Similar experience on tunica lake early 80's. I was fishing by myself and the bluegill n crappie turned on. I got preoccupied then it hit. Like you said the flash and boom were simultaneous.
The worst lightning strike that I experienced was back when I had my dairy farm. The lightning hit my fence and for 30 yards in each direction, the fence was vaporized. I couldn't find any trace of the fence. Past the 30 yards, I found small pieces that were about 3 inches in length and were brittle with a coating of what looked like slag. It blew the fencer off the wall and started it on fire. I was standing in the doorway to the pasture when it hit. Luckily I had just put the cows in the barn. What was amazing was when I went to get the fire extinguisher, there were sparks dancing along the floor of the alley way. I wasn't hurt nor were any of the cows. It's an event that I will never forget and I too have a new appreciation for lightning. My friend wasn't so lucky. He lost three cows that day.
About 10 years ago I was storm spotting for the NWS in Jackson Georgia. Lighting hit the antenna of my truck and fried the radio. The next day I looked and the antenna was split about 4 inches down. Lighting is nothing to play with. Glad you all were okay.
Love watching you operate machine and telling stories Tim. I have had a couple close ones with lightening. One was when I was a kid living with grandparents. Lightning came through front door or something, blew the phone up and hit the clock in the stove and fried it. second one up at a lake at my Mom's trailer a storm came up and we stood under a canopy supported by metal poles and attached to the trailer. It was raining and lightening we were all in our bathing suites and bare feet. Lightning hit with a big bag and a couple of us got shocked from the current traveling lightly down the poles (luckily for that) no one was really hurt.
In 1995 I was Sawing with our Portable Wood-Mizer on the West side of a timber. A wall cloud was roughly 5 miles west of us. Sun was out above us. Lightening came from the wall cloud and hit a 40" Cottonwood that was about 50' away. The Tree exploded from the steam that build up inside. That is what prompted us to build a building and saw inside.
Many years ago I was a passenger in a Convair twin engine turboprop operated by North Central airlines ( The Blue Goose) back in those days. We were taking off from a small field in Upper Michigan in a thunderstorm. Well, we had just cleared the runway and the gear was up and we got hit by lightning...the brightest light and loudest sound you can imagine. As a result it damaged the engine on the right side, right where I was sitting. There was a strong burning smell in the plane, so obviously we were in trouble. After a few minutes the pilot came on over the speakers and advised we would make an immediate landing in Green Bay Wisconsin. He took us on a route following the shore of lake Michigan, very low, and eventually landed, successfully in Green Bay. What followed was a very quick exit from that plane by about 35 people while fire trucks hosed down the smoldering engine. Not an event to be easily forgotten. That was about 45 years ago. Still a very vivid memory.
Tim.....We live in town, but a creek on our back yard and a greenbelt area. About 60 ft. from our house to the creek on both sides of the creek. There are some trees in the greenbelt area and most of them got taken out by an ice storm a few years ago. About 4 years ago very late night we had a storm blew in and we had one very distinct lightning flash that was FLASH/ BOOM at the exact same time Sitting watching tv.....it scared us BIG TIME. We looked outside but it was dark and we could not see anything. I went out the next morning and saw what turned out to be strips of bark and tree in our front yard., then the side yard, in the neighbors yard, and ALL over our back yard and the greenbelt area. There was a tree sat about 80 to 90 yards behind our house on the other side of the creek that the lightning had hit. The lightning had periled down the tree and blown bark and pulp all the way around 360 degrees. Some of the pieces went over our house to the front yard, at least 100 to 120 yards from the tree. We picked up pieces of that old tree for ever. There were pieces in flower beds, on top of the roof of our house.....EVERY STINKING WHERE. That 1 shot made a believer out of me.
Thanks buddy, I enjoyed all your videos! Make us some videos on your everyday checklist/ maintenance on the loaders, skidders, etc. thanks again. I understand it takes a lot of time and work, I want to tell you my 2 year old son and I love watching.
Excellent story about the equipment damaged by high voltage... I live 30 feet from the water on a small 31/2 mile long lake in New England. Storms have great energy anytime water is nearby, and as proof of this 2 years ago during a horrific storm 4PM in the afternoon, weather warnings and all, it happened. My neighbors red oak tree some 40 plus inches at the butt was hit, the tree scattered across the road 150 feet away and some 100 feet in the opposite direction landing on his house, truck, and boat dock. Worst than the damage to the tree was the artesian well some 30 feet from the tree was corrupted by the energy of the strike. The well bedrock shifted and closed off the water yield from the well. In addition the pump and controls were fried and backup generator switching panel were also burned to a crisp. Translation: Never underestimate Mother Nature, especially near water or tree foliage. Been living here 40+ years and never saw a storm as violent as that one !!
love watching thunderstorms but never play with them in the woods. and yes you are right about watching the radar have the app on my phone so i can keep a eye on storms when we have unstable weather.
I fried the ECM in a 01 F-250 with a welder once. I was welding with our Miller Bobcat with a high frequency unit. Don't know if I lost ground someplace or what but it cooked the computer in that truck. I've used the same setup with my 04 Cummins and never had an issue. Electricity is no joke!
+cotontop3 I know right. We weld on a lot of industrial equipment and we have to be careful of what we do. I wish I could post more videos of what I do but I can't.
I have had a close call or two with lightning ⚡. I was doing a brake job on and kept working two times, I got a shock. I then stopped working until the storm passed. I felt three strikes your out. And truck driver of one of our customers at lake pontchartrain was in the truck when it was struck by lightning ⚡ it fried the ecm and burned holes in all the tires on the truck and trailer. He was a man thanking God for being protected.
a few years back we were setting up to pump concrete for a basement when a storm blew up. When the lighting started the pumper operator just folded his boom back up, dropped it in the cradle on top of the truck and said we're waiting his out guys, I'm not gonna chance wrecking a half a million dollars of equipment or killing somebody if lightning hits that boom!
