# Concrete Pump



## Bonfire (Oct 21, 2012)

I watched a concrete pump truck pump about 150 yds of concrete today. It just amazes me how they can pump that stuff like that. It was nonstop. Two trucks backed up to the pump at one time. One dumping and the other spinning accelerator. One finishes and the next one comes in. They say it was a 39 meter truck. At the two furthest corners, the guy on the remote had every boom section straight out horizontal. I thought it was pretty bad azz. I sat there and watched that truck, trying to figure out how that pump worked. Operator said there are two pistons in there working. I watched that hub/spindle on the bottom of the hopper rotate back and forth on every stroke. It's just cool. Hell, that truck can sit on a residential street and pump over someone's house who decided to waste money on building a swimming pool.


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## rjmoses (Apr 4, 2010)

Yeah, they are cool, aren't they? I wondered how they clean them out. Seems to me that a person would have to be real fast on the clean up to keep the concrete from setting up and then screwing up the pumps.

When I live in Chicago, I watched them pump up I-don't-know-how-many stories on skyscrapers. I wondered how much back pressure there was on that pump!

Ralph


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## JD3430 (Jan 1, 2012)

rjmoses said:


> Yeah, they are cool, aren't they? I wondered how they clean them out. Seems to me that a person would have to be real fast on the clean up to keep the concrete from setting up and then screwing up the pumps.
> 
> When I live in Chicago, I watched them pump up I-don't-know-how-many stories on skyscrapers. I wondered how much back pressure there was on that pump!
> 
> Ralph


Usually when I rent one, I also have a dumpster on site. You line the dumpster with trash and then clean it out by running water through it till it comes out clean into the dumpster.
Pumpers can be very dangerous. In the neighborhood in which I lived after I first got married, guy down the street from me was elecrticuted when he touched the boom to overhead high voltage. Left a wife & 6 kids behind.


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## Gearclash (Nov 25, 2010)

> I wondered how they clean them out


I've seen them run the pump cycle in reverse, and suck a cleanout plug and some water back ward thru the lines. Everything ends up in the hopper at the back of the truck. Then open the trap on the hopper and hose it out. Cool part is the operator is tapping the line by the pump to tell when the "pig" is past and he can stop the pump.


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## Bonfire (Oct 21, 2012)

Gearclash said:


> I've seen them run the pump cycle in reverse, and suck a cleanout plug and some water back ward thru the lines. Everything ends up in the hopper at the back of the truck. Then open the trap on the hopper and hose it out. Cool part is the operator is tapping the line by the pump to tell when the "pig" is past and he can stop the pump.


Exactly.


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## mlappin (Jun 25, 2009)

Looked up how they work on Google last night. Must be made of some pretty tough stuff not to have the concrete eat the pump assembly up almost immediately.


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## swmnhay (Jun 13, 2008)

I had one here when they did floor of cattle shed.Cost me $800 for the pump on a 100 yd pour.But saved alot more then that in labor.The boom went threw the roof trusses.Building frame was up already,steel.Had a 100yrs poured and screeded off before noon.


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## askinner (Nov 15, 2010)

I have always been amazed myself how the pumps don't wear out on the fisrt job.

An interesting fact my father told me about concrete, is sugar will stop it setting. Apparently the agi drivers used to carry a bag of sugar with them, if they broke down somewhere remote, they'd just chuck the sugar in the mix so it wouldn't set, and saving the bowl from being destroyed. Not sure if they still do or not. You don't need much either, I've been told a 2 litre bottle of Coke will stop a whole agi load setting!


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## Bonfire (Oct 21, 2012)

askinner said:


> I have always been amazed myself how the pumps don't wear out on the fisrt job.
> 
> An interesting fact my father told me about concrete, is sugar will stop it setting. Apparently the agi drivers used to carry a bag of sugar with them, if they broke down somewhere remote, they'd just chuck the sugar in the mix so it wouldn't set, and saving the bowl from being destroyed. Not sure if they still do or not. You don't need much either, I've been told a 2 litre bottle of Coke will stop a whole agi load setting!


Me and a driver were in a discussion today about this. I asked him how concerned he was about waiting for the contractor to finish forming. Accelerator at the plant and brought a 4 inch slump. He wasn't worried. Said he would dump it on the ground if it got to the point of setting up. He said 5 pounds of sugar in a 10 yd load would stop it from setting. Changes the Ph I guess.


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