Crap happens

[flyingfrizzle]

I work at a biomass power plant and we burn scrap waist wood (mainly wood chips) to make steam to run out turbine that drives our generator. So we get about a 100 trucks full of wood chips a day. To empty them in a timely manner we stand them up about 60 degrees up in the air and let the chips slide out in to a hopper under the truck. The truck rest up against a big heavy built back rest that lines up with the trailers bumper. Well yesterday we were having problems with a weight scale and I had to work on it so it put me out there with the trucks (electrical controls and PLC tech) I heard something strange and looked up at the truck and saw it starting to give way. The bumper broke and the trailer slid back 3 feet up against the trailers tires. I looked at it thinking "ol crap" and about that time while the truck was full up in the air the trailers axel mounts gave away and the whole truck and trailer slid all the way down into the hopper. 89,300 lbs of truck and chips went in. It was a mess to say the least. Here are some pics, gotta love smart phones and cameras!

This is what a truck looks like during dumping:


This is the one that went in the dump after lowered down some:


Took a crane to lift it out:


What's left of it: