I run a reed b70 line pump

if im pumping concrete thats gettin a lil thick the pump still pumps normal, but say im waiting on another truck or travelling with mud in my hopper and circulating through  back into hopper, after some time the pistons on the push action make whining noises...I first thought it was cuz the mud was flashing and they were working too hard but when im pumping through hose it doesnt make the sound, only when im circulating....

any ideas on why?

the only other thing i can think of is that its because when circulating you dont keep getting new stuff with fresh cream, and the old mud has lost its lubrication so the pistons get bits of in them and it rubs...but its not a scraping sound its a whining sound so i dont know...

probably sucking in air, with a small line you can use your hook and recirculate back into the truck. otherwize tell the customer its pump or wash out.

Just use the ad on left side of this page and get the straight poop

eugene is right never travel with mud in your hopper on a line pump you are not saving much cause that hopper is small,do your self a favor wash out ,what if you get stuck in traffic and if you are waiting on another truck add water to it,if you wait to long then put that watered down mud somewhere besides your pour when your fresh mud shows up.

problem is that there is hardly ever an onsite washout where i pump, i pump alot of mostly finished to finished residential houses and they never have anywhere to wash out. So my only choice is to travel with it back to our yard to wash out. Trust me i know all about how badly it sucks to travel with it, up till a month or so ago i always had to travel atleast 30 mins after a pour was finished and after packing up with only the augers inside the hopper to move it around... needless to say Ive had many days of chipping in panic. But recently i got a couple reducers that aim back into the hopper so i can actually mix it, cycle it through, and add some sugar water for the trip...

Unless you can think of anything else i can do, my only choice is travelling with it to our yard.

also i understand about with the hook you can pump it  back into the truck but what about all the residue stuck on the sides? and what about the remaining stuff it wont pump out like the mud in the pistons and S-tube? if i cant wash it out on the ground where do i clean it?

see i never got real training, the guy who traine me had 3 months experience and he was trained for 1 day. Ive had to figure 80% of this stuff out on my own.

maybe i dont understand or know the propper way to clean out... how about i start with how i do it. I was told that if i cant wash on site that i have to travel with atleast enough concrete to reach the bottom few inches of the auger so it atleast keeps moving during travel so thats what i do, i keep about 1/2 or 1/3 a hopper full. Travel with pump in reverse so s-tube swings aswell to help keep it moving and not sitting still.(if i dont the concrete gets so hard that the s-tube wont even move sometimes, depends on how slow the pour went and if i got to it in time with sugar water) then i get to yard and clean up....

if you noticed anything obviously wrong with that let me know, thnx :)

try putting some vegetable oil in the water box....

Vegtable oil will stain the hell out of your wet box it get hot and it has sugar in it so its hard to remove I use used hdy oil and change it once a month, heres a idea on washing out build you a wash out box take a 2 X 10 about 6 ft long X 4 ft wide fastned the corners with angle iron then put a piece of 15 mil plastic in the bottom put heavy cardboard dividers then wash out leave it for the finishers to despose of beleive me it works you want have a mess,if you want add some sugar to your hopper and mix before you wash out. then charge the builder for the box.

washout bags work good,they come in different sizes.call the manufacturer and order what you need and pass cost to customer. 

oh by the way sounds like you need to wash out the water box more often.when it starts squealing it has contaminants in the water.

Well i dont have any line pump exp. but you can always use a blow up kiddie pool to wash out in and its easy to set up if you have an air compressor

I find that a brilliant tip. Thank you. Now just look for a nice offer and we buy a big load. I don't like the washout bags at all.

vinqtsun, at the end of the day concrete belongs to the job,normally your only supplying pump when you have finished pour empty concrete into wheel barrows put into skip scape concrete out of hopper put back flap then you can wash some of it in hopper then do the rest when you get back to yard and you wont have so much concrete in yard as well, as wash out will just be slurry

Unless you are pouring a slab in the yard, why bring it home just more mess to clean up.

Anytime we are on a job site that has no wash out we require the customer to provide a plastic kiddie pool  for us to wash out in and they are responsible for said disposal. Protect your investment, if you can't wash out don't take the job.

so you mean pump out as much as possible, scrape out as much as i can there into some sort of washbox or area i can put it, then basically put some water in the hopper and cycle that and mix that up a bit, then travel with that? wont it "segregate"? When i wash its out the trap in the bottom, theres no wheelbarrow low enough to catch that...so my option is gonna have to be a box i built or some other thing  like a kiddie pool.

cuz around here if i washed out completely into a box say, and just left that on the side of the road at the jobsite for the finishers or contracter id get in big trouble. To get my hopper and pistons and s-tube clean the remaining mud in there gets watered down a lot, its unusable, and theres a lot of muddy water aswell. So basically id be leaving them a  kiddie pool full of segregated and ruined mud that they could barely move without ripping open or theyd have to wait for it to stiffen up which could take a day. I pump from the street a lot, as i said i do tons of finished residential pumps of around 12 cubic meters average, for example if i came to your house right now parked in front and pumped a 4" patio in the backyard for you. I dont have the option of leaving a box of washout mud on the street. My company only has 1 place we can wash and thats our yard. Sometimes in emergency situations, and i happen to be close to an unfinished house were working on that has an unfinished lot, i can wash there cuz we can always go and get it later with a skidsteer, but thats only if there is one and im close enough....Id love to be able to wash at every job, man that would be awesome. Thats where my stress comes from, cuz right now i cant travel and cycle, we dont have a propper cover for the hopper to prevent splashes and spills, so when i travel all i can do is put the pump in reverse to keep the s-tube swinging so the mud doesnt harden and entrap it, and keep my augers spinning...Im in a high stress state on my trips home, always mininum 1/2 hour drive. I use brown sugar water alot for my trips.

