Bobcat vandalism - can ya help

sigidi · April 22, 2013, 04:53:49 AM

more to follow.....

JustinW_NZ · April 22, 2013, 05:13:37 AM

I don't like the sound of this topic even with nothing in it yet :'(

sigidi · April 22, 2013, 05:22:25 AM

Quote from: JustinW_NZ on April 22, 2013, 05:13:37 AM
I don't like the sound of this topic even with nothing in it yet :'(

yeah it's cost me a bit to date and not 100% yet :(

I needed the thread up as I refered to it in a recent post https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php/topic,66163.0.html Now I can fill ya all in....

dgdrls · April 22, 2013, 05:46:19 AM

Quote from: JustinW_NZ on April 22, 2013, 05:13:37 AM
I don't like the sound of this topic even with nothing in it yet :'(

I'm with JustinW here,

nothing lower than messing with the tools a man has earned
and uses to make his living >:(

Good luck I hope you can get back square

DGDrls

sigidi · April 22, 2013, 06:18:34 AM

I did a bit of work on a construction site, took me a few days and ended up running across Easter long weekend. I was going to go in and keep doing it over the Easter break, but spending time with family got the better of me and I left the machine at the jobsite, no key and also engine start immobilised.

I came back to find Bob missing, wasn't where I left him parked up, but the 4-in-1 bucket was still there. Initially I thought it was stolen and rang the site foreman straight away, then got to thinking and noticed bob's track marks, after seeing broken light covers where I parked him. Long story short, they had smashed in the head lights, taillights, back window, ripped out the key start behind the headlight and hot wired Bob :( taken him for a wicked ride which took me ages to follow.

This is how I found him...

After finding bob, left dumped in the dam, I had to leave him there until forensics came out, but they did nothing, so no chance of catching the mongrels that way.

Two main problems have arisen from his miss-treatment
1. the fuel tank has taken up fine silt from the dirty water which has blocked the in tank filter, to the point it won't let through enough fuel to run the bobcat.
2. the chain case has also taken on water.

Initially to get bob running, I needed to sort the fuel, but to get access the engine needs to be removed and I don't have enough down time for that until these orders are sorted. So I got an auxiliary fuel tank rigged up for the time being...

this has brought about it's own problem though, because initially I didn't know about the water in the chain case, so by the time I realised, the traction lock wasn't unlocking properly, due to the chain case oil being whisked up so much with the water and making a toothpaste rather than an oil >:( to clear this out, I had to run 20l of unleaded fuel into the chain case and run around for 30 min to try and get it watered down enough to drain out of the drain plug.

After doing that this is what I got...

9 drain pans of this paint like consistency white 'oil'

I've thrown a sacrificial oil change in there now to try and flush out more of the oil/water mix and will do a further flush in a couple days to try and get as much crud out of the chain case as I can. Then I will refill it with the proper oil - fingers crossed.

Hundreds of dollars in oil alone, two separate parts orders from bobcat now, days of workin in, under and on bob and I haven't even bothered trying to replace the broken light units or window.

Big thing I'm asking for is, if while you guys surf the net, can you keep an eye out for a video showing my bobcat messing around and doin crazy stuff. Maybe, just maybe these idiots are stupid enough to have filmed themselves carrying on and will feel confident enough to post it on you tube or something. I have no option from the police, but ya never know this may catch them out...

JustinW_NZ · April 22, 2013, 06:31:36 AM

>:( horrible people is all I will say.

Bad luck on this one, I HOPE the people responsible live up to there stupidity and post a video somewhere.
No nearby cameras on the job site?

Cheers
Jusitn

Jeff · April 22, 2013, 06:40:48 AM

That really sucks Sigidi. I hope if the law can't, somehow Karma catches up with the mangy scoundrels that did this.

Nomad · April 22, 2013, 07:52:06 AM

That's pretty low life. They just might have been dumb enough to make a video of it. I sure hope so.

justallan1 · April 22, 2013, 08:05:06 AM

I sure hope you can catch the idiots that did this.
Allan

thecfarm · April 22, 2013, 08:27:07 AM

Sorry to hear of the trouble you had. :(

JimFX · April 22, 2013, 09:15:32 AM

Sorry to hear of your misfortune, that is just so sad .....
What a nasty thing to come back to find.
We are all hoping for them to have filmed and posted it.

Justin had a good thought ... are there cameras anywhere around that you could possibly see a car driving into the area?

Chuck White · April 22, 2013, 10:18:51 AM

Hope you can get even with the offender(s) Sigidi.

clww · April 22, 2013, 10:47:34 AM

Sorry about the damages. >:(

OneWithWood · April 22, 2013, 11:17:26 AM

Sigidi, what goes around, comes around. Even if you do not catch these lowlifes you can rest assured someone will. Or at least, someone will do the same to them.
That has been my experience. People who disrespect other's property are disrespected, even by their 'friends'.

barbender · April 22, 2013, 11:23:01 AM

I hope you never catch those low lives, for your sake. If your laws are anything like the US you'll never see any restitution, and if I knew who did it I fear what would happen (if I were in your shoes). I hope you get everything sorted out. Have you thought about putting diesel in your chain cases and running it around the yard lightly to flush all the silt out? Just a thought.

sigidi · April 22, 2013, 04:19:35 PM

Thanks very much for all your support fella's - biggest thing ya can do is while we all do a bit of surfing looking at video's if ya can keep an eye out for a bobcat with my "reall milling" stickers all over it doin stupid stuff - they just might be stupid enough.

