Just keep an eye on it at all times. As soon as you look away or go to grab your coffe, BAM, lines clogged. Really sucks especially when they need that cement ASAP.
When the first dude explains it, he explained that whole process beautifully and perfectly, I understood it right away, and quicker than I've ever understood it watching any other video, BUT, AS SOON AS, the second guy starts talkin, He instantly made it confusing. You just need to watch it a few time to get what he is talking about.
Safety issue, always leave a product valve open after opening blowdown valve, and then step on discharge hose to check pressure in the discharge hose. before disconnecting the hose.
He skipped one important step. Before you open any product valve. Open the air valve all the way make sure your line pressure is 0. The person who blew down before might not have cleared the line.
Very true however I was the only one blowing off the trailers so didn't really have to worry about that but you are correct always open the air line and let it blow out first
We haul lime to the gold mine and the only thing I would disagree with is the part about only opening the product valve partially. We build the pressure, open line valve, then open product valve fully. Then when the pressure drops to about 6 we shut product valve off then line valve to build back up to 12.5 then open the next product valve. Repeat until you finish all 3. (Edit) so I started hauling cement to a 2nd gold mine and I stand corrected! With cement our jet line is only partially opened because of how fine it is compared to lime.
@melvinrexwinkle1510 so it's been almost a year, and I have unloaded about 300 bulkers in that time frame. Here is what I learned. Lime being the way it is will unload like plastic pellets and certain grains. Everything else, like sand and cement, ect, is easier to unload, easier to unplug, but definitely don't want that jet line open very much lol. If one can unload the heavy pellet like loads then you can unload anything. Lastly, the customer should have a good bag house for better unloading lol. So in summary, I am humbled and admitting how much MORE I learned in this last 11 months of doing this boring good forsaking type of hauling almost daily lol. (We haul everything here so the bulkers are only a fraction of what we pull)
I unloaded activated charcoal (ground up, or powdered charcoal, from a wood fueled electrical powerplant on Samoa Island, just off shore from Eureka, California) at a city water treatment plant in Tempe, AZ. This powdered charcoal is very light, we had some 2000 cube trailers, with those, might get 33000lbs net weight, that's all. I had learned to not open the vibrator air to pressure up the tank, only pressured up the tank with top air valve open to about 6 psi, and then open the hot line valve(the valve that either sent the air into the tank, or down to the product line and out the back thru the hose) only opened 1 notch one the valve. I'm saying by doing this would be trying to plug up the product line, all the air pushing down on top of your product, with as small amount of air going to the product line as possible. Well, when I got to the rear product valve opened, I had lost too much tank air on the third valve open, and the product line plugged. The man who overlooked the trucks in the plant was unhappy and said we can't unhook the hose and spill product. I told him that I could suck the product out of the hose but I would have to release the air from the tank, but I could do so very slowly, which would make very little black dust into the atmosphere. So it took about 20 minutes to let the tank pressure out even though it only had about 3psi. The fellow overseeing told me "now I want you to do it my way now, pressure your tank up to 10 psi and then shut down you blower and then open up your product valve all the way and finish unloading" That was enough air in the tank to unload the 4th hole and to clean out the three cones in front, all with the truck engine shut off. I saud all of this just to demonstrate that there can be very extreme differences in the density, and the flow ability, of different products. I hauled perlite from Hodgkins, IL. To Minnesota, a couple loads to a plant buildings double walled cryogenic tanks for LNG, they pulled a vacuum on the wall spacing, just like a giant thermos, and that way vacuumed the load off the trailer. They had a sight glass in their line going into the top of the tank, so I could see the product. I had met another driver who had delivered the first load in the process of filling the double walled vessel, and he said it took 14 hours to unload, so the next morning when I arrived, I told their supervisor, who said he didn't know how to do it, so I said let's get it going and I will get on top of the tank and open a lid so I could see inside the tank and when I saw the cone was about empty(and was about to suck a bunch of air) i would holler for him to close the product valve, thus not losing their vacuum, which was in a vessel that was 110feet long and 14 feet in diameter. We were unloaded in only two hours! I hauled two loads of that perlite, which is the little round balls that you might see in potting soil. If you see one someday day, inch one between your thumbnail and fore finger to break it and you'll see that it is I tiny hollow ball, made from a certain kind of sand, dropped through a torch flame that pops the sand into a popped hollow ball that is a mineral, which means that the ball is temperature proof for cryogenic tanks like liquid nitrogen at -319f or in refineries, etc up to about 2500F Good luck pulling one of them blow wagons, if you ever get stumped, well just reply and I'll try to help
I am from Singapore and I work as a cement tanker driver part time - my tank is a meagre 35 ton max weight. Anyway, it’s awesome to see different tank variations from around the world .
