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Concrete

Barrman

Well-known member
5,238
1,730
113
Location
Giddings, Texas
Who has cracked driveway, carport, garage or shop floors with these trucks? This is obviously the biggest vehicle I have ever owned and don't want to tear up my carport or shop floor with it. Or anybody elses for that matter. What is too thin to not drive on?

Thanks.
 

deuceman51

Member
885
10
18
Location
Scotland South Dakota
Well i'm sure that others will correct me on this, but 4" in the min. That is what I was told by my local ready mix when I told them the weight I was going to put in. I poured 5" thick in my shop floor for a little extra. You definately need to have rebar in it. If your existing doesen't have any reinforcement in it and is only 4" thick, it might crack. The big thing is that you are distributing about 14,000lbs on 10 wheels. If you only had singles on it the ground pressure would be more, ect. Do you know about how thick your floor is?
 

TheBuggyman

New member
663
5
0
Location
Fredericksburg, Virginia
I used 3500psi w/fiber at four inches thick in my old shop and parked an 11,000 lb tractor on it (four wheels) and it never cracked because of the tractor. My new shop uses 4000psi w/fiber at five inches thick, my M813 won't hurt it.
 

Towman2277

New member
507
0
0
Location
Saraland, Alabama
You should be o.k. with at least 4". I've driven over thin asphalt and left slight impressions once......i'm sure the city of Pensacola was trying to determine what made that particular track!! :shock:
 

westfolk

Active member
308
156
43
Location
PA
I would go with the 4" as the line. I have a outside pad that is 4" no rebar or fiber. Yes it has cracked however not because of trucks. More than once a 40k-50K dozer has sat on it also not mention several smaller machines weighing in at about 30K.
 

lacoda56

Member
775
7
18
Location
Rochester, Washington
Not so much driving over that cracks it, though it can, it's putting all the weight of the front axle on a bottle jack that causes problems. I'd agree with the 4" minimum with fiber or rebar. Also depends on what you have for a base under the crete. Not an expert, just learned the hard way over the years.
 

FreightTrain

Banned
2,730
13
0
Location
Gadsden,Al
Also,the substrate will be a big factor.If the ground wasn't packed right or has a hole then it will crack.Make sure the guys know what they are doing.
 
My apologizes in advance for the distraction, but to add a bit of levity . . . .

My brother went through a civil engineering course of study at a small technical college. He had instructor who told the class that:

There are only two kinds of concrete-
The kind that IS cracked,
and The kind that IS GOING TO crack.

Always thought that was kinda' funny. :lol:
 

JDToumanian

Active member
1,655
14
38
Location
Phelan, CA
I'm pretty sure my deuce has cracked mine... When I bought the house, there were already a few cracks, but now there are many, especially in the area where the front of my deuce sits.

This probably isn't common though. The previous owner 'Did the concrete work himself'. It looks fine, but I think the prep work was poor... When I roll my shop crane along the driveway I can hear hollow areas. I doubt there's rebar and the thickness is almost certainly widely variable.

Jon
 

houdel

Active member
1,563
9
36
Location
Chase, MI
I wouldn't feel comfortable parking a Deuce on 4" of concrete. The last garage I built I had 6" of concrete over 6" of coarse crushed stone. Of course that increased the price of my slab by 50%, but I wanted a heavy duty floor which wasn't going to crack on me.

As pointed out above, the substrate is as important as the slab itself. Use stone as a substrate, not sand or gravel, especially if you live in an area with freezing weather. Stone will drain out any ground water, sand or gravel will absorb water. When the freezing weather hits, any water in your substrate will freeze and try to heave the concrete, causing stress which may lead to cracks especially if you are driving heavy equipment over it.

It is also necessary to cure concrete properly before you put any load on it. Concrete absorbs water to cure, so you have to keep it wet until it is fully cured. It takes concrete 28 days to reach its maximum strength! When I poured my slab, I put a layer of heavy plastic sheeting over the substrate so the water in the concrete would not drain off. It takes several hours extra for the concrete to set up this way, but is well worth it. After it set up I power troweled it. The next day after the surface water had evaporated but the concrete was still damp I applied two coats of concrete curing compound over the concrete to seal the water in.

After the concrete finally cured, it was a dark black color, not the usual gray color. I poured that slab 30 years ago in an unheated garage, and it still has NOT cracked!
 

Barrman

Well-known member
5,238
1,730
113
Location
Giddings, Texas
My shop was supposed to be 6" with rebar. I know 2x6 boards were used as forms. I had to hire it done instead of doing it myself when it was built 5 years ago. The carport was set up the same way. I have had all kinds of heavy things on both with no problems. I just wanted to be mentally satisfied before I put the M35 on top of it.

Thanks for all the input.
 

ARMYMAN30YearsPlus

In Memorial
In Memorial
3,585
7
0
Location
Parkville, MD
I did not want any problems with this so we rented a skid steer loader and now have a driveway that is 8" thick with rebar and fiber re-enforced concrete. My only problem with it is that it was poured on the hottest day of the year and I needed one more hand for the bull float but other than a few ugly marks nothing has hurt it not even jacking up the duece with a 12 ton jack without a wooden base. I know it is a little over kill but my other driveway looks like it had an armored division cross it at least a couple of times so it too will be a better one when I re do that one.
 
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