Losing stuff on your plumbing rig

[DUNBAR]

Today......was a sad day. Today I lost an exercise mat and no I do not exercise.

I took one of them, 1/4'd it and stacked them using contact cement so I have something to kneel down on whether I'm under a sink, working on a toilet, sitting on the edge of a tub doing a rebuild.


Anyway it went Buh-Bye on the expressway to my 3rd call and there was no returning to get it. I heard something tap between the cap and cab and sure enough, there it goes into the weeds of 1-75.


Has anyone lost items off your truck while driving?



What happened above is nothing compared to what happened to me in 1998;

Lost 3 water heaters, the boxes to the heaters, 2 wheel dolly all in one day, 3 different cities. It was on my birthday and it was the first birthday I had worked in 10 years.....

I purposely make a point not to work on that day ever since, bad omen I believe.


Out of everything I lost, I only knew of one of the old heaters I dropped. The rest of the stuff was neither located or complained about. I have the feeling the junk guys grabbed them before any reports were made; they just loooooooooove water heaters! :D

I've lost pipe off my racks as well but was able to retrieve it pretty quick. It's a scary situation when it's icy and no matter how well you strap off, it still wants to slide.

Anyone else?

[plumberscrack]

63 feet of 2" black steel into someones truck who short stopped on me.

12' and 8' fiberglass step ladder on 95 south. Luckily they were chained together and I was in the slow lane

[gear junkie]

Dunbar, we've seen your truck. Is this thread a sign for a cleanup?:D

[DUNBAR]

Ummmm.....nooo.

But it does look better than the last pic I took. Was having trouble doing practically anything without stuff falling out when I opened the double doors.

The cab is cluttered but thank goodness I can see through my windshield amidst all the burger wrappers, fry containers. :eek:

[Drain Medic]

Today......was a sad day. Today I lost an exercise mat and no I do not exercise.

I took one of them, 1/4'd it and stacked them using contact cement so I have something to kneel down on whether I'm under a sink, working on a toilet, sitting on the edge of a tub doing a rebuild.


Anyway it went Buh-Bye on the expressway to my 3rd call and there was no returning to get it. I heard something tap between the cap and cab and sure enough, there it goes into the weeds of 1-75.


Has anyone lost items off your truck while driving?



What happened above is nothing compared to what happened to me in 1998;

Lost 3 water heaters, the boxes to the heaters, 2 wheel dolly all in one day, 3 different cities. It was on my birthday and it was the first birthday I had worked in 10 years.....

I purposely make a point not to work on that day ever since, bad omen I believe.


Out of everything I lost, I only knew of one of the old heaters I dropped. The rest of the stuff was neither located or complained about. I have the feeling the junk guys grabbed them before any reports were made; they just loooooooooove water heaters! :D

I've lost pipe off my racks as well but was able to retrieve it pretty quick. It's a scary situation when it's icy and no matter how well you strap off, it still wants to slide.

Anyone else?




Judging by the pic you showed us of the back of your truck not to long ago, you might want to think about cleaning that bad boy so you can shut your doors in the back :killingme:

[PLUMBER RICK]

years ago we had a guy borrow a ruff truck over the weekend. well he locked up the brakes, turned sideways, the coffee cup cracked the windshield, and the collins 22a thread-o-matic, slid out of the built in side mount of the bed.

the funny part was it didn't flip and didn't spill it's cutting oil.

not until the highway patrol officer came and offered to help put it back in the truck. guess where the oil ended up?

it was either ponch or john:D (CHiP's):icon_bike:

mark, too long ago to be your son;)

rick.

[DuckButter]

Fresh from the supply, 10' length of 4" CI...coulda sworn I'd strapped it.
Luckily it went straight to the curb...nice long hairline crack all the way down it's length.
Fifteen minutes later..."Umm...I'm gonna need another 10'....don't ask."

[oldslowchevy]

i lost 2 50lb boxes of hand drive nails 1 was 12s the other 8s, i went cross a busy 4 lane road, then heard the tail gate slam down, i was just alittle hard on the gas

[ToUtahNow]

Lets see,

I lost a B-tank out of it's holder on my roughin truck while I was dumping a cast iron corner tub at the dump. The valve broke off and I had to carry the bottle away from all of the other trucks while it was leaking.:eek:

I had a dually crew cab I use to take my crossover box out of to put my camper on. Once after a trip I did not mount the box back in the truck I just put it in the bed. When making a left turn the box hit my tailgate open and my entire box of tools spilled into the intersection.:(

I lost a 4' step ladder off of my truck when a strap broke. The semi it hit said really bad things to me as he drove past me.:o

Mark

[Drain Medic]

We use to carry all the sectional eel cables in old tires. We would keep them at the back doors. Each tire carried 40 of sectional cable. I forgot to shut the back doors, and drove up a hill on a main road and heard all kinds of honking...I was getting mad at all the honking, then realized the doors were open in the back and all the tires were gone :eek::speechless: Felt like a :loser:stopping traffic and picking everything up.


Then another time, my 1st time driving a dump with a backhoe on a trailor behind me...anyway the guy the loaded all the polyethelyne on the trailor of the backhoe had fastened everything with bungee cords.....I knew i was asking for trouble...I asked him a million times before we left if he checked the bungees and did he tie everything off...He told me ya :smack-head: So taking his word and being scared out of my mind, i said if anything falls off your fixing it...joking around...As i turned a corner onto a main road...one of the bungees snap and 5 lengths of 4in poly rolled off and allover the main road...so i was true to my word, i sat in the dump while he picked everything up

[Ace Sewer]

i lost 2 50lb boxes of hand drive nails 1 was 12s the other 8s, i went cross a busy 4 lane road, then heard the tail gate slam down, i was just alittle hard on the gas

I've always thought a roofing business would go hand in hand with a mobile tire repair service...slow this week? lose a box of nails.:D

[toolaholic]

I lost a 6'x 12' chain link dog Kennel 6 months ago off My 18 yd .dump truck. Never made it to the dump. Put My redwing to the firewall on My big Cat engine. Probably still looking for Me!

