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Thread: Worse freakin' night ever!

  1. 04-23-2009 08:38 AM #1
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    carlos64030
    carlos64030 is offline Member carlos64030 is an unknown poster at this point. Don't let him/her around power tools just yet.
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    Default Worse freakin' night ever!

    Sooooo..... last night I dropped my loaded trailer in an abandoned Home Depot parking lot so I could make a quick run into a neighborhood that a trailer couldn't get into. Threw on my kingpin lock and made sure everything was secure. Took off and came back about 20 minutes later to hook back up.

    As I'm pulling up to my trailer, I started thinking to myself that something just doesn't look right. The parking lot is completely dark because of the store not being in use, therefore the street lamps weren't turned on. I get out of my truck and walk up to my trailer to see that that the landing gear had broken through the concrete and had sunken to about 2.5 feet into the freakin' earth!

    At this point I'm thinkin' that I'll probably have to call for a crane to lift the trailer out of the holes. I decided to try to get myself outta this situation before I called someone to spoon feed money to. I started crankin' away at the landing gear, hoping like hell that there would be enough travel left to get the front of the trailer raised to a somewhat workable level.

    I cranked the landing gear down to it's absolute limit and dropped the bags on my truck. Luckily, I had just enough clearance to get the tapered end of the frame on my truck under the lip of the trailer. Started backing in, buuuuuuut of course I still didn't have enough clearance because I couldn't get the trailer to clear the rear tractor tires.

    I thought that surely there had to be some wood laying around somewhere in the back of the abandoned building since it was at some point a Home Depot.... at least that's what I was hoping. I walked to the back of the building, and to my surprise there was a bunch of wood that was usable.

    I grabbed a couple of blocks and began my journey back to the front of the building which seemed like a freakin' mile long walk. I threw the wood down and climbed back into my truck and turned on the AC because of course I'm sweatin' my ass off at this point. Sat there for a few, aired the bags back up and went back to the trailer to raise the landing gear. Got the landing gear up and placed the wood underneath.

    Started to lower the landing gear again, and everything seemed to be going well until I hear the wood start to crack. I cautiously cranked on the landing gear a little more and hoped that there would be enough clearance for I started to fear that the wood would eventually break. I quickly climbed back into my truck, dumped the air in the bags again and attempted to back under.

    I was able to get under the trailer a little more but still not enough to clear the edge of the fifth wheel.



    In a last desperate attempt, which is probably what I should've done from the very beginning once I got the landing gear out of the ground, I reattached the air lines and slowly pushed the trailer back to solid ground. I then lowered the landing gear again, dumped the air in the bags, and then was finally able to hook back up to my trailer.

    What did I learn from this hour and a half of BS? Use extreme caution on what type of surface you drop a heavily loaded trailer onto.


    BTW.... my load weighed 45,111 pounds.
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  2. 04-23-2009 09:29 AM #2
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    Get yourself a couple of 2X8 pieces of hardwood lumber, and put them in your side box. The next time you drop a loaded trailer (especially on someone else's property), put those under your landing gear to prevent this scenario from happening again.
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  3. 04-23-2009 09:53 AM #3
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    Well..the good thing, is that you got yourself out. It would not have been fun to call a wrecker to come out. That would have been a nice bill to pay.


    http://watsonsysco.com/
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  4. 04-23-2009 10:27 AM #4
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    Quote Originally Posted by Rev.Vassago View Post
    Get yourself a couple of 2X8 pieces of hardwood lumber, and put them in your side box. The next time you drop a loaded trailer (especially on someone else's property), put those under your landing gear to prevent this scenario from happening again.

    Yep.... went out this morning and found myself two big solid hunks of wood for future use if needed.
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  5. 04-23-2009 10:34 AM #5
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    You did all that in an hour and a half!!! You did real good
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  6. 04-23-2009 01:52 PM #6
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    Junky concrete if it couldn't stand up to that weight. Musta only been about 4 inches thick instead of at least 8 inches and reinforced for a parking lot area. My company did a lot that was 10 inches thick with #5 rebar in it. Had to withstand 100K lbs sitting on it and bouncing.
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  7. 04-23-2009 06:13 PM #7
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    I would consider you lucky that someone didn't see you and make you pay for the repairs to the concrete.
    "I love college football. It's the only time of year you can walk down the street with a girl in one arm and a blanket in the other, and nobody thinks twice about it." --Duffy Daugherty


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  8. 04-23-2009 06:22 PM #8
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    If thats your worst night ever then you're doing pretty good.
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  9. 04-23-2009 09:23 PM #9
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    I would have saved myself all that hard work and just dialed 911!
    Remember... friends are few and far between.

    TRUCKIN' AIN'T FOR WUSSES!!!

