The Pneumatic Tanker Thread

I do it the same way you guys are talking about. We also have somewhat clear hoses so you can see when the product is done flowing.

 

I think a lot of it depends on which type of aeration you have, I used to have pads, and no matter what I did, there would always be a little bit of cement, slag, or flyash left in the bottom. Even if would build up pressure again and let it fall back down to zero. I think the vibrators work better at cleaning out and if it's a bottom drop trailer, and not one that the T's are connected to hopper at angle. I always watch tank pressure, and as soon as starts to drop, I shut off product valve and switch to next pocket. As soon as on last pocket, and pressure starts to drop, I close air assist to about 2 notches from fully closed and then watch tank pressure and if it continues to drop fast, I shut it off and go to next pocket, and do same thing, once at rear pocket, I then continue procedure all way back to front, and once tank pressure is under 5 psi, I open air assist all the way and leave pocket valve open to relieve pressure in tank and assists with blowing out line (All dependent to how well dust collector is on silo, if they don't have a good dust collector, then I close pocket valve.) and idle down blower, by this time the line is cleared out and disconnect hot hose and let blower continue running to cool down, as I walk and open blowdown and close line and pocket valves, and then unhook product hose, never had any left in hose or pipe to silo. Only time I have had anything stay in line is when silo is completely full, and by that I mean coming out the top! and then if you have to unhook, better stand back bc some is coming back down the pipe!

 

Do any of you guys/gals use the air assisted hatches on your trailers, where you flip a switch to open and close the hatch? If so, do they work as advertised, or should we avoid them? My boss is interested in them, to avoid us having to climb on the trailer.

Thoughts?

 

Words of advice: Stay away from them! I think you said you haul cement, you still gotta go up and clean them off everytime anyways to get them to seal properly, now if you was hauling plastics or sand, it might be better. And they don't work too well in freezing weather. We have had a few, and everyone that has had one thought they would be the best thing, needless to say after they got them, they wanted to get rid of them!

 

Lime wreaked havoc on them when I had them at Beelman. Now I don't even climb on my trailer hauling flour so no more worries about it.

 

Kinda what I thought. I watched another driver fighting with his this morning. But I figured it was more from lack of maintenance.

Our trailers get washed daily, so that probably wouldn't be too much of an issue for us.

But, how do they seal? There's no latches to fight with, but something has to create a seal up there..

 

It's got a sort of ring that presses down using air pressure. That was what was hardest for us was the lid would close but the switch that tells that ring to seal wouldn't work right and it wouldn't seal.

 

This video might help you a little, especially if you fast forward to about 4:35 will show you operation

They do talk about cement in one of their videos, can't remember if it's this one or the one about ordering one. They say you would have to clean it off once a month, but ours would have to be brushed off everytime, even though we run through a wash rack every time, if you look at the setup, it really won't get washed between the ring that's mounted to trailer and the moving part and that's where the buildup will occur.
The other thing is, if it don't close all the way, the part that pushes down the seal won't operate, atleast on our trailers that they are on. So then you won't be able to unload it either.

 

I've been seeing more companies using them, and one of our other drivers brought it up in a safety meeting last week. The boss seemed to like the idea, but, like myself, he's skeptical of how well they actually work.

Thanks for the input!