[toolaholic]

Just remembered this horror story. Just unhooked the equeptment trailer from My dump.
I was on a good grade and had not chocked the wheels [Bob cat trailer]. Bumped it with truck.
Went about 30'down hill and hit a huge redwood tree ,THANK GOD! If it haden't, it would have taken out a House!. Larger trailers have air,this would never happen!

[westcoastplumber]

80' of 4" PVC pipe and a 6' ladder, I thought the helper tied it down, he though the jerk behind the wheel (me) tied it down, 2 seperate cases.

The pipe rolled of and followed me into a gas station, hitting some gas pumps, no damage.

The ladder slid off at a stop light and slid down the hood and under the car in front of us, very lucky.

I now triple check everything, or used to when I was tying stuff to the racks, I don't have racks anymore, so the problem has been solved for now..

[ToUtahNow]

One of the guys in my motorcycle club had just picked up his bike after it being in the repair shop from an earlier accident. As he and the mechanic headed out of town on the highway to attend a rally they saw a minivan in front of them with a mattress on top. As the mechanic went to pass the minivan the mattress became airborne and with no where for him to go it hit the second rider at highway speeds. Needless to say he ended up in a ditch with a destroyed bike and non-life threatening injuries. The minivan driver received a stronger than normal talking to by the mechanic.

Mark

[ToUtahNow]

Rick is prtobably one of the few here to remember the Skaug Roughin Trucks. I once made a short stop and lost a load of cast iron pipe off of the side of my truck.

Mark

[CPlumb]

Crack ,
So you are one of the folks who can stop traffic on 95 for HOURS on a Friday night !

OUCH !!

[plumberscrack]

Crack ,
So you are one of the folks who can stop traffic on 95 for HOURS on a Friday night !

OUCH !!

LOL you want some free advertising? Get your van on the six o'clock traffic report here :eek:

[drtyhands]

Rick is prtobably one of the few here to remember the Skaug Roughin Trucks. I once made a short stop and lost a load of cast iron pipe off of the side of my truck.

Mark

The production housing outfit I know still has two of the old chevy plumbing rough trucks.Rolling gas fab. is the only thing they are anymore.Windshields broken out.It always surprises me how he gets em from job to job.

[ToUtahNow]

The production housing outfit I know still has two of the old chevy plumbing rough trucks.Rolling gas fab. is the only thing they are anymore.Windshields broken out.It always surprises me how he gets em from job to job.

Those were great trucks and it was like you brought a portable 20,000 pound shop with you. Mine had a full 2" rack all the way to the front with a full cattle guard and twin buckets. Needless to say people use to stay out of my way when I was coming to a stop.

I thought you would enjoy this story because it is likely a freeway you spend a lot of time on. One night returning from a job in Beverly Hills I was Northbound on the 405 just north of Mulholland when the pin which held my brake pedal linkage to my master cylinder fell out. I ended up in rush-hour traffic with no brakes coming down the hill from the Sepulveda Pass. I used my gears as much as I could and cars were scattering everywhere. By the time I made it to the emergency lane the eastbound 101 was merging onto the Northbound 405. I decided to head across the ice plant and let a palm tree stop me. Inches before the Palm tree the truck came to a stop. I located the pin on the floor and made a quick repair and headed home. The next morning I payed a visit to the mechanic who had replaced the master cylinder a few days beforehand.

Mark

[Bob D.]

"Has anyone lost items off your truck while driving?"

When I was first out of HS I got a job driving for a local lumber yard. I had a 28' straight truck and a load of millwork and a stack of 60 some sheets of expensive cherry wall paneling (~$30/sht in the 70s) which was to be my first drop on the truck.

I left the yard and came to the first stop light where I would turn right. When the light changed I made the turn and looked in the mirror as I always did to make sure I was clear of other traffic as I turned. What do I see laying on the middle of the intersection but my stack of paneling!! One of the lock bars had come loose or was not secured properly and allowed the load to slide right out the back of the truck. It landed in a neat pile in the intersection. Too much traffic I had to go around the block and come back to get it. I was only a 1/4 mile from the yard but there were no cell phones back then and no radios in the truck so no way to summon help. I had to reload all the paneling by myself right there with all the cars honking as they drove by. Not fun.

After that I never left the dock that I didn't double check to load bars and that everything was tied down securely.

[haycad]

I HAD 2 4" X 20' STICKS OF SCH 80 TIED UP TOP WITH TWINE I WAS DOIN 40 MPH DOWN A STRAIGHT ROAD NOT PAYIN ATTENTION THERE WAS A FLAGGER WITH THE STOP SIGN UP AND WORKERS IN A 5' DITCH ACROSS THE ROAD I SLAMMED ON MY BREAKS ABOUT 30' AWAY THE 2 PIECES OF PIPE HIT THE ROAD IN FRONT OF ME KICK BACKED BLEW OUT MY WINDSHIELD THAN TAKE OFF LIKE TWO TORPEDOS AT THESE WORKERS THE FLAGGER JUMPS IN A DITCH AND THE THREE GUYS WORKIN IN THE HOLE HIT THE DECK AS THE PIPES ARE FLYING AT THEM. :confused: NOT TO MANY THINGS MORE EMBARRASING THAN STRAPPING UP YOUR PIPE ON YOUR VAN WITH A COMPANY NAME ON THE SIDE OF IT WITH ABOUT 15 P.O'D ROAD CREW GUYS GLARING AT YOU