wae said:
Depends on who did the work, really. If the coach came in to the dealer with a bunch of paperwork calling out new ball joints and they simply parroted that claim, I'm not sure you can really blame them. If the dealer did the work, however, they should be crucified for the shoddy effort which was absolutely likely to cause a pretty serious accident.
Belts are usually good until they aren't any more and it's not always possible to tell an old belt with plenty of life from an old belt that's got another five miles in it. That's just bad luck, I think. I can only assume that the OP didn't have the rig inspected before closing the deal because putting the front end up in the air and giving it a little heave with a pry bar would have shown any movement and a visual inspection would certainly look for cotter pins in all the castle nuts. The real take-away is to spend a little bit of time once in a while just looking around and making sure everything is as it should be. I do all my own work so every oil change I give everything a good visual inspection and use the onboard jacks to get the front wheels off the ground so I can check for play in wheel bearings, ball joints, and steering linkage. (Yeah, I know they're not for servicing, but I don't get under it) I check for any leaks, any dirt where dirt shouldn't be, and examine the tires for damage or unusual wear patterns. It's not a major undertaking, just a chance to check out the obvious things.
Wae,
I could not agree with you more. I will throw in more supporting evidence to back your words of truth, plus I love to ramble so a win win for me. ;D
Give it the old eye ball, once over
)
......Once while working on a Double Derrick, Mellon Drilling Company...back in the day, we would drill 6500 Ft - 7000 Ft wells with this little rig. String weights probably 180,000 LB-ish range when nearing TD. We were running only 4" drill pipe and 6"collars, Heavy enough to put the hurt on you, none the less. We had the Derrick Laid over on the Head Ache Rack.
The crown sitting 10 ft off the ground on the rack at the edge of the location. We were waiting on Rig movers to show up, so they could assist us parting, Prep for movement..chaining it down to roll... that big dirty tinker toy to the next location.
Evening tower driller walking the entire length standing on the ground looking up visually inspecting derrick legs noticed one the one of 4 Derrick Legs (Thick Angle Iron). The Legs hold the Crown/ with the sheaves top of the Derrick for the traveling blocks. One of the 4 legs had a crack, I guess GASH would be more appropriate adjective about 15 ft under the crown/top of the Derrick. Gash covered almost 1/2 the surface area of the angle iron (see thru it maybe 1/8" daylight). Note: Some might look at the glass is 75% full not the Drillers and the Roughnecks working on the Rig I can assure you, YIKES for me for sure. Shake you to the core for a few minutes, I will assure you.
The Tool Pusher called one certain Welder guy to fish plate/ repair the derrick leg gash. This Man (Welder) was Famous in our part of the oil patch. The
"John Wayne" of Welders. This is the guy that always came by to weld the well head on the surface pipe. The same Well head we mounted the 25,000 LB Blow out Preventer to. They kept the rig down a day waiting on this one guy to show. This man had the touch, beautiful welds.
Mellon was good they decided to keep it down another day to let us paint the derrick. While the waited all the roughnecks and drillers were working day shift collectively 12 men on days painting the derrick. We were all gawking, looking at the GASH exactly like that Truck Commercial you see with the cool tail gates now days, alot of
bleeping spouting from lips too.
That could have very well been a "Struck by Lightnin" event for some entire crew running the rig in the very near future. Once the Rig is running it is 24/7 from Spud to TD. All caught by observant eyes. Guy that caught it was everybody's hero for the next few days for sure. I know I took rides up on the Derrick climber every day during that next well to look at, to make sure the heavy fish plate material still was looking good.
I got hit by a old school/ heavy Seiko wrist watch once. Ricocheted off my shoulder from 83 ft level as the band parted the Derrick Man's Wrist, darn sure did not want to get hit by fish plating steel falling from near the crown. Seiko watch felt like I got hit with a baseball bat for the next few days. Watch didn't even break. They called me Timex for a couple days after. Takes a beating and keeps on ticking, something like that was their motto..and mine. ;D
Have fun everybody.
JD