Random People On The Dumbest Solution To A Problem That Actually Worked (16 items)

• (#5) Way To MacGyver A Broken Fuel Pump

  From Redditor /u/Nevermind04:

  My first vehicle was a 1985 dodge ram that had around 300k miles on it. Needless to say, it wasn't exactly reliable.

  Anyway, my friend and I had tickets to go see a concert in a city that was about 3 hours away. We made it there just fine and had a blast at the concert. We couldn't afford to stay overnight so we started on the long journey home. If all went well, we would get home around 3AM.

  There was one stretch of highway where there was 60 ish miles between towns. It's pretty much the worst place to break down on that journey. There were big signs warning travelers to fill up with gas before leaving town, but I had half a tank. My truck sputtered out... halfway between the two towns. It sure sounded like I ran out of gas but the gauge still showed half a tank. All had not gone well.

  So there we were - 1:45 AM, stuck on the side of the highway in Texas, 30 miles from the nearest towns, no moonlight, and this was before teenagers had cell phones. We were screwed. After a bit of poking around with a flashlight, we discovered that we did have fuel but the fuel pump had died. We decided to sleep in the truck and mess with it in the morning.

  On those old dodge trucks, the fuel pump was inside the engine instead of in the fuel tank like a modern vehicle. It was powered by the engine instead of an electric motor. Essentially, the fuel pump would constantly pump gasoline when the engine was running and gas would always be available for the carburetor float valve. The extra pumped gas would just go back into the gas tank.

  I was just drifting off to sleep when I got an idea. I worked for almost an hour in the pitch dark. I used some extra hose from an agricultural fertilizer, a drink straw, screw clamps, and duck tape to rig the windshield fluid pump to pump fuel from the fuel line into the carburetor float line.

  I got in my truck, hit the windshield fluid lever, and the truck started right up. It took a bit of trial and error but I was able to get the timing down where I knew how often to hit the lever to keep the truck running.

  We made it back home just after 4:30AM. My dad wasn't immediately amused with my handy work, but he told all of his friends how clever his son was so I guess it passed the dad test.
• (#3) Like A Tripping Moth To The Flame

  From Redditor /u/PaintsWithSmegma:

  I was working as a paramedic at a music festival when we got called to a kid tripping on acid. The guy had climbed to the top of a portable generator stadium light. So he's 20 feet in the air, on a light pole staring into this blazing midnight sun screaming, "I'm a moth go into the flame". We had several cops, firefighters and myself standing at the base for 30 minutes discussing how to get him down... Do we get a ladder truck and try to coax him down? What if he won't go. Do we [spray] mace up there? What if he falls?

  All of a sudden this greasy looking janitor walks up, turns off power to the generator, turns on his flashlight and aims it at the mothman. Dude looks at the flashlight on the ground, [scrambles] down and follows it to the medical [tent] like a puppy about to get a snack. I'm [embarrassed] that none of us thought about that.
• (#10) It's Not An Accident If You Do It On Purpose

  From Redditor /u/mylesfrost335:

  My stepdad was taking a sat nav back to the shop as it was acting strange but the bloke serving him refused to take it as the warranty only covers physical damage (not accidental damage) So he just drop kicked it lightly and the bloke just casually said "that'll do sir" and went out back to get a replacement.
• (#6) Muddy Lights Will Travel

  From Redditor /u/SSmtb:

  Drove to a neighboring town 80 miles away with one burned out headlight, remaining headlight went out while in said town. I had no money, and shops were closed regardless. These were dual beam, so although I had lost both headlights, the high beams worked. I didn't make it out of town [without] getting honked at and flashed repeatedly by angry passing motorists, and understandably so. What was I to do?

  I continued down the highway and made it about 15 miles before I'm pulled over by the first officer to see me. I explain the situation, officer has no suggestions (this was before cell phones), tells me I can go but that I won't make it home without getting stopped again. I pull over at the next exit, get a free water, dump it in the dirt, make a thin mud, and smeared it over my lights. Worked like a charm, no more honks or flashes, passed multiple officers.
• (#12) A Database Too Far

  From Redditor /u/Everyone_is_taken:

  This was before high speed internet. We had to transfer a database between two cities 500Km [apart] and we had only one night to do it. People started searching how to compress the files and rent several expensive digital lines (I think ISDN) to spread the copy.

  Then someone said "why don't we remove the hard drive out of the server and move it there by car?" So I drove 500Km during the night to deliver the disk and mount the new database.
• (#8) Take Your Problems With You

  From Redditor /u/pastelroyalty:

  My psych professor told us about this patient. She was a woman in her late 40's, suffering from OCD and paranoia. Everyday while she drove to work, she would panic that she left her curling iron on, and it was going to burn her house down. So she would turn around, drive home, make sure it was unplugged, and then leave again.

  But as time went on she started making multiple trips home, sometimes in the middle of the day, and she was about to lose her job over this. No therapy was working, her medications weren't working, coping techniques weren't working. Nothing could calm this woman.

  Then she saw my professor. And my professor told her to bring her curling iron in the car with her. So if she got nervous that it was still plugged in, she could look over and see that it was next to her.

New Random Displays    Display All By Ranking