, D.
Last edited:
Shift4200
Gold Member
Back in my early teens i worked for a landscaping crew during the summer.
One morning we arrive at our job to find several large hedges in front of a ranch style house that needed to be removed. As we started to dig out the shrubs, the owner arrived. Gets all snooty with us that we're digging and hops on the company's Kubota. Hooks a chain from the tractor to the shrub... and gives a yank. Nothing. Yank two... nothing. He now notices that he's digging up the front grass and decides this is not the tool for the job. Parks the tractor and hops in his (rather new at the time) F350. Attaches another chain to the chain attached to the shrub, then attaches both to his truck. This gave him just enough room to pull on the pavement and save the grass.
One yank, two yanks..... BAM.... the two chains divide (not sure if a hook broke or what.... ) and the 2 ends snap like a rubber band. Shrub side whipped at the house, breaking the storm door glass. Truck side managed to mangle the tailgate and blow out the back window of the truck.
When the dust settles, the whole crew is laughing. Big boss man never even got out of his truck.... just put it in Drive peeled off down the street.
-J
One morning we arrive at our job to find several large hedges in front of a ranch style house that needed to be removed. As we started to dig out the shrubs, the owner arrived. Gets all snooty with us that we're digging and hops on the company's Kubota. Hooks a chain from the tractor to the shrub... and gives a yank. Nothing. Yank two... nothing. He now notices that he's digging up the front grass and decides this is not the tool for the job. Parks the tractor and hops in his (rather new at the time) F350. Attaches another chain to the chain attached to the shrub, then attaches both to his truck. This gave him just enough room to pull on the pavement and save the grass.
One yank, two yanks..... BAM.... the two chains divide (not sure if a hook broke or what.... ) and the 2 ends snap like a rubber band. Shrub side whipped at the house, breaking the storm door glass. Truck side managed to mangle the tailgate and blow out the back window of the truck.
When the dust settles, the whole crew is laughing. Big boss man never even got out of his truck.... just put it in Drive peeled off down the street.
-J
It definitely wasn't funny at the time, but now that some years have passed I think I can post it here.
My first few years in college, I'd come home and work every summer to earn as much money as I could to pay for books, room and board, etc. At least one summer I had three jobs (Third shift in a factory, then straight from there to a retail bakery, and I DJ'd at a local radio station on weekends). Being open to doing just about anything meant I got to try a lot of stuff.
One summer, I got a job (as a temp) working in a "factory" that made concrete steps (Century Steps, although this particular facility has since been closed). The place had about a half-dozen "permanent" employees and four or five temps. It was hard work for very little pay, so about the only reason anybody worked there was because they didn't drug test. Just to give you an idea of what it was like, there was a guy that lived in a tent in the parking lot and read "High Times" in the break room. Another group of guys often traded stories about the prostitute they all visited. For a naive college student, it was quite an eye-opener.
When steps didn't make the grade, they were tossed aside in the big gravel yard outside the building. They were starting to really pile up, so one week they asked for volunteers to come in on a Saturday to clean it all up. Three of us volunteered. One guy had been a truck driver in a previous life and had been there for a long time. He usually ran the hopper of concrete up and down the mold lines. He was a bit rough around the edges, but I liked him. The other guy hadn't been there very long, though I think he was a full-time employee. He was about my age and not the sharpest.
We had two forklifts and a backhoe. The older guy ran the backhoe, and this other kid and I each took a fork lift. We'd grab a set of broken steps, run them ~75-100 yards to the end of the lot, where the guy with the backhoe was basically shoving them into a pile. All the farmers' drain ponds are bordered with broken steps in that area, so I presume that's where they went next.
Now, we weren't really on "outdoor" forklifts and this was a poorly maintained gravel lot. You could open the forklift up a bit in the smoother spots, but you needed to use some discretion with the throttle in most places. I was running a set of steps down the lot and the other kid comes flying by me on his forklift. When I see him again, I tell him that he needs to slow down out there and he laughs at me. A little while later, he flies by me again and I motion him to slow down. Some time after that, the older guy on the backhoe tells me to yell at him before he hurts himself. Next time I pass him, I tell him that we have all day and he needs to take it easy.