I wasn't the only one who copped the trouble, the site office had smashed windows, they had tried to bash in the door to get in, been over the road to another build site and done similar stuff over there, to another machine, but couldn't get into it, so just smashes what they could. went through the jobsite 'tagging' stuff with marking paint (i thinkin they got from my bobcat - I usually have a can behind the seat for when i need one) mongrels even tagged someones new driveway that went in 3 days before!!!

But no, neither jobsite had camera's. I did have camera's up on this jobsite after I had my kit box stolen from there when I was milling, but I wasn't milling there and had been away for about 2 months. I thought the bobcat job would be rather quick, but with not working over the Easter break, spending time with the missus and our girls, it ended up being much longer, so I hadn't put up any camera's either >:( which makes me "upset" coz I've got a few battery operated, motion activated infra red ones now!!! :'(

Anyway, I tired running a bit of diesel through the chaincase to begin with but it didn't do much for the sludge, unleaded (or gasoline as you guys call it) did a much better job. I've chucked a fill in now (35litres!!) just as a flush, its a mix of new cheapest oil with used oil from my ute - collected from a few services, will run this for a day while doing mill work. then drain it, then run another day with all new cheapest oil I can get. Hopefully this will flush out enough of the crud so I can then do a fill with the proper oil - DanG expensive even though I managed to be in an auto shop at the right time and got it on a 40% off sale.

Can't believe how much I've spent on just oil at the moment and I'm hoping that 2 flushes will be good enough. But I'll check the oil quality on the second flush, if it's not "clean enough" I'll flush again until it is before putting the 'good stuff' in.

Thanks again fella's, please keep an eye out for any video's while you're surfing in case...

r.man · April 22, 2013, 09:05:04 PM

Sorry to hear about your problems Allan, I've been there, not as expensive but more personal. Don't let it sour you on people and try to think about the good time you had. Lets hope for stupidity.

DaleK · April 22, 2013, 09:18:07 PM

Sucks severely but it could have been worse. Fellow here had a big drainage tile machine at a site, came back one morning and ran it for about 10 minutes before it started going bad. Somebody had filled the hydraulic tank with sand. Totally destroyed all the hydraulics.... $200,000 damage.
Then to add insult to injury when he called and left a message for his insurance company they never called him back, two days later he got a registered letter in the mail cancelling his coverage that they had somehow gotten backdated to the day before the damage was done.
Believe he did end up getting his settlement but it cost him almost as much in legal fees taking the insurer to court.

JimFX · April 22, 2013, 09:37:10 PM

Another way to look at it .... spend some time looking for the culprit, then let it go.

Nothing worse than damaging your equipment and then consuming your time as well.
The equipment can be fixed or replaced, your time cannot and we only got so much.
Hard to do I know.

sigidi · April 23, 2013, 05:30:04 AM

I think I've been lucky on a few things, the bobcat wasn't badly damaged - nothing like devious stuff they could have done like sand etc.
Also I didn't turn up and find them at it - that would have been a whole heap of trouble which would mean my little girl probs wouldn't see her Daddy for a while.
Further, at least I don't have pictures to keep obsessing and mulling over, wasting more and more time getting more and more bitter and twisted.
Lastly I've got to know the machine a bit better and that is always a good thing down the track.

All in all pretty lucky - keepin my head down sawing somewhere close to $7k worth of orders at the moment.

Thanks fella's I knew you guys would understand - cheers ;)

mikeb1079 · April 23, 2013, 09:10:32 PM

man that must've been a sickening sight when you found old bob. :(

as you mentioned it's always a blessing in disguise when you don't come upon the scene in progress, otherwise it'll turn a bad situation much worse and in a hurry. keep your head up mate.

JustinW_NZ · May 07, 2013, 03:58:22 AM

Have any luck tracking any of these thugs?

Cheers
Justin

sigidi · May 07, 2013, 04:42:50 AM

Nah Justin >:(

Just getting back into milling head down tail up and make sawdust!!!

dgdrls · May 07, 2013, 05:58:45 AM

Sigidi, you get Bob cleaned-out and running again?

Best
DGD

sigidi · May 07, 2013, 04:16:19 PM

Dan, last thing I've got left to do is clean out the fuel tank, he's been workin hard for me this last week. Chaincase has been all flushed of toothpaste oil/water gunk and re-filled with 35 litres of the good stuff now.

Gonna try a thing a bloke on a digger suggested on this job I'm doin at the moment - he suggested blowing air back through the fuel pick up to clear the end of line filter thingo, then drain and flush the fuel tank. This should be a lot easier than taking the engine out to get to the business end of the fuel tank.

Got some nice pics of this job - got the extensions on and cutting up to 7.2m beams out, will post later