What's your worst/funniest/oddball FU or disaster?

You blokes (and gals) must have a few stories to tell, in your road exploits? I know I've got enough to fill a book. Here's one, that provided some entertainment for us, back about 1976 or '77.

We were all sort of lazing around the workshop in Kulin, one afternoon .. where the brother and I were based at that time, as agricultural earthmovers .. because it was a Winters day, and work was slow.

I had just picked up one of our Cat D7's and brought it in from a job on a nearby farm, for a bit of maintenance, and we were working on it .. when one of the locals drove in, in a bit of panic.
This bloke jumped out and yelled out .. "Can you blokes help us out?? We've got an overturned concrete agitator truck, down at Jitarning!! .. and we need some assistance to get it upright again!! .. it's chock-full of concrete!!! .. "

Now, Jitarning was about 12kms away, a little siding on the Narrogin-Kulin Road .. and the story was, that a Pioneer Concrete truck bloke was barrelling out, pedal to the metal, from the batch plant at Narrogin, with a full load of concrete for a farmers new house pad .. and he'd missed his turnoff.
He'd gone to back up about 150 metres, and his reversing skills were obviously lacking .. because he'd backed up about 80 metres, then ran off the shoulder of the road .. and the truck promptly went arse-up, into the shoulder drain ..

We promptly chucked the D7 on the float and roared off down to the scene of the disaster .. to find the locals all standing around scratching their heads on what to do. There wasn't a decent crane within 100 kms, and the ACCO was fully loaded with 6yds of wet concrete, and was lying well and truly on her side, with the total weight probably around 22 or 23 tonnes.

The Pioneer truckie told us he'd been told to upright the truck as fast as he could, before the concrete set. There was no-one that had thought of hosing the concrete out, and that was probably too hard to organise, anyway.
So, we just discussed what we could do, and I said, "I'll get around the bottom side of the agitator with the D7, push up a bit of dirt for a cushion effect, and just have a go at pushing the truck upright" ..
One of the locals had already appeared with a tractor and chain, and had been trying, fruitlessly, to pull the truck upright.

I unloaded the D7 and drove in to the scrub alongside the truck .. promptly nearly got bogged .. because it was Winter, and the roadside drain was nice and wet and soft .. but I managed to push up a small amount of dirt, and pushed it up against the agitator bowl, and proceeded to lift the blade and move forward.
The truck stood upright surprisingly quickly and easily, while the bloke with the tractor and chain assisted.

I got off the dozer at the point where it appeared the truck was able to stand on its own feet again, O.K. .. and whilst walking around the dozer, promptly discovered that I had pulled up a big section of Telecom cable that ran alongside the roadside drain!! ..
This cable hadn't been buried properly anyway .. and it had been brought to the surface by the dozer tracks when I'd screwed around! ..
I just laid it back down carefully, and backed over it, and then backdragged some dirt over it. The last thing I wanted was a sizeable bill from Telstra to add to the disaster scene!!
At that point, my job finished, so we loaded up and took off back to town before it got dark, and left them all to it.

I never heard anything back from anyone, about what happened to the truck, the agitator, or the bloke driving .. but I guess they got the agitator cranked up once the truck was upright .. and emptied it .. and I'd guess the truck driver was probably in a new job the following week .. You know? .. the one where he says .. "Did you want fries with that?? .. "

1 track
that great stuff
and one thing is forsure you was telling a true story, unreal how you took some good pics ,as most people are in such a fuss to get the job done. thanks for sharing
the bloke holding his head is he ,the driver or the owner of the truck

one track

do you have any more dozer pictures, i operate a D10T at a gold mine where i work.
cheers melon

MR - Yeah, I seem to recall, the bloke holding his head in his hands is the truck driver! ..

I haven't got a lot of older dozer pics, I lost most in the house fire. I've posted a few pics on IBDozing many years ago, and ACME, in recent times, under "Ozdozer".

www.antiquecaterpillar.org

the bloke holding his head is he ,the driver or the owner of the truck

He's wearin' gumboots, he's looking a tad distressed , yep, he's gotta be the steerin' wheel attendant. [smiley=grin.gif]

regards greenie [smiley=vrolijk_1.gif]

HI OZ , you sneaky bugger, Here checking out what other forums swishy is corrupting ian.

Hi Pat,I put a few Dozer pics on the Heritage site about a month ago.The club went for a run which included going over to Bert Thiess`s,and he`s got a pretty fair collection of Caterpillars,have a look on the photo page.
www.heritagetruckassociation.com.au/inde...view&id=32&Itemid=56

Here's a tale that still brings a smile to me dial when I think about it.
Posted it on another forum and it was not deleted, so try this lot.