Closest I've come was one time when I was still in High school. Was walking in our basement barefoot(cement floor) and the flash and boom at the same time. I'm 6'5" and it instantly made me spring jump to where I hit my head on the floor joist. Whole body felt like it does when you get up against an electric fence. Needless to say, I keep rubber shoes on now! Got a bloody head on that one. Had another one hit outside and it came into the house via buried electric lines. Made the door bells ring. Took us a while to figure out why we kept having issues with the well pump electrics. It evidently ran through that line and put holes through the insulation causing shorts once the ground got wet. Ended up digging out the line and you could see it all over the line.
My grandfather when my brothers and I were still teenagers would head for the house whenever it even looked like a storm was rolling in.When he was growing up near Rose Hill,Ms he was helping one of his uncles sawmill some logs and they had gone in the house for lunch when a thunderstorm rolled in.He said the wind was blowing,rain was falling hard and lightening was popping real close to the house.His uncle got up from the table and walked over to the door to close it and as soon as he had stepped close to the door there was this white flash in the room like a flash bulb had gone off followed by a bang that sounded like a shotgun,except much louder. A few seconds later his ears were ringing and his uncle was laid out on the floor about six feet back from the door.He said he jumped up to go see about his uncle about the time his uncle woke up.He helped him up off the floor and made sure he was okay,a little while later the storm had passed and they decided to go back outside to work.That's when they noticed several small holes had been melted in the wire on the screen door.Needless to say,that left an impression on him and reinforced the old saying "there but by the grace of God go I"
Had I guy I used to work with got truck by lightning twice. The second time he got struck he had to be re taught how to walk, talk, and even eat. The skin on his back where he was hit is now permanently purple
when i was about 9 or 10 years old and i was out on the side porch on my old house. and it had just started lighting and booming and raining so i walked out side to watch it. and as i walked to the 2 steps going down to the front yard. i got about 2 feet from the steps and the there was a big flash and it was so bright i couldn't see for a min and i got this weird taste in my mouth and the house and ground shook. and i freaked out because when it right in front of me i was about 3 feet from the lighting strike. it cracked the concert pad and left a black mark on it.
A few months ago, we were hauling hay, I was loading hay on the trucks with the loader tractor. The hay field was on a hill bout a half mile from the pasture where we were taking the hay. We had watched the storm for an hour and it kept getting closer. I was loading the last load when the lighting and thunder was at the same time, one lightning strike hit so close that I could feel it through the tractor! That was the fastest 1/2 mile I ever did on a tractor!
Great to see a skilled crafts person at work - makes the tricky and dangerous job look so easy. (Then there are the people who, aware of their lack of skill, make a ridiculously easy job look so demanding!!) The saying goes "never be near a tree in a thunder & lightning storm" - fat chance you have! :)
Out in the sticks rural Iowa Internet dialup used to arrive over the copper telephone wire. It used to be a regular ordeal to change out telephone answering machines fax machines computer modems and the like. That all changed when the installed the fiber optics on the side of the house. Glass Fiber doesnt transmit electricity. So I have Telephone Cable TV and internet run over the same cable into the house where it splits into separate wires. Work great untl the power goes out and the the tiny battery box that supposed to keep it alive runs down fast. I had lightening strike the same tree in the back yard three times one year after the fiber was put in. It messed with the CRT style televisions real bad . I had to teach myself how to de gauss the sets to get the color to be right again. The computer monitors too, About 4 year later the Flat Screens became affordable. I still have 3 CRT televisions and the plane on running them until they quit working
I was running an old northwest 80d crane, a 1957 I think so everything was steel in it,seat,controls. A storm came in and I got out of it, from the lunch room we watched the boom take 2 direct hits which caught the boom cables on fire.It was determined we'd change cables well the boom wouldn't come down, had to pull it down with a loader. It welded the cable together like melting it with a torch.Forward a few yrs and I was running a northwest 95 crane, same thing all steel. Well it had a magnet on it and I was using a drop ball to bust buttons in a pit from a steel mill, the foreman got my attention and drove up in his truck got out and told me to shut down a storms coming well on the old murphy diesel you shut the engine down by flipping a lever on the engine in the back of the crane. I just shut it down and let go of the lever and the lightning struck, I lost my hearing, all the hair was standing up on my body and it knocked me down in an instant. The lightning must have hit the pit because 4" chunks of steel blew out the windshield and into the crane, the engine protected me from the blast of steel, the batteries were smoking and i'm on the floor unable to move, muscles wouldn't work. In all it destroyed the whole front of the crane from the blast of steel, busted the control levers, I was saved by the time it took me to get from the seat back to the engine. it blew the windows out of the foremans truck and he was saved from the shrapnel by the crane tracks, I had no lasting effects from it haha but my friends will tell you different lol.
I ran inside the house once to avoid a quick passing thunderstorm and decided to make me a peanut butter sandwich to pass the time with since nothing else was gonna happen soon. I'm munching away watching the storm's progress out the kitchen window and the bread sack that was still standing open all of a sudden sucked down flat to the counter. KABOOM, I wasn't hungry much after that. Light and sound on top of each other you almost feel these before you see them - that's when you know it was real close.
I am up here in Wyoming and was deer hunting one year and the rain started first so I packed camp up and headed out and I had a bolt of lightning hit about 2 feet from my truck
The closest I ever came was standing in the garage talking to a friend in a storm. The bang was just like standing next to a cannon going off, and there was a heat wave came in the garage door where we were standing. I never did find the strike site in the yard, but it must of been real close. There was a thunder storm and tornado came close to here a couple weeks ago, A guy I know 6 miles away, had hay bales standing in his field. The lightening hit one bale split it in half and set it on fire. you could still see the bale in the middle of the field, from the road when I went to look after I was told about it.
