Days 30 & 31: Septic tank in-place! …and an accident

Yay! After waiting a whole week – which was equal parts annoying but also a nice chance to get caught up on things and relax a bit – my septic supplies finally arrived!

All for the low-low cost of $5187 (and that’s not even all of them).

The two biggest contributors to the cost were 1) the 1500-gallon tank at $1995 and 2) 42 infiltrators at $1905.

Since the empty tank is still more than 500 pounds, and because I had to get the tank off the truck, up the drive, over to the build site, and then in a pit that’s 7-8ft deep, I decided to rent the ol’ L47 again.

Oddly, I took video of the process of getting the tank in the pit – which turned out to be a major PITA – but unbeknownst to me, my phone’s camera was acting like it was possessed and messed up all the footage.

It was randomly zooming in and out, taking screenshots, and even switching between front and rear cameras, which is really bizarre behavior that you’d normally only see if there’s water on the screen messing up the capacitive touch sensors.

But I was at least able to get these screenshots, though they are a bit blurry:

After much finagling, I just couldn’t get the right positioning and leverage to lift the tank suspended on a chain and then maneuver it over the pit and lower it in place.

So partially out of frustration, I decided to just push one end of the thing in the hole with the rounded and blunt part of the front bucket, and do my best to reposition it once it fell in place.

And I ended up doing what I told myself I wouldn’t do, which is to actually get in the pit to do some leveling and attach the chain to the end of the tank that had dropped in.

Part of this is because I remembered that pits are safer if they are at least as wide as they are deep, which is true in this case….although now that I think of it, maybe they’re supposed to be twice as wide as they are deep in order to be safest? I don’t remember.

And the other reason is because I didn’t really have any other options unless maybe I wanted to pay for another day with the L47 which would’ve cost another $450.

And with things perpetually more expensive than expected at each phase of the project, I’m feeling the squeeze of my financial buffer getting ever-smaller. So I soldiered on.

I also made sure to have my phone on me and put my ladder down (even though I had dug a slanted ‘exit’ of sorts) just to make sure that I wouldn’t get stuck.

I won’t lie though; it felt sketchy, and I was hyper-aware of any little bits of dirt that started to fall in the hole while I was in it, as though I was ready to leap for the ladder at a moment’s notice.

It did help to keep in mind though that the pit had been there for over a week without any movement whatsoever. So if it had been unstable, it would’ve collapsed by then.

Anyway, once I had the chain in-place, I tried pulling the thing into position by hand…

…which did help, but I still needed the L47 one more time to finish the job.

Even now that it’s finally in-place, it looks slightly unlevel to me – and frustratingly, I couldn’t find my actual level (tool) anywhere and I didn’t have any time to run to the store to get another one.

So I decided to pack it up and return the machine ahead of the deadline, and later, I got a new level and what the store called a “farm jack” which I’ve always heard referred to as a “high jack”, which is what people who do a lot of off-roading tend to keep handy…

…which I plan to use to lift up each end of the tank so that I can get enough dirt where it needs to go in order for the thing to be ‘dead-nuts’ level.

Apparently, the logic there is that 1500 gallons of waste will weigh roughly 12,000 pounds, and if that’s sitting on an unlevel surface which then gets soft in the rain, for example, the tank could shift and possibly get damaged. And that would be a HUGE mess that nobody wants to deal with.

And it cost me $90 instead of $450, and I get to keep the thing too…although it will entail getting in the pit again.

Anyway, after a super early day for me (6:30am) and a lot of tiring, sweaty work, I took the trailer down the drive and parked it in a relatively flat part of the drive, and then drove the L47 down the drive so that I could load it up where it wouldn’t be pushing the Tahoe downhill – a piece of advice that I got from a nice guy that worked at the co-op I rented it from.

And then on the drive back to the rental place, out of nowhere and for a reason I still don’t know exactly, the trailer started to fishtail and before I had time to finish reaching down to squeeze the trigger on the brake controller (which would’ve engaged only the trailer brakes, which would pull back on the Tahoe and help stabilize the movement), the fishtailing escalated into a full-blown jackknifing of my Tahoe.

There was no controlling it at that point, and the trailer pushed the Tahoe about 120° to the right, which happened to be in the intersection of another dirt and gravel road.

Thankfully, there weren’t any other cars around, and even though I thought in that split second that the trailer was going to tip and maybe roll, it didn’t.

AND had it not been in that exact spot, I would’ve at least been pushed off the road and probably would’ve gotten stuck.

But somewhat amazingly, the L47 didn’t have a single scratch (it costs about $65k), and I just put the Tahoe in reverse, backed right back onto the road I was on, and was on my way again – though obviously very shaken.

And I even said out loud, “Well I won’t be doing that again!” (meaning that I’d rather pay the extra $300 to have that equipment delivered than to do it myself and risk repeating such an incident).

After that, I was driving rather gingerly – though I don’t think I was going any faster than 35-40mph to begin with – and I noticed that it was pulling a little funny. So I was driving with my 4-ways on, while driving slowly on the shoulder of the highway.

And once I got into town and stopped at the gas station, I noticed this:

That isn’t the best angle, but the hitch receiver (the square bar that the draw bar and ball attach to) was bent down and sideways.

Even though it wasn’t immediately obvious to me, you might have also noticed the damage to the right side of my bumper which turned out to be a key indicator.

The next thing I noticed was paint in that dent, which of course means it came from somewhere – which in this case meant the rental trailer. So then I noticed this:

At first I thought “No big deal, just a little paint,” but when you look at it from above…

…it’s a bit more serious. Nothing I would classify as ‘major‘, but I do know that once these trailer frames get bent, it can be difficult to get them un-bent.

So it became obvious that I’d need to file an insurance claim.

And after submitting the claim online with pictures of the damages, I’ve already received a preliminary compensation offer of about $1600 for the damages to the Tahoe – even after my deductible (which I pay extra every month to keep at $250).

And that doesn’t even include what I suspect is damage to the rear suspension which has yet to be officially diagnosed, which is happening tomorrow.

In fact, I suspect that since the bluebook value of the Tahoe is currently about $3,600 and since most insurance companies will ‘total’ a vehicle if the damages exceed 51% of it’s current cash value (though some insurance companies apparently hold off until it reaches 80%), it’s possible that they’ll total it…even though it’s still totally drivable.

And if that happens, I’ll take it as the proverbial ‘blessing in disguise’.

Plus, I also pay extra for rental car reimbursement, so even if it’s not totaled and instead stays in the shop for a while being fixed, I’ll still have transportation.

In the meantime, it’s yet another reminder to live each day like it’s your last because one day it will be – and yesterday could’ve been mine.

So with humble gratitude, I bid you adieu until next time. 👋