THE PIG.


I had been on a couple of weeks holiday and when I returned, the truck I usually drive was not there, another driver had gone from Brisbane to Jabiru Uranium Mine, up in the Northern Territory with it.
The boss told me to take another Road Boss and tri axle trailer out and to load it for Jabiru. The idea being, that I was to travel to a place called Tambo, meet up with the driver of my horse,, then do a change over of horses, keeping the loaded trailer and head of to Jabiru Mine myself.
I met up with the other driver and was in the process of changing prime movers when he told me to be carefull when I went under the trailer to plug in the air leads. Asked the question WHY, was immediately told that he had hit a wild pig up near a small place called Ilfracombe, well, you just don't go near the blood and guts of a squashed pig, they just stink, even when freshly killed. So, I carefully asked exactly where this event had occured, he told me the third rise heading east out from Ilfracombe, I put that into the memory bank, you really want to miss the dead ones, at all costs.
Left Tambo and later that day, sure enough, heading west bound about 3 kays east of Ifracombe, the pig, boy, it was a bloody BIG tusker too, right smack bang in the middle of the east bound lane.

Took me three days to get up to Jabiru Mine and another three days to get back to Ilfracombe, I remembered the pig and sure enough this thing was going OFF, boy it was RIPE, a big cloud of blow flies hanging around the carcass and it was starting to get bloated. You could see that ALL of the traffic heading east had gone AROUND this stinker, road trains, semi trailers and cars had swerved over to the wrong side of the road to miss it, others had hit the dirt to the left, to avoid hitting this stinking great rotting carcass.

When I rounded the bend to come into Tambo, surprise, surprise, a loaded semi from my company was parked in the main street, pulled up to say Hi and was informed, 'NO' you aint goin' home, you goin' back up north to Jabiru 'AGAIN'. AAaahh $#!TE, ah well change trailers again and head north once more, coming towards Ilfracombe, well the pig's still there, ten million flys rise in a bloody great big cloud to greet you when you get near it.

So another three days drive to get there to Jabiru and another three days to get back again.

As I left Longreach, a taxi drops in behind, this taxi had the driver and three bods with big broad rimmed hats, dead giveaway that this was a QR train crew for a change-over with another crew from the the railways. The road is rather narrow from Longreach to Ilfracombe and about the only places that this taxi could pass me, was where the road widen at a causeway , so I gave him every opportunity to overtake me where he could, right blinker a couple of flicks and slow down so he could do it safely, BUT, NO, he just didn't want to overtake.
All he did when I moved to the left, was just drive in the middle of the road. Tried again, as I got into the wide main street at Ilfracombe, nope, he just wanted to stay back there, this was starting to get a bit annoying after about 25 kays, trying to help him and him not doing the job.
As I left Ilfracombe I looked up the road and there was the PIG, boy, this thing was about to go POP, it had risen like a sponge cake in the oven, it was a whopper. Tried again to see what this taxi would do when I blinked and hit the dirt, he just rode the white line with his right hand wheels. AH- HA, the penny dropped and an evil grin formed, I rode the white line meself,so he COULD NOT see or know about the pig, got up close and blinked and swerved in the dirt, kicked up a big cloud of dust so he couldn't see, looked in the mirror and saw he just rode the white line again,which put his left hand wheels smack in line with this great big bloated stinking pig carcass. Boy, was it ripe when I shot passed it, I could even smell it, it was oozing all over the road and then the taxi hit it. I saw the side of the taxi bounce twice over this carcass, by now I'm out in fresh air, no dust and watch the taxi screech to a halt at a funny angle in the middle of the highway, four doors fly open and four bodies are seen running like hell from the car.

Me, I just got a bloody big smile across me dial and I'm chuckling away at what has just happened, then I start to think what the conversation would be going on between these four blokes, " you get in and drive it,--- NO YOU GET IN AND DRIVE.", more laughter from me.

This time when I come around the corner into Tambo, nope, no "red" truck, whew, I'm allowed to go home at last, you beauty.

Still, get a smile thinking about this, even 30 years after it happened, just one of those things that kind of stick in the grey matter, eh.

regards greenie [smiley=vrolijk_1.gif]

one of the many machines that i operate at work

MR - That looks like an easy drive compared to my old D7's ..

My middle nephew runs a stack of new Cats .. I think he's up to about 25 now .. he's got a few of the latest "T" models, D8T and D9T, and they are sure comfortable compared to the oldies ..