B-Bye......Warm Weather Cleaners Need Not Read.

[rwcarpet]

Thjis ever happen to you???

Pulled the van into a drive today....maybe a 30* grade or so. It was icey, but didn't think anything about it. Climbed out the van, closed the door, and headed to the house, when out of the corner of my eye, there goes the Express Van.....Adios! It started sliding down the drive....so I just stood there and watched, wondering if it would run into the house across the street. There were cars coming down the street, so I figured it would hit one of them, too. Well, as soon as it hit some wet pavement and got a grip, it stopped. Lucky me. This has happened before, and there ain't nothing stopping it. You can mash the brake pedal through the floorboard, or slam on the parking brake.....it ain't stopping till it finds a surface to grip. I think it must be the weight of the van, plus the tires are hot from driving, thus melting the ice below the tires till it starts sliding.

It was kind of a rush.......

 

[Joel D]

there was a curve in the road van didnt turn went right off road into cornfield kept on going drove right back on the road cant believe i got away with it everything fine except big ruts in cornfield

 

[Art Kelley]

There are some surreal moments working in the winter months. One day it was raining and freezing and my van was just falling off the road and sliding into parked cars as I was just trying to park. Just pathetic. On those days my van will slide down the custys inclined driveway (terrifying) I put salt behind the tires.

 

[Guest]

always have a five gallon pail full of ice melt and sand in the truck that should keep you out of trouble?

 

[Jim Nelson]

I slide in to on coming lane on flat ground coming up to stop light and i was going slow now below 32 i stay home.

 

[rwcarpet]

always have a five gallon pail full of ice melt and sand in the truck that should keep you out of trouble?

I guess there's one more tool to carry on the van........salt.

 

[Hoody]

and a shovel

 

[MerCrewser]

Thjis ever happen to you???

Pulled the van into a drive today....maybe a 30* grade or so. It was icey, but didn't think anything about it. Climbed out the van, closed the door, and headed to the house, when out of the corner of my eye, there goes the Express Van.....Adios! It started sliding down the drive....so I just stood there and watched, wondering if it would run into the house across the street. There were cars coming down the street, so I figured it would hit one of them, too. Well, as soon as it hit some wet pavement and got a grip, it stopped. Lucky me. This has happened before, and there ain't nothing stopping it. You can mash the brake pedal through the floorboard, or slam on the parking brake.....it ain't stopping till it finds a surface to grip. I think it must be the weight of the van, plus the tires are hot from driving, thus melting the ice below the tires till it starts sliding.

It was kind of a rush.......

Yes! This happened to me a few years back! Crazy and scary, my truck is my baby. Got out, walked to the door, and as soon as I rang the doorbell it happened. surreal. Chevy 3500 extended.

 

[Dolly Llama]

always have a five gallon pail full of ice melt and sand in the truck that should keep you out of trouble?

I guess there's one more tool to carry on the van........salt.

actually, Icemelt, or some other "less offensive to concrete" non corrosive ice melter.
I put some on the van last week for clear/clean drives in winter

No matter how hard we try, there's always some water on the drive when cleaning.
a little sprinkle of Icemelt on the spill will keep Mrs Phiff from busting her azz when she goes out to get the mail

..L.T.A.

 

[Able 1]

That happened to me about a week and a half ago. I pulled up thought I wouldn't have a problem and got out and talked to the custy he showed me the areas he wanted me to clean. He says "Oh you made up the drive ok??" as I look out the window and say "well I was in your Driveway" :shock:

 

[adamh]

I was finishing my walk thru once and started to walk outside, I thought my truck had been stolen but it just moved itself down the long slanted drive about 40 feet. I almost had a stroke!!!

 

[Doug Cox]

Its happened a few times over the years.

 

[daniel@procarpet]

There are some driveways that I just want back into. I park at the bottom even though it means an extra 50' of hose. I like to keep my van level as much as possible. Plus if you use a freshwater tank with demand pump. in most situations you need the van level or tilted towards the demand pump and that is the nose higher for my setup. After reading how much this has happened to other cleaners, I think everyone should not park on inclined surfaces.

 

[Ed]

That's happened more than once for me.

My greatest Oh Shit moment was about 4 years ago. I pulled one of our Butlers parrellel to the curb in front of a home. Pulled the hoses, hooked up Hydro force, went out and turned machine on and up to mach 3. Went into the home cupped the hose and all of a sudden the hoses started flying out of the house. I ran onto the front porch in time to see my van slam into a car's front drivers side and progress across the street, jump the curb, barely miss an old lady walking on the sidewalk and stop by slamming into the foundation of a home across the street. Now that will get your blood pressure up.

Seems the fail safe device which shouldn't allow the machine to engage when in gear, had frozen in position to allow the machine to engage even while in gear. When I had parked, I thought I had placed the van in park, but in actuality it didn't quite seat into park and was actually in reverse, so when I cupped the hose the race was on.

Moral of this story? There is no such thing as a fail safe safety device. The other moral to this story is that if this happens to you, Butler will avoid you like a case of the clap.

 

[Newman]

I am glad to see that I am not alone. I was working in a high end home on a snowy day, 1 hour into the job I went out to the truck for sumthin, and it had slid about 15 feet, stopping only once it hit the salted street. The parking brake was engaged.

Chevy 3500 extended heavy and loaded to the hilt with new tires.

 

[Mark Saiger]

Oh yeah! Had it happen trying to leave a job site last year way out in the country. Took a run up the hill (Drive) to leave, van made it part way, starting loosing grip and did a complete 360 spin around as we landed at the bottom IN THEIR GARAGE. I could have never done it trying to. Backed into the garage and took another run at the hill and made it. Homeowner was standing there the entire time laughing. We were in need of fresh underwear after that experience!

Oh, and the salt layed out on the tracks before we took a second run at it is what bailed us out. We always carry salt in the van.

Never want to experience that again though!

Mark Saiger

 

[charles]

I had one last year, backed in the drive, put it in park, started sliding toward the street.
tried it again, nope.
just parked on the street and ran a little extra hose.

 

[Mike Draper]

yeah, last year at band camp we :shock: ............wait a minute, never mind.

 

[renegade_cowboy]

When I use to work at coit, I was doing deliveries and went to hang one panel and when i got there, no one was home. So I left and I tried to pull out on the road, I got out there but the van wouldnt quit sliding and I slide into a tree. No damage to the van or the tree. It took me 2 hours to get out of that street with about 6 people helping me.

Coit was to cheap tp buy snow tires or chains but still expected us to do our jobs... Losers.

 

[SRI Cleaning]

Years ago I was working with my buddy redoing a bathroom. We had backed his pickup up a steep driveway, to the garage. We were unloading drywall so he stood on on side of the tailgate and I was on the other side. We each grabed a side of the drywall sheet and before we could start walking it off the truck. The truck took off down teh driveway and stop as it hit the street, leaving the sheet of drywall in our hands and perfectly unloaded.