Water the Wheels to Keep Tack at Bay
BY John Ball
If you’re not using a spray paver on a project, you have time and space between the distributor truck and the paver. That means there’s opportunity for someone to walk—or drive—on your tack, potentially making a mess. There’s also opportunity for the wheels of the paver to pick up tack and leave you with gaps in coverage, among other problems, when you’re trying to get good adhesion between the surface and your new mat.
The plastic water tank holds 250 gallons of water with Dawn dishwashing soap as a surfactant, and it nestles between the hood of the engine and the safety railing. Husky nylon cables secure it in place on this Volvo 7170, rubber-tired paver. Typically, the steering tires would pick up tack and bring up mix. Laying a 7/8-inch mat means any pickup would be a problem.
In the state of Florida, where many lifts are a thin 1 inch or less, any pick-up of material is a problem. While working with a client in Florida recently, I took a close look at a good idea the paving foreman had come up with to keep their water-based tack from sticking to the paver’s wheels.
Using the spray system from a roller, the water is delivered via brass pipe, which is attached to 60-pound magnets on the hopper. The magnets saved the mechanic from drilling into the hopper or welding this setup together. Clamps hold the tubes. Notice the 30-degree angle of the nozzles direct the water onto the drive wheels only. The rubber tire will pick up the water.
Chris Ance of Ajax Paving did his homework to make a 250-gallon, plastic water tank fit on the paver and deliver the Goldilocks level of water for protecting the mat.
Using the spray system from a roller, the water is delivered via brass pipe, which is attached to 60-pound magnets on the hopper. The magnets saved the mechanic from drilling into the hopper or welding this setup together. Clamps hold the tubes. Notice the 30-degree angle of the nozzles direct the water onto the drive wheels only. The rubber tire will pick up the water.
Typically, the steering tires on a rubber-tired paver could pick up tack and bring up mix; when laying a 7/8-inch mat, that’s a recipe for trouble. With some good old-fashioned ingenuity, Ance assembled a spray system and shut-off mechanism that keeps from flooding the surface to be paved while protecting the whole process. With this system, the water in the 250-gallon tank lasts his crew all day.
Check out the pictures on this page for a deeper dive into his good idea.
John Ball is the proprietor of Top Quality Paving and Training, Manchester, New Hampshire. He provides personal, on-site paving consulting services around the United States and into Canada. For more information, contact him at (603) 493-1458 or tqpaving@yahoo.com.