Your Most.Embarassing Moment?

Your Most.Embarassing Moment?

Author
Discussion

4key

10,752 posts

147 months

Thursday 9th August 2012
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Just been reminded of the actros that i jumped into for a quick job. Was sitting on a loading bay kicking stones about bored and decided to fill the empty washer bottle up with the 5 litre bottle i had seen in the side compartment.


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folos

900 posts

141 months

Monday 10th September 2012
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In a bus but i'm sure it's relevant!

Driving one of the oldest (S reg) buses in the fleet, of a type which we have around 100 in various sizes of every year up to 2003. Not long after i've started there and I took a wrong turning at 5am, ending up down a cul-de-sac, no room to turn a 10.9m bus around so my only option is to reverse out. Easy enough, right?

Press the brake pedal, engage reverse... nothing? Isolate, start it back up and nothing again! Damn! I radio control and explain my predicament and that I can absolutely not get reverse gear.. they're quite understanding and they rouse the (probably sleeping) mobile fitter to come out to me.

Completely unknown to me only 5 of the 100 or so buses have a reverse interlock, meaning you have to press 'R' and an unmarked button elsewhere in the cab to get it to go backwards. Mr Fitter was NOT amused, OOPS!


minky monkey

1,524 posts

165 months

Tuesday 11th September 2012
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I got called out to a 2 car head on rtc near Sutton, when I got on scene, the two cars were spread all over the road. The one I was called to tow was blocked by the other car. However, there was a slip road running parallel with only a grass verge separating them. Nipped up the slip road and drove the truck over the grass. My cock up was not noticing how far the drop was off the kerb on the other side.

You can imagine my embarrassment, when the truck grounded itself out and I got stuck infront of the old bill. Luckily for me, the other recovery firm had just pulled up and I knew the guy well, so got him to tow me out first.

Jeez, got some serious leg pulling for that episode!

nullogik

225 posts

141 months

Friday 14th September 2012
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folos said:
Driving one of the oldest (S reg) buses in the fleet, of a type which we have around 100 in various sizes of every year up to 2003. Not long after i've started there and I took a wrong turning at 5am, ending up down a cul-de-sac, no room to turn a 10.9m bus around so my only option is to reverse out. Easy enough, right?
Similar thing happened to me a few weeks ago. I was a passenger on a busy South London bus route and thought it rather strange when the bus went past its usual left turn onto a side road. A few yards down the road the driver realised his mistake, pulled the bus up alongside the kerb, expertly reversed it into Halfords car park and retraced his steps. Credit to him, he admitted his mistake over the PA system and explained that it wasn't his usual route.

soda

1,131 posts

160 months

Saturday 15th September 2012
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I managed quite an impressive balls up a couple of weeks ago in work. Offices upstairs have been getting refurbed and a portacabin is in the yard for my boss. Backing an old trailer up in the dark and forgot it was there, no yard lighting in this area and I'd the taillift dropped down so reverse lights were useless.

Turns out a portacabin offers minimal resistance to a loaded trailer and I pushed the cabin up tight against the wall, sadly this was the side the door was on.

Dropped the trailer with the shunter and drove off, 5 min later I noticed 6 missed calls from the boss. Turns out he was quite surprised when his office suddenly moved 6' and he couldn't get out.

minky monkey

1,524 posts

165 months

Saturday 15th September 2012
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biggrin

Hooli

32,278 posts

199 months

Sunday 16th September 2012
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soda said:
I managed quite an impressive balls up a couple of weeks ago in work. Offices upstairs have been getting refurbed and a portacabin is in the yard for my boss. Backing an old trailer up in the dark and forgot it was there, no yard lighting in this area and I'd the taillift dropped down so reverse lights were useless.

Turns out a portacabin offers minimal resistance to a loaded trailer and I pushed the cabin up tight against the wall, sadly this was the side the door was on.

Dropped the trailer with the shunter and drove off, 5 min later I noticed 6 missed calls from the boss. Turns out he was quite surprised when his office suddenly moved 6' and he couldn't get out.
hehe

Digby

8,230 posts

245 months

Wednesday 19th September 2012
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Mine would have to be delivering to a large building site..

I arrived, delivered, spoke to the friendly Irish storeman/banksman guy for a bit and left.I picked up my next ticket, punched the address in to the satnav, was rather pleased that it was only a few miles away and off I went...

Got to the next site five or ten minutes later, pulled in, parked up, walked off to find someone and bumped into the same Irish storeman/banksman!!
I asked him how the f### he got there so quickly and he absolutely pi$$ed himself laughing.When he was able to talk, he told me I had driven a few miles (in an area I didn't know to be fair) to simply enter via a different gate which was listed on my ticket as a different address.

It was at this point that I started to recognise the area I had been parked in a short time ago and the products I had delivered.And that the site offices, barriers, parked cars and surrounding houses all looked very familiar indeed..

I died.

ShampooEfficient

4,266 posts

210 months

Monday 24th September 2012
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folos said:
In a bus but i'm sure it's relevant!
Press the brake pedal, engage reverse... nothing? Isolate, start it back up and nothing again! Damn! I radio control and explain my predicament and that I can absolutely not get reverse gear.. they're quite understanding and they rouse the (probably sleeping) mobile fitter to come out to me.
Been there, done that - about three days after passing my test, got stuck diagonally across a four-way crossroads when I didn't turn tight enough. Gearbox promptly lost all of its gears, I'm sitting there with traffic building up in all directions.

MadDad

3,834 posts

260 months

Tuesday 25th September 2012
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Back in the late 80's I served an apprenticeship with Leyland/DAF at Heathrow Truck center in Colnbrook. While working at LeyladDAF Thames Water ordered 40 odd 8 legger high sided DAF tippers for moving slurry between various sites in the Thames Valley.

