Just wanted to say hello.  I work with my uncle and his company.  We do masony to concrete floors.  He had decided a while back to buy a new pump and have me operate it.  I had been working in the mason division, so he brought me over to the concrete division.  As of right now its me and my helper/trainner.  He has a few years under him, so he was brought on to train me.  We ended up with a Reed A40HP.  It is a wonderful line pump.  Though I have only been pumping since the beginning of the year, I dont think we could have picked a better pump.  Up onto this point we have been pumping mostly grout in fill cells.  This past week, we pumped a second floor deck with it.  2 seperate pours, 75 yards each.  We only averaged 23 yards or so an hour, but at one point we had 290 of 2" hose out.  Some 3" line would help the average a bit.  At 180 hours, and some 500 yards through it, GCs are always asking if it is a brand new pump, because it looks like the day it was delivered.  I think the biggest problem I forsee is I am kinda limited in where I can go.  The pump truck, F550, is a bit too long and way too heavy for some jobs we have comming up.  Its the only 4x4 in the fleet though.  Anyway I am excited to keep learning and pumping.  Anything any of the veteran pumpers have to offer is always welcomed.  Thanks in Advanced.  

I have some video of the deck pour I will post on youtube later.

Great Choice in Reed. The product and people are great.

Forgot Pictures

Thats a full Size Suburban in the back ground...

Welcome to this website and welcome to the industry

Take the body off the F550, mount the pump right on the truck.  Build a custom deck around it.  You need to get some steel pipe for the 'dead' ground line, much less resistance than rubber, (easier on the pump - less pressure it has to develop) it's way cheaper.   If you build the deck right, use the pipe as sideboards - double function.

How long are your hoses now?  50'ers are a bitch, 25' is an easy load for one man to handle.  If you go to 3", then 10 - 12.5' for rubber, in steel, I'd go with 7 or 8'. (easier to empty a 7' pipe indoors than a 8'er)  For outdoor groundline, 10 or 12' in 2 1/2"  should be easy enough to handle

2 1/2 inch system is best if you think you must go bigger than 2".   3" is about double the weight of 2".  If you do get into pumping 'big rock' - 3/4" aggregate, by all means go with 3"  However, if you can get the mixes tailored for 2 1/2" (less rock content than standard), stick with 2 1/2".  No point in lifting and draging more than you have to.  

I don't know what you mean about the truck being too heavy for the jobs coming up.  Concrete trucks have to back up to you, right?  It sure is long though, and that can be an issue when draging a trailer, but if you mount the pump on the truck, that all changes, and you'll want at least an F500 for the pump and all the system and other crap you gotta carry.

Looks like the truck has a gas-powered compressor mounted on it - be careful if you use that to blow the line out.  I think I saw a gas powered pressure washer in the bed too, good idea.  Do you carry a plastic drum to 'borrow' some water off each of the mixers?

thanks for sharing... 

I am also new to line pumping.What has been your wash out procedure?How long and what diameter hose/pipe are you using?Terry

good luck

Thanks for the welcome my friends.  

Pumpjockey,  The truck has to stay like it is, I am not only a pumper, but when we dont have anything to pump, I am a mason, and a carpenter, and machanic.  When something breaks and I am around I have to fix it.  Thats part of the reason I have the truck I have.  The whole drivers side is filled with nothing but sockets, wrenches, air tools, and pretty much anything you can think of.  

  I have 9 25' sections, 1 50' section, 1 20' tip end, all 2" and 1 50" tip of 1 1/2(cant use it, aggrate is too big around here).  All that hose is in the back of that truck.  We were talking about some hard line today, we just dont have the cash to foot that bill right now.  I am going to the guy we bought the pump from tomorrow, and gonna ask him if he could maybe find us some used pipe for now.  We would just keep it at the office until we need it.  We have pumped to the 6th floor using 2" hose.

