Well I Hope I Don't Do THAT Again!!!

Magicmike72

Treehouser
Joined
Jan 28, 2018
Messages
7
Let one of my hands put my gear up and everything made it in the truck except my HH2. Guessing he put it on the bed rail opening the back door of the truck. Will be zig zagging up till the new hitch hiker comes. I know we have all left an axe, rake, hand saw, etc. What have you guys lost?
 
I laid a hitch tending pulley, friction cord and carabiner on the back of the wifes car in garage one day and forgot about. I wonder if the person who found it even knew what it was for.
 
I could pay for a really nice 2 week vacation with the dollars I've lost by leaving equipment on jobsites or falling off the truck.
 
I laid a hitch tending pulley, friction cord and carabiner on the back of the wifes car in garage one day and forgot about. I wonder if the person who found it even knew what it was for.

I don't care if people put stuff on the hood of the truck. If the driver can't see it on the hood, they can't drive my trucks.

It's not the lost gear that is a big concern to me, its causing an accident from losing part of my load.

Last time I put something on the roof of the truck was a handful of years ago. The coffee cup slid right off the roof, going about 35 on a sometimes-busy two lane road, into the oncoming lane where people are often doing 50+, which was thankfully empty. The cup surprised me making a funny sound on the roof then coming into my field of view. It exploded when it hit the ground. An erratic reaction can lead to loss of control quickly.

While I've lived in Olympia, someone lost a 2x4 off their trailer on the highway. A woman's face found it.


As much as possible, I clip/ connect things together, and put everything in one staging area, if not next to the truck/ into the truck.

At the first company I worked for, I found the climber's rope when another guy and I finished up the job the next day. Oops.

Another company working at the same jobsite as me left an MS 660 (this is the company that they didn't want rigging over their house). I found it. The crew came back to get it, telling each other, 'Don't tell the boss we left it".

Often, people will put everything in the truck and say, "is that everything?". I mentally inventory my stuff into the truck. Stuff is too expensive to lose. Finding out that you don't have the tool to do the next job, at the next job when its needed, adds to the expense.
 
I’ve manafed to lose a few home made 3strand slings and a felling wedge but other than that I’ve done pretty good. Oh gloves. Many pairs of gloves. Keeping gear that is not being used for the task in a clearly visible area or on the truck is the easiest way to keep track of things.
 
I leave stuff on site a lot.

It’s late, you’re tired, it’s getting dark and everyone wants to go home.

Ropes, rakes, toolboxes, thermos flasks, everything but saws (so far)
 
And never found it again.





Sorry, Bob.
That one was just too easy.

After leaving a Tirfor winch behind, we implemented a check the workplace before leaving system. Haven't really lost anything since.

The Tirfor was a stupid thing.
We got asked by the local State forest if we wanted to do a demonstration of our work at a festival where they invited all the different companies that worked for them, to strut their stuff.

Figuring it would be good advertising in our home area, we did a speed line take down of a large beech tre.
Finished packing up after dark ( Due to having a beer with all the other folks) and left the backpack with the winch setup leaning against a spruce.

We did get a lot of local work out of doing the demo, so all was not lost.
 
A home-made false crotch, a sling and 2 wedges (found by the groundies during the clean-up one day later), a maul and my ms 440 (being distracted by the customer, who found them near the road and thankfully gave me them back).
 
I've had some miraculous gear recovery stories. I've lost the same impact block twice and recovered it both times. Once it got left way up in the woods when we were using it as a redirect. A week went by before I realized it was missing. It took a couple of days for me to remember where it was because a week is an eternity when it comes to my memory! The other time I lost the block we were rigging down some trees next to a house and a dozer was going to come in and clean up afterwards. Since we knew a dozer was coming in, we left the jobsite in a state of disaster with limbs piled up everywhere. I guess the block got left somewhere in the chaos. Weeks later and I'm about to buy a new block when my brother swings by out of the blue and drops off the missing block and sling. Apparently the dozer operator found the block and got it to my brother. My brother then promptly forgot about it and waited a few weeks to let me know he had it all along.
 
I once lost an entire rigging bag, 200' of 9/16 stable braid, some one ton slings and an arborist block. Fell out of the bucket truck basket on the way to the dump. Searched high and low for it went on the local talk show to post a lost and found...never found it. BUT the property manager of my Mr. Moneybags client heard me on the radio, called me and that's how I got the job working there. Silver lining.
PS Brian (sqwerl) heard the story and sent me a spare block and sling...still using it!
 
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