Blaw Knox 95 Layout

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My first machine was a BK90 with a fixed screed, then i got a BK95A which came with an omni screed which was ace, and as you will be aware im sure, hydrostatic drive and electrically switched augers etc .

One of the main reasons i preferred BK's over any other machine at the time was that they had independent brakes, which made handling far superior to any other machine on the market no matter what gadgets they may have had fitted to them. I could maneuver a fixed screed around a gully without losing my drive line by just braking with one brake and steering opposite lock. I did miss this when i drove other machines such as Dynapacs , Bitelli and Barber greens.

I also used to get contracted onto Tarmac Construction ( I worked for Roadstone) to drive their BK pf90 laying either stone or leanmix. It was an unloved machine but still did the job without fault. One day i managed to knacker the 95A, I think it was something to do with a hydraulic pump. So I had to rush around and build up the boxes on the trusty old BK90, a couple of hours later i came up the job rushing around and as i drove over the joint I dropped her straight down onto the augers and broke the auger support post so she was down! I ended up tracking the PF90 up the job and laying about 500 tons of roadbase through her with no fires, no extension boxes (8ft wide) no side plates and no lights! she got the job done but it was a long day.

Ive got some stuff on the omniscreed and other bits and bobs i will post soon.
Nice to see the 7 T's on your avatar steve

[mick h]

Best combination I worked with was a 1980 BK95 with a Blaw Knox Omni 5 screed. As for building up with boxes we had the idea to leave two tamper frames together and also two sets of spanners so as I did one side and my mate did the other, we also used to leave all our box bolts in a bucket of diesel, also when we broke the screed down after the shift we used to scrape all the edges down and wipe them off with a diesel rag, doing all this, we could build upto 12ft ( a common width ) in about 15 minutes with one auger extension and a baffle on each side. On many jobs we used to overbuild to keep screed wear the same and slip the lugged cut off shoe in, this used to help with the shimming as it was kept to a minimal, oh happy days lol.

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We still used to use cut off shoes with extending screeds mick for exactly the same reason. Diesel, i think we all used to bath in it It saved alot of work tho.
Mick can you remember which machines used to have the auger drive motors on the ends, was it dynapacs? i cant remember, but i remember issues with the dam things messing about and the material would push them off.

[Hutch]

Hi Richard
Yes it was dynapacs that had the auger drive on the end of the shaft, the dynapacs had splines but the earlier hoes pavers had a long key held in place by a cap headed screw that was a real pain to line up when it became worn and the screw had snapped off.Apparently the crown wheel and pinion in the drive box was from an opel kadett.

[mick h]

Yes it was a dynapac, because when we used to put the auger extensions on you undid 4 bolts and the pump and outer leg pulled out and your auger extension slotted onto the main splined auger shaft.

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Thanks for that guys, I didn't like Dynapacs that much but they were a good straight line machine, and they did lay an excellent mat.

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Heres a few more bits to mull over

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A bit more.

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Time to dig out some more stuff