For the benefit of myself and others... I would like to kindly ask the more experienced operators, to share their experiences, safety tips on things the average operator may not think about, as well as exchange tips we can use in the field. I hope this forum has alot of replies as their is ALOT of info involved in pumpin mud.

If, no, WHEN you get interrupted during your set-up, teardown or washout 'routine' - please take the following action: RECOGNIZE that the normal flow has been compromized.

If it is safe to do so, step away from the machine and look the situation over to determine where exactly where you were when things got compromised and determine what the next step was, or what you need to do next to get things back into the normal routine.

Try not to let others get in the way of your routine to begin with.  Your job is just as important as them washing their tools off, but they didn't bring any water with them, now did they?  So they can wait until you are prepared and it is safe to give them any attention.

It's usually somebody wanting to wash something off that gets things all fouled up when you are preparing to finish up.

three things that a customer does not feel like they need on a concrete job would be a wheel barrow, a water hose and visqueen to protect finish painted surfaces.

No need to go look at the job when they call and ask you to. for they will not have moved anything out of your way. If you waste your time and go look at the job and a 52m will do it as the job site is, thats what you take there . If you tell them you could do it with a 45 if they move a few things it will not be moved when you come to do the job.

 I have also noticed alot of contractors Know more about pumping concrete then us. If in doubt ask them the will tell u.

WHY IS THERE ONLY ONE SEAT IN MOST REDI MIX TRUCKS?

SO THEY DON'T GET CONFUSED ON WHERE TO SIT.

PUMPERS ALWAYS HAVE TWO SEATS WE ARE THE SMART ONES

pumpwrench, you know you ain't right...when I was driving a concrete truck, many times I picked up a 4 or 5 foot stick of 1/2" rebar to help clear a pluged line and I remember making about a 3 mile deture to turn around after seeing a pumper friend who had his boom in the air trying to clear a plug (and it wasn't even our mud he was pumping) and spent bout half an hour giving him the rest of my water and banging away on the tip hose as I listened to my dispatcher call me like 3 dozen times and when I backed into a Schwing & took the hopper off the machine ($6,500 worth of a mistake), not only did the operator stand up for me but so did the owner and 4 or 5 other operators. and now I as an operator I know I can count on well over half of the drivers I deal with to lend a hand when needed.

I've onle been holdin' that yellow box for 4 1/2 years but I know what goes around comes around. it's like treat people on the job like you want to be treated.

here's my big tip: use an overlay grate! it will pick up ALL of the crap that the ready mix trucks barf into your hopper and almost anything that does get through will be able to pass through your whip hose. since i started using this gem i have NOT had a blockage due to foreign objects and its been almost 8 months!

I wish I had something like that back 8 months ago. Stupid driver threw my shovel in the hopper. That was a good shovel.

lol... this last week... I swear I removed a good 5-8 fins out my reducer... one when trying to prime, another im my 5 to 4 1/2 self red. hose. Pet peeve....

What the best way to drive job to job without washing out... I tried sucking a ball back, wetting up my hopper, scraping out my trans. and tube take the ball out, water in slurry port, mix new mud with old and re-prime on new site... this good or bad?

Suck back 1 ball with just a little water before it and off you go, before priming on new job, stroke it in reverse to mix it up and pump on if the mud is good enough, if not add some water to primeport.
Depends on mud, distance and weather, so decide before you drive from the first job.
Some retarder before the ball also works great with some water.

just remember to take the sponge OUT before you start pumping again.... not that that has ever happened to me or anything..  lol 

in my area 90% of my work is within a 10 minute drive of everything else so i used to not even bother sucking a sponge back before folding up. after one little incident though which involved calling a 50m pump to pump OVERTOP of me while i frantically ripped all my deck pipe off i decided sucking a sponge might be a better idea. live and learn i guess

1-never stop pump while priming.2-no matter how bad it gets it can always get worse.3- never assume you know it all ,because you dont. and 4- you [can] be replaced.and your only as good as your last job.

