Stuck in a Genie Lift today...boring

[Mule]

Rented a 40ft lift this morning. The guy unloaded it, and asked me if knew how to operate it.. I said sure, I've ran lots of them..So he leaves. About a hour or so later, I go to start it up, and click click, the key switch starts smoking. So I call the rental place, they said, he'll be right out.

So he comes out and it starts right up no problem....bla bla So I showed him the resistor and wire on the back of the switch that was melted. He got in the basket ran it up and down, and said it will be ok, just wont start from the basket.

So we used it for a hour or so, and then the one time we are both in the basket we get the boom up to the light pole we're working on and the thing dies......So after another phone call and a 30 minute wait, we are back on the ground....I told him load it up, dont call me untill its fixed...and I should bill you for our lost time....

Turns out the night before the pop-out breaker on the control circuit was tripping, so the mechanic shorted around it. DUH!! then he brings it to us the next morning.....then apparently after some time...it was toast...leaving us with the nice view of the town....

 

[480sparky]

.........
Turns out the night before the pop-out breaker on the control circuit was tripping, so the mechanic shorted around it. DUH!! then he brings it to us the next morning.....then apparently after some time...it was toast...leaving us with the nice view of the town....

If it was just a malfunction, they'd probably fight you on it. But since it was their shop that caused it, they should pony up.

How was the weather up there?:grin:

 

[cirving]

A few months ago I was in a scissor lift in a remote corner of a warehouse when the controller starts smoking then goes dead. It just so happens my cell phone screwed up at exactly the same time; the voice dial button was stuck on it preventing me from making a call. It’s the only time my phone has not worked in three years. I was there for about an hour

 

[Cow]

I've had to climb down a scissor lift more than once.....

Don't even get me started on rental companies lack of maintenance....

 

[Mule]

How was the weather up there?:grin:

Ha Ha....I had my hoody and a jean jacket, and jearsey gloves...and the son in law said shivering "wished I had my coat".........

 

[Cow]

So after another phone call and a 30 minute wait, we are back on the ground....I told him load it up, dont call me untill its fixed...and I should bill you for our lost time....

When that happens, if they don't think they can fix it quickly I usually have them bring out another lift and swap me out. These things always seem to break down right when you need them and there is nothing else you can do on the ground to stay busy. Fortunately, they usually don't have a problem with that, most of the time there is another available and I make it very clear their lift is now costing me money.

 

[Mule]

When that happens, if they don't think they can fix it quickly I usually have them bring out another lift and swap me out. These things always seem to break down right when you need them and there is nothing else you can do on the ground to stay busy. Fortunately, they usually don't have a problem with that, most of the time there is another available and I make it very clear their lift is now costing me money.

Ha, guess what we found also today.....these parking lot lights were in two banks with two contactors on the back of the building. One light that had one phase from one contactor and another phase from the other contactor....

The next light, (the one we got stuck in the lift) had the same phase hooked to both leads......duh

Then one other pole, the owner swears was working last week, and we pulled on the conductors which were 9ohms and the other was 22k to grnd...pulled on them, and here they come...pulled and pulled and looked at the end of the conductors, one was blown in two the other had pointed strands, indicating it had been pulled in two. Layed them out on the asphalt.....you guessed it...right in the middle of a pavement repair spot that looked several years old....

 

[Ed Carr]

I don't think I would rent from that outfit again. Scary.
BTW...so that's why we went 30 minutes without a new Mule thread!
I keed I keed :grin:

Ed

 

[Cow]

Nice.:roll:

The last one I had like that too, I pulled the broken conductors out, stretched them back out on the ground and they ended right at a fence post.....

Must of been the same guy.

 

[Mule]

I don't think I would rent from that outfit again. Scary.
BTW...so that's why we went 30 minutes without a new Mule thread!
I keed I keed :grin:

Ed

If only I'd had my laptop....

 

[peter d]

Reminds me of the time I had a scissor lift that would not drive forward while extended.

So it was raise lift, pull cable, drop lift, drive forward, raise, pull cable, drop, repeat. :roll:

 

[PCN]

Reminds me of the time I was installing 3/4" pipe at a bottling plant. I was crusing along about 18 feet up, stopping every 10 feet to hang another stick of emt, when all of a sudden the old lift leaned way hard to the right, and I mean way hard to the right! The lift alarm starts going off, I thought for sure I was going over.

Come to find out the night cleaning crew had not put the grate back in a floor drain (about 12X12) , I drove one of the front wheels right into it.

So I grab the bar joist over my head and hang on for dare life. Eventually I put my feet on the uphill side of the lift to be a counter weight and jogged the down switch until she staightened back up.

It was one of the scariest 5 minutes of my career.

Moral of the story: always carry a spare pair of boxers in the van

 

[LarryFine]

If only I'd had my laptop....

"A heart ..."
"A brain ..."
"De noive!"

 

[Mule]

Reminds me of the time I was installing 3/4" pipe at a bottling plant. I was crusing along about 18 feet up, stopping every 10 feet to hang another stick of emt, when all of a sudden the old lift leaned way hard to the right, and I mean way hard to the right! The lift alarm starts going off, I thought for sure I was going over.

Come to find out the night cleaning crew had not put the grate back in a floor drain (about 12X12) , I drove one of the front wheels right into it.

So I grab the bar joist over my head and hang on for dare life. Eventually I put my feet on the uphill side of the lift to be a counter weight and jogged the down switch until she staightened back up.

It was one of the scariest 5 minutes of my career.