Our house is in the WOODS (my wife must have been a druid in a past life) Any way we had a good sized oak about 5' from the sun room. I was here during a thunderstorm and just like you said the noise and flash were at the same time. I knew it was close but not sure how close. Turns out is stuck that oak, blew off bark on two sides. It took a year before it died. Unfortunately two smallish limbs decided they wanted to reside in our house, both down into the great room several feet. It could have been a lot worse but it was pricey to have that oak removed.
The worst lighting strike I've been close to, was like you said an afternoon, and it was lighting and thundering, and then I seen a bolt of lighting outside my window. It look like it had hit the street but wasn't sure. Sure enough I checked where I thought it hit, and there were couple pieces of asphalt broken up.
Few years ago i was working for a GM dealership in Joplin Mo. and had a brand new Cadillac with less than 5000 miles towed in that had been struck by lightning while the owner was driving down the road, ended up having to replace every computer in the vehicle over 20 of them and the battery and alternator and i was able to bring the car back to life, had my doubts for a whilebut it did live, GM denied waranty coverage on the repairs because it was " an act of God" so State Farm had to pick up the tab.. You should be real careful set'n in that loader during a electrical storm, electricty will always find the easiest path to ground it can and your swinging around a giant lightning rod... Just sayn!!!!
Mr Cotontop3 Very interesting about the lightnig strike .I would say perhaps your truck was insulated because of the rubber tyres,and the poor dozer was not because of the metal tracks earthing to ground , It might pay too park the dozer on some timber next time when a big storm passes by . Take care think positive bud!,
A few weeks ago we had an ash tree get struck by lightning. It split the crotch about 5 feet down. The wood was about 12-15 inches thick. I was in our house standing by a window when it happened. Everything went white and then KAAAA BOOOOOOMMMMM!!!!!!!
I was riding down my field one day on tractor clouds building up, I always heard when lighting is about to stick your hair will raise up, my did odd feeling it struck a tree about 50 feet from me, it blew that tree apart and fell I had a old school tractor didn't hurt it or me thank the Lord and I did.
had lighting hit a hay baler once and it blew the baler computer up and fried 2 of our tractors. so now we bring them in at night no more leaving stuff out in the field.
My first job I got when I got my CDL's, I was coming back down I-20 from Anniston, AL when a bolt of lighting hit the side of the road. But, I think it mite have hit my 18 wheeler also, cause right after it hit my alternater belt broke and everything started going crazy, needles in the gauges circling like they do when you first turn the switch on, and the am/fm radio had a lot of static in it. Luckly it didn't tear anything up just had to replace my belt.
Hey Tim yeah I had a bad experience at work about 2 years ago while on dozer at work storm blew up and we had a funnel cloud come up too so quick I couldn't make it off the pile. So I just set there lightning struck a big power pole that had lights on it and one of the stacks there at work. Then it hit me lucky I was touching all rubber in the dozer. It fried that dozer. So now when bad weather comes within 2 miles of the mill they let me know and I have to sit a wait it out. I wanna say it cause almost a million dollars worth of damage to that dozer. That same day it struck in the parking lot and cause a crater about 4 foot across and 8 inches deep blowed asphalt all over vehicles.
+cotontop3 yeah doesn't help that I'm already scared of lightning in first place bc when I was 8 I watched a great uncle of mine get struck while I was in the truck and he was rolling the canopy up on the camper at the state park down in Gulf Shores. But what's so bad is on midnights when I work you can never tell where it's gonna pop up at unless I constantly look at radar. Oh yeah glad you said that on the phone being on air plane mode with the Gopro bc I just ordered me one from B&H and it is on the way so maybe I'll have some cool videos soon like you.
my dad has about 60 cows and one day in 2014 it was raining so hard you could barely see two feet in front of you and my dads cows were in our field closest to our barn so we were trying to heard them in and there was a few cows that wear about 100 feet behind me and i was at the back of the heard but that lighting hit one cow and it show the ground so hard that i almost lost my balance. and the cow didn't make it
Tim just 2 questions both stupid mind you. 1 Do you have those scale things (I forget what they are called) mounted on the truck suspension to weigh the log loads? 2 I was watching your hand movements when loading (silly curious me) does the trigger close the grapple and the button on top of joystick open it? Again I know they are stupid but forgive me.
+Thegunnut1 the truck and trailer both have load cells on them that weigh the load. You're correct, the trigger closes the grapple and the lower button on the back of the stick opens the grapple.
lightning hit my house one time while we were watching tv.... took out my garage door opener... washing machine... tv ...phone system burnt all the phone wires inside the house... burnt the ground wires of the light meter ! thought the house was on fire at first with all the phone wires burning lol!
you would be safe in your machine because it creates a faraday cage , i don't know if you have heard of that so long as your not touching the cab frame
Not even then is there a real worry, all surfaces inside a farady are at the same potential and electricity despises like polarities (potential), and is only attracted to opposite polarity. When you're inside - it is repelled from that area with the same force and power that attracts it to the ground. The issue then is that windows in a cab are holes in the not perfect faraday, might be a good idea to stay away from them and stick to the center of the steel frame where the faraday effect protection will be strongest.
lighting hit a friends of mines tree and in the tree was a satalite dish . the lighting traveled down wire blew out window and a 16 inch wide strip of sheetrock inside house next to window from floor to ceiling . fried telephone lines next to window and split satalite dish in tree in half . lucky no fires but scared him pretty bad . nothing to take a chance on for sure . watched a bolt of lighting dance in sky yesterday i know aleast a few secounds . was quiet a sight just don't know what it hit.
