A Tale from the past…Truck Scales

[joetechParticipant]

When I was a rookie tech in Southern California my mentor told me an interesting story. I guess you could call it a safety lesson. Now, understand that mechanical truck scales have levers and pivots and bearings under the weigh bridge. And there is a thing called a lever ratio…which usually runs at 100:1. For every 100 lbs. on the bridge 1 lb. of force is felt on what’s called the fifth lever. The load cell is mounted in line with this (it’s called a steelyard). My friend was doing a series of batch plants out in the imperial valley, and the companies all got laborers to clean the material from under their scales so the scales would work properly during the calibration inspection. While on the road he gets a call from one of the companies. The scale was acting up. When he arrives at said company the weighmaster (a woman) explains that the workers had left the manhole covers off all weekend after they were done cleaning, but that nothing else seemed out of place. After having the maintenance guy put the manhole covers back on for her she started to notice that every now and then the reading would climb to 24,000 lbs. all by itself. She would rezero the scale, and when a truck would come in for weighing the scale would read -24,000 lbs. when the truck pulled off, and she would have to rezero it and reweigh the truck. He watched the indicator while she explained all this, and sure enough, the indicator crept up to 24,000 lbs. all by itself. About that time a truck showed up and she rezeroed the scale. When the truck pulled off he saw that it now read -24,000 lbs. instead of zero. So, after she reweighed the truck my friend went outside and pulled all the manhole covers off. He started banging on the levers with a sledge hammer to scare away any rattlesnakes that might be lurking (get the picture?). Then he sticks his head through the hole and starts shining his flashlight around checking the pivot and bearing assemblies at each section. There, at the other end of the scale, he sees two beady eyes staring back at him. As he continues to shine his light he sees a tail, four legs, and LOTS of fur. It was a mountain lion…a 240 lb. mountain lion. He had been climbing on the fifth lever and taking naps on it! Needless to say, the manhole covers were reinstalled and the weighmaster called animal control. One of the many occupational hazards of working on truck scales in the desert. I thought you guys might enjoy the story, and yes, it really did happen. I thought of this story many times when I did batch plants in Eastern Washington. I was more concerned with running into bears at some of the remote logging camps I used to do in Western Washington, however. And no, I never saw Bigfoot, although I’m sure I was in his backyard a few times.

"Don't follow in my footsteps...I stepped in something."

[SandalsParticipant 4253]

Great story. I love being a man.

[chirParticipant]

Comes back into the weigh station with no face… “Found yer problem!”

It is by caffeine alone I set my mind in motion, it is by the beans of Java that thoughts acquire speed, the hands acquire shaking, the shaking becomes a warning; it is by caffeine alone I set my mind in motion.

[Author]

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