i do believe that i now officially hold the new world record for most clogs on one pour. yesterday first damn thing clutch came out of my truck on my way to the job. got started pumping no clogs on the prime but probaly 1/4 way thru first truck big rock in the 4" to 2.5" reducer. every 10 minutes after that more rocks. on the fourt truck i happened to turn around and look at the pump and caught the driver pushing a huge rock maybe 5" thru the grate and i flipped out. i kicked the bottom out of the pump and dumped the hopper at his feet cussed him like a dog for about 10 minutes. i told him to get a representative on the job NOW and cussed him out to. even the mason who was pumping grout couldnt pump good for all the damn rocks in their mix. they said they were very sorry and had no idea they had such idiots employed by them and it would never happen again. can you believe how damn stupid some people are ? i bet we got cogged up 100 times at least. and for that is why i now say i hold the world record for clogs.

Chain link fence over the grate, problem solved.

pumpboss28 

Keep in mind the driver or plant probably didn't do it.My best guess is there supplier and quality control.An old indian trick,carry a piece of old chain link fence at all times to cover the hopper.It works all the time and great in emergency situations.

how about a aluminum bat ???

pumpboss28 

Look on the bright side.

Just think how much better your next pour will be ;~)

lmao bob

pumpboss28,

You had me going there LOL! I was expecting to read a high rise story. Thanks for the laugh! Bob is right, the next day is always better after a situation like that! "At least 100 times " DAM! Then the plant did not know they had idiots working for them that is even more funny! Good luck good thing it was Friday>

Seed

been there done that, 5 yrs strait on pea gravel pump, getting the representative there was the best thing , and yelling at the driver,well at least for trying to push the 5" rock through,but you should get a smaller screen like the ones for pea gravel, cut it up and reweld it to fit over the top of your screen and buy a big rubber glove,show it to the driver and tell "dont make me slap u w/ it before i make u use it.

one time i primed out looked back at my pump and the screen was pilled high w/ big rock, rejected the load , backed up the second truck same thing, turns out the bottom dump trucks dumped 3/4 rock over the 3/8 rock grate at the ready mix plant , shook all my hoses, cleaned the pump by the time the trucks reloaded and came back they told me there was about 20 trucks in the yard returning contaminated pea gravel loads, i laughed it off , now i got enough  story"s  to fill a book so when ever you wanna vent , i all ears , pump on and be safe

Mixer drivers here are pretty well trained!

Thats because they have been trained or punched or whatever LOL. pea mix is called granno here and yes chain mesh or something like that will help alot , also telling the driver "if i see you pushing shit into my hopper i will hit you with my shovel " Helps also.

On a serious note i find if you havent seen the driver before its best to show him were the horn is were the E stop is and all the other stuff he/she  needs to know assumue they know nothing a u will have no probs!

if you are pumping small agg. some sort of screen on your hopper should almost be  required so you dont have those problems yelling at ready mix drivers is very unprofessianol you as the operator should no that mixers carry alot of different material in a day and they run there asses off and unwilling leave material in there drums be a smart operator and use a screen cause if you keeop yelling at the ready mix drivers someday when you need there help guess what your gonna be looking the fool when they tell you to piss off

dont you look at the loads before pumping????????

....what pm36m said.........

PM36, Great point! You can look at 1,000 loads and they all will pass. It is almost certain the one you don't look at will bind you up! I was working with Carrol concrete out of VT yesterday. Great company, quality control, I put my trust in them. I did take a peak once or twice to CMA. What a luxury when the ready mix out fit strives to be the best they can!

yea let me get my scuba gear and jump on in every load and fish the rocks out. man i cant stand over top of my hopper and watch each shot coming out of the truck i gotta work but hey the wire mesh over the grate is gonna be a new good trick thanks guys

pumpboss you say you have to work and cant watch whats gonning in your hopper  well thats part of being an operator is to ensure you can pump the product safley so watching your hopper is part of the job you have the final say in what goes into the pump if the loads are to rocky reject them dont try and push them thru if you know there not gonna go to me it doesnt sound like its all the ready mixes fault you have final say if you come across a bad load i for 1 would be watching the rest of them instead of fighting thru my pump and hollering at ready mix compaines work thrun the problem dont make bigger ones and make the rest of us lok like jerks by yelling and screaming at people we as pump operatores are professinols we should act like it

hey man i'm not trying to be a smart ass but i dont exactly work for a peach of a company its more like working for a tyrant and if i was to send a load away shoot i'd catch hell for it. all i have to say is you boys better thank god every night for your jobs and dont have to put up with the things that i have to put up with.

in my bosses eyes watching what goes into the hopper would just be an excuse to be lazy and my boss is kinda like mr. krabs he can smell laziness from a state away lol. but i understand my responsibility completely i take everything you big dogs say and run with it and try to utilize it.

what an @hole...think id have thrown those rocks in his cab