  The truck has a 209" wheel base(27" overall), and turns like an aircraft carrier.  It weights by it self about 14,000 loaded, even unloaded its 10,500.  Add in the 5000 land anchor and were 19,000.  I could be a bit more.  We are doing a pool houses for the city of Naples, and the enite site is not much bigger than the finished pool and bulidings.  They already have part of the pool dug, and with the sugar sand, its tough, then factor in the possiblity of caving into the hole for the pool.  Trying to back out about gave me a heart attack.  The ready mix trucks have CTAIS and no trailer, a tad bit easier for them.  Other than it being a pain to back up with the short pump and it being slow as crap, its not too bad.  7.3L ZF 6 Speed.

  Yes we do blow with air, saves the balls.  We always break them when we push it with the pump.  We have found a method thats not too bad with air.  Turn the compressor off, and slow short shots of air.  We also wire tie the end of the hose to a stake.  Then we do it again, with 5 gals of water infront of the ball. I am ordering a catcher tomorrow.  The compressor is for the air tools and other things too.  Its even got an electric start on it.  Freaking wonderful.  

  The gas powered pressure washer, helps save a few mins here and there.  Not much though, have to load and unload it.  It blows that grime and greese off too.  I have 300' of water hose in the truck, so we can find the onsite water and reach it, if we cant get right next too it.  Pump gets washed hitch to hopper everyuse, and washed, waxed, tire shinned, and the stainless polished once a week.  

I blew a PS hose on my truck a few weeks ago, right infront of my boss.  Lost steering and brakes.  So he drove it to the jobsite, and then too the office later that evening, no steering or brakes.  Real Stupid, but he has done worse.  Ended up having to replace the PS pump too, burnt it driving it.  And I was headed to Gainsville, and needed to get there ASAP.  So our wonderful shop machanic, suggested we take this 2000 Chevy 2500, gas with a 8' bed on it and rack on it.  I ended up picking up my PS pump with it, and it just about blew up on me on the way back.  Has a brand new engine in it, and only 300K on the clock.  Nothing but the F550 will do this job with ease.  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJJVH7b7p1s&feature=youtu.be

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7r6P_sdzA8I&feature=youtu.be

and 1 50" tip of 1 1/2(cant use it, aggrate is too big around here)  Should say 50' not 50"

 The truck has a 209" wheel base(27" overall)  Again, 27' not 27"

Thanks for replying with the details.  I figured that the truck had another purpose and was just pressed into service because it was 'handy'.  But seriously, with the site conditions you're talking about, a truck mounted unit (4x4 if possible) would be the best, whenever you're able to do so, just keep it as low as possible so the mixer chutes still are steep enough to flow mud into the hopper.

I viewed the videos, you sure have some line surge there.  Maybe consider making up a 'passive surge chamber', it's nothing more than a 'T' with trapped air that absorbs some of the initial energy of each stroke.  (like a Water Hammer Arrester for plumbing.)  There's one shown on this page : www.0174c1a.netsolhost.com/pump_accessories.htm (you may have to copy and paste it  - I use Google chrome, and it's not compatible with hotlinking on this site.)  The only thing is, I'd make the vertical section separate to clamp onto the bottom 'T' to facilitate easier cleaning.  This one looks to be about 3' tall, but with the short stroke, you'd lose too much volume on each stroke, 18" tall should take quite a bit of the kick out.

You commented that you thought you were having some problems....you focused on the pressure gauges for a lot of the time, so I'm assuming that is what is concerning you.  And when you were up top showing the placing, I thought the mud was kinda stiff, is that about how stiff you normally handle it?  Is everybody OK with that?  Is it possible to wet the mud up a bit to account for the slump loss incurred during the pumping process?