Do you get graded on the trees that you send out or is on a per ton basis or a combination of all three when you send the trees to their respective mills?
In the summer of 2003 a tornado went through my city the winds were so strong that it topped my neighbors 60 foot blue 24 inch at the base spruce tree in half and and were without power for at least 48 hours 28-36 base inch maples and elms were blown and the root balls were showing
I got hit by lightning just fueling my skidder up a few years ago didn't hit me directly but it hit a pine tree about 20ft from me scared me so bad I just took off running left the skidder and fuel pump running lol
Hey my name is Charles I'm in Big Timber Montana here in the in the mountains it remote project for the mine anyways today lightning scratch me I was being loaded by an 800 Komatsu I drive a 400 Komatsu haul truck they called out the Red Flag Warning on the radio no less than two minutes later I thought I hit my partner's bucket it lit up like like I've never seen or nothing happen to his equipment all the alarms going off barely missed me today scariest thing I've ever been through ever
boy have I got a story about lightning for you completely true story I'm not making any of this up somebody was watching over me that day started about 4 in the morning got this call over the radio heard from the cold running through dispatch on my Dad's fire department radio and we knew the storm was coming so my dad said go check on the animals and make sure they're inside so I do that and I'm walking out the barn on the homestead and all hell breaks loose there was lightning striking everywhere around me so I go back into the barn and close all the doors and lock the animals in them and the horses are freaking out that those are freaking out and I'm trying to calm everyone down finally have things settled down with the animals so I go up to the house and mind you the whole way to the house there's lightning striking within 30 feet of me how I did not get shocked is beyond me and we sit in the house for a while we lose power manual on a well and now it's happening to her and it reserves for water rationing my sister's term comes up to go check on the animals she goes out and mind you the storm and calms down for a minute she went to the barn verify the horses were already looking like goats house and verify they were okay and she gets in night shift comes up for animal watch for this storm I'm walking out the door and I hear my dad's station get called out to a fire call so now I'm having to cover for my sister who is also a firefighter and I don't know storm lightning strike and all around me and finally after eighteen or so hours the storm started to dissipate and finally after about the 20th hour it was done so I flip on the Evening News powers back on and we listen to the news for the whole entire broadcast for the 5 o'clock and 6 o'clock news that evening and then we listen to the ten and eleven o'clock news that even two I kid you not in the 5 o'clock and they said they were working on getting the kind of lightning strikes lightning for you too damn story I'm not making any this up somebody was watching over me that day started about 4 in the morning got this call over the radio her for the call is running through dispatch on my dads fire department radio and we knew the storm was coming so my dad said go check on animals make sure they're inside so I do that and I'm walking out the barn on the homestead and all hell breaks loose there was lightning striking everywhere around me so I go back into the barn and close all the doors unlocked animals in them and the horses are freaking out to go to freaking out and I'm trying to calm everyone down finally that things settle down with the animals so I go up to the house and mind you the whole way to the house or is lighting striking within 30 feet to me how I did not get shocked is beyond me and we sit in the house for a while we lose power mind you were on a whales now where it happened into our preserves for water rationing my sisters term comes up to go check on the animals she goes out and mind you the storm and calms down for a minute she went to the barn verify the horses were alright looked in my gut house and verified they were OK and she kids and my shift comes up for animal watch for this storm I'm walking out the door and I hear my dad station get called out to a fire now I'm having a cover for my sister who was also a firefighter and I'm out in the storm lightning strike and all around me and finally after 8:10 or so hours the storm searched and finally after about the 20th hour I was done so I flip on the evening news powers back on and we listen to the news for the whole entire broadcast for the 5 o'clock and 6 o'clock news that evening and then we listen to the 10 and 11 o'clock news that even too I kid you not in the 5 o'clock years they said they were working on getting a can of the lightning strikes finally in about 10:28 and that even during the sports broadcasted come out with yet its off of charts the fire department resorted just driving around looking for plumes of smoke in mind during this entire storm it's a torrential downpour
Matt Hammerschmidt wow I think that’s the longest sentence I have ever read. I now have a headache and still don’t really know what you were even talking about.
how come you dont tie down the logs like this load of hardwood pulp wood you loaded in this video if it was up here im sure they would have to be tied down
About 10 years ago I was storm spotting for the NWS in Jackson Georgia. Lighting hit the antenna of my truck and fried the radio. The next day I looked and the antenna was split about 4 inches down. Lighting is nothing to play with. Glad you all were okay.
Similar experience on tunica lake early 80's. I was fishing by myself and the bluegill n crappie turned on. I got preoccupied then it hit. Like you said the flash and boom were simultaneous.
The worst lightning strike that I experienced was back when I had my dairy farm. The lightning hit my fence and for 30 yards in each direction, the fence was vaporized. I couldn't find any trace of the fence. Past the 30 yards, I found small pieces that were about 3 inches in length and were brittle with a coating of what looked like slag. It blew the fencer off the wall and started it on fire. I was standing in the doorway to the pasture when it hit. Luckily I had just put the cows in the barn. What was amazing was when I went to get the fire extinguisher, there were sparks dancing along the floor of the alley way. I wasn't hurt nor were any of the cows. It's an event that I will never forget and I too have a new appreciation for lightning. My friend wasn't so lucky. He lost three cows that day.
About 10 years ago I was storm spotting for the NWS in Jackson Georgia. Lighting hit the antenna of my truck and fried the radio. The next day I looked and the antenna was split about 4 inches down. Lighting is nothing to play with. Glad you all were okay.
I'm a field service tech for flint equipment & forestry. love your videos because I can really relate to the things you talk about. keep em coming!!
Love watching you operate machine and telling stories Tim.
I have had a couple close ones with lightening. One was when I was a kid living with grandparents.
