Hey guys,

I've got two questions about blowing air the your first hose all the way back to your last two hoses. For the past couple months I have been putting a ball in my end hose and blowing it all the way back to the last 10 feet from my hopper. Really long and slow reverse strokes prevent dry pack. And keeping the ball in the last couple hoses prevent my hopper lid from blowing off and a concrete shower. I run an S-tube PTO driven line pump. I have been letting the hopper overflow into a catch but it creates a mess of my hopper and reducers. My main question is; Can I dump my hopper and leave my bottom door open while I do this? I've been told that there will not been enough material around the cutting plate to provide suction. I've figured that doesn't matter since air is pushing all the material back to my hopper anyways? 

Second question, How much system can I actually do this with?? I'm usually running air from my air tanks and that's a max of 150PsI from the connection. It fluctuates through the hoses, but its alot better than my Co2 tanks I carry.

Yes you can leave bottom gate open.  I've done this with 400+ ft of 2.5".  Works great just go easy on the air.  Works best to have a cutoff valve at top and start bleeding air off as the ball nears pump.  The pump will pull back for the most part but having a little encouragement from air helps.  Make sure you start pump before you start air and stop air before you stop pump!  Also can dump a few gallons water in tip hose before sticking ball in to help clean hose.  A Nerf football from Walmart is the cheapest I've found.