There's likely many stories out there about mishaps.Yours might not have been funny at the time.
.
.
-
-
No horror stories so far? Nothing ever went array for anyone? No incidents at all? Amazing. That could be a good thing.
One of my many mishaps happened in broad daylight, on a six lane divided highway, and I was completely sober.
I bought out a jewelry store's fixtures. At the time I had an 8'x10' flatbed truck. The load was primarily 6' glass showcases. They loaded up 4 lengthwise at the front of the bed, and two across the bed at the rear. I had duct taped the top glass down on all the cases, The load was tied down and rope over the tops of all the cases.
While traveling back to the shop, I was in the far right lane (the slow lane). I thought I heard a noise way over in the lanes going in the other direction. There was no traffic to speak of. When I got back to the shop, the top glass from one of the cases was missing.
I watched and listened to the news for the next day or so to find out if anyone was decapitated, or of any damage...nothing.
. -
I'll bite. We helped my sister move up to Boston from New Jersey for a job relocation. My sister rented a 26' ft Haul truck, we loaded it, and my dad and I drove the truck while my mom and sister drove up in the SUV. My dad wanted to avoid 95 as much as possible so when we crossed into NY we took the Merric Parkway or one of those parkways--you know, the ones with pretty, arched stone bridge over the road?
I'm driving at this point and as we get on this road, my dad and I swear we saw some sign flash at us but didn't remember what it said. i think I'm 24yo or thereabouts at the time. So we're driving along and we approach the first bridge which says something like 16' clearance. When you look out the driver side view mirror, you see printed on the truck "14' clearance" (or something like that). There's 2 lanes of traffic in each direction and the road is pretty busy but not slow. "OK, that felt close, but we're good," I thought. Next bridge is 15' 6" and when it approaches I inch a little more towards the center line to give me some more distance. At this point, I've informed my dad to which he says, "Ah, keep going."
Next bridge approaches and it's like 14' 2". My dad and I immediately start looking for exits. A guy pulls up alongside and he's trying to wave us off. I'm practically driving in the middle of the road when i go under that bridge saying my prayers. We phone my mom whose practically next to us and no one picks up. We are literally trying to flag them down but they are oblivious. We finally get their attention and tell them what's up and that we're going to take the next exit--which is just 2 miles away.
That was a LONG 2 miles made even longer by at least one more bridge. I don't remember the number but I do remember it was less than what was printed on the truck. I had visions of the roof getting ripped off or us getting wedged under a bridge and maybe the worst part being on the evening news for causing a pile up. Son of a gun if we didn't make it through without a scratch. Maybe all my sister's stuff made us sit lower than normal and that was just enough.
My dad and I later realized that flashing sign was telling us we were over-height.Comment
-
You couldn't get away with that on the Long Island parkways, where all of those pretty stone bridges were deliberately built so that busses couldn't use them. Apparently Robert Moses only wanted people who owned cars to use the parks he built, and he built the parkways to take folks from New York out to them accordingly.My dad wanted to avoid 95 as much as possible so when we crossed into NY we took the Merric Parkway or one of those parkways--you know, the ones with pretty, arched stone bridge over the road?Comment
-
Why would you think that? If you were in the right most lane in the U.S. and you heard some commotion from the leftmost lane in the opposite direction, there would be about 2 lanes or more between you. It surely couldn't have been a pane that flew off and went that far, could it?I think in straight lines, but dream in curves
Comment
-
Didn't happen to me... instead to a former co-worker who lived on the hills near the SoCal coastline. Movers parked their truck in front of her house but never set the parking brake. Or it didn't work at least. It began a slow roll down the street as she came screaming out of the houe - almost apoplectic - trying to get the mover's attention. The truck zig-zagged back and forth across the street... bouncing off parked cars, a few low rock retaining walls, etc. until it smashed through the fence at the end of the street and then took a big plune down the steep part of the hillside. Made a very expensive mess. This was a fairly expensive neighborhood - many of those damaged cars were Mercedes, Astons, Jaguars... $$
I've seen a moving truck half-gone after catching fire... somebody's stuff strewn all over I-495 near DC. And a boat that came off the trailer, falling through a section of bridge that had just given way - where the DC beltway crosses the Potomac. They've since rebuilt that bridge. (Wilson bridge? It's been too long... that was 25+ years ago now)
More recently: a flatbed truck (stake bed sides) that must have taken a corner too quickly or had the stakes fail... about half of its load was scattered all over an intersection in Salina Utah. The load? Soda cans! They were rolling everywhere as I tried to tip-toe drive through, laughing loudly. The truck driver was walking around, looking at the mess.
mpcComment
-
I had a new employee that was finishing a punch list on a restaurant and bar. He had loaded my flatbed truck with my tools, which consisted of several tool boxes, hardware, screws, etc. When he got back to the shop, truck was empty. We took a ride to find it, but somewhere along the 10 mile route my property was cleaned up by someone else. They didn't hang around long enough to get thanked.
.Comment
-
oh man.... that sucks cab man... I guess that is another reason you have two of every tool!I think in straight lines, but dream in curvesComment
-
About 6 or 7 years ago i bought three prescription dispensing cabinets from a military surplus auction, hoping i could get one functional UPS (uninterrupatble power supply). Paid $50 for what originally cost the Dept of Defense about $55,000. The auction listing said they weight 450# each--i figured that was a typo and more likely the total weight. Left home at 3 am one morning to drive to Columbus, OH to pick them up in my Dodge Dakota pickup, took about 10 bungee cords with me.