Lightning came through front door or something, blew the phone up and hit the clock in the stove and fried it.
second one up at a lake at my Mom's trailer a storm came up and we stood under a canopy supported by metal poles and attached to the trailer.
It was raining and lightening we were all in our bathing suites and bare feet. Lightning hit with a big bag and a couple of us got shocked from the current traveling lightly
down the poles (luckily for that) no one was really hurt.
Love a loader video especialy with a "Tim's tantalising tale", awesome!!
In 1995 I was Sawing with our Portable Wood-Mizer on the West side of a timber.
A wall cloud was roughly 5 miles west of us. Sun was out above us.
Lightening came from the wall cloud and hit a 40" Cottonwood that was about 50' away.
The Tree exploded from the steam that build up inside.
That is what prompted us to build a building and saw inside.
+VideosByAl that stuff will make you pucker up!
I was shakin' like a leaf for 30 minutes.
Big time pucker !
Lightning is absolutely unpredictably dangerous..... Scary stuff!!!!
Many years ago I was a passenger in a Convair twin engine turboprop operated by North Central airlines ( The Blue Goose) back in those days. We were taking off from a small field in Upper Michigan in a thunderstorm. Well, we had just cleared the runway and the gear was up and we got hit by lightning...the brightest light and loudest sound you can imagine. As a result it damaged the engine on the right side, right where I was sitting. There was a strong burning smell in the plane, so obviously we were in trouble. After a few minutes the pilot came on over the speakers and advised we would make an immediate landing in Green Bay Wisconsin. He took us on a route following the shore of lake Michigan, very low, and eventually landed, successfully in Green Bay. What followed was a very quick exit from that plane by about 35 people while fire trucks hosed down the smoldering engine. Not an event to be easily forgotten. That was about 45 years ago. Still a very vivid memory.
+coldfoot99 geez that's scarey
Tim.....We live in town, but a creek on our back yard and a greenbelt area. About 60 ft. from our house to the creek on both sides of the creek. There are some trees in the greenbelt area and most of them got taken out by an ice storm a few years ago. About 4 years ago very late night we had a storm blew in and we had one very distinct lightning flash that was FLASH/ BOOM at the exact same time Sitting watching tv.....it scared us BIG TIME. We looked outside but it was dark and we could not see anything. I went out the next morning and saw what turned out to be strips of bark and tree in our front yard., then the side yard, in the neighbors yard, and ALL over our back yard and the greenbelt area. There was a tree sat about 80 to 90 yards behind our house on the other side of the creek that the lightning had hit. The lightning had periled down the tree and blown bark and pulp all the way around 360 degrees. Some of the pieces went over our house to the front yard, at least 100 to 120 yards from the tree. We picked up pieces of that old tree for ever. There were pieces in flower beds, on top of the roof of our house.....EVERY STINKING WHERE. That 1 shot made a believer out of me.
Thanks buddy, I enjoyed all your videos! Make us some videos on your everyday checklist/ maintenance on the loaders, skidders, etc. thanks again. I understand it takes a lot of time and work, I want to tell you my 2 year old son and I love watching.
+Clint Walton good deal man, glad y'all like them. I do have quite a few maintenance videos published. Search Cotontop3/maintenance
Excellent story about the equipment damaged by high voltage...
I live 30 feet from the water on a small 31/2 mile long lake in New England. Storms have great energy anytime water is nearby, and as proof of this 2 years ago during a horrific storm 4PM in the afternoon, weather warnings and all, it happened.
My neighbors red oak tree some 40 plus inches at the butt was hit, the tree scattered across the road 150 feet away and some 100 feet in the opposite direction landing on his house, truck, and boat dock.
Worst than the damage to the tree was the artesian well some 30 feet from the tree was corrupted by the energy of the strike. The well bedrock shifted and closed off the water yield from the well. In addition the pump and controls were fried and backup generator switching panel were also burned to a crisp.
Translation: Never underestimate Mother Nature, especially near water or tree foliage.
Been living here 40+ years and never saw a storm as violent as that one !!
love watching thunderstorms but never play with them in the woods. and yes you are right about watching the radar have the app on my phone so i can keep a eye on storms when we have unstable weather.
I fried the ECM in a 01 F-250 with a welder once. I was welding with our Miller Bobcat with a high frequency unit. Don't know if I lost ground someplace or what but it cooked the computer in that truck. I've used the same setup with my 04 Cummins and never had an issue. Electricity is no joke!
+JCastal you're right. If we weld on a machine we are very careful how we do it because u can jack up some stuff quick.
+cotontop3 I know right. We weld on a lot of industrial equipment and we have to be careful of what we do. I wish I could post more videos of what I do but I can't.
I have had a close call or two with lightning ⚡. I was doing a brake job on and kept working two times, I got a shock. I then stopped working until the storm passed. I felt three strikes your out. And truck driver of one of our customers at lake pontchartrain was in the truck when it was struck by lightning ⚡ it fried the ecm and burned holes in all the tires on the truck and trailer. He was a man thanking God for being protected.
a few years back we were setting up to pump concrete for a basement when a storm blew up. When the lighting started the pumper operator just folded his boom back up, dropped it in the cradle on top of the truck and said we're waiting his out guys, I'm not gonna chance wrecking a half a million dollars of equipment or killing somebody if lightning hits that boom!
Closest I've come was one time when I was still in High school. Was walking in our basement barefoot(cement floor) and the flash and boom at the same time. I'm 6'5" and it instantly made me spring jump to where I hit my head on the floor joist. Whole body felt like it does when you get up against an electric fence. Needless to say, I keep rubber shoes on now! Got a bloody head on that one.
Had another one hit outside and it came into the house via buried electric lines. Made the door bells ring. Took us a while to figure out why we kept having issues with the well pump electrics. It evidently ran through that line and put holes through the insulation causing shorts once the ground got wet. Ended up digging out the line and you could see it all over the line.
