Cement truck question.

Cement truck question.
I was asked today how much water dose there water tank hold and I had no answer. I guessed and said around 100 to 150. Was I close or am I off the map?
Thanks.

Pretty much right on. Depends on the age and size of the Truck. They used to be 100 gallon tanks on older 7 yard trucks. Now the trucks are bigger with more on a load and the contractors have more and bigger equipment to wash up so the standard is 150 gallons. I have not heard of 200 gallon tanks but with that you are now running into compromising you gross payload. They have come in handy for putting out small car fires also :yup

That what I thought but was not sure. No doubt that over 150 gallons you would be cutting in to the pay load.
I have not seen a cement at a car fire yet, but if I do you can bet one thing I will be taking pictures of that.:yup :yup
Thanks.

During my days in the mid-east, I noticed that the 'crete trucks there carried much bigger water tanks than the US trucks do. I'm thinking in the 250 -300 gal range. Never had a chance to ask anyone why, or if they worried about weight limits on the roads.

Would not mind driving this. I never saw a set up like this before. This is bad a$$ wild.
I would not mind driving that around.
Borrowed picture from Hanks Truck pictures.

Good pic Truckie. :thumbsup That is an interesting truck. Wonder what the payload is.

one of the local companies has a truck like that, they use it to feed a pump truck other than that it sits. heard its beats on that 5th wheel a lot,lots of rocking when the drums spinning. not sure what its legal for but i know u can get 104 thousand on 5 axles with a over weight permit, round here they go by axle weight not bridge law

The three main companies around here mostly have 125 gallon tanks on thier concrete trucks. AVR had one of those trailer mixers for I think maybe 1 season a long while back. It was a waste of money and sold shortly after it was parked.

- Christopher

BTW: "Cement" trucks don't have water tanks. :bouncegri

ConstSite said:

The three main companies around here mostly have 125 gallon tanks on thier concrete trucks. AVR had one of those trailer mixers for I think maybe 1 season a long while back. It was a waste of money and sold shortly after it was parked.

- Christopher

BTW: "Cement" trucks don't have water tanks. :bouncegri

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Well the cement goes in the drum right.
What is the water held in? Is it a barrel, tank, container or what?
I always looked at it like this. If it holds water it is a water tank, fuel it's a fuel tank, oil and it's a oil tank.
So spill the beans.


Jimmyjack. It is the same here. 120,000 on 5 axels with permit. Im not sure what that truck is legal for. I just taking a wild guesses and saying the 80,000 limit. It has the length for 51 foot of axel that is why I'm saying 80,000 lbs.

Truckie, you are being held on a technicality.

The trucks you are asking about are "concrete mixers".

"Cement", an abbreviation of "Portland Cement", is the gray powdery stuff that gets mixed with sand and gravel to make concrete. So, "cement truck" would more properly refer to the dry bulk type trailers that the cement is delivered to the concrete plant in. And, to add water to that load would be a very bad practice. :nono

Everybody knew what you were talking about, but ConstSite is technically correct, (and probably also keeps his sock and underwear drawer very tidy and well organized...) :wink2

You guys always have to ask questions that make me betray my age by answering them.
Back in the 8/9cy mixers days it was common to see 400 gallon tanks,you could order the size you wanted when you ordered the mixer.
Since there were basically no weight limits back then,that is to say they were not enforced at least so the only real disadvantage to a big tank that high was raising your center of gravity which was pretty high already without the big water tanks.
By the time we started buying the 12cy mixers DOT was waking up and the tank size was cut back to 300 gallons which sometimes became an issue on certain pours with a full load.I have had to make some shortcuts washing up at the end of a load because I would run out of water.We had one 12 cy mixer that came through with a 175 gallon tank and that truck was always a problem and we tried to keep it on jobs that would have other mixers around in case it needed more water.We did not order it that way,we had to take what they had on that particular one as we needed the mixer.
That was the first mixer we got with a pressurized tank as well,all the others had belt driven or hydraulicly driven pumps on them.
When we had to drain the mixers at night because of freezing weather the pressurized tank made it much easier.
As the industry evolved the central mixed concrete plants became common and it is much easier to control your product with respect to moisture content (slump).When you dry batch it takes a lot of mixing to determine what the slump is actually going to be when it is mixed properly so you tend to hold back on the amount of water you add when loading the truck and let the driver add whatever is needed on the jobsite.Time is valuable and you try to keep the trucks moving,they will mix the load in transit.
The newer mixers have 150/200 gallon pressurized tanks which is usually enough.Ron G

RonG said:

You guys always have to ask questions that make me betray my age by answering them..Ron G

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Yes but young at heart Ron.:wink2

digger242j said:

Truckie, you are being held on a technicality.

The trucks you are asking about are "concrete mixers".

"Cement", an abbreviation of "Portland Cement", is the gray powdery stuff that gets mixed with sand and gravel to make concrete. So, "cement truck" would more properly refer to the dry bulk type trailers that the cement is delivered to the concrete plant in. And, to add water to that load would be a very bad practice. :nono

Everybody knew what you were talking about, but ConstSite is technically correct, (and probably also keeps his sock and underwear drawer very tidy and well organized...) :wink2

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I see. So I used the generic term or question.:Banghead
Yes in deed it would be a very bad thing to add water to a cement hauler/ dry bulk tanker.:yup
My bad. Thanks Digger and Ron G for the help and the explanation.

Truckie said:

Would not mind driving this. I never saw a set up like this before. This is bad a$$ wild.
I would not mind driving that around.
Borrowed picture from Hanks Truck pictures.

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Here ya go Truckie. How much water do you think this tank holds?
From the same site. :wink2


link

That style of mixer is getting popular in Alberta. That configuration is legal for 46500kgs/102300lbs. The trailers with 3 axles are called tridem's.:bash

In Vancouver they use the tractor and mixer trailer because you have larger spaces to get into. The new mixers here are tridrive trucks they have about a 9 metre (yard) drum. The new redimix trucks are coming out with tri drives and tandem steers the truck will be good for 100,000lbs that is one heavy straight truck they will have about a 13-14 metre drum

The three driving axles makes the trucks go through anywhere and climb anywhere no more needing a excavator to pull the ready mix trucks up the driveways being them loaded or empty.

Ford LT-9000 said:

The three driving axles makes the trucks go through anywhere and climb anywhere no more needing a excavator to pull the ready mix trucks up the driveways being them loaded or empty.

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Does anyone around there run Oshkosh front discharge trucks. I would think they would be better for rough terrain and steep roads.

Non of the redimix companies runs forward discharge mixers it maybe due to the distance the trucks have to travel because the redimix plant is approx 30 miles away the trucks usually take 40 mins to get here and almost a hour to get to the furthest point. Another benefit of the tridrives is your allowed 59,000lbs over the axles where as the tandems 37,000lbs. The tridrives seem to walk over soft ground better where the tandem axle trucks sink. I know the loggers have had tridrive logging trucks in knee deep mud and the trucks pull through it.

Lafarge is prolly one of the largest redimix companies in the North America my family deals the aggregate division all the time.

Lafarge is prolly one of the largest redimix companies in the North America my family deals the aggregate division all the time.

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Lafarge is the largest readi-mix company in North America.

Oshkosh front unloads are about all you see here in Mi. The operator can practically unload himself he can move the shoot anywhere and back up. really takes alot of work out of it.:thumbsup