    "I am willing to admit that I was wrong." The Rev.
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  10. 04-23-2009 09:42 PM #10
    Uturn2001
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    I wonder if the area you dropped the trailer was really concrete. The customer parking lot of our Home Depot is only asphalt. The only parts of the lot that are concrete are the pad in front of the exit doors (customer loading area), the truck docks, and a strip along one side of the store next to lawn and garden they sometimes drop pallets onto.
    Finding the right trucking company is like finding the right person to marry. I really comes down to finding one whose BS you can put up with and who can put up wih yours.
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  11. 04-23-2009 10:41 PM #11
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    I went back to that abandoned lot today just to have a better look. The surface was asphalt that looked sorta grayish. The lot was in reeeeeally bad shape! All sorts of ripples and bubbles on the entire surface. It was busted up pretty bad as well in quite a few places. Just to get an idea of how soft the surface was, the wood that I used for the landing gear actually left an impression in the asphalt.
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  12. 04-24-2009 09:11 AM #12
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    Its not good to drop a loaded trailer on asphalt....especially in warm weather....
    Forrest Gump was right....and some people literally strive to prove it.....everyday. Strive not to be one of "them".... And "lemmings" are a dime a dozen!

    Remember: The "truth WILL set you free"! If it doesn't "set you free"....."it will trap you in the cesspool of your own design".

    They lost my original "avatar"....oh well.

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  13. 04-25-2009 03:41 PM #13
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    And I am sure Carlos made sure to contact the property owner to make restitution for the damage he did to the lot.

    Is it no wonder more and more places don't want trucks on their lots?
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  14. 04-25-2009 05:23 PM #14
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    Quote Originally Posted by Part Time Dweller View Post
    And I am sure Carlos made sure to contact the property owner to make restitution for the damage he did to the lot.

    Is it no wonder more and more places don't want trucks on their lots?
    Even without dropping the trailer, just parking a load on it will press the wheels down and leave depressions. Also, when turning tandems, the two sets of duals working against each other can pull the blacktop apart and leave some pretty good cracks. And, that's not even getting into bags of trash left behind or the "infamous" PEE-BOTTLES.... Not at all surprising that you're not Welcome at Wal-Mart anymore.
    Destroy the cities...
    and they will rebuild them.
    Destroy the farms...
    and grass will grow in the streets of the cities.

    Destroy the economy of the blue-collar worker...
    and grass will grow in the executive offices.

    The bill has come due.
    ( R E T I R E D , and glad of it)

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  15. 04-26-2009 01:12 PM #15
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    Another trick, if anyone is in this situation.

    If the frame of your tractor will make it under the lip of the trailer, back up and dump the air bags. Put your blocks across the frame rails, inflate the air bags, put something under the landing gear, rinse and repeat until the trailer is high enough.
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  16. 04-27-2009 11:28 AM #16
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    Quote Originally Posted by Part Time Dweller View Post
    And I am sure Carlos made sure to contact the property owner to make restitution for the damage he did to the lot.

    Is it no wonder more and more places don't want trucks on their lots?

    As I did mention, the lot was already heavily damaged and has been abandoned for at least the past 5 years.
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  17. 04-27-2009 04:12 PM #17
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    Quote Originally Posted by carlos64030 View Post
    As I did mention, the lot was already heavily damaged and has been abandoned for at least the past 5 years.
    So in other words, no. Nice.
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  18. 04-27-2009 05:13 PM #18
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    Quote Originally Posted by Part Time Dweller View Post
    So in other words, no. Nice.
    I would have done the samething he did. If the whole parking lot is a dump whats the point. ?? you will be paying to mill and pave the whole parking lot befoe it was over with.

    Carlos you did the right thing. Im sure if PT Dweller was in your shoes he would have just left like you did.
    Truck Driving an occupation consisting of hours of boredom interrupted by sheer terror!!

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  19. 04-27-2009 07:11 PM #19
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    I had something similar happen to me. I dropped a loaded bark trailer at a trucking company just outside of town. When I called them they said "You sure can drop the trailer but we are having everybody put wood under the landing gear because it is soft". So they gave me 3 4x4's to put under the pads. The next day my trailer and the other 2 that were parked on each side of me were all sunk in about 6", 4x4's and all. Now that is soft! The company just ran their big endloader under the nose of the trailer and rolled the bucket back and up it came.
    Don't trust anybody. Especially that guy in the mirror.
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  20. 04-28-2009 05:01 PM #20
    jagerbomber3.0
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    Quote Originally Posted by Part Time Dweller View Post
    So in other words, no. Nice.

    Some people just like to get on here and act like they do the perfect thing every single time knowing damn well they wouldnt have done it differently. Anyone that believes this guy would have gone to the trouble of finding out the name and phone number of the owner of this abandoned lot and trying to pay for 2 landing gear sized square holes in an already damaged torn up parking lot,please stand up and raise your hand because i have some seriously good real estate opportunites i would like to get you in on!
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