Dont try this in your Redi Mix truck

It took 2 to get me out when my fuel pump died mid pour. But that took like 6 hours, and had to be drug out from deep within this monster project LOL.

Not reported to DOT.

Was this incident reportable? How say you all?

 

Ohhhh, Peru, Illinois. ( I was way off) C'mon, anybody that's worked road construction knows, this is just another busy day. When you punch in in the morning, nothing that happens to you during the day should surprise you.

 

I love how the media overlooks certain facts.

"Drum kept turning so concrete wont harden." they said.

I say that is so long you have water in that 100 gallon tank to keep it wet. Once it dries out in a couple hours that's that for the entire truck. There is water in a tank ahead of the drum but behind the cab usually that you add every 15 minutes or so in summer time a generous amount into that drum on the way to and waiting at a job.

Once put in the concrete is good for about 2 hours max. If you have no more water for love or money then that's that.

One plant in searcy loved to stick too much fly ash into my drum. Soaks all the water I can stick into it and then some. I learned not to load there when a particular batch man employee was working it. I don't know him from adam and always used a extra 5 minutes on the fire house outside dumping a few hundred more gallons into that drum to compensate for it. My normal plant did a good job adding water and the correct amounts. I have loaded as a batch man myself a time or two where necessary.

I say about half that 50 gallon tank went into keeping everything from drying out and the other half is used in getting excess off the chutes, sprouts and drum etc when done at job.

Have I gotten stuck? yes. Storms here in Arkansas dump a couple inches of rain the first hour, that shale rock on the side of the hill we crawled down now is impossible to get back up. Did it cost me the load? no. That rain fed the drum just as well.

 

This is not uncommon... The reason is the booster axle, and once it's lifted, throws another 20,000lbs or so on the drives, which are already at capacity.

I've delivered concrete that still poured fine after a six+ hour delay, just by adding a bit of water. Not all mixes are like this, though... Some mixes will start to cure VERY fast. LaFarge does have packs, if you request them, that you are supposed to throw in the drum, to prevent curing should a breakdown happen. Not sure how well they work...

 

The only packs I am familiar with is the fiber based strands that reinforces concrete like really strong. I threw twice the recommended number of packs into my personal 5 yard purchase into the drum then drive to my home and lands and poured the side building slab and leveled it myself. Over 10 years later it's resisting cracking etc due to winter and summer expansion and contraction.

The packs you refer to must be something really awesome if you can buy time against curing.

You are right about the 6 hour time. Our mixes are good for two hours max. A little bit tighter than that when feeding pump trucks.

Im not sure if the your booster axle term is the same as my tag axle term, ours is a set of wheels in front of the drives that dropped down by air pressure to pavement to take on excess weight. But the final mack rears were overbuilt and able to withstand the 12 yards or so back there without too much trouble when manuvering for pouring with the tags up.

I find this particular getting stuck somewhat interesting in the article. And have to ask "How in hell? did [insert scenario...]" Seems like a awful lot of poured concrete in that one picture. To me it's not a good picture of the overall situation.

Finally regarding curing, sometimes we worked at night on time and half over time after sundown when the temps came off the 130's back to around 85 or so where we have a chance to get something poured in time.

If I ever made a mistake it will be being told to take a certain road to the first construction site on left. The problem was the mix they had on my truck was not the correct slump (Strength)_ and not the correct composition for the mega church foundation at one corner that we poured. Not long after that job was done someone added 2+2 and a short investigation revealed that the directions were incorrect. It was supposed to have been the second construction project further down the road.

Anyway. They chopped out the wall, foundation (Which is like 5 foot deep, 3 thick and on a corner under a section of wall that is actually supporting a 7000 pound steeple on top of the ordinary brickwork, roof etc. And repoured it correct...

They replaced and rebricked the wall once every ten years or so. I keep an eye on that wall. It's about time it recieved it's third replacement work if the bricks start to fail in that bad spot on the foundation.

So far so good. But they needed to be better with information that day than they were, People's lives depend on that. And that is the other reason I keep an eye on that church. 500+ souls worship there several times a week. It would break my heart should it have failed in the future someday.

 

As a 14 yr old I jack hammered dried concrete out of a drum .. boy the things we used to do for a buck lol

 

No big deal for and old Mack. Probably went back to work as soon as it came out.

 

Nothing here to report to anybody other than the man responsible for paying for the truck to become "unstuck..."
Crap happens. It happens more often in certain types of operations.
@magoo68, I saw a couple of drivers having to do that, in the August heat of the desert. Right then and there, my desire to drive redi-mix died. I was satisfied with my dump and pup.