Crazy/Stupid things you have seen

[Charles (in GA)]

Driving thru Madison, WI on the interstate in late July one year, headed north to a friend's house in Plover. A Jeep Cherokee pulling a small boat passed me and I noticed the receiver type trailer hitch.................. I suppose rust got to the frame and the hitch, which attaches to the frame on the left and right sides, had ripped out of the LH frame and was hanging down, nearly to the pavement due to the tongue weight of the trailer on it. It was bobbing up and down as the still attached RH side twisted the frame. Certainly made me uneasy being near that thing on the road. Somehow I suspect the driver knew it was like this..............

Charles

 

[jhelrey]

Wild... Should have left the boat attached and strapped down to the trailer and trucked it over that way!

 

[scottieb]

i worked at a christmas tree lot back in high school, and i had the great job of bailin trees and loading them. well there was this couple that bought this big as. tree, so i bailed it and they walked away to go get their vehical, and they roll up in a VW Jetta! he wouldnt let me just strap it to the roof, afraid of scratching, so i bailed it 3 more times to tighten it up, and put it threw the moonroof! True story! But the best part was this couple was more of a yuppie couple, and a big sticker on the back window of the Jetta said.....
It Just A Practical Car........lol made my day!

 

[zeebad1]

You're right, Les said the line.
Bailey, however...

Actually it was Mr. Carlson. Les did the live broadcast as it happened.

 

[Hank McMauser]

2)." A crazy car story. A few years out of college I was renting a room in a house with a bunch of young electricians. One guy drove a really old beater honda civic. So old and so beater it didn't have any door windows and the passenger door didn't open, so you crawled in like the Duke boys. The interesting part was, he'd wired the car up to start with a domestic light switch, no key required. Funniest thing, looking where you think you should see a key and instead seeing a light switch"

Wildwoods, where & when was this as I vaguely remeber a guy having a car with a light switch for a ignition switch ....can't remember who, or when though

 

[pistolpete]

i worked at a christmas tree lot back in high school, and i had the great job of bailin trees and loading them. well there was this couple that bought this big as. tree, so i bailed it and they walked away to go get their vehical, and they roll up in a VW Jetta! he wouldnt let me just strap it to the roof, afraid of scratching, so i bailed it 3 more times to tighten it up, and put it threw the moonroof! True story! But the best part was this couple was more of a yuppie couple, and a big sticker on the back window of the Jetta said.....
It Just A Practical Car........lol made my day!

Not admitting to being a yuppie... but had a Jetta just after I finished college. The g/f wanted a palm tree type plant so she bought one. The only way we could get it home was sticking it through the sunroof. So there we are driving down the road with a freakin palm tree through the roof about 5-6ft. The looks we got were priceless, was lucky we only had about 12 city blocks from the nursery to home.

 

[v2jafer]

When I worked at a lumber yard I had a guy put 2x4's through his side window. He shoved one in so hard it busted his front windshield.

Another guy wanted us to load a pallet of chain link fence onto the back of his NEW pickup truck. He wanted it loaded between the wheel wells from the side of the truck. The wheel wells were too close together for a pallet to go between them so I suggested we remove the rolls from the pallet first. He told me that he was in the army for 20 years and knew what he was doing.

The guy driving the fork lift was also retired army and told to stand back and let them handle it and I'd learn something they wouldn't teach me in college. So the lift operator pulled the forks out, the pallet fell over, the plastic tore and fence rolls scraped and gouged the entire side of his truck.

The temptation to gloat was great but I didn't as I knew the manager would soon be out there having a stroke. The same guy also ran over a fire hydrant in an empty parking lot with the fork lift. Water shot as high as the building. Another time he drove it out into the field behind the store and got it stuck in the sand.

Coach

LOL, now that is hilarious.

 

[drmoonshine]

Thats just awesome. I had a few friends back in college and we needed furniture for the house so went around picking up free furniture people were giving away. So long story short we found a nice sofa for free and kind of tied it down and right as we got on the freeway it fell out and off of the car. Never seen a couch break up so much.

