devildog5001

I was asked to help a buddy move, being a nice guy I show up with my truck ready to lend a hand. To my surprise he has a nice big rental box van with a lift gate, cool, this will make things easier and I wont have to load his crap in my truck. I pull up right behind the box van, open the door and jump out all excited because he's antied up for the big truck. My buddy's in the truck stacking some box's so I step onto the lift gate so I don't have to exert myself and start the ride up. About half way up I notice the thing isn't making much power and it's really starting to strain, what the heck I don't weigh that much... Then my friends yelling at me 'YOUR DOOR'!! My drivers side door was hanging over the gate. Yep, it folded it pretty good. I wasn't much help that day... I drove home with the door roped shut just sick after that one. A good body guy got the original door straightened out, you'd never know. But, he's never asked me to help move again.

DBF

Mine was a couple years ago, when I took the old grey mule to the Navy base auto shop to do the oil change, etc.

I put it on one of those racks that have two runners for the wheels and four posts in the corners. I raised the truck to a reasonable height, then let it settle back onto the rachets/cogs/whatever they are that lock the whole rig in place.

After the dumping the oil & changing the filter & having a good look around, I went to let it down. I raised the truck a bit, then retracted the cogs and let it down.

I wasn't looking carefully, because the next glance at the truck showed it pointing down by about 25* and heeled over to the left about 40*. That right rear cog didn't retract, probably because I'd left a little weight on it by not raising the truck far enough.

I have no idea how much further down it would have taken to roll the truck over on its side inside the four towers.

Regards, DBF

woodrat

Oh, I had that happen to me once! I was 17, and in auto shop class, and I had a date for a dance that night so I took my parents 68 pontiac wagon into the shop to do a tune up and oil change in exchange for me getting to use the car. I got all done and went to let the car down and sure enough, I look over my shoulder to see one side of the car coming down, and the other staying up! Oh crap!

The shop teacher and I spent about an hour or so trying to get the lift to come down, but we couldn't figure it out. I had to leave the car up there all weekend. My date and I did walk down to to the shop that night, and look through the windows at my car stuck on the lift...

the lift repair guy came the following monday morning, looked it over, walked over and pulled up a little door on the floor, greased a couple of zerks and down she came... doh!

i've got lots of dumb stories like this, but very few of them have anything to do with my dodge. It has been a pretty easy truck to own for the most part. most of my crazy "doh" moments have to do with other cars, machinery and boats.

boiler-rat

I haven't really had any with my Dodge but I just gotta tell about my biggest "DOH"! moment. It was right before Christmas a few years back and my wife had all her decorations out including her ceramic snowman collection. The thermocouple had gone out on the hot water heater which was in the hall in a closet. I was sitting on a little stool changing it and I noticed an awful lot of black soot build up. Hey! Great time try out the shop vac I had just bought at a garage sale. I was sitting on the stool with my head in the closet vacuuming away when I heard my wife scream my name. I looked up and it was a black haze in the entire house! You guessed it, no filter! There was soot stuck to the floors, the furniture, the ceiling and yea, her pretty white snowmen. It took us nearly two days to clean up that mess. And I still haven't lived that one down!

G1625S

Because nothing says ''Hey ladies, check me out'' like a 68 Pontiac Wagon

Just funnin with 'ya! That's a good story


edit: and nevermind the comments about how accomodating a wagon can be--this is a family site, after all

woodrat

Hey, that wagon would haul edit ! It just had it's 400 engine totally rebuilt right about the time I started driving. And in 1982, a 68 pontiac wagon wasn't all that old yet. My brothers and I got into some pretty narrow scrapes in that car with the rebuilt 400... And as a testament to ponitac toughness, it survived two of us learning to drive and getting through high school in it, and was still running fine years later when my parents gave it away. They actually offered it to me first and I said no, then a few years later I saw one on ebay go for something like $5500.

Besides, the Pontiac was way nicer than my own 61 Ford F100 and there was no way EVER that my dad was going to hand me the keys to his 240Z when I was 17 and hadn't been driving for a whole year yet...