My grandfather when my brothers and I were still teenagers would head for the house whenever it even looked like a storm was rolling in.When he was growing up near Rose Hill,Ms he was helping one of his uncles sawmill some logs and they had gone in the house for lunch when a thunderstorm rolled in.He said the wind was blowing,rain was falling hard and lightening was popping real close to the house.His uncle got up from the table and walked over to the door to close it and as soon as he had stepped close to the door there was this white flash in the room like a flash bulb had gone off followed by a bang that sounded like a shotgun,except much louder.
A few seconds later his ears were ringing and his uncle was laid out on the floor about six feet back from the door.He said he jumped up to go see about his uncle about the time his uncle woke up.He helped him up off the floor and made sure he was okay,a little while later the storm had passed and they decided to go back outside to work.That's when they noticed several small holes had been melted in the wire on the screen door.Needless to say,that left an impression on him and reinforced the old saying "there but by the grace of God go I"
Had I guy I used to work with got truck by lightning twice. The second time he got struck he had to be re taught how to walk, talk, and even eat. The skin on his back where he was hit is now permanently purple
when i was about 9 or 10 years old and i was out on the side porch on my
old house. and it had just started lighting and booming and raining so i
walked out side to watch it. and as i walked to the 2 steps going down
to the front yard. i got about 2 feet from the steps and the there was a
big flash and it was so bright i couldn't see for a min and i got this
weird taste in my mouth and the house and ground shook. and i
freaked out because when it right in front of me i was about 3 feet
from the lighting strike. it cracked the concert pad and left a black mark on it.
THATS WAY TO CLOSE!!
A few months ago, we were hauling hay, I was loading hay on the trucks with the loader tractor. The hay field was on a hill bout a half mile from the pasture where we were taking the hay. We had watched the storm for an hour and it kept getting closer. I was loading the last load when the lighting and thunder was at the same time, one lightning strike hit so close that I could feel it through the tractor! That was the fastest 1/2 mile I ever did on a tractor!
Great to see a skilled crafts person at work - makes the tricky and dangerous job look so easy. (Then there are the people who, aware of their lack of skill, make a ridiculously easy job look so demanding!!)
The saying goes "never be near a tree in a thunder & lightning storm" - fat chance you have! :)
you make loading them logs look easy nice job and video
+gridiron48 thank you
Out in the sticks rural Iowa Internet dialup used to arrive over the copper telephone wire. It used to be a regular ordeal to change out telephone answering machines fax machines computer modems and the like. That all changed when the installed the fiber optics on the side of the house. Glass Fiber doesnt transmit electricity. So I have Telephone Cable TV and internet run over the same cable into the house where it splits into separate wires. Work great untl the power goes out and the the tiny battery box that supposed to keep it alive runs down fast.
I had lightening strike the same tree in the back yard three times one year after the fiber was put in. It messed with the CRT style televisions real bad . I had to teach myself how to de gauss the sets to get the color to be right again. The computer monitors too, About 4 year later the Flat Screens became affordable. I still have 3 CRT televisions and the plane on running them until they quit working
I was running an old northwest 80d crane, a 1957 I think so everything was steel in it,seat,controls. A storm came in and I got out of it, from the lunch room we watched the boom take 2 direct hits which caught the boom cables on fire.It was determined we'd change cables well the boom wouldn't come down, had to pull it down with a loader. It welded the cable together like melting it with a torch.Forward a few yrs and I was running a northwest 95 crane, same thing all steel. Well it had a magnet on it and I was using a drop ball to bust buttons in a pit from a steel mill, the foreman got my attention and drove up in his truck got out and told me to shut down a storms coming well on the old murphy diesel you shut the engine down by flipping a lever on the engine in the back of the crane. I just shut it down and let go of the lever and the lightning struck, I lost my hearing, all the hair was standing up on my body and it knocked me down in an instant. The lightning must have hit the pit because 4" chunks of steel blew out the windshield and into the crane, the engine protected me from the blast of steel, the batteries were smoking and i'm on the floor unable to move, muscles wouldn't work. In all it destroyed the whole front of the crane from the blast of steel, busted the control levers, I was saved by the time it took me to get from the seat back to the engine. it blew the windows out of the foremans truck and he was saved from the shrapnel by the crane tracks, I had no lasting effects from it haha but my friends will tell you different lol.
I ran inside the house once to avoid a quick passing thunderstorm and decided to make me a peanut butter sandwich to pass the time with since nothing else was gonna happen soon. I'm munching away watching the storm's progress out the kitchen window and the bread sack that was still standing open all of a sudden sucked down flat to the counter. KABOOM, I wasn't hungry much after that. Light and sound on top of each other you almost feel these before you see them - that's when you know it was real close.
I am up here in Wyoming and was deer hunting one year and the rain started first so I packed camp up and headed out and I had a bolt of lightning hit about 2 feet from my truck
The closest I ever came was standing in the garage talking to a friend in a storm. The bang was just like standing next to a cannon going off, and there was a heat wave came in the garage door where we were standing. I never did find the strike site in the yard, but it must of been real close. There was a thunder storm and tornado came close to here a couple weeks ago, A guy I know 6 miles away, had hay bales standing in his field. The lightening hit one bale split it in half and set it on fire. you could still see the bale in the middle of the field, from the road when I went to look after I was told about it.
Our house is in the WOODS (my wife must have been a druid in a past life) Any way we had a good sized oak about 5' from the sun room. I was here during a thunderstorm and just like you said the noise and flash were at the same time. I knew it was close but not sure how close. Turns out is stuck that oak, blew off bark on two sides. It took a year before it died. Unfortunately two smallish limbs decided they wanted to reside in our house, both down into the great room several feet. It could have been a lot worse but it was pricey to have that oak removed.
