Mixer Trucks / Asphalt Trucks / Concrete Trucks Upcoming Auctions

About Mixer Trucks, Asphalt Trucks & Concrete Trucks

Cement mixers are the most recognizable trucks working on road construction sites or around a concrete pour, but it takes a variety of trucks to support these tasks and many others. There are trucks that haul materials to the jobsite, place ready-mix concrete (RMC) or hot mix asphalt (HMA) where it needs to go, and others. Let’s take a look at some of the vehicles used to help pave streets, highways, parking lots, driveways, and airport runways, as well as to pour concrete foundations and walls using formwork or shuttering.

As you might expect, most concrete or asphalt trucks fall into the heavy-duty category because they have to be able to haul the big loads necessary to get things done on a construction site. However, there are some medium-duty trucks that can handle some of the secondary or smaller jobs as well. A concrete or asphalt truck’s ruggedness and durability are paramount, but ideally without excess weight that reduces payload capacity and wastes fuel.

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Mack Granite 64FR Volumetric Mixer Truck

Concrete Trucks

One of the biggest workhorses you’ll find in cast-in-place (also known as “site-cast” or “poured-in-place”) cement construction is the concrete mixer truck. After all, it’s hard to miss the truck with the big, revolving drum or barrel on its back. Mixer trucks can mix cement or simply agitate ready-mix concrete on its way to the work site to keep it from setting, or hardening. Volumetric mixer bodies allow contractors to mix precise batches of concrete on-site.

Some concrete carrier trucks have a different style of haul body such as an open-top Maxon Agitor. A concrete dump truck, suitable for delivering a low-slump mix, may have either an agitating or non-agitating dump bed. Concrete conveyor trucks can transport and discharge gravel and large aggregates as well as ready-mix.

Finally, concrete pumper trucks can precisely distribute wet concrete mix several hundred feet or yards away. Line pump trucks, or ground pumps, push fresh concrete horizontally through hoses over long distances. In contrast, boom pump trucks can pour concrete both horizontally and vertically, such as to the second floor of a building. The operator moves the crane-like boom and controls the flow of material by remote control.

Asphalt Trucks

Asphalt trucks can deliver hot mix asphalt (HMA) to a paver or a material transfer vehicle (MTV) on a road or parking lot construction site. Types of asphalt trucks include end dump trucks and live bottom trucks with a conveyor. Some trucks have insulated and heated dump beds that use the exhaust heat of the truck’s engine to keep fresh asphalt mix hot and fluid.

Because asphalt dump trucks often need to be backed up to the front-mounted hopper of a paver as it lays down pavement—a time-sensitive operation—some truck manufacturers use transmissions with creeper gears and multiple reverse speeds to help the operator get into position quickly. Mack’s mDRIVE automated manual transmissions also have a rolling start capability, which allows a truck in neutral being pushed by a paver to shift into forward gear without the need for the operator to tap the brake pedal, which could leave a disruption or bump in the surface of the pavement.

Hot box trucks carry hot asphalt mix in a heated hopper for on-the-spot repairs by a road crew. The hot box may have a dump body or an auger or gravity discharge mechanism. Asphalt patcher trucks, on the other hand, are more full-featured than hot boxes. Also called “pothole patchers,” patch trucks carry everything necessary to repair road defects, including an asphalt cutter or jackhammer, vibratory or roller compactor, emulsion or tack wand, drying torch, air blowout wand, spoils bin, and more. Pothole patchers deposit hot asphalt mix from a heated hopper using an auger, dump bed, or conveyor. Heating mechanisms can include diesel, propane, heat transfer oil jacket, and electric (flameless) systems.

TruckPaper.com also lists many related types of trucks for roadbuilding or road repair. For example, asphalt distributor trucks and asphalt sprayer tank trucks can spray hot binder on a damaged road surface for chip seal repair applications. Similarly, tack trucks can lay down a tack coat of emulsion to help new asphalt bond to existing pavement. Paint trucks, pavement marking trucks, line striping trucks, and road striping trucks are various names for the vehicles that paint the lines and other markings on the road. Also, water tank trucks are used before the paving stage, applying water to the soil for dust suppression and to help compactors achieve the proper soil compaction.

Find The Right Mixer Trucks

Popular models from top manufacturers of new and used mixer trucks, asphalt trucks, and concrete trucks include the Ford F-800, Freightliner 114SD, International PayStar 5000, Kenworth W900, Mack Granite CV713, Peterbilt 357, Sterling L9500, and Volvo VHD64F200.