I just had to post this....

I was pumping a 33m wall when this happened the 3rd section of my 40m XXXX comes down it did not drop fast but it came down at about 1 to 2 feet per second and I managed to move it in time to not hurt anyone or the wall  I was pouring.

That was bad but get this there were 4 guys standing close one on the hose and 3 with in 2 feet of the hose. They are saying your hose is dropping and I am yelling at them to move and that I cant contol it... it is comming down it took them about 3 seconds to figure it out then they all moved.

Now what ads more to this I have the boom moved and in a place that it would not hurt anyone or anything I am on the phone with my boss and the mixer driver starts... cant you pump me off I only have a half a metre left on. I look at him and took a deep breath and said are you blind did you not just see what happened here....

What gets me is why this happened I had 15.5 metres into this wall the pump was pumping great like normal and in a span of maybe 10 seconds max this all goes down. Later I managed to pump out my hopper and suck the balls and fold up without incident. The pump went directly in for repairs, but that night I really thought about how bad that could have been if I was not paying attention to what was going on I know alot of guys short rig but the 2 guys that tought me said dont because there might be a day when you have swing the boom to avoid a accident well a couple days ago was my day to swing it.

I guess the moral of this...is stay focused even when you are having a long hot day because you never know what might just happen.

glad to hear no one got hurt and that you were able to safely get your ball back and boom folded up

Yes,blessings come at strange times.True story,I was running a 52m XXXX.I set up out riggers and was unfolding at a bridge deck and the main clyinder failed.In the next 10 days the very same thing happend to another one in our branch.This time it caught the edge of a house roof.There is now a operator service bulliten out.In both cases the potential for injury was there.Your ability to react to this may have well saved a soul.

38zman, good reactions on your part.  Glad everyone and everything turned out well.  So what was the diagnoses to what caused the problem?  Was it a cylinder failure?  Keep us posted.....

thanks for sharing....

I had the boom swing let go, it was a week before my but got back to normal roundness hehe. Good to hear you got it under control. They are metal and hydrolics and it has a chance of happening, so realy we do put alot of faith in them, but just being aware and awake says alot.

Other guys at my firm have have major boom failures and said the boom dropped as quik as I blinked, so lucky you realy.And that was on all brands of pumps not just one. We boom check regular by an outside engineer.

my thoughts for the RM truck is if they value the truck more than the half yard of mud they should go so the next truck can pull up and or they can send a clean up truck for what ever makes your project complete. so does the third section get all the ware and this is a worn check valve. what rebuild parts kit cost and sevice time.