Things ive learned so far....

i run a line pump and i know most of you guys are boom pump guys so... also correct me if i leave any bad advice or anything...

k, in my experience so far, in finished residential areas its better to cut the concrete truck off from adding more and pump out as much as you can into the end of a job, and then suck a ball back to clean your hoses into your hopper than it is to blow out your hoses and risk mess/or worst case mess and injury... but on a site where you dont really have to worry about making a mess its better to pump out the old concrete, blow your hoses and have the driver add some into your hopper so you have fresher stuff for the drive home.

ive also learned and this might be a case of the type of Delay set we have, but in some cases like if the mud is flashing on you its too late for it to have any real affect on the concrete and slow down the process.... so you better find a place to wash...

(^^^In this case would a bucket of brown sugar water be a good idea to kill the concrete while you find a place to wash or atleast while you set up to wash right there?)

I dunno if its just my imagination but it seems brown sugar works real well(as long as you dont have to use that remaining mud for anyones job)

another tip ive found, if the truck driver when putting some in his chute to check slump has it too dry, dont let him shovel it into your hopper, get it into a bucket or something and get it back into his truck to be slumped up. Better his truck with dry stuff than your complicated pump with innaccessible parts and areas you cant get too if worst case scenario should happen)

when blowing hoses with an air compressor, only you or your swamper(if your lucky enough to have one) should be the controller of the air flow and bleed valve.

^^we use the heavy duty 2 1/2 or 3" hose with metal meshing in it...Its all i know so i dont know if it works with the other types of hose.

I can fit atleast 4- 33ft hoses worth of concrete into my hopper(as long as ive cut the truck off and pumped enough out)

just so theres no confusion: im also assisting the process with an air compressor attatched to the end to help push back

Ah, that makes sense. Have tried sucking back balls in 3" before and it never worked.
You loose all the vacuum in the lines when it shifts, just like you lose pressure when pumping.

OK. now i get it. Was already wondering.

Hey Dipstick if you had listen to the old guy in your time whit us you had alredy known. ask your frend about it.

Yea... I knew already but I never tried it so who am I to say it's not possible when someone that has tried it sais its possible? But I should have known yes ;-)

we suck back a lot because were a small company thats trying to get big and for now we use our pump for tons of upgrades to finished houses in developed neighboorhoods. Blowing out risks mess, and with some of the houses and their owners we cant risk getting clean up bills.

another tip i use for my line pump

any more than 3-33 ft hoses, i break the line and prime it again there. So if theres 4 hoses ill prime again after the second one. If theres 5 hoses ill prime again at the 3rd and same with 6 etc etc changing amounts aswell, usually ill pour a whole painters bucket per 3 hoses... I always wet my reducers attatched to the pump and i spray a bit of water down the line before i add my prime...

for prime we use a 2:1 ratio of sand to powder mix.

Oh and if youve ever had concrete harden in the hopper over the trap so you couldnt wash out, one trick i learned was to fill the trap with sand and that way you wont get a 2" plug of stiff mud blocking the trap at the bottom...

Just keep your cool and never get to exiteted when s..t hapens, there's allway's a way...

Not sure if I was trained wrong, but from experience if driving with mud in your boom, the road vibrations settles the rock to the bottom of the pipe horizontally, pluggin ya when on new site. From what I was told what happened to me after doing so. I re-circulated made mud to a 5inch slump and drove to site.. opened up took a stroke then plugged... maybe wetter mud is your enemy?

Always suck back before moving - even on-site. If the mud's in the hopper, and you break down or something else happens, you can drop the hopper and rinse out the barrels with mixer water of water from another source. Even if it happens to set up some in the barrel, a pump kit can reverse stroke the remaining stiffened or hardened green mud into the hopper where a sledge hammer can break it apart. The valve is another story, a long point on a chipping hammer is the next option for that, if you don't have a rake-type tool to pull mud out of it. Plan for the worse, hope for the best.

Glad im doin it right... learned the hard way once. I always suck a sponge now. Runnin wet to another job.