Redman, what kind of 3/4 minus mix do you pump with your 305? I 've found 50-50 sand-rock 5.5 bag works well with mine. Its nice to supplement 30% pea rock if they will. I use 2.5" hose.

What do ya'll prefer to prime with (line pump 3" line). I use a schwing slick pack and a 60# bag of mortor mix. Works great for going down hill! O, don't mix them together. Use plain ole water in the mortor mix

Hey fellas, The mixes I've pumped are 3/8" agg, 3/4" agg, and 1" agg. 3/8" pumps fine always, 3/4" pumps great when blended with like 1/2" or 3/8", 3/4'' 50/50 pumps a little rougher, and the 1" pumps not very well at all. Course all these depend on sand and cement ratios. I have a lot to learn yet. Tried lightweight the other day... what a mess. I prime with portland. about 22lbs. portland and 4 gallons of water per 100'. works good for me. This job was about 350 yards. Lots of pours with the colors, bands, and walls. This company does high end decorative work with about a 6-8 man crew they only do about 12-30 yds per pour. Very lucrative work for me.

we use E-Z spread up here basically bentanite clay with some cement in the bag i think half of a 7lb bag makes 5 gallons of slurry, I usually go 5 gallons of slurry per 100'ish feet of hose 2'',3'',or 4''. great slimey stuff

I use to use 50/50 cement and flyash to prime with. getting the flyash could be a struggle, to my benefit I would get the flyash out of the bulker when I worked at the ready mix company. I also like slick pak, even to prime my boom.

Must be a very big fountain

for a base that heavy.

Quick gel bentonite from your local well driller works extremely well. Once you try it you won't look back. Cheap $7 a 40 lb bag and you use about 3-4 lbs to 4 gals water per prime. pancake batter consistancey. The 50-50 I was refering to was the sand to rock weight ratio it seems to be the most important factor for small line pumping. The other day I got a pea rock mixture of 1890lb rock it would not pump it just packs in the hose. I sent it back they added sand and cement, it pumped great. You have to watch pea rock mixes they make a tail gate design with 1890 and 1290lb ratio instead of the opposite like it should be. I like 1400 rock and 1600 sand on pea rock mixes.

 Redman1, when your on a site such as that one, were you empty and clean all that hose?

Really cool pics.  looks like a real high-vis job.

60 yards into that fountain sturcture. No fancy water show, they mounted a sculpture on it and the water basically cascaded over that conical shaped structure in the first pic. On these sites, my clean up depends on if I am allowed to pump back into the truck. If I am, I pump the hopper down, open it, scrape it out, plug the system, fill er up with water and proceed to pump my system and valve clean. No mess. Most goes into truck, the rest into a 3 mil contractors bag... that's it. If I am not allowed to pump into the truck, I shut off supply to pump early, plug system and push out the rest of mud with water, when clean water is out, that's it and pump/system is clean job is done, everyone happy, no mess. I cannot tell you how many jobs I have got from being so efficient when it comes to clean up.

what do you use as a plug between the concrete and water?  thx for the tips :)

I use a rag dipped in oil,or water. It should fit just right,nice and firm, you don't want water blowing by or it will blow by the mud and seggregate, then plug you up. The trick is to make sure there is enough water in the hopper. If you suck air it looses pressure, and won't push. My 305 uses about 40 gals. I use a 50 gallon drum with gravity fed 1 1/4" pipe to fill 5 gal buckets, can fill the hopper quickly, with out relying on the RM truck, except for spray out.

Hey threre, I use the portland bags from my primes. wad it up and go. I carry 100 gals of water with a 49cc honda water pump in my truck, I'll posts some pics.

thx b-alto & redman