You all laugh, but one time I was young, dumb, and just did what people told me to do.
In this regard, I found myself pulling a grain auger on a much-too-small flat deck trailer. The trailer was maybe 10ft long by 6 ft wide, so we put one wheel of the grain auger on the deck, and one on the external tail light of the trailer which was relatively sturdy. ‘are you sure this is a good idea?’ ‘fuck it, she’ll go. Just go slow’
So I start driving. No immediate problems. Turns out that going down a major, winding hill at the 100 km posted speed limit is not a good idea with an awkward load. It’s also a pretty interesting time to figure out that if you brake, you make the trailer sway worse. Hmm so speed up it is! Started at the top of the hill at about 90 km/hr and came out for it at about 120 km/hr. Lol.
And that’s just one of the times I shoulda died! Whee.
This is also why I mentor the fuck out of any junior I work with. too many stories like this.
I’ve also got a story of other people saying “it’ll be fine” while I should have been thinking for myself.
I used to be a garbage truck driver. I was sent to pick up a bin at some fishing club. It was at the end of a dead end road. I drove my truck to the end hoping there would be enough room to turn the truck around. Of course there wasn’t. That’s when I should’ve just decided to back out, but I didn’t. I asked the members of that club if the garbage truck usually turns around or backs out. They said “sure you can turn it on the grass, they do that all the time”.
So I started turning, one small moment later, I was stuck in the grass. My back wheels just kept slipping and digging in deeper. I putting gravel and wooden boards under the wheels, but nothing really worked. In the end we got like 6 of the fingers to push the truck (10.000+kg) out of the grass… and they fucking did it! It took a little back and forth, but we managed to get the truck out with teamwork.
It was a pretty stupid decision of mine, but I learned from it. It was 10 years ago, but I still remember it well,because it was just and awesome experience of teamwork and humanity.
The guy with a truck had a concept of a plan
You all laugh, but one time I was young, dumb, and just did what people told me to do.
In this regard, I found myself pulling a grain auger on a much-too-small flat deck trailer. The trailer was maybe 10ft long by 6 ft wide, so we put one wheel of the grain auger on the deck, and one on the external tail light of the trailer which was relatively sturdy. ‘are you sure this is a good idea?’ ‘fuck it, she’ll go. Just go slow’
So I start driving. No immediate problems. Turns out that going down a major, winding hill at the 100 km posted speed limit is not a good idea with an awkward load. It’s also a pretty interesting time to figure out that if you brake, you make the trailer sway worse. Hmm so speed up it is! Started at the top of the hill at about 90 km/hr and came out for it at about 120 km/hr. Lol.
And that’s just one of the times I shoulda died! Whee.
This is also why I mentor the fuck out of any junior I work with. too many stories like this.
I’ve also got a story of other people saying “it’ll be fine” while I should have been thinking for myself.
I used to be a garbage truck driver. I was sent to pick up a bin at some fishing club. It was at the end of a dead end road. I drove my truck to the end hoping there would be enough room to turn the truck around. Of course there wasn’t. That’s when I should’ve just decided to back out, but I didn’t. I asked the members of that club if the garbage truck usually turns around or backs out. They said “sure you can turn it on the grass, they do that all the time”.
So I started turning, one small moment later, I was stuck in the grass. My back wheels just kept slipping and digging in deeper. I putting gravel and wooden boards under the wheels, but nothing really worked. In the end we got like 6 of the fingers to push the truck (10.000+kg) out of the grass… and they fucking did it! It took a little back and forth, but we managed to get the truck out with teamwork.
It was a pretty stupid decision of mine, but I learned from it. It was 10 years ago, but I still remember it well,because it was just and awesome experience of teamwork and humanity.
I keep looking at it wondering … Why? The others are common. The truck, however took a little special reasoning.
Underestimating the bed rail loading. I’d love to make a Ford joke, but let’s be real, all truck beds would crumple like that.