Always at the worse time

[Timberhauler]

I started on removing two fairly big red oaks from a yard on Monday..The day went seemingly too good for a Monday.I only expected to get one tree down and chipped,I was gonna haul the wood all together.But we managed to get both trees down and chipped.I couldn't get the grapple truck close enough,and I've been doing alot of hauling with my F-450 dump truck lately to save a little on fuel..Tuesday morning I show up at the job with the skid loader to get the wood out.I loaded the first load of logs and headed for the sawmill.Then all hell broke loose.
As I was raising the bed to dump the logs,a hose blew and I couldn't dump the truck,no biggie,I even had a spare hose.As I was pulling away my left front tire locked up...Stuck brake caliper...So I was forced to call a wrecker to haul my sorry butt back in.While tearing apart the brakes,I notice gear oil all over the inside of the left front tire.The truck is 4WD,so bad axle seal.In tearing into the akle to replace the seal there was too much play in the hub bearing,and the lower ball joints were bad on both sides..Luckily I have a good friend who is one of the parts managers at a ford dealership,but all total...Two loaded brake calipers,two rotors,one hub assembly,two lower ball joints and the axle seal put me out just slightly over a grand,plus I spent the whole day yesterday from 7AM til' 8PM getting it all put back together.I'm lucky I have the resources and the ability to do my own repairs most of the time,or including labor it would have cost me twice as much.But it's all done now and the truck is back up and running.I changed the oil and threw on a new air and fuel filter while I was at it.
This time last year this would have been no big deal,but this year business is a little slow and with my wife being on leave from her job this was a big hit to my wallet...I guess there is never a good time for breakdowns,but this one sure kicked me below the belt.It was my idea for my wife to take the leave time to hopefully add to the family tree...But times like these are starting to make me doubt myself.

 

[Slvrmple72]

Never give up! Never surrender! I was very discouraged at the start of this season cuz it was so slow but my wife, of ten years , reminded me of two important things...
1. The trees keep growing
2. When you treat all your customers fair they talk to friends,family,coworkers about you and help you grow your business

So take the downtime to keep your chains sharp, catch anymore problems before they mushroom into bigger ones, and maybe even take the wife out on a date.

 

[treevet]

Timberhauler, you re too nice of a guy to have consistent bad Kharma (sp?). Maybe too nice to a fault, but everything will take a turn for the better. Good luck on the family add-on.

 

[Timberhauler]

So take the downtime to keep your chains sharp, catch anymore problems before they mushroom into bigger ones, and maybe even take the wife out on a date.

The last time my wife and I had a date to ourselves...She was working that evening,it was on her birthday last year..She took two hours off and we made reservations at a high dollar steak house here in town..We have to jump at the chance to have a babysitter for a while..So I was dressed nice,she was in full uniform,and when we were done she had to go back to work...I did wait up until 3AM on her that night though... ...Thanks for the words of encouragement guys

 

[Dadatwins]

Never a good time for a breakdown, but it could have been much worse. Imagine rolling down the highway with that truck loaded with wood and trying to stop and the brakes locked up at speed. :help: Have to learn to look at the positive, hard to do sometimes but it is usually there somewhere.

 

[nytreeman]

Breakdowns bite,when you least expect it expect it,had a rear wheel cylinder blow out in a panic stop running down the interstate in a rainstorm at 55 mph last fall when a guy ahead of me stood on his brakes in a sudden cloudburst me with a big load of chips and blocks with the chipper on back ,front wheels locked and slid .Let off the brakes did some fast steering and some brake pumping and lucky there was an opening on the left in a closed lane but scared the living crap out of me,always tell my guys (and my kids)to leave room between you and that guy ahead of you never know what they might do,damn good thing I took my own advice.
Always try to keep up on the maintenance but they never seem to break if unless you use them,LOL