 

[jam0o0]

when i left college(upstate new york) to go home(houston, texas) i had to bring everything i owned back with me. that included all my tools, appliances, cloths and scrap steel. i spent 2 days loading my 95 ford bronco. i also had just found a really great deal on a new set of mud tires(33x12.5r15). but hadn't found a buyer for my old set (30x10.5r15). so i built a hitch carrier and loaded up the 8 tires and 4wheels. so with the inside filled to the roof i set off alone. i made it till the morning of the second day. in virgina the leaf rear tire and wheel sheered all the wheel-studs at 60 mph. this through the truck down then up then down, as the rear tire went under the rear bumper. when the truck came down the hitch carrier and bumper hit the pavement. threw all the shaking i got the truck stopped on the sholder just in time to see 6 of the 9, now free, tires bounce past me. when the hitch carrier hit the ground it ate the ratchet strap i had used to hold the two extra sets of tires down. the impact cracked the rear brake drum. the distance traveled to get to the sholder ground 1/2" off the backing plate and destroyed all the little parts in the brakes.

two days later and $1000 in debt to my parents i continued on my way home.

 

[Boyd Who]

Actually it was Mr. Carlson. Les did the live broadcast as it happened.

I sit corrected. In my defence it's been 30+ years since I've seen that episode. I stand by my opinion of Bailey, though.

 

[Wildwoods]

@ Hank McMauser

"Wildwoods, where & when was this as I vaguely remeber a guy having a car with a light switch for a ignition switch ....can't remember who, or when though "

That would have been Vancouver, BC, circa 1997.

 

[PAToyota]

when i left college

Didn't take any English classes in college, did you?

 

[69f100]

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=108866&highlight=250&page=50
last post, beat up green chevy. four times we took this thing to home depot and loaded it with 1 full pallet of 90 bags of cement. fork lift driver drove up and asked "uuum, you sure it will hold that?" "yes were sure, just put it on" put it on and the truck had a foot of clearence still. (previous owner put over sized gas shocks in the rear) even better, it road like a ******** cadillac when we were flying down the freeway. god it was fun

 

[Stargeezer]

It didn't take Dad long to see the guy had hooked his water heater into the sprinkler system.Wonder what that gas bill was like.

I'm wondering what his GRASS bill was Like!

 

[taylorguitar]

Bentonville Arkansas.
circa 1999

1986-1990 ish Burgandy Oldsmobile Cutless Sierra (4 door),
with all 4 windows open. Loaded in the rear seat was a baby
cow (calf), with it's head out the far side, and tail out the near side.

Sadly, I could not get to my digital camera in time to get this shot.

I will never ever forget that site.

That calf was stolen. I am sure. I was on a jury decades ago...in Arkansas...where teenagers stole a full size cow from an auction and were caught going down the road in a four door...cows head sticking out the window....

 

[usdemt]

I was working at a Hardware Hank store at the time when an guy about 60 came in with a can of spray paint. He said he couldnt get the paint out. I have seen them shipped with no pressure but if you squeeze the can it gives almost like an empty pop can. This one didnt so then I went to check the nozzle to see if it was clogged, when I pulled of the top the hole upper portion of the can was marred and chewed up. I asked him if it came like that and he said no he couldnt get the top off! He was trying to open the top of a can of spray paint with a vise grip and a screwdriver. Thank god he didnt succeed.

 

[Tantara]

A group of friends and myself were towing four snowmobiles back from a trip to the Black Hills. I am sure we were going 70-75 mph. Donny the driver is looking in the mirror and and suddenly says "Some people put tires on their trailer and some don't." As he finished we are passed by a guy pulling a single sled on a double trailer going at least 85 mph with just a rim and no tire. We all laughed maybe we were tired.

Brad

 

[cowboyjosh]

So this one happened in Castle Rock, Colorado.

i am on I-25 Northbound heading for Denver, just north of exit 184 for Founders Parkway a Suburu merges onto the highway on a VERY WINDY Saturday last April. I notice a brand spanking new wheel barrel tied to the top of the Suburu with twine string, I also notice the insides of the car filled full will landscape plants, flowers, bags of mulch, etc; the middle age couple in the Suburu obviously just left Home Depot. Just looking at the way the car was loaded and wheel barrel on top, I knew it was trouble waiting to happen, I was rite.

So as were approaching the Happy Canyon exit a couple miles up the road the wheel barrel is really bouncing in the wind, when all of the sudden a gust of wind catches the wheel barrel, it flies off the Suburu and right into the windshield of a Colorado State Troopers Ford Crown Victoria who was beind the Suburu; obviously in the early stages of pulling it over; you know how cops close in real close to you before the lights go on? Anyways he (the Trooper) is all over the road, obviously stunned, his lights turn on, and by this time traffic had slowed.

