ahardb0dy Posted December 7, 2013 Share Posted December 7, 2013 Was inside this property where they have a bunch of basins to collect excess reclaim water that the plant produces, never been at this place before and my partner and I decided to have a look around, no one else was there and we started to drive past the entrance and were heading towards the South end of the property when I drove into some sugar sand: I was ready to call for a tow truck but my partner found some pieces of wood that they normally use when pipe is delivered, they use the wood to separate the rows of pipe, so he brought 4 over and we put one behind each of the rear tires, was able to back the truck up onto the wood, than he got two more pieces and we put them under the inside rear tires, once I backed up onto them and the front tires were up on the wood,, I just backed out in 4 low and kept going until I was on solid ground !!! Next pic shows how far we were into the soft stuff and how far I had to back up, I had to get the truck from where it was to where the pipe was stacked up in the back ground !! At least we were able to get out on our own and didn't have to call in for a tow truck, not good to be stuck where you are not supposed to be !!! Only damage was the pass. rear mud flap support broke off but it can be re-welded on one day, the mud flaps are so long they almost touch the ground. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bushnut Posted December 7, 2013 Share Posted December 7, 2013 i hate sand Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ahardb0dy Posted December 7, 2013 Author Share Posted December 7, 2013 (edited) I didn't even lock the hubs before starting to drive where I was, thought the ground was firmer than it actually was !! Our trucks, especially this one are so heavy being the F-550 Diesel and the dual rear tires, they don't like sand very much !! I was talking to my partner about one of the older trucks one of the guys used to drive at work it was a F-350 4x4 sitting on 33's, I said that truck probably would have had no problems in the soft sand, even if you aired down these dually tires you wouldn't get much more width out of them compared to airing down a 12.50" wide tire. Plus these trucks don;t have the best ground clearance to begin with. The first two pics don't look like the truck is in to deep and that is because we already shoveled a lot of sand away from the tires. Edited December 7, 2013 by ahardb0dy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ahardb0dy Posted December 7, 2013 Author Share Posted December 7, 2013 Than to continue how bad Friday started, around 11 ish I broke a 2" valve that we thought was a 24" valve that we were looking for, broke it in the closed position so the hotel has no water for their irrigation system until next week, the valve is in the sidewalk so that makes it slightly more work to get too !!, (we later found the 24" valve we were looking for covered by grass !) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
devonianwalk Posted December 7, 2013 Share Posted December 7, 2013 Hmmm ... planets not in alignment for you guys on Friday? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ahardb0dy Posted December 7, 2013 Author Share Posted December 7, 2013 Guess you could say that ! LOL Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Precise1 Posted December 7, 2013 Share Posted December 7, 2013 You should be running 35" Baja Claws on it, then you wouldn't have any issue... i hate sand Sand is normally only an issue if you are overloaded/too heavy, don't have decent tires and don't air down. That said, some types are worse than others. Than to continue how bad Friday started, around 11 ish I broke a 2" valve that we thought was a 24" valve that we were looking for, broke it in the closed position so the hotel has no water for their irrigation system until next week, the valve is in the sidewalk so that makes it slightly more work to get too !!, (we later found the 24" valve we were looking for covered by grass !) Just out of curiosity, 2" valves and 24" valves look the same? *something about 22" difference* B Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rebelord Posted December 7, 2013 Share Posted December 7, 2013 I bet it was actual location compared to design plans they probably had on hand. Sent from my Moto X! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Inyourface1650 Posted December 7, 2013 Share Posted December 7, 2013 I think you have gotten that F550 stuck more then I have gotten my pathy stuck in the last 5 years 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
devonianwalk Posted December 7, 2013 Share Posted December 7, 2013 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ahardb0dy Posted December 8, 2013 Author Share Posted December 8, 2013 (edited) "I think you have gotten that F550 stuck more then I have gotten my pathy stuck in the last 5 years " Some times it's by accident and some times it's from being where I shouldn't be ! LOL Like yesterday, If I started this thread back when we used to have the GMC 1.5 ton trucks there would be about 10 more instances of getting stuck, one time I got stuck on a side road that was under construction and got towed out by a tow truck than the very next day one street over got stuck again, the tow truck driver (same guy) pulled me out but never told me to stop so I hit the back of his tow truck !! The GMC's were so bad you would get stuck pulling to the side of the road on grass !!! And back than only the foreman's could have a 4x4, now ALL our trucks are 4x4's, my regular F-550 utility truck had a sticker of $50K ! "Just out of curiosity, 2" valves and 24" valves look the same?" You only see a round valve box that sits at grade, if in the grass there is a concrete collar around the round box, if in the road or concrete than all you see is the round lid, Most valves use a 2" square operating nut and if the valve is real deep they use an extension on top of the valve nut Here are a few pics to show you, you can't tell what size a valve is if it is installed with out turning it and on a normal gate valve typically it works like this, the size of the valve times 3 gives the number of turns to close, example a 6" gate valve will normally be 18-21 turns to fully close, a butterfly valve you can not use the same times the size by 3 as butterfly valves use gears so a 30" butterfly valve depending on the gearing inside could be 100 turns or 770 turns, few pics: Valve box in grass with concrete collar: Valve box in concrete: Gate valve cut-a-way, you can see the square operating nut on the top (black part): Edited December 8, 2013 by ahardb0dy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Precise1 Posted December 8, 2013 Share Posted December 8, 2013 Ahh, cool, that makes sense now. Thanks for explaining that. B Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ahardb0dy Posted December 9, 2013 Author Share Posted December 9, 2013 Welcome, Sometimes it can be a pain in the rear area !! You can see for example on a particular corner on our GIS program (mapping) on our laptops, say it shows 3 valves on a corner, than when you actually get to said corner and get out of the truck you find 4 or 5 valves, now you need to figure out what is going on, x-ray glasses that can see into the ground would save a lot of time but you know how that goes ! LOL Sometimes you will get lucky and the 3 valves may be different sizes than you just have to close each one and count the turns to determine how big each one is and referring to the map you can figure out which one is which, it's the times when all the valves are the same size that becomes more work, now you have to use a metal probe rod ( T-handle with a 5' rod with a pointed tip), to probe into the ground to try and determine which way the pipe is running near each valve, works good if the valves are in the grass, if in the road you are SOA ! Other problem is if the mains are deeper than 5' than you can dig a trench first so the probe rod will reach further down, or come back later with a water probe, (1/2" hollow pipe connected to pump connected to 150 gallon water tank that pumps water thru the pipe to make probing easier, these also come in different lengths usually we have 8 and 10' rods), or if I call my boss his famous words would be "dig it up and verify where each valve is going" easy for you to say your sitting in your office !!!! So bottom line, if I happen to pull off the road to the wrong area ( like we did Friday) and put the machine on the valve I think is the 24" and the machine applies to much torque, which it shouldn't because it starts at 50 lbs and works up to 150, ( max is 750 lbs !), but the valve may be weak, or already broke, than I break it, now I created a job for another bunch of workers cause we don't fix what we break our selves the job goes to another crew, than they get pissed off at you for breaking it, LOL Job security for everyone I guess !!! enough rambling, back on topic ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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