I didn't actually go out on any more dates with that girl though. She was a pretty strict Baptist and her parents didn't like the looks of me right off the bat...

bigragu

Thought I would never report anything on this tread, till just yesterday: I just posted a new tread on the install of my new remanufactured power steering pump last week. The install went well, truck steers like a charm, and most of all, the annoying purring noise that I have heard for a year is now gone, that is, until yesterday evening. I heard the noise early in the day, and got kinda bummed out thinking that maybe it wasn't th PS pump. I pulled into my kids school for a paren teacher get together and I feel the steering wheel getting this rough scratchy feeling everytime I truned the wheel. I stopped to look under the hood and my PS pump reservoir is almost bone dry!! Under the truck has a 18" wide puddle. After much investigation (dark by now) I see a threaded hole on the side of the reservoir, just to the side of the PS fluid return line piping. What is that??!!! I tried to replenish the fluid but it was running out of this hole. Good old duct tape got me home, and after looking at the old pump that I hadn't returned yet for core, I saw two hex head plugs that wasn't on my new one!! I felt around the new one on the truck, hoping to find where the other one towards the bottom of the reservoir might be, and walla! I get it! These were plastic plugs that were to be pulled out BEFORE the install of the new PS pump. Nowhere in my 93 FSM did it say to transfer over these hex head plugs from old pump to new pump. The black paint that was sprayed on by whoever re-built the PS pump had painted over these plugs, and therefore I did not see them!! When I looked at where I normally parked the truck each day when I get home I noticed a large puddle of PS fluid. I drove to work yesterday with it already leaking!! The lesson: You have 3 plugs total to remove out of a new steering pump reservoir, not including the cap on the return line pipe whenever you go to do yours, and don't be in such a hurry to turn the removed old pump in for the core money, just in case. I truly got lucky there!!

Dieseldirt

First week i got my truck I found a nice matching fiberglass canopy to replace the old beat up aluminum one with. This is before i found this website too. Anyways, hadnt even opened the the tailgate yet so thats when i learn about the notorious problems with the latch on those suckers, took me awhile but finally found the little lever inside and got the thing opened, now im late to go pick up the canopy and dont have any help getting the old grampa canopy off but i figure it cant be that heavy so i get all the clamps off and in the process notice the wires for some lights on and in the thing, I tell myself more than once dont forget to unhook those wires. Of course i forget those wires. I got the canopy in the balancing act half hanging off and just start to struggle thinking this thing just got a heck of a lot heavier. Thats when the whole thing flips off sideways. It was strange, somehow it opened the fuel cap door but didnt appear to do any damage to the side of the truck and thats when i see the ripped out wires dangling there and start kicking myself.

KRB

Mine happened with my '62 ****** 3-B. I had blown the motor up the day I bought it and had spent a lot of time and money rebuilding (frame off, sandblasting, etc, etc) while locating another F-head block. Instead of going to prom I used the $$ to buy a block I finally found!

Long story short, it was a lot of fun and joy for a young boy. In '83 we had a drought and the farm pond dried up. I had just finished adding or modifying something to the Jeep and needed to take it for a "test drive". By now it was dark and had even started to finally rain! I drove out and was doing circles and donuts in the bowl of the pond with that light skin of wet mud. Being a young boy and bulletproof I kept driving closer to the pond middle where the crust was thin over pond mud who knows how deep. It would sink down and spin back out throwing mud everywhere - fun! Finally I drove too close to the center and she sat down on the frame with both axles buried. By then it was really late so I just walked home and would pull it out next morning.

Little did I know that it would rain all night! Next morning I took the tractor out to the pond to find the Jeep sitting in the middle - surrounded by a sea or water! I had to string together ALL the chain and cable I could find, wade out and hook it up. Eventually I even had to borrow a neighbor's tractor because the mud suction was too great for the old H. Anyway, once out, I had to drain and refill everything and clean off all that pond clay. Wish I had been calm enough to think to take a picture but all I could think of was watching as the windshield slowly disappeared!

92DuallyCTD

Wow, and I thought I was the worst when it comes to "Oh crap!" situations!! :-) What comes to mind is the time I was repairing a large backhoe for the construction company I worked for. It was mid-winter in Kansas City, snow on the ground, maybe 20deg out. I had to cut off the side of a large washer I was placing on an axle(to fit against a welded radius, it was too large a diameter along one side). To do this, I had it clamped up in the liftgate of my old BF Goodrich tire service truck, where the liftgate stands up straight and comes to rest vertically against the bed sides, okay? Then I was cutting the washer held this way with a gasoline powered saw(known as a Quickie saw). All went well with the cut, left a nice straight edge, and I might add, a nice glowing red-hot edge also. Well, I can never do tedious work with gloves on, so after cutting the washer, I set the saw down and released the washer from the liftgate clamp, using of course, my BARE THUMB AND FOREFINGER!! I was admiring my great work when I began to smell something strange, similar to burnt flesh...remember it was very cold, so I guess it took several seconds to sink in(or rather 'burn in') that I had ahold of glowing red-hot metal! So when I finally realized I had burned my fingers(right hand), what do I do but grab the washer with my left hand!! Several more seconds later I realize this was not the right thing to do, and finally dropped it(like it's hot). So I ended up with not 2 but ALL 4 thumb/forefingers burned, pretty badly too. I didn't have feeling(except pain) or fingerprints for weeks, but they do grow back eventually. That's my dumbest "Oh crap!" moment - to date. :-) PS - It really only took 1/100the the time it takes to read this for it to happen. ;-)