On his very next pass coming toward me, he's going full-throttle and starts to fish-tail. He slides sideways, the wheels dig in and the forklift starts to go over. To my horror, he jumps out of the seat and tries to run away. He almost made it, but the top tube of the roll hoop comes down on his left ankle. He immediately starts panicking, screaming bloody murder, and struggling to get free. By the time I can run to him, he's actually twisted his ankle all the way around (He looked sort of like a Stretch Armstrong doll). As it happens, I'd just become an EMT, so this was an opportunity to apply what I'd learned...
I'm trying to talk to him in a firm/steady voice to calm him down, but he's flailing around and twisting his ankle all sorts of ways. I knew that there were two shattered bones in there and that the more he moved the more he'd be cutting up veins, tendons/ligaments, muscle, etc with the sharp ends. So while I was talking to him, I knelt across his chest to keep him from moving around too much. Still using his name, trying to get him to focus his attention on me, etc.
Now the older guy comes running up. I tell him to call an ambulance and then help me calm him down to make sure he doesn't move around anymore. The first thing he says is, "I'll knock him out!" as he's leaning down to punch him in the jaw!
He runs in, calls and ambulance, and comes back out. The kid is now calming down a little bit and I can explain to him that it's very important that he doesn't move any more than he has to. I tell the older guy that we'll have to have the forklift off of him for the squad and tell him to pick the hoop up with my forklift and I'll pull him out. The older guy refuses, says he's shaking way too much to do that, and tells me to do it. So I have him crouch down next to the kid and keep him calm and pull the forklift up. Unfortunately, the way the forklift came down and where this kid is laying means I can't get very close Pulling the lift up almost to the guys shoulder would let me _just_ get the tips of the forks under the hoop. I told the guy to be ready to pull him out, then tilted the forks all the way back and started to apply a bit of upward pressure. I had visions of the hoop dropping off the front of the forks and crushing this poor kids foot next. I lifted very slowly, and the forks seemed like they were bending so far down, but I was able to lift the hoop up enough to pull the kid out without dropping it.
They took the kid to the hospital and the older guy and I stayed around to answer to the plant manager (he had shown up by now), right the forklift, and put things away. I ended up visiting the kid in the hospital later that day. He thanked me through a narcotic-fueled grin and said, "I guess you were right about slowing down out there." He has a lot of titanium in his left ankle now, but I'm sure he's doing just fine.
I still laugh when I remember that excited old ex-trucker leaning down and saying, "I'll knock him out!"
My first few years in college, I'd come home and work every summer to earn as much money as I could to pay for books, room and board, etc. At least one summer I had three jobs (Third shift in a factory, then straight from there to a retail bakery, and I DJ'd at a local radio station on weekends). Being open to doing just about anything meant I got to try a lot of stuff.
One summer, I got a job (as a temp) working in a "factory" that made concrete steps (Century Steps, although this particular facility has since been closed). The place had about a half-dozen "permanent" employees and four or five temps. It was hard work for very little pay, so about the only reason anybody worked there was because they didn't drug test. Just to give you an idea of what it was like, there was a guy that lived in a tent in the parking lot and read "High Times" in the break room. Another group of guys often traded stories about the prostitute they all visited. For a naive college student, it was quite an eye-opener.
When steps didn't make the grade, they were tossed aside in the big gravel yard outside the building. They were starting to really pile up, so one week they asked for volunteers to come in on a Saturday to clean it all up. Three of us volunteered. One guy had been a truck driver in a previous life and had been there for a long time. He usually ran the hopper of concrete up and down the mold lines. He was a bit rough around the edges, but I liked him. The other guy hadn't been there very long, though I think he was a full-time employee. He was about my age and not the sharpest.
We had two forklifts and a backhoe. The older guy ran the backhoe, and this other kid and I each took a fork lift. We'd grab a set of broken steps, run them ~75-100 yards to the end of the lot, where the guy with the backhoe was basically shoving them into a pile. All the farmers' drain ponds are bordered with broken steps in that area, so I presume that's where they went next.
