Calcium carbonite

When I pulled pneumatic we hauled a lot of calcium. One place loaded it all thru the back hole and one place loaded it all thru the front hole. We got washed out and rinsed off after every load because of our reload and the trailers had Alumaclear on them so I can’t speak to staining or not. It unloads real easy, flows like water. If you have any bad seals anywhere you will find them.

 

We only loaded at 2 places and they were decent. After we unloaded we went and got washed out and washed because our reload was food grade so I don’t know if it gets hard or not.

 

I ran calcium when I first started, but we trans-loaded out of rail cars, so can't speak to any build up on the trailer from top loading. Our trailers for that were dedicated to that product, so they didn't get washed often, basically when it rained. I never noticed a great deal of staining on them but I would say they became dull and flat looking over time. They were not AlumaCleared.

But it did unload easy, as @Long FLD said.

 

We haul some high calcium hydrated lime and yes it does stain/burn unprotected aluminum and will build up. The one drive we have that does it dosent take very good care of the trailers and it shows.

 

I don't know about calcium carbonate, but when hauling lime they always loaded us through the dome lid on top of the #3 pod. We pulled 1600cf 4-pod trailers.

If the lime is hydrate, you will have to pressure it down using top air toward the end of the loading process. Once your trailer is full, they'll remove the spout and you'll close the dome lid. Fire up the blower, open your top air valve, close the blowdown, and pressure the tank up to 15 PSI. Once you get to 15, stop the blower then open the blowdown. After the tank pressure gets to zero, open the dome lid so they can finish loading you. The hydrate will have been packed down a foot or two.

Lime does pay a higher rate than cement. Unloading time is about an hour - unless you have to unload pebble lime into a silo. In that case, I hope you have a metal hose and a lot of patience.