That Trooper was out of his car and walking up to the Suburu before he could get that Ford in park, he looked mad as hell.

So about an hour and a half later, I am heading Southbound and notice there are no less then 6 law enforcement vehicles from 3 jurisdictions, local cop, Sheriff, and State Patrol; still working the wheel barrel into windshield accident. A local towing company had the State Troopers Crown Vic on the roll back, obviously because it was no longer road worthy.

Im not one who has an abundance of respect for Cops and the Law Enforcement profession; I mean their people so I don't wish physical harm to them, but the wheel barrel couldn't have hit a better car IMO.

 

[BigMike782]

Things I have seen:

Short bed 4x4 with a bed mounted tool box hauling a pallet(3360 lbs) of gravel mix.

F-150 long bed with a pallet of weld wire(3564 lbs)

One wrecker towing another wrecker that has a car on the hook.

A 17' fiberglass canoe hauled from southwest Michigan to Colorado on the roof of a VW beetle.

Adjusting a carb at night.......using a lighter to see.

Things I have done:

24' I beam on the ladder rack of an Aerostar van.

Well over 3000 lbs of steel in the back of an F-150.

 

[Charles (in GA)]

So this one happened in Castle Rock, Colorado.

i am on I-25 Northbound heading for Denver, just north of exit 184 for Founders Parkway a Suburu merges onto the highway on a VERY WINDY Saturday last April. I notice a brand spanking new wheel Barrel tied to the top of the Suburu with twine string, I also notice the insides of the car filled full will landscape plants, flowers, bags of mulch, etc; the middle age couple in the Suburu obviously just left Home Depot. Just looking at the way the car was loaded and wheel barrel on top, I knew it was trouble waiting to happen, I was rite.

So as were approaching the Happy Canyon exit a couple miles up the road the wheel barrel is really bouncing in the wind, when all of the sudden a gust of wind catches the wheel barrel, it flies off the Suburu and right into the windshield of a Colorado State Troopers Ford Crown Victoria who was beind the Suburu; obviously in the early stages of pulling it over; you know how cops close in real close to you before the lights go on? Anyways he (the Trooper) is all over the road, obviously stunned, his lights turn on, and by this time traffic had slowed.

That Trooper was out of his car and walking up to the Suburu before he could get that Ford in park, he looked mad as hell.

So about an hour and a half later, I am heading Southbound and notice there are no less then 6 law enforcement vehicles from 3 jurisdictions, local cop, Sheriff, and State Patrol; still working the wheel barrel into windshield accident. A local towing company had the State Troopers Crown Vic on the roll back, obviously because it was no longer road worthy.

Im not one who has an abundance of respect for Cops and the Law Enforcement profession; I mean their people so I don't wish physical harm to them, but the wheel barrel couldn't have hit a better car IMO.

Its a wheelbarrow

Charles

 

[motorbreath53]

...Im not one who has an abundance of respect for Cops and the Law Enforcement profession; I mean their people so I don't wish physical harm to them, but the wheel barrel couldn't have hit a better car IMO.

"Cowboyjosh" I havn't met you, but comments like that make me certain that you deserve no respect from me.

 

[cowboyjosh]

Its a wheelbarrow

Charles

Damn auto correct, doesn't recognize the proper wording, it keeps automatically changing.

 

[cowboyjosh]

"Cowboyjosh" I havn't met you, but comments like that make me certain that you deserve no respect from me.

I could care less. I'm not saying i don't respect someone as a person, I just don't have much respect for the profession, same way people hate contractors like myself.

 

[toolmiser]

About 35 years ago I worked at a little grocery store during high school and college. One evening I was taking groceries out to this local farmers car (a Buick Riviera-nice car), and they wanted the groceries in the back seat, so I flipped the front seat ahead and there was a dead chicken on the floor. I don't remember if or what I said, but the farmer said "We are going to have fresh chicken tonight".

 

[PAToyota]

I was working at a Hardware Hank store at the time when an guy about 60 came in with a can of spray paint. He said he couldnt get the paint out.

Reminds me of a time I was in Lowes in the finishes aisle. Two older ladies were arguing about the various options and ended up approaching me. To make a long, convoluted story a bit shorter, they had purchased a can of stain for a project but it had not turned out at all like they expected or had seen on TV... Asking a few questions, I stepped them through the process.

You painted the stain on? Yes.

You allowed it to sit for awhile? Yes.

You wiped the stain back off? What?