Moral of the story: always carry a spare pair of boxers in the van

WTT....(wiping the tears).....that's funny...I bet not at the time, but it is now!! :smile:

I was working on a 45ft'r genie, working on a overhead hoist, way up about 3 decks up, booms all the way out, standing on the rails....there was this stack that had steam coming out of it with a few drips blowing over on me....didnt think that much about it...then I started feeling like, I was stinging or something....turns out the stack had a light acid in it....thought I smelled something funny... turned in a incident report and they had it raised up further.

 

[wireguru]

I was in a building with a 30something foot high dropped ceiling. I am in a gasoline powered boom lift with the top of the railing right up to the ceiling, and me standing in the basket but up in the ceiling. The lift is right inside a large rollup door, and i am extended out over a room full of furniture and stuff. I had to keep bumping it from side to side so I could reach what I was working on so I didnt turn it off. I ran out of gas, and couldnt be manually lowered. It took someone two or three trips with gas can to get enough gas in it for it to start. I was in that ceiling for a couple hours.....

 

[480sparky]

I recall using a 60' lift to get to the top of a 50' standpipe. Wilst up there working, little did I know there was a slight hydraulic leak in the lift, and it slowly went back down without me.

Luckily, I had a two-way radio, and was able to call co-workers for help.

 

[quogueelectric]

Rented a 40ft lift this morning. The guy unloaded it, and asked me if knew how to operate it.. I said sure, I've ran lots of them..So he leaves. About a hour or so later, I go to start it up, and click click, the key switch starts smoking. So I call the rental place, they said, he'll be right out.

So he comes out and it starts right up no problem....bla bla So I showed him the resistor and wire on the back of the switch that was melted. He got in the basket ran it up and down, and said it will be ok, just wont start from the basket.

So we used it for a hour or so, and then the one time we are both in the basket we get the boom up to the light pole we're working on and the thing dies......So after another phone call and a 30 minute wait, we are back on the ground....I told him load it up, dont call me untill its fixed...and I should bill you for our lost time....

Turns out the night before the pop-out breaker on the control circuit was tripping, so the mechanic shorted around it. DUH!! then he brings it to us the next morning.....then apparently after some time...it was toast...leaving us with the nice view of the town....

You made me laugh thank god noone got hurt.

 

[Ed Carr]

Was in the basket of a 60' Genie setting a 40' light pole.
I ran one of the wheels onto a frozen mound of snow and
when I swung the boom around one of the back wheels
came about a foot off the ground. The basket felt like
it dropped about 10'. Clean boxers in the truck...priceless!
Set poles like that again..never!
Ed

 

[Fulthrotl]

So he comes out and it starts right up no problem....bla bla So I showed him the resistor and wire on the back of the switch that was melted. He got in the basket ran it up and down, and said it will be ok, just wont start from the basket.

flag on the play right there.... sounds like most of us have had a hung out
to dry story... mine was a hung out to soak story.... i don't go up on squat
anymore unless it works well....

doing a festoon cable on a crane in san pedro.... all by myself on the end of
a quay, half a mile from anyone... crane's not in service..... i've got sixty feet
of stick, and am about 30 feet out over the water.... it's a weekend....

and it dies and won't start.... and slowly starts bleeding off hydraulic fluid...
so, i am sinking into the sunset, and the basket is slowly starting to tip....
and there's a number to call for service, but my cellphone just isn't getting
quite enough of a signal to lock on...

by the time i got someone out there, my linemans bucky was swinging free
on it's hook, and i was sitting on the door of the bucket, everything was
bottomed out, and i was about 5' above the water, with the platform turned
ninety degrees.... the festoon rollers went in the water along with the rest
of the material that wouldn't fit in the lineman's bucky. then it started
drizzling... with a nice wind coming off the water, and it was winter. i've only
been colder a couple of times.

it was about 3 hours, being the spit wad on the end of the Popsicle stick.
if it got any later, i was gonna climb back on the boom, but my main
concern wasn't falling, it was getting out of the water, as there wasn't
anything within sight that i could get out of the water on, or with.

being up the creek without a paddle is still better than being in the creek
without a paddle......


randy

 

[Mule]

flag on the play right there.... sounds like most of us have had a hung out
to dry story... mine was a hung out to soak story.... i don't go up on squat
anymore unless it works well....

doing a festoon cable on a crane in san pedro.... all by myself on the end of
a quay, half a mile from anyone... crane's not in service..... i've got sixty feet
of stick, and am about 30 feet out over the water.... it's a weekend....

and it dies and won't start.... and slowly starts bleeding off hydraulic fluid...
so, i am sinking into the sunset, and the basket is slowly starting to tip....
and there's a number to call for service, but my cellphone just isn't getting
quite enough of a signal to lock on...

by the time i got someone out there, my linemans bucky was swinging free
on it's hook, and i was sitting on the door of the bucket, everything was
bottomed out, and i was about 5' above the water, with the platform turned
ninety degrees.... the festoon rollers went in the water along with the rest
of the material that wouldn't fit in the lineman's bucky. then it started
drizzling... with a nice wind coming off the water, and it was winter. i've only
been colder a couple of times.

it was about 3 hours, being the spit wad on the end of the Popsicle stick.
if it got any later, i was gonna climb back on the boom, but my main
concern wasn't falling, it was getting out of the water, as there wasn't
anything within sight that i could get out of the water on, or with.

being up the creek without a paddle is still better than being in the creek
without a paddle......


randy

YOU took the cake, that's a good one, that would have been a cold 30ft swim.....burr!!

My only other lift story, is running out of fuel in a bucket truck while stretching some tri-plex.....Same story, out in the boonies....boom's too steep...So I stripped all of the 1/4 rope off of the fence stretcher and come down the rope to the ground. Burning my thighs on the rope, even through my levi's....what a day!!