Now, we weren't really on "outdoor" forklifts and this was a poorly maintained gravel lot. You could open the forklift up a bit in the smoother spots, but you needed to use some discretion with the throttle in most places. I was running a set of steps down the lot and the other kid comes flying by me on his forklift. When I see him again, I tell him that he needs to slow down out there and he laughs at me. A little while later, he flies by me again and I motion him to slow down. Some time after that, the older guy on the backhoe tells me to yell at him before he hurts himself. Next time I pass him, I tell him that we have all day and he needs to take it easy.
On his very next pass coming toward me, he's going full-throttle and starts to fish-tail. He slides sideways, the wheels dig in and the forklift starts to go over. To my horror, he jumps out of the seat and tries to run away. He almost made it, but the top tube of the roll hoop comes down on his left ankle. He immediately starts panicking, screaming bloody murder, and struggling to get free. By the time I can run to him, he's actually twisted his ankle all the way around (He looked sort of like a Stretch Armstrong doll). As it happens, I'd just become an EMT, so this was an opportunity to apply what I'd learned...
I'm trying to talk to him in a firm/steady voice to calm him down, but he's flailing around and twisting his ankle all sorts of ways. I knew that there were two shattered bones in there and that the more he moved the more he'd be cutting up veins, tendons/ligaments, muscle, etc with the sharp ends. So while I was talking to him, I knelt across his chest to keep him from moving around too much. Still using his name, trying to get him to focus his attention on me, etc.
Now the older guy comes running up. I tell him to call an ambulance and then help me calm him down to make sure he doesn't move around anymore. The first thing he says is, "I'll knock him out!" as he's leaning down to punch him in the jaw!
He runs in, calls and ambulance, and comes back out. The kid is now calming down a little bit and I can explain to him that it's very important that he doesn't move any more than he has to. I tell the older guy that we'll have to have the forklift off of him for the squad and tell him to pick the hoop up with my forklift and I'll pull him out. The older guy refuses, says he's shaking way too much to do that, and tells me to do it. So I have him crouch down next to the kid and keep him calm and pull the forklift up. Unfortunately, the way the forklift came down and where this kid is laying means I can't get very close Pulling the lift up almost to the guys shoulder would let me _just_ get the tips of the forks under the hoop. I told the guy to be ready to pull him out, then tilted the forks all the way back and started to apply a bit of upward pressure. I had visions of the hoop dropping off the front of the forks and crushing this poor kids foot next. I lifted very slowly, and the forks seemed like they were bending so far down, but I was able to lift the hoop up enough to pull the kid out without dropping it.
They took the kid to the hospital and the older guy and I stayed around to answer to the plant manager (he had shown up by now), right the forklift, and put things away. I ended up visiting the kid in the hospital later that day. He thanked me through a narcotic-fueled grin and said, "I guess you were right about slowing down out there." He has a lot of titanium in his left ankle now, but I'm sure he's doing just fine.
I still laugh when I remember that excited old ex-trucker leaning down and saying, "I'll knock him out!"
ENC
Gold Member
Nope you got it all wrong. Charlies name is supposed to be Leroy.
xp190
Bronze Member
I have a story that me and some of my friends talk about every time we get together and it always makes us laugh.
A few years ago I was working in your typical office settin,g cubicles, monitors, etc etc, I had a really awesome manager, his name was Randy, and he had a good sense of humor.
When he first started working with us, he complained that we don't know how to have fun, and slowly taught us a few things about life, keep in mind I was 28 at the time and my colleagues were not far off, we were a young and inexperienced at life bunch, meanwhile, Randy came back to work with us from his retirement.
We used to play pranks on each other any chance we got, Christmas tree in Randys office, changing name tags on each others cubicles and watching how long the owner takes to notice, but one event really inspired me, it was the SARS crisis in Toronto, a real bad bug that took a few lives, so no laughing matter really.
One day, one of my colleagues and friends calls in that he will be late in the office, and since it was a slow morning I decided to get creative. Seeing as we worked for a research company, everyone had their own white board. I put my friends whiteboard in front of his cubicle and with sloppy handwriting wrote "SARS quarantine zone". Everyone who walked by quickly got the joke as my friend would call in sick frequently to go see his at the time girlfriend, or just to work from home. This carried on through the day, and eventually everyone went home.
