Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

[Sport Rider]

I'm pretty sure he was never issued one.

[wedooit]

I get phone calls everyday from drivers (fuel hauler drivers) (we do cargo tank work and inspections) asking questions....I try to be as polite as I can, as those guys are trying to make a living, and feed their family. Had a call the other day, leaking gasket....what should I do? Did you try to tighten it a bit, takes a 9/16 wrench? Driver....I don't carry tools. me..what gasket? Driver....on the pipe. Me....what pipe....and on and on. Then I said, take a pix and send it to me please. Next day....same driver....I have an inch pound torque wrench, what is the specs? I said, there is no specs, snug, don't squish the gasket out of the flange. Make sure the bolts are tite, the gasket shrinks, bolts come loose. Driver....what flange? I politely explained the flange is alum, round, 8 bolts, welds on the end of a 4.5 inch pipe. Later that afternoon...driver...gasket still leaking. Me...run it to me, I will change. Driver....I am in WY., me....when you get back to Pocatello run it by me. Couple of days later, I get the trailer for a 10 minute gasket change, I have on hand couple hundred flange gaskets and a bolt supply that would make the local farm store envious. Around the leaking flange gasket, is two rubber gloves, bungee corded. Still leaking. I headed around the back my shop, laughed so hard I almost peed my pants. I was still laughing, and didn't remember to take pictures to send to his truck manager.

[cheesy]

I feel your pain. One of my favorite sayings around the shop is, “I hate customers”.

Got a hydraulic, hydraulic mind you, impact wrench in one day for repair. Tag said, “Leaks air.” Did I say it was hydraulic?

Had a gas rail saw come in with a cracked fuel tank. Tag on that one said, “Coughed on fire.”

I have almost a quarter century worth of the railroad version and the same amount for factory/parts & service.

[bogieboy]

Originally Posted by cheesy

I feel your pain. One of my favorite sayings around the shop is, “I hate customers”.

Got a hydraulic, hydraulic mind you, impact wrench in one day for repair. Tag said, “Leaks air.” Did I say it was hydraulic?

Had a gas rail saw come in with a cracked fuel tank. Tag on that one said, “Coughed on fire.”

I have almost a quarter century worth of the railroad version and the same amount for factory/parts & service.

i have had a few lawn mowers come in like that.....LOL usually the cause is leaves packed densely around the muffler....

[wedooit]

Got to laughing here this morning!!! Thanks for sharing yours! The guys I deal with are really trying to make a living and feed their families....and I always remember that, as I have been doing this for 27 years. Anyways, had another funny glove story. Had a driver call me and said he hit a post and had a leaking pipe. ok....lets begin the 50 questions...what pipe, where is it, what is leaking, why is it leaking, how big problem, is pipe alum or steel....etc? Driver answers question as best as he can. Trailer shows up, big hole in load/unload alum pipe. Extra large, long, rubber glove taped, bungee corded, wire, over large hole. How is that suppose to work? I never ridicule, but go somewhere and just laugh maof!!!

[wedooit]

I just gotta laugh some more.....this happened this week. Really nice fellow, hard working older gent, has a couple of trucks/tanks and haul thiosol, etc. Non code, non spec tank. Calls, has a leak. Older trailer and a piece of crap, and this owner knows it, and needs to get buy for another few months to purchase another used trailer. ok...20 questions....etc...send me some pictures. I got pictures. Called this fellow back, then he proceeds to tell me false alarm as had rained and water running off top of trailer. He and I both had a great laugh!!


The best story is all these trailers have some kind of overfill protection system and the generic term is like "Kleenex" is...this term is "scully." Driver goes to load rack to load. Calls me...scully don't work. 50 questions....does monitor have lites or power, driver I don't know. ok go look, yes no lites. me...plug and unplug trailer connector on back of truck.....ok has lites, but wont load. Me...what lites at rack are lit (there is lites at rack that tells basically what the problem is) driver....what lites? he goes and looks, says lite on the right. me....under the lite says what is problem, please go look again. he comes back, says it has a circle with a line thru it or something like that. I ask where are you...he says in Idaho. I ask where in Idaho are you loading? what rack? I asked ….go look again and tell me the words on the box that has a red lite. driver finally admits it is the ground hog side. Then he asks what that is, and then says the other lite is permissive, and asks what that is. So I explain what all that means. Then driver call me back and says he can load. ok...but the problem does not self cure or go away. The system is finicky! I don't hear from the dude for time. Calls me back a week or two later.....same problem, same 50 questions. So I always say, "it cant be fixed while your going up and down the road." Lots of the time, the blue wire thru the power cord gets corroded somewhere, and the volts on the volt meter jump up and down, have to watch the meter for a minute or two, and something strange usually appears. Sometimes a corroded ground, or corroded hot wire, or loose wire. Sometimes takes hours to diagnose as the system is complicated, and everything can be intermittent. What gets to me, these poor dudes, trying to make a living (they do try and some of them leave at 2:00 am, long days), are clueless about their equipment. AND when they are hauling gas, they are driving a flammable bomb.

Just thought I would share a laugh on this rainy day!!!!

