Story Time....

[That Guy]

So, across the road from me and maybe 300 feet back, they are installing a new natural gas pipe line. It's 24" and ~1200 psi. BIG. Anyway, that means welders and trucks.

 

With Delta just having coming through, it has taken over 3 days for the pasture to return to its normal not swamp state. 

 

I was looking out of my garage when I hear a V8 through flowmasters revving up, I turn to see a 2000ish Chevy z71 pull out on the road and then what sounds like a he caught the gate and is dragging it. He stops after about 40 feet. Goes into reverse, stops goes forward and then comes screeching to a halt. Then he floors it and I hear what sounds like a drawer of silverware being fed into a V8 powered wood chipper.

 

Shortly thereafter... I hear a Ford whistling through a straight pipes in time to see him gun it and disappear into a huge splash of brown water.... and then silence. (I suspect that he sucked water into the intake) He immediately fires it back up and dies about 3 seconds later. Repeats this twice, then it stays running long enough for him to make about another 20 feet, and dies.

 

At this point, the Chevy is on the road with flashers on and the Ford is maybe 50 feet away. The Chevy guy yells to the other guy, "I broke it". They all pop the hood on the Ford and start looking around, still in the field but on solid dirt now, and find nothing visually wrong. Slam hood, fire it up, pull up another 20 feet... dies. At least the front tires are on the road now. Fires up again, sounds terrible, makes it up to road and back up to other truck where it dies again.

 

That leads to this scene in front of my house. They had come from the red gate to their right.

 

They give Chevy some tools, give some parting words, and proceed to die three more times in front of my house and then it stays running long enough to get out of my sight, still sounding like it's running on 6 of the 8 cylinders.

 

Now, Chevy sits here for probably 20 more minutes, they start hitting underneath it with a hammer. The neighbor and I go see what's up at this point. 

 

The rear differential is toast. The drive shaft spins free within it. The front drive shaft had been removed previously and they were now trying to sledge hammer it back into its mud caked receptacle (to no avail I'll add) in order to be able to drive back to West Monroe 2 hours away on the front axle power only. The front driveshaft had been removed because it would come loose after about 100 feet and start clunking. I should also say, the Chevy had only 126,000 on it.

 

He gives up and we start taking, his step father is coming to get him at this point, so we sit and talk for a bit.

 

 

 

Now for why this is in this forum...

 

Chevy guy's main truck and welding rig is a 2000 Ram 3500 with a 24 valve and an auto. It had just broken down (why he was driving the Chevy) because the security system went haywire and would go off when opening doors and the truck wouldn't start. It has 56,000 miles. He claims to be on his 3rd transmission.

 

He also has a Smarty on 5. He had a quadzilla that apparently caught fine from shorting out internally somehow and nearly burned his truck to the ground. "I heard some mexicans shouting and then one of them runs into the ditch were I was to tell me that my truck was on fire".

 

So to you folks here, have yall ever heard of a Quad catching fire or blowing through 2 transmissions in 56,000 miles? There seems to be a common denominator here, and guy seems to be VERY HARD on vehicles.

Edited October 14, 2020 by That Guy

[Dieselfuture]

I used to know a guy like that, good storyteller. Nice guy though, was fun hanging out with him never a dull moment. You don't live in Florida buy a chance do you? Because that's where he moved to.

[Towrigdually]

Sounds like a case of if you can’t dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with bs situations. 
I can say it sounds like he gets his money out of every vehicle he owns. 

[That Guy]

The scary part... Im almost certain that he does indeed have a 24v with 56k on it. He had pictures and the whole fuss with his family that was 2 hours away was, they had to drop his truck off at the local dodge dealership and then come get his chevy with his mothers truck and his inlaw's bosses trailer. It took them forever because they got it stuck on the trailer as it fell through one of the planks on the pass side by the dove tail so they yanked it off at the dealership.

 

I overheard all of this over his phone because it was so loud. 

 

Sure enough, they get here and there is a dirt encrusted tire track leading right into the missing board on the pass side of the trailer. 3 of them jump out and start getting everything ready and my neighbor pushes his truck up on the trailer with a tractor with a hay bale on the front. 

 

We hung out (we pulled him off the road into my driveway and got him up on ramps) and had a beer or two. 

 

Beyond what I picked up over his phone conversations and his stories, he is a character, with really bad luck with vehicles. And he thinks with his dipstick a lot, judging by his NSFW girl chasing stories.

 

I forgot to mention... He also has a 6.7 Ford that is broken down as well. Something about the injection pump.

Edited October 14, 2020 by That Guy

[LorenS]

One of my old bosses used to say that rig welders were even lower than whale excrement - he was a Navy man, so that's the Reader's Digest version. I would add "many" to that statement, based on my last 15 years of experience with them. Some are really great guys, but seem to be the exception, not the rule. The couple of women I've met in the profession were great. Being dependable, punctual, honest, and sober will go along way in this world!

[That Guy]

In my experience, most women who choose to work in a craft/trade/physical jobs are exemplary employees, among the best. My mother says it partially has to do with having to prove that they can handle the work. Of the 20 or so I know of, there is only one I wouldn't hire.