The worst lighting strike I've been close to, was like you said an afternoon, and it was lighting and thundering, and then I seen a bolt of lighting outside my window. It look like it had hit the street but wasn't sure. Sure enough I checked where I thought it hit, and there were couple pieces of asphalt broken up.
Had a truck driver give me a hard time for stopping loading during a lightning storm, I told him I would rather live to Log another day lol.
Few years ago i was working for a GM dealership in Joplin Mo. and had a brand new Cadillac with less than 5000 miles towed in that had been struck by lightning while the owner was driving down the road, ended up having to replace every computer in the vehicle over 20 of them and the battery and alternator and i was able to bring the car back to life, had my doubts for a whilebut it did live, GM denied waranty coverage on the repairs because it was " an act of God" so State Farm had to pick up the tab.. You should be real careful set'n in that loader during a electrical storm, electricty will always find the easiest path to ground it can and your swinging around a giant lightning rod... Just sayn!!!!
We cab up at the first lighting strike , My boss man was struck by lighting a few years ago missed him up pretty bad just lucky to still be here .
Mr Cotontop3 Very interesting about the lightnig strike .I would say perhaps your truck was insulated because of the rubber tyres,and the poor dozer was not because of the metal tracks earthing to ground , It might pay too park the dozer on some timber next time when a big storm passes by . Take care think positive bud!,
+Wayne Compton think about the service truck, it was just like my truck with tires and it got fried.
A few weeks ago we had an ash tree get struck by lightning. It split the crotch about 5 feet down. The wood was about 12-15 inches thick. I was in our house standing by a window when it happened. Everything went white and then KAAAA BOOOOOOMMMMM!!!!!!!
I was riding down my field one day on tractor clouds building up, I always heard when lighting is about to stick your hair will raise up, my did odd feeling it struck a tree about 50 feet from me, it blew that tree apart and fell I had a old school tractor didn't hurt it or me thank the Lord and I did.
Oh man that's bad... We had a Pete stuck once and burnt up all kinds of stuff and had bearings go out of it and everything
thats pretty slick, must be a scale on that truck.
+OffroadTrucker740 we have on board scales on our trucks.
had lighting hit a hay baler once and it blew the baler computer up and fried 2 of our tractors. so now we bring them in at night no more leaving stuff out in the field.
Was still farming moving from field to field lighting hit so close to tractor no clouds close I could smell it
My first job I got when I got my CDL's, I was coming back down I-20 from Anniston, AL when a bolt of lighting hit the side of the road. But, I think it mite have hit my 18 wheeler also, cause right after it hit my alternater belt broke and everything started going crazy, needles in the gauges circling like they do when you first turn the switch on, and the am/fm radio had a lot of static in it. Luckly it didn't tear anything up just had to replace my belt.
Matthew Lenz you was in the Burmuda Triangle
This was a great video too.
Very good camera angle
Hey Tim yeah I had a bad experience at work about 2 years ago while on dozer at work storm blew up and we had a funnel cloud come up too so quick I couldn't make it off the pile. So I just set there lightning struck a big power pole that had lights on it and one of the stacks there at work. Then it hit me lucky I was touching all rubber in the dozer. It fried that dozer. So now when bad weather comes within 2 miles of the mill they let me know and I have to sit a wait it out. I wanna say it cause almost a million dollars worth of damage to that dozer. That same day it struck in the parking lot and cause a crater about 4 foot across and 8 inches deep blowed asphalt all over vehicles.
+Grant Odom holy smokes!
+cotontop3 yeah doesn't help that I'm already scared of lightning in first place bc when I was 8 I watched a great uncle of mine get struck while I was in the truck and he was rolling the canopy up on the camper at the state park down in Gulf Shores. But what's so bad is on midnights when I work you can never tell where it's gonna pop up at unless I constantly look at radar. Oh yeah glad you said that on the phone being on air plane mode with the Gopro bc I just ordered me one from B&H and it is on the way so maybe I'll have some cool videos soon like you.
my dad has about 60 cows and one day in 2014 it was raining so hard you could barely see two feet in front of you and my dads cows were in our field closest to our barn so we were trying to heard them in and there was a few cows that wear about 100 feet behind me and i was at the back of the heard but that lighting hit one cow and it show the ground so hard that i almost lost my balance. and the cow didn't make it
Tim just 2 questions both stupid mind you.
1 Do you have those scale things (I forget what they are called) mounted on the truck suspension to weigh the log loads?
2 I was watching your hand movements when loading (silly curious me) does the trigger close the grapple and the button on top of joystick open it?
Again I know they are stupid but forgive me.
+Thegunnut1 the truck and trailer both have load cells on them that weigh the load. You're correct, the trigger closes the grapple and the lower button on the back of the stick opens the grapple.
good job of loading that truck
lightning hit my house one time while we were watching tv.... took out my garage door opener... washing machine... tv ...phone system burnt all the phone wires inside the house... burnt the ground wires of the light meter ! thought the house was on fire at first with all the phone wires burning lol!
you would be safe in your machine because it creates a faraday cage , i don't know if you have heard of that so long as your not touching the cab frame
Not even then is there a real worry, all surfaces inside a farady are at the same potential and electricity despises like polarities (potential), and is only attracted to opposite polarity. When you're inside - it is repelled from that area with the same force and power that attracts it to the ground. The issue then is that windows in a cab are holes in the not perfect faraday, might be a good idea to stay away from them and stick to the center of the steel frame where the faraday effect protection will be strongest.
lighting hit a friends of mines tree and in the tree was a satalite dish . the lighting traveled down wire blew out window and a 16 inch wide strip of sheetrock inside house next to window from floor to ceiling . fried telephone lines next to window and split satalite dish in tree in half . lucky no fires but scared him pretty bad . nothing to take a chance on for sure . watched a bolt of lighting dance in sky yesterday i know aleast a few secounds . was quiet a sight just don't know what it hit.