 You will lose a fair bit of slump while pumping at higher speeds, which increases the pressure exerted on the mud (higher pressure created by friction in the rubber hose for a given velocity in the hose)  This is where using as much steel line as possible, even up to the 2nd, and 3rd floor will help.  (with steel elbows, but it will need to be secured to the structure) Larger diameter system will help reduce pressure as well, and the engine and hydraulics on the pump will not have to work as hard, when you get into your summer season, cooling may become an issue, hydraulic oil and components do not like heat.

REED is a good company, have you spoken with Mike Wickstrom or Duane Remus about your concerns? 

Here's a link to their online manuals and other handy stuff - even some servicing videos: www.reedpumps.com/concretepumpmanuals.htm

Yes the truck was repourposed.  Our machanic could not drive it, so they gave it too me, when the need arose.  The passive surge chamber sounds like a good idea.  I will see what I can come up with this week, not a lot to pump.  The reason for the focus on the gagues was for the pressures and strokes per min.  I counted 36 strokes per min.  At that point, we had not thought about the hose size and length being the factor we were pouriing so slow.  Apperently, as my boss told me later, the tubro oulet tube that bolts onto the engine intake was loose, so he tightened it.  The next day though right after we had started pumping, it stalled on us.  Once I restarted it, it rolled some coal, and then was fine.  We are having Earl Baulk(I think that how you spell his last name) form Sarasota, who we bought it from, give it a once over this week.  Its just about oil change time anyway.  We are going early on everything as far as manitance. 

That job calls for no more than a 7 slump out of the truck for the slabs.  8-11 on fill cells.  We have to pump 11 with the fill cells because of all the freaking reabar in the walls there.  Number 6 bars in everyother cell, and the top 4 rows lentals.  This place aint comming down.  

As far as the heat issue, its in the 80s here in the middle of the winter now.  It gets cool at night, 50s or so, and the odd 30 deg night.  Come summer and the ranny season, we may have an issue pumping in the afternoon.  It rains, and it gets really hot.  Mornings are like 90 or so.  By then we will be doing mostly grout inside a school.  We will see how it gose.  If we have to do slabs like this in the summer time, we do them in the middle of the night.  11 pm to 3 am pour start times are not uncommon.  Its cooler, better for the concrete, the pump, and me.  

Earl helped design this pump.  And while he will tell you its not the pump he wanted, and has improvemts to make, its a good pump.  Its just some stupid locations for things.  Like the oil drain plugs,  You can not drain the oil and not make a mess.  It drains right onto the cylinders below.  Or the standard tires.  It comes with D range tires.  We put E range, with a tad bit wider and solid wheel on it.  

The link to the surge chamber doesn't work so well.  Here's the picture:

Just wondering out loud, if he turns the volume down a little bit could he get almost the same output with out all of that hose surge? Pump may be just fighting that smaller line? T

In my experience with the B50, I had to turn the volume down to about 70% to bring the surge down to an acceptable level, and that was with 3" system.  I doubt they would be happy with him dropping it that much.  The REEDS seem to have instantaneous cylinder 'response' after the S-tube has shifted, it hits pretty damn hard, it gives the pump a good jerk!  He may lose 3 to 5% of the stroke volume using a surge chamber, that's a SWAG on my part.  (Silly Wild Ass Guess)

The surge chameber looks like a good idea, that I may try.  If it dose not work too well, oh well.  The surge dose not seem to be a problem on the end of the line, we tie it off to the buliding pretty good.  Normaly we are pumping very very slow, then surge is not a problem.  This has however helped keep the ready mix driver far enough away from my pump when they are smoking.  Last thing I want is an ember to ignite it.

The pressure in the sytem is highest right at the discharge outlet of the pump, from there on it reduces.  Especially once it reaches the horizontal system on top of the building/slab.  To build a surge chamber or have on built is not going to cost very much, so it's a worthwhile experiment.  Just remember to have a good enough base for it to keep it upright.  If possible, place it right after the last reducer, youmay need to have a short elbow of 10 or 12 degrees to have it sit flat on the ground.  This could be welded right to the reducer to reduce clamps needed, and to keep it more stable as well.