sobo

During transit, the boom and arm are typically lowered in the forward position. That is, the excavator is loaded in the same orientation as the transporting vehicle with the "elbow" in the most forward position on the excavator. Therefore, the elbow (or more likely the back (top) side of the boom) would be the first thing to hit the underside of the overpass. Immediately upon impact, the arm/boom combo would attempt to reverse upon itself (think inverted cam, hyper-extended knee, etc.) as friction grabs a hold of it, and also because it can't deflect downward because of the excavator body and the low-boy trailer upon which the excavator sits. With no place else to go, the arm/boom combo begins to hyper-extend and lifts to a higher elevation as the transporting vehicle combination slows to a stop, and thereby continues to slice through the bridge deck and ultimately appears as it does in Pic #2. I've got about a half-dozen more pics of this if anybody's interested is seeing them.

Pic 2 is indeed NOT PhotoShopped, nor is it unrelated. These pictures (and many many more) made the rounds several months ago in many of the trade magazines that come through my engineering consulting office. It's not a joke. Nobody got hurt, but I think the driver went looking for a new line of work...

Nice work, Kurt. I was worried that I'd have to set up the slide show shit and tarps at Rope-Up all by myself!

A hearty congratualtions from me to your family, Luke! She's a real cutie! Glad to hear that all are doing fine. You still want that pack-n-play?

That I can indeed rappel using the EDK and not die. Three times, no less! Who sez you can't teach an oldskewl new tricks?

Yes, it's me, mattp! So I went climbing with CatManDoo over the weekend at Lightning Dome, and when it came time to rappel, CMD tied an EDK. We discussed this thread for a second, and had a laugh over it. Before departing, he grinned and said, "Well, you can re-tie any knot you want after I'm off." or something similar. So I watched the knot as he rapped to the next station, and I was reassured. I completed my first three rappels on an EDK this past Saturday, and am proud to announce that the EDK has found a new protagonist in me!

God bless us, everyone!

If you remember, Marty, I posted afterwards that I was kidding... old thread

I studied this for a few moments and I still can't figger WTF that clusterfuck is about!

Thought so. Poor Mr. Carlsen...

I might change my signature to this... When I read that, your name came immediately to mind. You should do it.

Well, we know who's wearing the pants in that relationship, eh? Wait until he marries her!

Horse packers... Pack it in, leave it there. Glad you had a nice time. Snow looked sweet.

wes, Is that a dog? Looks like he's having a blast! and who packed in the goddamn kitchen pantry?

That's funny even the second time around. Nice autosig, foraker. WKRP in Cincinnati?

tying two for a snack I wouldn't begin to infer that I'm more skilled at anything any more than anyone else, except how bad I suck at everything. As you surmised, I do harbor an inherent fear of the EDK, not having used it and fearing it too much to use myself as the test subject. I'm well aware of all the test data, yet I still find it uncomfortable to even contemplate using it. All it takes is once... Refering to the discourse from another thread, maybe I should add to my parting words at rappels: "I hate rappelling - and I especially hate the EDK!" Agreed that your course of action regarding partners and the EDK is a wise compromise. No sense having a fistfight over it on a belay ledge 500 feet off the deck!

Pax, You're assuming that I untie the doubled rope at each rap station. Eu contraire, mon ami, for I leave the knot together and feed through the anchor during the pull-down for the next rap. Ergo, according to your calculations, it's only 1,000 minutes of wasted time over 20 years! That's less time than I've wasted on this board in 5 years!

matt, I also understand and can appreciate russ's thought process, but I just don't get the extremism of the clan that embraces the EDK with such ferocity. I've been climbing for over 20 years, and using the DF exclusively for raps, and only once that I can recall in that time did I ever get something stuck enough that I had to ascend to retrieve the rope. And in all that time, I have never had much trouble untying the knot at the end of the day's raps. And that includes rapping in the rain, while ice climbing, and wet snow. So I just don't get all the plaudits surrounding the EDK. Frozen rap knots are another matter, though...

Learned Woo hoo! 3600 posts!

Yeah, I learned that 25 years ago. Once you take that first step, it's a piece of cake. Falling down takes absolutely no effort at all. I still wanna try bungee jumping and para-sailing before I kick it. I've already had my fill of hang-gliding crashes...

How to set up, operate, and de-rig a twin track Kootenay highline across a river... with only two people.

The hair, the eyes, the mustache, the mouth... it's all just too freaky to even contemplate... That cat's gonna invade Poland!

That's rich! Classic Kurt

Sorry, chriss, can't help ya there.

Shit, bill, I think I'll steal yours from you!