The next morning I come in, and Randy calls me and everyone else into his office, he explains to us that overnight, the cleaning staff came in and saw the board, they did not find it funny and called the building management stating that they are afraid and won't clean. The building management came down and saw the sign too, since the cleaners were unionized, they had to take them seriously so they called the CEO of my company, my CEO said he can't deal with this and asked our lawyer to look into it, our lawyer got in touch with the building management lawyers, and by morning there was a BIG crowd of people waiting for Randy to explain what the sign on the board was all about. Randy being the good sport that he is saw exactly what was going on and spent the next two hours explaining to all the managers, directors, CEOs and lawyers why it was funny. He finished about 20 minutes before we showed up to work at which point he called us in. He was a **** good sport, and instead of taking it out on us, he simply said to get him in on the prank the next time since he had no idea what the joke was until after his meeting was over. I sure miss working with him.
xp
A few years ago I was working in your typical office settin,g cubicles, monitors, etc etc, I had a really awesome manager, his name was Randy, and he had a good sense of humor.
When he first started working with us, he complained that we don't know how to have fun, and slowly taught us a few things about life, keep in mind I was 28 at the time and my colleagues were not far off, we were a young and inexperienced at life bunch, meanwhile, Randy came back to work with us from his retirement.
We used to play pranks on each other any chance we got, Christmas tree in Randys office, changing name tags on each others cubicles and watching how long the owner takes to notice, but one event really inspired me, it was the SARS crisis in Toronto, a real bad bug that took a few lives, so no laughing matter really.
One day, one of my colleagues and friends calls in that he will be late in the office, and since it was a slow morning I decided to get creative. Seeing as we worked for a research company, everyone had their own white board. I put my friends whiteboard in front of his cubicle and with sloppy handwriting wrote "SARS quarantine zone". Everyone who walked by quickly got the joke as my friend would call in sick frequently to go see his at the time girlfriend, or just to work from home. This carried on through the day, and eventually everyone went home.
The next morning I come in, and Randy calls me and everyone else into his office, he explains to us that overnight, the cleaning staff came in and saw the board, they did not find it funny and called the building management stating that they are afraid and won't clean. The building management came down and saw the sign too, since the cleaners were unionized, they had to take them seriously so they called the CEO of my company, my CEO said he can't deal with this and asked our lawyer to look into it, our lawyer got in touch with the building management lawyers, and by morning there was a BIG crowd of people waiting for Randy to explain what the sign on the board was all about. Randy being the good sport that he is saw exactly what was going on and spent the next two hours explaining to all the managers, directors, CEOs and lawyers why it was funny. He finished about 20 minutes before we showed up to work at which point he called us in. He was a **** good sport, and instead of taking it out on us, he simply said to get him in on the prank the next time since he had no idea what the joke was until after his meeting was over. I sure miss working with him.
xp
xp190
Bronze Member
I have a story that me and some of my friends talk about every time we get together and it always makes us laugh.
A few years ago I was working in your typical office settin,g cubicles, monitors, etc etc, I had a really awesome manager, his name was Randy, and he had a good sense of humor.
When he first started working with us, he complained that we don't know how to have fun, and slowly taught us a few things about life, keep in mind I was 28 at the time and my colleagues were not far off, we were a young and inexperienced at life bunch, meanwhile, Randy came back to work with us from his retirement.
We used to play pranks on each other any chance we got, Christmas tree in Randys office, changing name tags on each others cubicles and watching how long the owner takes to notice, but one event really inspired me, it was the SARS crisis in Toronto, a real bad bug that took a few lives, so no laughing matter really.
One day, one of my colleagues and friends calls in that he will be late in the office, and since it was a slow morning I decided to get creative. Seeing as we worked for a research company, everyone had their own white board. I put my friends whiteboard in front of his cubicle and with sloppy handwriting wrote "SARS quarantine zone". Everyone who walked by quickly got the joke as my friend would call in sick frequently to go see his at the time girlfriend, or just to work from home. This carried on through the day, and eventually everyone went home.