He teaching him too much at once to be a beginner. Hook hose to silos. Make sure all 3 pods and the line are closed. Leave pressurize open so it can build once you engage PTO. Hook up hot hose to your blower. Cut on your PTO and watch pressure build. Once at 12, cut off pressure then open line valve followed by opening whichever pod you prefer. I unload the middle first because that’s always the fullest then the last because that’s the next fullest then the front. Front always has less. Keep pressure on tank and lines at 12 and relax. High pressure will clog your line or burst your hose. A 20 foot clogged line is a bitch to disconnect and dump out by yourself. Once a pod gets low and you can feel it. Start cracking the next one. Once their all empty depressurize the line(open valve) Cut off PTO then disconnect your hot hose from the blower then disconnect from the silos. Job done, another load in the bank.
Well I run one of them and I think that guy don't know what he's talking about never heard of doing it like that lots of luck with that you'll be blowing off for 2 hours
Your right. He left out the parts where you put water in the pop off valve on the trailer so it don't pop at 12 psi then put a bungie cord on the pto pump so it don't pop. Bleed gages so you can make the needles show 10psi but your really pumping 14 and a half when plant manager comes out to check to see if your pumping hot and also if you do plug drop psi to atleast 4 psi.
@@billyspraynone836 Water in the pop off valve on the tank will make it stick after the water drys. Seals it up. Bungie cord on pump holds valve in place. Bleeding air on guages sends a false reading if not closed all the way. Do you know how to unplug a plugged line without disconnecting the hose?
I don't start unloading at the rear cone, I start at the front and work towards the rear, for only one reason. If the back cone is empty and for some reason the product valve can't be shut completely. or perhaps there is some problem with the rubber seal, that allows the tank air pressure to escape, then you can't maintain tank pressure and consequently you can't unload any cone forward of the non functional product valve I have had this happen to me once in about 20 years of pulling pneumatic tanks. Once also, a friend called me with that problem and asking what to do. So in 20 years experience. Its happened 2 times. But. Why not start unloading at the front and work toward the back? No reason not to do it. The time I had a problem was unloading frac sand. Started at the front, front hole emptied and the valve would not shut. Was obstructed by something, so I immediately opened second hole product valve, slowly built tank pressure and continued to unload trailer. I could unload that way because the product was behind the not able to close product valve. When the trailer was empty, looked in the top and there was a 4lb. Hammer. Handle down in the front product valve.
If for whatever reason you can’t complete unloading, and you’ve got to leave the location with a partially loaded trailer, you don’t want all the weight at the very back of the trailer. Unload from the back, first. Always.
I did this type of work many moons ago with a company called Foodliner. I pumped the Silo of Wonder bread now out of business, in New York and Philadelphia.
The instructions on the tank tells you to open the next b4 closing the prior but when I see someone doing it it seems to always clog. But then again we haul lime and im told that if you can unload lime you can unload anything
Hi. Question Under my check valve there is little hose that is connected with pressure gauge. That hose is getting cement and cap my pressure gauge. What is causing cement to run into hose. Vibrators are working just fine
It happens when tank pressure is higher than line pressure. When you open product valve (the bottom of the cone) there is nothing stopping the product from moving forward in the product line up to the check valve. That's when you could get cement into the guage line.
We always vent off the tank and line pressure drop the truck back to an idle and unhook hot hose with blower still running to let it cool down before we shut it off.
I just read this. PLEASE! Do NOT disconnect the hot air valve with the pump running. A written that is either a joke or recipe to get somone seriously injured or killed.
@@billingram6594 bullshit, tap the brake to kick off cruise to idle engine, the take off hot hose, not dangerous! Sometimes not enough air to push hose off the blower, always allow blower to cool down while disconnecting and stowing product hose, closing guage box lid, and hanging up hot hose. Per blower manufacturer recommendations.