You're supposed to wipe the stain back off with a cloth. How the %$#^* are we supposed to know to do that? That doesn't make any sense. Why would you wipe something off after you've just put it on?

Me pointing at the instructions on the can (paraphrasing) - 1. Apply stain with paint brush 2. Allow to set for period of time. 3. Wipe stain off with soft cloth...

 

[hoopla14]

When I was a kid we use to heat our house by wood. So the local pecan farm would sell pecan wood for 1 cent a LB. School was on the way so dad would let us take the 87 nissan king cab 1/2 truck and chainsaw to school. School and the pecan farm was 40 miles from home. Most I ever got in the back of that thing was 3200 lbs of wood. Dad kindly asked me to try and keep it at 2000 lbs from then on.

 

[IndyGarage]

I had 2 ricks of oak in the back of my 76 dodge 1/2 ton. They put the first one on and the bed was only half full, so I said throw another on there. The guy said his 3/4 Chevy wouldn't haul that much - he didn't think i should do it. I said "It'll be OK, It's a beater truck anyway". Well by the time they were done, it was sagging pretty bad in the back.

It was sorta balanced on the rear axle, because the front was real floaty too. So I took off home - about 20 miles. I was really worried about breaking a spring or worse. Anyway, about a mile from the interstate exit to home, the old slant six started tapping, which turned to banging in a short time. I didn't have the money for a tow, so I decided to keep driving until it blew up. It made it the rest of the 5 miles home, but was making an awful racket.

It had completely eaten up one of the rod bearings. It had at least 1/4 inch of play - but it still ran.

 

[TooTall]

One morning I pull into the local Home Depot and see a guy by the door loading boxes of Italian ceramic tile into the miniscule trunk of a Lamborghini Countach, a real one, not a Fiero kit.This was before cameras in cel phone so no pics.

Kurt O.

 

[Lippyp]

We were following a little Citroen C15 van up the hill towards my house in France in the summer and noticed something brown and furry moving about in the back, the van was two up in the front and then we realised that as well as the two french farmers there was.......a live calf in the back swaying around and stumbling from side to side around the bends. I can only imagine what the smell must have been like, one nervous small cow in a very enclosed space! I'm guessing they'd have had to hose it out when they got home. This is a van derived from a small car so its a bit like having a cow in the back of say a VW golf.

 

[Kevin54]

Actually had to buy that episode off iTunes just so I could watch it every Thanksgiving.

And yes, Bailey Quarters... Mmmmmm...

Here it is on HULU http://www.hulu.com/watch/322/wkrp-in-cincinnati-turkeys-away

And yes....Bailey Quarters.MMMmmmmmmm!!!!!!

 

[robertgreen79]

I saw this past weekend. A guy walked into the Apple store I'm in throwing a fit because his brand new iphone wont ring. Right then someone calls him and he shoves the phone in the cashier's face sayin "Seeeee!" The cashier reaches across the counter, flips the vibrate switch off, and it starts ringing. Without a word the guy turns around and walks out of the store.

 

[Kentuckian]

I have been a techman for NHRA for many years. In 1993 we raised the minimum weight in the Super Street class from 2500 lbs to 2800 lbs. At one of the races that season we were spot checking cars at the scales to see how the weight had been added and if it was legally/safely put in the car. A ’57 Chevy came across the scales and weighed 2820 lbs. When we asked him to open the trunk we found eight 25 lb bags of kitty litter. His explanation was that if he blew an engine he could clean the track. That did not fly with us. We sent him home.

 

[A29]

Sold a man a tool box for his p/u. Called a few week later saying that the lock would not unlock. Told him to bring it in and I would look at it. He drove 75 miles to get to the store. He hands me his key ring with a key extended. I took the next key on the ring and unlocked the box. He just thanked me and left in a hurry.

 

[Test Tech]

Some years ago my father in law and I watched one of his neighbors try to pull a jet ski/trailer out of their canal, where there was no boat launch only a 10"-12" drop from the edge of the yard to the water. Everytime he would stand on the gas, jerk the trailer up onto the grass, bouncing the jet ski up into the air and off the trailer. After 20 minutes we decided we needed lawn chairs and a couple of pops. The lawn chairs and pops were a great idea as the neighbor was still at it an hour later when we had to leave for a party! I'm guessing he repeated the same routine around 20 times as we watched.

 

[PAToyota]

This is a van derived from a small car so its a bit like having a cow in the back of say a VW golf.