hey ving, i think you are doing doing fine dealing with the reality of big lines are big problems. but for the turn and burn service you need a smaller pump and 2.5 inch line. example my ball pump has 1/2 cubic foot of material left for final wash that i can do with five gallons of water and a wash pan and bucket. now the s-tube will have up to 2 cubic foot that is a wheel barrow load even after pushing back to the truck. well last month the customer was short on mud so i dumped the hopper before i washed back to the truck. it got scooped up and taken to the slab. but if you dump for pre wash visqueen needs to be layered so you can pull it away from the pump if you have to back out the pump that happens most of the time. if you or your employer likes reed, look for a B-30 that is in great shape as to give the customer service and price options and i think you would be the happy boy if it was your personal unit.  

It could depend on the speed your pumping or recirculating.And it doesn't do it when you have a couple of hoses on witch is a good load on the cylinders. Take that off and recirculate wet  up mud and the strokes increase therefore making a whining noise from your packing in your water box. Just a theory though.

I always strapped a cane into mixer hopper, pumped it down, fill hopper with water and just water washed 2 to 300 ft of 2 1/2 inch line. leaving you with just sand. But dont know your application of line, done it with 4 inch as well. Have water on site I always tried to pump 1 1/2 2 hoppers of water... that way I only had water left in line. Hyd. oil in water box is best, ive used dish soap as well, but dont go a month on dirty water box, you will wear out your cups faster.

I never seen finishers that don't have a skid steer on site wash out in their bucket,like eugene said don't use any hose smaller or larger than 2 1/2 inch hose, I carry a 4 ft X 6 ft fiberglass pan on the under side of my pump kit, that goes under the hopper to keep spillage off the street.

Sugar works great and put sand in the corners of the hopper

Once you put any sugar in concrete or in your hopper the concrete is contaminated and must be dumped.

o my god cant beleave what i am reading, are yous concrete pumpers or girls. just drive with it mate and clean your slurry box.  

Dont be scared! What your doing is fine for the situation your in!

If you havent been doing it long , try changing the piston caps it will probably slove the squeeling noise, sometimes when the caps are screwd they roll a bit causing like a dry spot on the cylinder causing it to squeel , or theres sand and small stone getting between your caps and the cylinder , remember start cheap!! :))

i run a 3inch big rock line pump and when iam getting close to being done i will run my pump down and blow as much line out as i can and suck the rest back in the pump hook the truck with 25ft of hose and water wash 3 hoppers and iam just left with a little bit of sand and theirs usually a place onsite where i can put it.

I just wanted to say I have GREAT respect for everybody driving line pump daily!! Every fckn day pulling those hoses. Every single job. I would not manage to do that for a long time I think. I am to lazy.. Have to have some boom jobs in between like 60% at least!!

So Thumbs up ;-)

Dipstick I'm sixty one years old and have been line pumping for four years my helper is 56 years old and he walks the block walls, come on and get with it.

My smart remark would be to buy a Olin ball valve pump. At the end of the job the R/M truck washes into me and then I wash into him and we are all clean and ready to go home. The Olin sucks from the bottom of the hopper so no concrete is left. I love my Olin Pump.

yeah olin are nice pumps but then your only limited to pea gravel with the ball valve pump, i have a swing tube olin that i pump big rock thru and occasionally pea gravel

haha, i do drive with it. I have to drive a long ways.

i do my fair share and then some of chipping hardened mud out of my hopper.

thanx alot for all the advice guys!

A couple of things you can check the oil level in your flush box. Or maybe pump stroking speed to slow to lube top half of the piston.

As for wash out spots most concrete supply companys have wash out pits in there yards or new sub divisons  on the outskirts have a designated wash out area for concrete

U got alot of advise there,sounded like a bunch of Boom Operators though.Over Ten years line pumpin here.

Taft,

I after 21 years pumping can only say most boom pump operators start on a line pump if they know anything about moving mud. His questions are minimal compared to some that could be asked. I personally shy away from jobsites with no nearby washout (no matter the machine) due to the liability of not knowing, which was just one of his posts after the original post. I have no knowledge of his care and maintanence of his particular machine.

for the water box use water soluble oil a product called "Cutsol" do three jobs and wash out and replace, I have used it for 16 yrs and it keeps the cups and barrels clean, plus you wont get grout built up in the box, changed my cups over 2,000 yards ago and they still don't leak or squeak!

How often do you look at your water box?, and when you do what exactly are you looking for?

When you inspect the box do you ever look at the rods?, and if so what about the packings?

i have very little exp with line pumps but i know that with my schwing my piston cups only start squealin if there isn't enough water in the box. i pour a little hyd oil in them when i water up the box and you should be emptying that water box everynight! if you don't you'll get water in your hyd system. as the system cools it can pull water in through the seals so drain her daily!