From my experience. This process takes about 1 hour to unload.. let’s say you do 3 loads in a day for 12 hours.. you’ll be working 3 hours and the rest of the 9 hours would be sitting down in the A/C
yup ..I just started hauling cement and fly ash 4 days ago with no experience. today I got almost 14 hrs in just getting 2 loads from the plant and taking it back to our plant. sometimes it takes 45 minutes to blow out all the material and sometimes it's about an hour.either way I really like the job and hours!
Shut off product IMMEDIATELY. See if your pressure will clear the clog. Up to 15 psi maybe a little over. If that doesn’t clear it, snap your main pressure valve open and closed, this creates a suction and can clear the clog. You may have to play with it for a while alternating between pressuring up, and snapping that pressure relief open and closed. Bottom line, just don’t get clogged up. Aka don’t be fucking around on your phone not paying attention and letting your pressure get too high, over 15 basically. If anybody is honest, it’s the only way they ever get plugged up, by being distracted.
1 close product valve 2 close top air valve 3 close vibratory off putting all the air on the discharge line and hose. 4 open blowdown valve letting tank depressureize. 5 open a empty product valve of you have one empty. Open the rear product valve if all cones have product. If air blows up into tank from discharge line, then you know that discharge line is empty. If not then you have to go to the next product valve toward the front. May have to go all the way to the front, if it plugged when unloading the front cone. If all the cones have product it will.still work, but works better if one cone is empty. When the blower pressure relief is popping off open the product valve all the way quickly and count 1 and 2 about as fast as you can say it and close the product valve quickly. Sometimes on an empty cone you can hear the product come out of the line and going up and hitting the top of the tank and on air ride trailers it will bounce up and down even when there is product in the cone. What happens is that when the blower pops off the pressure at around 15 , 16 or 17 psi air will go into the air spaces between the particles of product, wherever the plug is in the hose or line, and when you release the pressure forward of the plug the air will rush toward the front to the open product valve and drag some product with it back into the tank. Some products like potash fertilizer that's fairly coarse you can hear it moving thru the discharge line and you can tell it takes about 2 foot out of the line and back into tank every time you open and close product valve. I know it sounds crazy, all we can do is blow air toward the hose, but it will work , you can suck that product right back out out of the line and hose and put it right back in the tank, but you have to move that product valve pretty fast, close it ,blower pops off, open it, trailer bounces up and down close the product valve. It happens about as fast as you can say it. Some products can be really expensive, consequently it can be costly to dump the hose on the ground. And sometimes can be a chemical spill on the soil or in a watershed area. So you ought to try to suck it out of the discharge hose and not dump it on the ground I have only experienced 2 reasons why I could not suck the product back into the tank. One was because there was wet product, and the other was because the silo was full and the pipe was full and air could not come into the line on the far side of the plug
Really should let that pump cool off before shutting it off.. I know he's teaching for sand hauling but he never showed using tank pressure via top air or aerators or a combination of both
mike, try 27.75 tons in 30 minutes using aerators and hot line, of course you can use top air as well. This guy's cleanout will be terrible using the method in this video! Your boss is wrong, do each hopper individually till presure is like 7 on line and same on hopper(that way you know you're empty plus you'll hear the aerators). I would say build pressure close to threshold like at least 13 if not 14.5 in hoppper than do full release on hot line and open hopper 100% and pull that hot line back to at least 3 from closed. It will hold at like 13 w/o building hoppper pressure if it does just open that hot 1 notch at a time until pressure stabilzes on hot air and hopper guage. Line guage is more important than hopper guage in my opinion. Good Luck Driver!
I don't use top air either. I can hear when the hopper is emptying, and also the pressure starts to drop. So I don't usually bang my hand on the side. After emptying each hopper I do go back and make sure they're empty. I carry 25 tonne (49000 pound) and can empty in about half an hour
I haul ammonia nitrate and that takes about an hour and a half on a good day. If it's hot and humid and the product starts to stick I have to be hitting the tanks with a mallet to get it to flow. I never worry about the time though just get it done. Anything over 3 hours is a concern though.