During my apprenticeship I was buddied up with 'Keith', a 6ft 4 ex army mechanic who was also the firms nominated test driver, which great for a 16 year old as I got to go out on all of the test drives.

As part of the PDI inspections all of the tippers needed a road test, and a brake test (we used to use Preist Hill in Windsor for the brake tests). On one of the tipper road tests Keith had a sudden attack of Delhi belly and had the urgent need to evacuate his bowles, trouble was we were just outside Windsor and seemingly miles from public toilets - not such an issue when you have a high sided tipper! We stopped in a layby between Datchet and Old Windsor and Keith clambered up the side of the tipper to take care of his cramping colon.

2 mins after dropping his overalls and squatting in the corner of the tipper body, a double decker bus full of school kids pulled into the layby next to us - to this day I can hear the screams of disgust from the girls and uncontrollable laughter of the school boys! All credit to Keith though, he finished his business before clambering back into the cab and saying 'Well, that was embarrassing eh boy??'......

Still makes me smile when I think about it now.

texaxile

3,289 posts

149 months

Sunday 7th October 2012
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I used to regularly park up at an industrial estate near a pub on the old A428 as i had a regular load out of Ge electrics nearby. One summers morning, I got up, washed down and went to climb out of the cab for a walk around, I had my shorts and t shirt on, but they got caught on the edge of the seat adjust as I stepped down thus giving myself a wedgie which went right up my bum, this was in full view of some office staff stood at the window enjoying their morning coffee and biccies. As I flailed around trying to grab onto the side of the seat , I lost balance and twisted 180 making it much worse and ended up facing them with one leg of my shorts now supporting my entire body weight, still stuck on the adjuster. After a while I regained my composure, by which time the office staff were ever so slightly amused. I never parked there again.

4key

10,752 posts

147 months

Friday 12th October 2012
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The urban trailer thread made me look back in my folder for this, not much weight on the back of an empty urban to counterbalance a heavy front. Theres a trick to it that the new boy didnt know about hehe


zip929

670 posts

176 months

Friday 12th October 2012
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philmots said:
When I first started class 1... In tight yards! Quite embarrassing!
We have all been there! Just that some forget they were once novices as well!

ZR1cliff

17,999 posts

248 months

Friday 12th October 2012
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zip929 said:
philmots said:
When I first started class 1... In tight yards! Quite embarrassing!
We have all been there! Just that some forget they were once novices as well!
Just got to try and not bump into empty trailers, they echo across the yard whistleredface

zip929

670 posts

176 months

Friday 12th October 2012
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ZR1cliff said:
zip929 said:
philmots said:
When I first started class 1... In tight yards! Quite embarrassing!
We have all been there! Just that some forget they were once novices as well!
Just got to try and not bump into empty trailers, they echo across the yard whistleredface
Yep! When you fisrt start you pray that every yard will be like a football pitch, with no other trucks!
You soon learn this is not the case.
I never forgot the other driver who gave me encouragement when i drove into the Perkins yard in Perterborough and could not reverse out into the main road when the Perkins supervisor told me to leave and join the queue dpown the road. I had only passed my test a month before
and could not have safely reversed out of the yard. Now, yes, an easy task but then, no way. It is very easy to forget that you were once 'not that good at this'. Give the new drivers a break, we were all there once.

ZR1cliff

17,999 posts

248 months

Thursday 29th November 2012
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Today - my usual unit wasn't in the yard so I was given a Scania. Never driven one before, an Auto with a clutch?

After a mainly motorway trip to Banbury I arrive at 3663 DC and take my turn in line. It can be a bit tight at times backing on to the bays, plus there's alway a good few want to get past you to other parts of the DC.

My time comes and I pull from the queue to the bay I want, stop just before and open the fridge doors. Jump back in and drive into position ready to reverse. Only I forgot to put my foot on the clutch when I stopped, before putting it in reverse. Not being used to said Scania I'm now fumbling with the gear change knob and trying to workout what the fk Im doing - might as well had been a rubiks cube at the time.

I eventually got on the bay and out of everyones way redfacebiggrin

4key

10,752 posts

147 months

Friday 30th November 2012
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That setup was my favorite automatic before the auto boxes became really good, all the low speed control of a clutch with the lazyness of an auto. Just remember to knock the stick over to manual and hold the gear you want when going up a steep hill heavy, otherwise youll end up at a standstill with the dashboard buzzing when it goes for too high a gear, trips over itself and cant change back down quick enough smile

Tyre Smoke

23,018 posts

260 months

Friday 30th November 2012
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4key said:
That setup was my favorite automatic before the auto boxes became really good, all the low speed control of a clutch with the lazyness of an auto. Just remember to knock the stick over to manual and hold the gear you want when going up a steep hill heavy, otherwise youll end up at a standstill with the dashboard buzzing when it goes for too high a gear, trips over itself and cant change back down quick enough smile
I can confirm this redface

Waugh-terfall

18,488 posts

199 months

Wednesday 5th December 2012
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I think most of our R-series and V8 Scania units are auto with a clutch pedal (Opticruise?), I don't understand how it works... Will it stall it you try to come to a standstill without using the pedal?

martin mrt

3,768 posts

200 months

Thursday 6th December 2012
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Waugh-terfall said:
I think most of our R-series and V8 Scania units are auto with a clutch pedal (Opticruise?), I don't understand how it works... Will it stall it you try to come to a standstill without using the pedal?
Yes, the clutch is used for stopping, starting and reversing, it's a terrific set up once you get accustomed to it