After identifying myself, i drove to the appointed door. Out came a lift truck with a skid. The 3 machines were on their sides in a 6' tall stack, one banding strap "securing" the load to the skid. Driver settled the load in the bed of my truck and it squatted just like it had 1,350 pounds in the back of a half ton truck!! Rear tires got mighty short on the bottom and the headlights pointed to the power lines. I looked at my bungee straps and decided not to bother--i'd stop at the first store i saw and get a few ratchet straps.
With the stack of high-grade steel cabinets teetering above the cab, i eased out of the DRMO facility. All went well for the first few miles, nice gentle stops, easy acceleration...and i could see a Wal-mart ahead where i could grab some ratchet straps. Then...a changing stop light and hard on the brakes--i looked in my rear-view mirror and watched the mountain falling forward. When it hit the cab, the banding strap broke and it grew dark as the top cabinet slid down my windshield before ripping an 18" gash down the center of my hood. I managed to drag it to the back of the truck and flip it in. Did a little rearranging (standing one on its wheels and the other two on their sides) and thought the damage was done and nothing else could go wrong...
About an hour later, at 55 mph on US 30...the wind caught the one standing upright and it went over the tailgate. I watched in the mirror as it spun lazily in the left lane while a new Cadillac dodged it. After reloading again (and now REALLY believing they were 450# each!!) got ratchet straps at the next exit. Arrived home 14 hours after i left, $1,500 in damage to the truck, $100 in fuel, lost a day of work, and NO UPS--al the electronics had been stripped out of them. I did manage to salvage 10 of the 12 3" casters, and dragged 1,350 pounds of scrap metal behind the garage. They stayed there until this past spring when i paid $50 to get them hauled away.
So...i effectively bought 10 casters at $170 each--and got banned by SWMBO from ever again visiting govliquidation.com. Geez, some people have no sense of humor!!
earlComment
-
greenacres, I nearly spit on my computer monitor after laughing so hard. I feel bad for your experience and can only imagine the **** my wife would give me if I was in your shoes.Comment
-
Well, we can't let you stop at nearly spitting...i left out a little segment....
As the beast was jumping over my tailgate on US 30, my cell phone rang. While watching the dosing machine spin in front of traffic, i heard my secretary say "Earl, we have a problem", to which i replied as the white Caddie swerved out of the way, "You have no idea how right you are!!" Wierdest timing of my life i think!!
earl
PS--as a result of telling this story i've lost at least one hour of my workday looking at gensets big enough to power a small town. Whatever you do, don't go to www.govliquidation.com. Don't do it. Save yourselves!!Comment
-
Earl - that would be a great TV show. I have been lucky enough to not have a major moving mishap thus far in my career. I have seen a number of people doing stupid things before. I'm usually on the business end of the mishap. I've had Christmas trees, couches, love seats, 16' 2-by material, you name it come flying off the back of trucks at me. Never a 450# piece of metal though. Luckily, I have a trained eye for spotting these people (like the guy carrying 1,350# of metal in his pickup) and keep my distance so I've never hit any of it.
One time, this couple bringing home a sectional couch was on the highway, and I was behind them. A large section of the couch came off the back and I got around it. they kept driving, oblivious to the fact that they only had 2/3 of their brand new couch. I pulled up beside them on the highway and my girfriend yelled out the window to let them know they lost their couch. It was like Planes, Trains and Automobiles - "You're going in the wrong direction!". She kept yelling, "You lost your couch and they were like, "Wha??"
Finally it clicked and the look on their face was PRICELESS.
People do crazy things...but they lead to great stories.F#$@ no good piece of S#$% piece of #$@#% #@$#% #$@#$ wood! Dang. - Me woodworkingComment
-
Earl, you definitely win this one. From where I'm sitting, it was pretty hilarious. I can't even imagine how you muscled the load back onto your truck. This is like something out of movies.Comment
-
Back in the late 90's, my company had a contract to build a couple of process-gas engine/compressors for mainland China. Quite expensive and weighed to the extreme, that they had to be shipped by rail. We have, IIRC, more than a 100-ton overhead crane in our main assembly shop for purposes such as this.
Anyway, after the run-tests and final inspection and approvals these were mounted on very-heavy timbers and then totally enclosed with similar framing and plywood boxing for export shipping. The enclosures were simply huge, and had locked access panels for inspection purposes.
They arrived in at the U.S. port okay, were inspected and provided the necessary clearance before they were loaded onboard ship. Weeks later, they arrived in Shanghai and were again inspected which of course included Chinese government as well as both the customer and our own field engineers which then supervised their off-boarding and proper loading to the Chinese rail cars.
A week later, the equipment arrived at the final destination where there was some damage to exterior piping and a lot of damage to the paint and some of the more exposed instrumention.
As it was described to me, the heavy wood skid, the framing timbers, and boxing enclosure was completely missing!!!! and the units were found to be bolted directly to the rail cars. None of the equipment was missing though.
I retired in 2003, but up to that date no answer was ever found as to how this occurred, much less how any group of people could have managed the handling of such a massive load.
The joke around the office was simply, "Hey, somewhere in China we just built a village!"
CWSLast edited by cwsmith; 08-14-2012, 12:32 PM.Think it Through Before You Do!Comment
Comment