johnny5.9

My problems come when I am in too much of a hurry and don't plan well enough. Case in point. I brought my truck home form the PO. It had a Lund moonvisor on it and I have never liked them so I took it off. Upon doing this I discovered that the installer never heard of silicone because each mounting hole was apparently a rusted, gaping chasm in my roof! Disappointed, I got out the mig welder and carefully made up some good plates that followed the contour of the roof. I welded them in nice and threw on a skim coat of bondo, sanded, primed, painted and it looked good. That is, until I got in the truck to drive and noticed that I forgot to cover the windshield and now I have hundreds of tiny metal spots melted into the glass. Now everytime I go somewhere I am treated to a lovely reminder of my thoughtlessness and I go through wipers like crazy.

There was also the time when I was installing my tranny and T case. By myself, I might add, while my bro in law watched and played with his camaro across the driveway. Everything went together well and worked like a charm. I think it was the next day that I noticed that I had fluid pouring from the T case. I had forgot to seal between the T case and tranny so I had to drop the driveshaft and slide the T case back to RTV it.

vzdude

While working at a Dodge dealership, it was when the change came from 2nd gen to 3rd gens, I raised a BRAND NEW , 1.2 miles, SOLD Ram 1500 4x4 QC up on the hoist to do a pre delivery inspection. Having a short ceiling in the shop, the hoist was marked for several different vehicles as to how high the lift could be raised. This is when I found out the hard way that the ride hieght of the NEW 1500's were higher than the 2nd gens! A nice 4x4 square electriacl box left it's impression in the roof of the truck! Explaining that to the owner of the dealer, and the Owner of the truck was HARD words to spit out. Just shy of $3000 later, truck was fixed and on the road. I still see that truck at my neighbor's house ( he moved close to me several years later) and get that empty feeling in my stomach every time I think about it!

Chrisreyn

A few months after buying 93 D350, I go to replace the rear brakes...
figure if I pay attention to how they come apart, putting them back together shouldnt be a problem..
As I was removing the axle nuts, I saw a spot of RTV silicone on each of them, but thought nothing of it( important later in story).
Replace brakes, put everything back together and test drove it. GREAT !!

two days later, a mare got injured, so i load her up in the 30' gooseneck and haul her at 75mph from Topeka to Manhattan, about 90 miles each way..leave her overnight and go back the next day to pick her up.
So now, as I pull in my drive( after almost 200 miles at highway speeds pulling the trailer mind you with my GF and her prize filly), I get out and start back to the trailer to unload the horse and see my rr axle/tires have slid out almost 10-12" from the axle housing!!!!!!! The truck/trailer are hanging on just the axle shaft, the brake drum is tottaly off the brake shoes!!!!

Turns out whoever did the rear brakes before me hadnt replaced the axle nut lock pins, but used a tab of RTV to hold the nut. Since they weren't there when I took it apart, I didnt know they were missing and the axle nut had come completly off.......

Biggest "DOOH" and " oh shoot, get me some clean shorts Martha" I have ever had with a vehicle..............

wafflehouse

I saved up money for 3 months to get new chrome bumpers and get my truck repainted. The bodyshop called me and said my truck was ready so I go to pick it up. Its a big fat 4x4 ctd and they have it parked in a spot I wouldn't put a compact car.(Between the wall and a dumpster).I carefully back it up and begin to make the turn out of the spot, not realizing that I hooked my new bumper on the dumpster and was folding it out as I backed. I never felt it, I just saw the dumpster move. It cost me another $300 bucks.

farmer0_1

a long while back my cousin brought down a 71 camaro with a go fast 350 and a close ratio four speed. any way he was going to clean it up and i would sell it for him. this thing had bondo from end to end and the exhuast leaked and on an on. he just dumped it on me and so i thought i would clean it up some and try to sell it. i had the pass. rear crager unilug wheel off to weld up a rusted out exhaust pipe all done i thru the wheel back on and didn't retorque it . well my buddy comes out to go for a test drive off we go for a three mile drive hitting 120 mph several times. while turning into the driveway the pass. wheel comes off and rolls past us on down to the cow pasture. all the lug nuts were in the driveway and nothing got hurt. i could write a book on stupid stuff done in my past.