The next morning I come in, and Randy calls me and everyone else into his office, he explains to us that overnight, the cleaning staff came in and saw the board, they did not find it funny and called the building management stating that they are afraid and won't clean. The building management came down and saw the sign too, since the cleaners were unionized, they had to take them seriously so they called the CEO of my company, my CEO said he can't deal with this and asked our lawyer to look into it, our lawyer got in touch with the building management lawyers, and by morning there was a BIG crowd of people waiting for Randy to explain what the sign on the board was all about. Randy being the good sport that he is saw exactly what was going on and spent the next two hours explaining to all the managers, directors, CEOs and lawyers why it was funny. He finished about 20 minutes before we showed up to work at which point he called us in. He was a **** good sport, and instead of taking it out on us, he simply said to get him in on the prank the next time since he had no idea what the joke was until after his meeting was over. I sure miss working with him.
xp
A few years ago I was working in your typical office settin,g cubicles, monitors, etc etc, I had a really awesome manager, his name was Randy, and he had a good sense of humor.
When he first started working with us, he complained that we don't know how to have fun, and slowly taught us a few things about life, keep in mind I was 28 at the time and my colleagues were not far off, we were a young and inexperienced at life bunch, meanwhile, Randy came back to work with us from his retirement.
We used to play pranks on each other any chance we got, Christmas tree in Randys office, changing name tags on each others cubicles and watching how long the owner takes to notice, but one event really inspired me, it was the SARS crisis in Toronto, a real bad bug that took a few lives, so no laughing matter really.
One day, one of my colleagues and friends calls in that he will be late in the office, and since it was a slow morning I decided to get creative. Seeing as we worked for a research company, everyone had their own white board. I put my friends whiteboard in front of his cubicle and with sloppy handwriting wrote "SARS quarantine zone". Everyone who walked by quickly got the joke as my friend would call in sick frequently to go see his at the time girlfriend, or just to work from home. This carried on through the day, and eventually everyone went home.
The next morning I come in, and Randy calls me and everyone else into his office, he explains to us that overnight, the cleaning staff came in and saw the board, they did not find it funny and called the building management stating that they are afraid and won't clean. The building management came down and saw the sign too, since the cleaners were unionized, they had to take them seriously so they called the CEO of my company, my CEO said he can't deal with this and asked our lawyer to look into it, our lawyer got in touch with the building management lawyers, and by morning there was a BIG crowd of people waiting for Randy to explain what the sign on the board was all about. Randy being the good sport that he is saw exactly what was going on and spent the next two hours explaining to all the managers, directors, CEOs and lawyers why it was funny. He finished about 20 minutes before we showed up to work at which point he called us in. He was a **** good sport, and instead of taking it out on us, he simply said to get him in on the prank the next time since he had no idea what the joke was until after his meeting was over. I sure miss working with him.
xp
My dad worked for a municipality in the street department, filling pot holes and occasionally opening up the street to allow access to water mains etc. He tells a story of a time working with a skilled backhoe operator. Dad is in the trench with a shovel, doing the last bit of digging so as not to damage the pipe with the backhoe. He senses a slight tugging at his pants and turns around to see that Norbert, at the controls of the backhoe, has reached down and used the bucket tooth to remove his wallet from his back pocket!
I imagine that takes skill, but Im sure OSHA would not approve!
I imagine that takes skill, but Im sure OSHA would not approve!
Jim Shooz
Veteran Member
There are some clever operators out there
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mrEXfIzKrYA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mrEXfIzKrYA
TugHillDog
Bronze Member
- Joined
- Nov 2, 2011
- Messages
- 74
- Location
- btwn Canada and the Adirondack Mtns
- Tractor
- Mahindra 2645 Cab
An old friend of mine worked on a contract basis for the railroad, mostly snow removal, but dirt work when it was required. They had a bad storm in the Big Woods [the Adirondacks] and needed to get heavy equipment in to clear the tracks...no one could figure a way to go as there were no flat bed trailers. My friend said that he could put put his backhoe in an open box car [one without a top]. He used a set of rails wheels and axles on the top of the box car , but between his bucket and the backhoe, he lifted that machine onto the top of the box car and then rode the rails into the Big Woods to do the job!
And he was deathly afraid of snakes! saw him leave a dozer running in the middle of the road, abandoned, because a snake had come over to the cab on the tracks...he left the dozer, rant to his truck and drove home!
And he was deathly afraid of snakes! saw him leave a dozer running in the middle of the road, abandoned, because a snake had come over to the cab on the tracks...he left the dozer, rant to his truck and drove home!