Do you get graded on the trees that you send out or is on a per ton basis or a combination of all three when you send the trees to their respective mills?
+Vic Reece this load is per ton.
Is it easier sell hardwood or softwood pulp in your region. Hardwood is moving better here in Maine
+06lbzduramax3500 it's been so dry and hot here that both types are tough to move here.
In the summer of 2003 a tornado went through my city the winds were so strong that it topped my neighbors 60 foot blue 24 inch at the base spruce tree in half and and were without power for at least 48 hours 28-36 base inch maples and elms were blown and the root balls were showing
Love the videos, but what happens to the land after it has been clear cut ? Does the stewards of the land replant it or does it just remain dormant ?
+John McFarland it's planted
Don't like the lightning. Love the pulp wood.
I got hit by lightning just fueling my skidder up a few years ago didn't hit me directly but it hit a pine tree about 20ft from me scared me so bad I just took off running left the skidder and fuel pump running lol
Hey my name is Charles I'm in Big Timber Montana here in the in the mountains it remote project for the mine anyways today lightning scratch me I was being loaded by an 800 Komatsu I drive a 400 Komatsu haul truck they called out the Red Flag Warning on the radio no less than two minutes later I thought I hit my partner's bucket it lit up like like I've never seen or nothing happen to his equipment all the alarms going off barely missed me today scariest thing I've ever been through ever
how much do most of your loads weigh? also do you always put the big end of the tree toward the front of the truck?
+Jay Groom those loads are grossing 88,000 pounds. Some mills I can turn the wood around and some I can't.
thanks
boy have I got a story about lightning for you completely true story I'm not making any of this up somebody was watching over me that day started about 4 in the morning got this call over the radio heard from the cold running through dispatch on my Dad's fire department radio and we knew the storm was coming so my dad said go check on the animals and make sure they're inside so I do that and I'm walking out the barn on the homestead and all hell breaks loose there was lightning striking everywhere around me so I go back into the barn and close all the doors and lock the animals in them and the horses are freaking out that those are freaking out and I'm trying to calm everyone down finally have things settled down with the animals so I go up to the house and mind you the whole way to the house there's lightning striking within 30 feet of me how I did not get shocked is beyond me and we sit in the house for a while we lose power manual on a well and now it's happening to her and it reserves for water rationing my sister's term comes up to go check on the animals she goes out and mind you the storm and calms down for a minute she went to the barn verify the horses were already looking like goats house and verify they were okay and she gets in night shift comes up for animal watch for this storm I'm walking out the door and I hear my dad's station get called out to a fire call so now I'm having to cover for my sister who is also a firefighter and I don't know storm lightning strike and all around me and finally after eighteen or so hours the storm started to dissipate and finally after about the 20th hour it was done so I flip on the Evening News powers back on and we listen to the news for the whole entire broadcast for the 5 o'clock and 6 o'clock news that evening and then we listen to the ten and eleven o'clock news that even two I kid you not in the 5 o'clock and they said they were working on getting the kind of lightning strikes lightning for you too damn story I'm not making any this up somebody was watching over me that day started about 4 in the morning got this call over the radio her for the call is running through dispatch on my dads fire department radio and we knew the storm was coming so my dad said go check on animals make sure they're inside so I do that and I'm walking out the barn on the homestead and all hell breaks loose there was lightning striking everywhere around me so I go back into the barn and close all the doors unlocked animals in them and the horses are freaking out to go to freaking out and I'm trying to calm everyone down finally that things settle down with the animals so I go up to the house and mind you the whole way to the house or is lighting striking within 30 feet to me how I did not get shocked is beyond me and we sit in the house for a while we lose power mind you were on a whales now where it happened into our preserves for water rationing my sisters term comes up to go check on the animals she goes out and mind you the storm and calms down for a minute she went to the barn verify the horses were alright looked in my gut house and verified they were OK and she kids and my shift comes up for animal watch for this storm I'm walking out the door and I hear my dad station get called out to a fire now I'm having a cover for my sister who was also a firefighter and I'm out in the storm lightning strike and all around me and finally after 8:10 or so hours the storm searched and finally after about the 20th hour I was done so I flip on the evening news powers back on and we listen to the news for the whole entire broadcast for the 5 o'clock and 6 o'clock news that evening and then we listen to the 10 and 11 o'clock news that even too I kid you not in the 5 o'clock years they said they were working on getting a can of the lightning strikes finally in about 10:28 and that even during the sports broadcasted come out with yet its off of charts the fire department resorted just driving around looking for plumes of smoke in mind during this entire storm it's a torrential downpour
Matt Hammerschmidt wow I think that’s the longest sentence I have ever read. I now have a headache and still don’t really know what you were even talking about.
One of those snapchats was from me lol. Hit my dozer blade at work the other night.
+Kevin Wise yes it was lol
how come you dont tie down the logs like this load of hardwood pulp wood you loaded in this video if it was up here im sure they would have to be tied down
+Alan Chase they pull away from me and tie them down in a safe place
how's the Pete coming that burnt?
+brownlab3 we got something in the works and I'll do a video about it in about 6 weeks.
I was on my back pouch hit this tree my brother video on UA-cam ricky jackson tree cutter
i bet u got a lightning notification app on ur phone
Lol
What's your snapchat
About 10 years ago I was storm spotting for the NWS in Jackson Georgia. Lighting hit the antenna of my truck and fried the radio. The next day I looked and the antenna was split about 4 inches down. Lighting is nothing to play with. Glad you all were okay.