Not that anything that crazy has ever been done...

 

[ishiboo]

Back when i was still in college i worked at Lumberjack (Home Depot before there was a Home Depot)...We had a lumber yard with all the twine for tying things down and flags outside the gate enterance (i was told this was for liability reasons???). At least once a month someone would come in and load 10-20 or more sheets of OSB into their pickup bed and not tie it down at all. They would exit the yard and go through the parking lot and turn on to the City street, acelerate and like a deck of cards the OSB would come shooting out the pickup bed. I would with other employees stop traffic and take a forklift to gather up the OSB and drop it off in the parking lot for cutomer to reload. Some customers even tried to return the OSB because it was damaged.

Did this same thing. I had probably 30-40 sheets of OSB in the back of my truck, moving them in a hurry. I didn't have any straps/etc and I had a 6.5' box, so I nailed the top sheets so they would not slide off one-by-one.

Forgetting about the wood in the back, I accelerated too hard at a light and the whole stack, save for one sheet, ended up in the intersection.

Another time, I loaded up an equally tall load of drywall, which I did from time to time. It was a 2004 2500HD, and the weight typically just made the truck ride a lot better. What I did not think about was the fact that loading 4x12 sheets would put more strain on the tailgate then it was meant to handle. Almost complete with the loading, I realize that the tailgate cables are actually twisting the steel of the box where they mount.

So, the crazy/stupid things I've seen were me Just not thinking.

 

[PAToyota]

At least once a month someone would come in and load 10-20 or more sheets of OSB into their pickup bed and not tie it down at all. They would exit the yard and go through the parking lot and turn on to the City street, acelerate and like a deck of cards the OSB would come shooting out the pickup bed.

Heck, the whole time we were married my ex-wife would strew the groceries all over the trunk each week accelerating hard and making the right turn out of the grocery store parking lot... Not being able to get anything through her thick skull was one of the many reasons she became an ex...

 

[Lippyp]

I have to confess back in the 1980's I worked for a company that refurbished office furniture, recovering chairs and repolishing desks. I was a sales rep and drove a Ford Transit van as we had to either collect or deliver the chairs as part of the job. I'd just made a delivery, hopped back in my van, peeld out of the customers carpark fairly hard only to hear a rumble and clatter and a lot of honking. I looked in my mirror to see that I'd forgotten to tie my load in and yes, forgotten to shut the rear doors properly so as I accelerated half a van load of chairs pretty much stayed where they were and flew out of the doors onto the road like a bomber laying down a load of cluster bombs, also recently departed was the big wooden box that held all my literature and samples of fabric etc. needless to say I got an enormous bollocking from the boss as several had to go back into the workshop.

 

[TAftw]

This thread is a good place to share some of my "ramp stories"- the stupid **** we see at the launch ramp at the beach I hang out.

The first one that comes to mind is a beat up Chevy van is backing down the ramp to pick up a boat. The door opens up and 4-5 Portuguese guys jump out. They all wave frantically to have the van drive into the water. The guy backs it down so far that the front wheels are halfway into the water. They get the boat on, and the van won't move. This is a busy ramp ,and people are getting pissed. So they get a guy to pull them out. When the van comes up onto the ramp, they open hte door and over a foot of water comes gushing out. The fenders, wheel wells, bumpers- EVERYTHING is gushing water. The rust holes in the side are gushing water. We just .

Another time these people came with a 16 footer they were launching. Except these people thought it would be smart to replace the winch cable with polypropylene rope. Every foot or two the rope would snap, and they would retie it with a square knot. eventually they probably have 5-6 knots in the winch line.

 

[nehog]

Well, if we're going to post ramp stories...

Long, long time ago, buddy with a boat, a very typical know-it-all kind of guy (we all were back then...) asked for help launching his boat. Things had to be done his way.

He backed the car and trailer to the right spot, got out, and was (IIRC) in the boat, and backed it off the trailer. He then yelled for us to take the car/trailer and park it, "now!"

The car got parked, and the next thing we see is him in the water, making love to the Mercury outboard. We all thought that was funny, but we knew he had formed an attachment to that motor. His yells however, were anything but loving: get that #$%*&# car back on the ramp... Get it now!

He was a strong guy, and did manage to hold that motor and boat up until the car and trailer were back, but have you ever tried to put a boat full of water on a trailer? It ain't easy, I can tell you that!

I do know that as long as I knew him, he never again forgot to put in his drain plugs!