Logical enough if you can keep track of the batching trucks; which any GPS will do for you. Silos would merely be an extra handling operation in you application. Good thinking indeed. ■

John- I think he has small ten wheel lorries with possible add on axles.

The problem with the units offered here for the mini batch trucks is loading via topside hatches/open hopper tops- he will still need to drop fill his mini batch trucks due to the design of the mini mixer.

He will probably end up needing a small bank of short silos- six units at least for mason sand, concrete sand, cement and multiple stone size-one and 2 and a tank for H2O.

For each cement, stone, and sand component needed he will need a decelerator cone from the tanker with a drop pipe to the hopper being filled where with a covered small hopper or silo all that is needed is a hand controlled gate chute to fill the tanks on the mini batcher.

The problem is control of the blower delivering the product as he may need a second person to control the pnuematic tanker where with a small covered hopper at elevation a second person is not needed -or the other option is radio control of the delivery valve and throttle of the engines of the tankers.

By installing hoppers/silos/water tank in a two by two configuration you can load and control it all from both sides of the truck/lorrie with a suspended walkway on both sides of the loadout.

He may find it is less expensive to purchase the small silos in a batch plant configuration as he will not need engines or fuel or tires or additional trucks and insurance to fill his mini mixers since he is using gravity for all. He could lose a lot of cement if a hose breaks as well. not to mention wear holes in the decelerator cones.

The big problem is waste as you are unsure of the amount of cement dust left in the delivey piping and you will lose it if the unit is overfilled and or it will cake up severely-especially in his climate. the silo /hopper will give you absolute control where you will have little or no control with the tanker at pressure.

All the pnuematic tankers today are ment to run/fill open vented silos or storage hopper bins/barns vented to atmosphere.

By keeping it all elevated you reduce your potential problems to almost zero. ■

What type of pneumatic bulk trailer can be used to haul gravel? ■

Dear Jeff,

The tankers are not the problem there are many pnuematic trailer builders on the market with good products:

The problem is the size of the aggregate and its weight:

huge amounts of energy vis a vis low pressure air at extremely high volumes will be needed to blow rock any place-almost the same problem with rock salt -but it weighs less.

It can be done pnuematically at a very dilute phase but you are fighting gravity all the time where is is less of a problem with cement dust.

lzaharis ■

Jason,

Just wondering, how's the ready mix business doing for you? I'm trying to start one in Georgia. ■

I am in the Houston area and would like to visit with you about your mixers ■

JasonNewberg should take a look at establishing himself as a retailer of small loads of concrete. I have seen hundreds of business people use retail short-loads of concrete to enter landscape supplying or the rental business. I personally have help several get up and running succesfully over my 12-years. There is no reason to limit yourself to just driving a truck around and mixing concrete for just a few customers a day when you could expand into 40 to 50 customers per day. ■