The KEITH® WALKING FLOOR® Contractor Unloading System
BY AsphaltPro Staff
Charging a hopper in a tight space or in a residential area full of older trees and overhead wires presents paving crew members with a list of safety concerns. The last thing you want is to get an end dump trailer tangled up in live wires. The team at KEITH Manufacturing Co. in Madras, Oregon, has designed an unloading system that eliminates the need to raise a truck body. Here’s how it works:
A hydraulic unloading system installed beneath the truck body moves a series of Domex steel slats, which are v-shaped for asphalt and aggregate applications. While in motion, the floor slats and truck body remain horizontal. The slats reciprocate sequentially and then in unison to convey the load out of the trailer and into a waiting hopper.
After the haul truck driver moves into position within the work zone, the paver operator gently brings the paver’s push rollers into contact with the truck’s back wheels. Then the truck driver can hand off a remote control to the dump man or paver operator to let the person with the best view of the hopper control material flow, or the driver can keep the control in the cab.
With the press of a button, he activates the KEITH® WALKING FLOOR® unloading system.
Unloading continues cyclically at a consistent rate of speed until the person with the control stops it, giving the driver—or the dump man—the ability to meter mix to the hopper. As the mix moves forward, a specially designed headboard clears the body of mix so the driver doesn’t have to stop and clean the bed before returning to the plant for another load. The headboard is hydraulically retrieved at the end of the load.
For more information, contact sales at (541) 475-3802.