[cheesy]

Cost cutting measures started. Guess who they started with. Airline tickets for all field service staff (Jason and I) must go through Al. Al will use the amassed Amex points to purchase tickets for us. So far, the cost savings are in the red. Why? Because Al is a self serving idiot who doesn’t listen nor think ahead.
Jason and I are constantly having to change flights for brush fires all over the country. The ‘Basic Economy’ tickets that Al purchases cannot be changed. Therefore, Jason and I are having to purchase last minute full fare tickets. So far, Jason has spent $1300 to cover those. Also, Jason and I both have Global Entry and TSA Pre-Check, which the company paid for. Whatever Al has done, we don’t get to use Pre-check now. Also, Jason and I are both AA Platinum, which entitles us to two free checked bags and priority boarding. Don’t get that. So, I paid $70 to check two normally free bags and paid $95 to get seats with legroom that would also be free.
Great cost savings.

[minimac]

Is there anyone that is in charge of anything there that has two working brain cells to rub together? At the rate they are 'saving' money, they'll be out of business in a year-or less!

[bogieboy]

Originally Posted by minimac

Is there anyone that is in charge of anything there that has two working brain cells to rub together? At the rate they are 'saving' money, they'll be out of business in a year-or less!

by the sounds of it, the only one left with braincells to rub together created this thread...

[cheesy]

I survived this week without a major meltdown though I did read the riot act to a couple of people I’m trying to train. It’s gotta be the water. I swear, stuff that took half a day to do in Elgin, by myself, takes two and a half days, with three people, in Beaufort.

The Chief Engineer and I reached a truce of sorts. If he stops being an arrogant prick and starts listening when experience is speaking, I will stop being a grouchy old fart who tells him he’s flat effing wrong and proving it. It also turns out we have a common enemy in our so called QC dept. QC DS(dipshit)passed some bolts he measured wrong. CE and I were testing a hydraulic manifold that doused me when when we put 1500psi to it. We found out the QC DS measured the bolts for overall length instead from the base of the head, so the supposed 2 1/4” bolt was actually 1 7/8”. I had the QC DS show me how he measured the bolts then had him come and stand next to the manifold when I put pressure to it. The CE grinned while QC DS called me every name in the book. Told him to complain to someone who cared and that anything he inspects in the future is suspect in my eyes. He did complain to several managers and was shutdown.

CE and I found another problem with the manifold and we both agreed that a .070 cross section o-ring will not seal a .090 deep cavity, no matter how much you tighten the fitting. Not to spec machining passed by QC.

Two years.

[bogieboy]

Originally Posted by cheesy

I survived this week without a major meltdown though I did read the riot act to a couple of people I’m trying to train. It’s gotta be the water. I swear, stuff that took half a day to do in Elgin, by myself, takes two and a half days, with three people, in Beaufort.

The Chief Engineer and I reached a truce of sorts. If he stops being an arrogant prick and starts listening when experience is speaking, I will stop being a grouchy old fart who tells him he’s flat effing wrong and proving it. It also turns out we have a common enemy in our so called QC dept. QC DS(dipshit)passed some bolts he measured wrong. CE and I were testing a hydraulic manifold that doused me when when we put 1500psi to it. We found out the QC DS measured the bolts for overall length instead from the base of the head, so the supposed 2 1/4” bolt was actually 1 7/8”. I had the QC DS show me how he measured the bolts then had him come and stand next to the manifold when I put pressure to it. The CE grinned while QC DS called me every name in the book. Told him to complain to someone who cared and that anything he inspects in the future is suspect in my eyes. He did complain to several managers and was shutdown.

CE and I found another problem with the manifold and we both agreed that a .070 cross section o-ring will not seal a .090 deep cavity, no matter how much you tighten the fitting. Not to spec machining passed by QC.

Two years.

wow.... a QC guy that cant measure a bolt?!?!?!?!?! im just a lowly tractor mechanic and even I know you only measure the shank/threads, not the head....

[cheesy]

Originally Posted by bogieboy

wow.... a QC guy that cant measure a bolt?!?!?!?!?! im just a lowly tractor mechanic and even I know you only measure the shank/threads, not the head....

I’m tellin’ ya, something’s in the water.

[cheesy]

I swear, I am going to buy me Cretors Popcorn Cart and start selling nickel bags.

Two major shitstorms happened today and I started one of them. The one I am not involved in concerns a mondo expensive truck at a southern transit that was sent to Beaufort for required modifications. Said truck was almost 30 days late being sent back and arrived at the customer with a seriously damaged drive train. To say the customer is pissed is an understatement. Add the condescending email from the CE that the customer didn’t know what they were talking about threw fuel on that fire.

Mine involved that used crane that I went to Beaufort to train people on installing some options. Let’s just say what I did were the only things that were done right. The crane arrived to the customer missing parts, missing manuals, had no low range in the transmission, the high rails were not synced, oil and filter changes were not done, attachments were not inspected and were missing parts or had internal damage. Beaufort had four months to make things right.
I got it all fixed and still managed to get the operators trained but the two big shots from the customer pulled me aside and told me that they sent a scathing email to our sales rep, my boss, Harold, and Al, the CEO in name only, about the condition the crane and attachments upon delivery. I made that suggestion to them. They also said in the email that the only reason that equipment was not loaded on a truck and sent back were due to my efforts to make it right. What really got the attention at Beaufort was that this customer was poised to purchase several thousand dollars worth of equipment next year and they decided to take that off the table now.

I heard that Harold told Al and the CE that the only qualified people in the whole company were Jason and I.

[cheesy]

It took seven weeks but I finally wrapped up that high buck cluster in PA this morning. I am sick of looking at. Back to Iowa on Monday for the cluster there. That one should be fairly simple.

Now there are rumblings of sending me to Quebec, in the winter, to deal with another Beaufort eff-up. Not thrilled about it and even Harold is fighting that one. Actually, not even interested. May just tell them, not my problem.

[Darkrider]

Any updates El Cheesy one?