Giving the ultimate sacrifice for your bus!

[dtcerrato]

Not too long ago back in April Chazmon sold his 4104 in less than a week listed. I've communicated with the buyer since and sold him the entire rear 4104 window glass & weatherstripping that I had promised to Chaz... & the wheel goes round...

Today I just had a lengthy phone conversation with Chaz and received the most unfortunate news about Jerry Jaynes who bought Chaz's bus. While Jerry was installing solar panels on his 4104 he fell off the roof and died instantly... BUMMER. We always talk about not getting under an air ride bus without blocking or "getting thrown under the bus" of stepping off of a curb & getting run over by a bus. All I can say is Jerry made the ultimate sacrifice in doing what he loved most and also wanted to say please be careful when you're working on your bus and live to enjoy it. So Sad

[chessie4905]

and the 4104 has a more rounded roof than newer models too. Add some moisture on the surface and can be quite slippery.

[dtcerrato]

The irony of solar on a curved roof bus is that the panels first occupy the flat top leaving only the curve to walk on. We spend very little time on the roof of our bus compared to earlier times. Even though we have permanent fold down steps installed on the bus for roof access we elect to access lots more the roof from a large step ladder now more than before. Self preservation comes to mind. Main reason for the post was to drive home that safety is solely in our hands - the operators doing the work - no one else.

[buswarrior]

Fred Hobe encouraged the use of a home built scaffold.

Note the rear edge sticks up to defend against putting your foot or tools, off the back edge.

Happy coaching!
Buswarrior

[chessie4905]

Or regular scaffolding or the narrower Baker style scaffolding. Harbor Freight sells their version of the latter.

[Iceni John]

The irony of solar on a curved roof bus is that the panels first occupy the flat top leaving only the curve to walk on.

That's one of several reasons I first built a 12"-wide diamond-plate walkway on my very curved roof between the two roof hatches, then hinged my solar panels to the walkway.   Whenever I need to be up on the roof, such as to clean the panels, I have a safe place to work with absolutely no risk of falling off.   And to wash the panels I have two quick-connect water outlets on the walkway, so I only need to take a washdown brush with a few feet of curly hose up to the roof, much easier than lugging heavy buckets of water or a long hose up there, and the dirty water flows away from me as I wash the panels.   Easy!   Why doesn't everyone mount their panels this way?

John

[Tedsoldbus]

Good advice John, and I know solar is the new big thing. I though about it but decided I have no intention of needing to wash panels.
I have a monster Kubota generator that takes up a whole bay on one side. It could probably power my house. It runs on Diesel. My bus holds 200 gallons. I just decided "Why change all of that?". And I just don't want more holes in my roof. I am 65 and feeling more brittle every year. I sold or gave away all of my big ladders. I now pay a college kid to do my gutters. When I put new waterproofing on my bus shortly after I got it I stayed low on the bus as I applied it. A few times my foot touched a place I just painted. Veeeery greasy. I was glad to get off there when done especially since my little Prevost has curved sides. It really gave me the heebee geebies being up there. I used to fly jets, but discovered I am afraid of heights! Go figure.
I'm going to pay the gutter cleaning kid to wash the roof once a year. I'm not made of money but I think the collage kid will be cheaper than a trip to the Orthopedic guy if I survive the fall. And I am supporting higher education! A win win!
Just my 2 cents...

[chessie4905]

how do you cover it if kid falls off your roof?

[Tedsoldbus]

We just feed him to the lions and say we haven't seen him...

[Lin]

Tesla installed my solar roof last week.  There were five guys up there on this little 1000 sq ft house.
These, of course, are relatively young guys who work roofs all the time.  There must be a reason.  They all were tied off with safety ropes 100% of the time.  There must be a reason.

[dtcerrato]

"I have a safe place to work with absolutely no risk of falling off"
If your not correctly tied off there is always a risk of falling off. Murphys law applies here to. It sounds like you have a superb setup - be careful. I have seen the best & most confident tradesmen fall to their death in my 40 years of construction. Please be careful! 

[chessie4905]

Osha. If someone dies, police and or coroner notify OSHA. If you don't  provide proper protection for your employees resulting in a work location death, there will be hell to pay.Including big fines and possibly jail time in worst cases.

[dtcerrato]

Most fatal falls in the work place were tie offs to an inadequate anchor point. When OSHA requests the documentation showing that employee's training it shows the employee was properly trained. Can't hook your safety lanyard to a conduit and expect the conduit to handle a 10,000 lb. shock load. I'm guilty since retirement. Trained all my working life to be safe & go home & stand on top of a ladder - but not so much anymore...

[Bus Lurker]

There is local solar installation company here which also cleans the solar panels after the installation.  A couple of years ago, one of their cleaners was on roof of a commercial building cleaning panels with a cleaning brush with a metal pole.  The metal pole contacted a high voltage line and nearly killed the guy.  His shoes were blown off and he will never work again.

Someone at the solar company told me the OSHA fine to the company was nearly $300k. The last time we had our panels cleaned on our house, the guy was using all types of safety equipment and he was being shadowed by a "safety officer" from the company.  This was a tragedy which could have been prevented by safety equipment and training.

I feel for whoever found the poor fellow who fell off his bus.

[Ed Hackenbruch]

You don't even have to fall that far.....this year we have had 3 people that we know that fell in their house and although the fall didn't kill them outright, the complications from the fall did.