That week in July when the heat index hit 108 and I still had 4 picks to do

I was running a lattice boom crawler on a bridge job outside Phoenix. By 11am the steel was too hot to touch even with gloves. The oil temp gauge was dancing into the red. Around 2pm I had to lift a 12 ton girder and the hydraulic fluid was starting to thin out. Felt like the whole machine was gonna give up. Had to park it under a shade awning for 45 minutes just to let it cool down enough to finish the last lift. Foreman kept yelling at me on the radio to hurry up. I told him come sit in this cab for 5 minutes and see how you feel. Anyone else ever had a rig overheat that bad on a summer job?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_laura5h ago

My buddy ran a wheel loader at a quarry in Texas one August and the coolant boiled over so bad it cracked the radiator tank. He had to sit there for an hour with the engine off while the owner drove an hour to bring him a spare jug of water. Said he never cursed a job site more than that day...

hannahj495h ago

...and the thing nobody's really talking about is how the radiator cap itself could've been the problem from the start. I've seen guys just slap any old cap on without checking the pressure rating, and then when it gets really hot, it doesn't hold the pressure right, so the coolant boils at a lower temp than it should. Your buddy's boss probably saved a few bucks on the wrong cap and ended up costing himself a radiator plus a whole work stoppage. That's the kind of cheap fix that bites you twice as hard in the long run, especially in a place like Texas where the ambient temp is already fighting against you.

garcia.cameron2h ago

Swapped out my old cap for a new one after my truck kept puking coolant on hot days, and @hannahj49 is spot on about the pressure rating thing. I grabbed a 16 psi cap from the parts store instead of the 13 psi one the manual called for, and it made a world of difference in Texas heat. Had the exact same problem your buddy did on a dozer once, cracked the whole top tank because the cap let go too early. After that I started checking the cap every oil change and carrying a spare in the toolbox. It's such a cheap part but it's the difference between finishing the day or sitting in the shade watching your engine cough up its last drop. Your buddy's boss learned that lesson the hard way for sure.