Knight
Well-known Member
I was reflecting on the stories oldman has posted. One of many stories I remember when I had the least boring job.
As a heavy equipment field mechanic this repair stands out as one of my most difficult.
I was called to repair the tracks on a caterpillar D-7 bulldozer. Somehow the dozer spun breaking the track pins on both tracks.
The dozer operator was about 4 miles back into the mountain cutting a new road. It was cold, ground was frozen with some snow still visible. Because the "road" wasn't ready for truck travel, getting my tools back took innovation. Use of a John Deere 450 dozer towing a blasting mat like the one in this picture
https://www.tmi2001.com/products/blasting-mats/ was loaded with the tools/equipment I needed. Explaining the process would take more than even I would want to read.
This video shows the difficulty.
.
I didn't have the luxury of an open field on a warm sunny day.
The repair I had to do was to use the same tracks. The tracks were already separated [pins broken] so the pins & bushings had to be removed & replaced. Once the tracks were ready, I used a cable come along like this to pull the track ends together.
https://www.harborfreight.com/8000-...MIjIzV66Pv-QIVfcLCBB15NQjNEAQYASABEgInhPD_BwE
It was a two day process without help. That kind of "don't know what to expect" on a daily basis is what made my job so worthwhile. No boss, no books on "how to" just figure it out so crews could get their work done.
As a heavy equipment field mechanic this repair stands out as one of my most difficult.
I was called to repair the tracks on a caterpillar D-7 bulldozer. Somehow the dozer spun breaking the track pins on both tracks.
The dozer operator was about 4 miles back into the mountain cutting a new road. It was cold, ground was frozen with some snow still visible. Because the "road" wasn't ready for truck travel, getting my tools back took innovation. Use of a John Deere 450 dozer towing a blasting mat like the one in this picture
https://www.tmi2001.com/products/blasting-mats/ was loaded with the tools/equipment I needed. Explaining the process would take more than even I would want to read.
This video shows the difficulty.
I didn't have the luxury of an open field on a warm sunny day.
The repair I had to do was to use the same tracks. The tracks were already separated [pins broken] so the pins & bushings had to be removed & replaced. Once the tracks were ready, I used a cable come along like this to pull the track ends together.
https://www.harborfreight.com/8000-...MIjIzV66Pv-QIVfcLCBB15NQjNEAQYASABEgInhPD_BwE
It was a two day process without help. That kind of "don't know what to expect" on a daily basis is what made my job so worthwhile. No boss, no books on "how to" just figure it out so crews could get their work done.
This is a true story. I should've handed in my resignation. I did leave a few months later.