Have any of you ever pumped straight sand? I hear its possible with alot alot of water. Its got to be straight sand and water, no cement or other additives. Just doesnt seem like it would work out well. I was asked to do this, not for a few weeks, still trying to see if it would be to big of a headache.

WOW!!!!! never heard of that. Sounds impossible to me.

Not impossible with an IVAC unit. see: http://industrialvacuumunit.com

IVAC units are used globally pumping the worst materials you can imagine. From sand, gravel, to even 5 tons of chicken offal .......

See the chicken sucking video attached.

its called low density fill and yes it has 1.5 sack cement for luberication, your customer does not have the picture yet. i made the mistake of getting it too wet and seperating. but you can put liquid soap to the load for shits and gigles. 

i guess it deppends on the type of sand you use. the really fine sands are scarry they tind to pack up when there not moving. the courser sands works pretty good with the right amout of water but i wouldnt run it through anything less then a 3" line. the wetter it is the easyer it is to pump. oh and dont leave your hopper full anytime you stop pump it all the way down or your gonna have too empty the hopper. then turn the pump on befor you load the hopper again. these things did work out for me although keep in mind on what kind of sand you gonna use. if its the fine sand i wouldnt try it.

WHEN I WAS A KID MY DAD HAD A JOB WITH ONE OF HIS PUMPS PUMPING SOIL FROM A BEET FACTORY ACROSS FEILDS`HE HAD TO PUMP IT LIKE SLURRY LOTS OF WATER ,HE NEVER HAD ANY TROUBLE WITH THAT ,BUT WITH SAND IT IS A DIFFERENT STORY ,IF IT STARTS TO SEGREGATE FROM THE WATER WHEN YOU STOP PUMPING IT MIGHT GIVE TOU BIG PROBLEMS .IF YOU HAVENT GOT TO PUMP IT TOO FAR HIRE A TELEBELT 

with enough water it should pump fine. you don't need cement. i have pumped salt before and it pumped fine.

Why not use a conveyor.

We've done it a few times with line pumps and booms.  You need alot of water and at least 1 gallon of the "liquid air". The powder air does not work at all. Have the mixer driver keep his barrel moving back and fourth while your pumping to keep it from seperating. And try and keep your hopper about half full.

I'll find out the sand mix for you later

This can be done with 2 bag cement and a lot of fly ash. We do a lot of this in Illinois, we call it flowable fill. The trick is not to sit idol to long .the vibration of the machine make the sand separate and go to the bottom of your hopper and the water and cement all go to the top .So if you don't reverse a couple strokes after siting for a while you get nothing but pure sand in the cylinders and most likely will sand pack in the boom .We pump this mixture to do void filling and abandon pipes .if this is your application make sure that you have the other end of the void or pipe vented because whatever you put in the air and or water has to go somewhere and it needs to be vented .also watch your pressure gage very closely and have your hand on the pump off button all the time this stuff has a tendency to plug and release possibly causing hose whipping

i've pumped alot of it and it had a sack and a half cement and duraflow in it.

scott s what part of illinois are you in

I would not try to pump sand and water.  I suppose it is possiable with enough water but if you pump any pressure you will push the water out of the sand and you will sand lock. 

A few yrs ago I did a water treatment Plant where we Pumpd to semi trailers of silica sand into a water filtration silo , we used 2, 3' inch hoses hooked to fire hydrant at full flow ,32 xl @ half throttle & about half volume . Started job out with just water till it come out of end hose & then like 4 guys started breaking 100 lb bags of silica sand into hopper with a special hopper grate they had made for previous jobs they had done this way, Personally I was like you wanna do WHAT? I didnt think it would work but we never stopped the flow of the pump & it was like a huge lake when we were done , the trick was to keep more water then sand flowing @ all times.. Just be carefull & keep eye on your Pressures ..

With an IVAC vacuum/delivery unit our customers change out water treatment plants sand filter media. No water is required since IVAC Vacs can pump wet or dry materials.   The enclosed video shows an IVAC pumping gravel out of a loader bucket. An IVAC Vacuum unit vacuums up your desired materials and then discharges the materials long distances- even kilometers away! The attached pictures show the filters that the filter media is removed and replaced with one of our air powered vacuum/delivery units. Contact Us Today for sales and/or rentals of sand and gravel pumping units. 1-888-502-2468 - 1-604-628-3367 email sales@ivacvacuum.com

I'd tell them, "sure, not a problem", and then give them my competitors phone number....lol

no straight sand,has to be flowable fill,the mix depends on what pump your using,but if all they want is sand thats not going to harden its not going to work.Flowable fill mix design we use is 440lbs of cementuos material(200lbs cement) 4-5%air entrainment and pump it wet,wet,wet!.Have tried it with less cementuous material it doesn't work very well.No delays allowed whatever the yardage you need to be sure not to have delays especially in linepumps.Have pumped it through 2"line with no problem.GOOD LUCK

Yes you can pump straight sand. Use a fire hose, don't stop. When you run out of sand don't stop pumping until you are are washed out. Don't send a rookie.

Screed pumps use a "binder" and must be dry pack. Very low volume.

I Have pump my share of sand slurry. The first time i was told i was going to pump stright sand I thought ? Who was the nut that took this gob in? But I was told to ad 2 bags of Bentonite to the load, WOW, It pump better then 2 sack. Getting it really wet helps to.

Massive amounts of water and dont stop pumping.  There is a chemical call revert that is safe for pumping.