Driving Terex Advance's Front-Discharge Mixer
This truck is quick, and that's the right way to deliver concrete to some locales.
Front-discharge concrete mixer trucks work fast and can make good money for their owners, yet these unusual vehicles are unheard of in many locales.
That's because they generally use automatic transmissions and front-driving axles not usually bought on rear-discharge mixers built on conventional chassis. That means they cost more. But once the odd-looking, rear-engine trucks come into a market, they become popular because concrete contractors like their speed and ease of unloading.
Sales of front-discharge mixers amount to about 1,200 in a typical year, or only 20 percent of the total mixer market, according to Steve Howard, director of sales at Terex Advance Mixer Inc., which now builds four a day in suburban Fort Wayne, Ind.
That's enough to dominate the market. The company also builds and installs rear-discharge mixer bodies on conventional chassis at a rate of two a day.
Front-discharge mixers have been around for more than 40 years. R.W. Sims, a concrete producer in Salt Lake City, invented the concept and began making trucks in an operation that eventually became Savage Mixer. Sims granted a manufacturing license to Jim and "Skunk" Irving, who ran a ready mix outfit in Fort Wayne. They began building the squat but nimble trucks for their own use, then for others.
They called their company and its trucks Riteway, meaning this is the way concrete should be delivered. The name became Advance after some ups and downs and changes of ownership. In 2002 Advance was acquired by Terex Roadbuilding, the machinery maker based in Oklahoma City. The new parent changed the truck's name to Terex.
Ted Deckard, director of plant operations in Fort Wayne, showed me the factory, where workers were using steel of various grades to create frames, fenders, cabs, drums and other parts, then assembling them into complete trucks. The company now employs 280 people, most of them in production roles. Then we walked out to a lot full of new trucks awaiting shipment. There I picked out the one you see here. It is Terex's basic model, called FD3000 (for front-discharge, three-axle), which sports a Stars and Stripes paint scheme and was destined for a customer in North Carolina.
"It's an easy truck to drive," Deckard said, and it certainly was, once I figured out the best way to ease my girthy body into the low-slung cab. Once seated, I admired the excellent visibility in all directions except to the very rear (and well-placed mirrors took care of that). On the three-section instrument panel, gauges are to the driver's front and left, and most controls are to the right. It's all well laid out and easy to use. Power windows are among the standard features of the wide Workspace cab, and this one had air conditioning, as well.
The cab is wide enough for a second seat, a fold-up type just to the driver's left. This allows a driver-trainer to ride along.
The Cummins ISM diesel sat at the rear of the chassis, under a fiberglass hood that hung behind the tandem, so its sounds were distant. Terex Advance also offers Caterpillar's C11 and C13 and Cummins' lightweight ISL. But the ISM, set at 350 or 385 horsepower, is the most popular engine because it costs less and has more torque than the midrange-size ISL, Deckard said.
I cranked over the engine, waited for it to settle into an idle, released the parking brake and punched D for Drive in the Allison automatic transmission. I headed out the gate and onto nearby county and township roads. Terex workers test each truck and mixer body with a load of crushed limestone, but this one had already been through that and its drum was empty. Nor did I get to haul and deliver any concrete on the short trip.
The unladen truck accelerated quickly and bounded along with ease. Its tandem sat on a Hendrickson rubber-block suspension, so the truck bounced a lot on old, bowed concrete pavement. But it was smooth over asphalt. Multi-axle configurations ride better, and even this one would be fine while under load. Besides, you can get an optional air-ride suspensions from Hendrickson or Neway.
Sitting in the center of the chassis took a minute or two to get used to. But it was an easy transition from a conventional truck – perhaps because the chute located just outside the windshield seemed to make the center seating appropriate.
Good visibility, decent maneuverability and the Allison automatic make the truck easy to drive, but are also important to its delivery role. A front-discharge mixer drives right up to a pour site and quickly begins offloading. The driver gets out to attach extensions to the chute, then returns to the cab to control the hydraulically powered chute and drum.
With a control lever, he raises and lowers the chute and swings it left or right, while moving the truck fore and aft to keep the end of the chute properly positioned. He speeds and slows the drum with a foot pedal next to the steering column. A manual transmission would add considerable clumsiness to the operation, so the Allison is a key component.
External controls, either mechanical or electronic, with a hand-held remote, allow someone on the crew to run the chute if he wants to, and the driver uses them to wash out the chute and funnel.
Driver operation of the chute means the contractor can eliminate one man from his crew. That and the speed of the pour save him money, and he and other contractors begin demanding that their concrete be delivered this way. Speed of operation means such a truck can often haul one extra load in a work shift, boosting revenue for its owner and helping to pay off the extra cost of the Allison and the front-driving axle.
Back in 1976 I worked as a laborer for a concrete contractor in northern Wisconsin, and recall having to run with my wheelbarrow to keep up with the unloading pace of an old Riteway mixer. It took me 30 years to move from there to the driver's seat of this truck. Like the guy who's been poor and rich but prefers rich, I like driving better, especially in a fast and nimble truck like this.
—Tom Berg
Senior Equipment Editor
