Had to fish the pieces out of 15 feet of mud with a grapple claw after I tried pushing through a buried log, has anyone else dealt with that kind of hidden debris or did I just get unlucky down here?
I was working a stretch near Baton Rouge, about 5 miles south of the port. Hit something underwater, big log maybe, and the cutterhead just seized. Had to bring up the ladder, spent 4 hours flushing mud out of the gearbox. Maintenance guy said I should have been running the flow meter slower in that silt. Has anyone else had their cutterhead lock up from hidden debris?
I usually crank it to full power on everything, but last Tuesday I backed it off for a clay sand mix and the wear plates barely got scuffed. Has anyone else messed with throttle adjustments on mixed material?
I was running the cutterhead on a 20-inch pipeline job and the currents kept shoving the barge out of alignment. My deckhand yelled at me over the radio that we were about to snag the anchor line on a submerged log. I had to kill the pump and reset everything, lost a good 45 minutes of production. Has anyone else dealt with surprise debris shifting the bottom like that?
Been running a 12 inch auger in this river near Eugene for 3 months and kept losing suction every 20 minutes. Tried slowing the swing speed and adjusting the ladder angle but nothing worked till i switched to a side feed instead of center feed. Anybody else run into this with a different soil type and find a better fix?
I was working the Mississippi River near Baton Rouge and one of the chain links snapped while we were swapping cutterheads. That thing hit the deck with a bang and it took me and two guys an hour to fish it out of the water. Has anyone else had a chain failure during a head change or did I just get unlucky?
He was this new operator from the Louisiana crew, kept saying we were burning too much fuel with the 30-inch head on the Mississippi job. I let him run it for a shift and he barely moved half the sand we needed. Has anyone else had to deal with know-it-alls who have never run a tough spot before?
Four months back I dropped $3,200 on a vortex pump from a rep who swore it'd double my output on a tight channel job near Baton Rouge. First week it worked fine, then the impeller housing started warping from silt buildup. Called the manufacturer and they blamed the material in my cut, said I should've bought their heavy duty model for $5,000. Spent two weekends pulling it apart and cleaning it just to keep moving. Finally swapped back to my old centrifugal pump that I got used for $800 and it's running smooth again. Never again falling for the flashy new gear hype. Has anyone else had a sales guy oversell a piece of equipment that just didn't hold up?
Back in the 90s on the Mississippi we did everything by hand and eye. Now new guys come in with tablets and still manage to miss the mark. Am I the only one who thinks learning without the screens made us better operators?
He said it'd save my pump shaft bearings and after 4 months of testing both ways on the Mississippi River near Baton Rouge, I've had zero failures with the clutch-boosted start method versus 2 blowouts with the old way, but my cycle time is slower so I'm wondering if the trade-off is really worth it for you guys running in heavy clay or sand?
Working a job near Lake Pontchartrain and heard this grinding noise. Had to shut down for 3 hours to swap them out on site. Anyone else carry spare bearings in their truck?
Swapped the jets to 15 degrees like a guy from Louisiana told me at the conference last year. Thought it'd clear fines better but instead it grabbed a whole tree trunk and wedged the pump solid for 3 hours. Anyone else have a mod that sounded good but backfired worse than this?
Found a deal on a cutter bar from some website called DredgeProParts. Looked solid in the pictures. Second time using it on a rocky section near the Port of Everett and it warped like cheap tin. Spent the whole weekend swapping back to my old one instead of finishing the channel. Anyone else get burned buying parts from those no-name online shops?
Last summer I was working a job on the Mississippi near Baton Rouge. This older guy, must have been 30 years in the business, walked up while I was running the pump wide open like I always did. He just shook his head and said 'son, you're churning mud not moving it.' He showed me how backing off the throttle by about 15% actually lets the solids settle and get pulled through better. Cut my cycle time by almost 20 minutes per run. Has anyone else had an old timer show them a trick that went against everything you thought you knew?
I was on a job in Norfolk last March and my cutterhead kept getting packed with clay. An old operator named Walt walked over and told me to spray a little dish soap into the suction line before I started. He said the soap breaks the surface tension and lets the clay slide through instead of sticking. I tried it and it cut my downtime by about 15 minutes per shift. Has anyone else tried something like lube or soap to keep your gear from clogging?
Last month a veteran operator pulled me aside after I finished a 12 hour shift on the Ellicott. He said I was going to burn through a $4,000 bearing in under a year if I kept ignoring the grease fittings. I was only doing it every third day. Now I hit all 6 points right after my morning safety check. Has anyone else had to change a bearing early because of lazy maintenance?
Ngl, I was losing my mind on a job near Baton Rouge last month. The dredge pump kept jamming up with roots and debris every 20 minutes. A guy named Dave from the night crew told me to just reverse the pump rotation for a few seconds before clearing it. Honestly, it pushed the clog loose way faster than digging in with a rod. Has anyone else used this trick for tough debris on a swing dredge?
He said I was running my cutterhead too fast for the material, and after I dropped it 200 RPM the whole rig stopped shaking like crazy - has anyone else gotten handed a tip from an old timer that just clicked?
I spent $1,200 on that new carbide-tipped cutterhead everyone's raving about, and it wore down after 40 hours in sandy silt. Has anyone else found these things just don't hold up like the old steel ones?
We had been running the same straight-blade cutterhead for about two years on the lower Mississippi. Around last March, we switched to a serrated one on a whim. The sand came out way cleaner with almost half the clay clumps we used to get. Has anyone else seen that kind of difference switching cutterheads, or was it just our specific setup?
I was working a tight spot on the Mississippi about three weeks ago, maybe a mile past the old grain terminal. The cutter was chewing through a mix of clay and old timber just fine, then I heard this nasty pop and everything went slack. Turns out the drive chain had a hairline crack that I missed during the morning inspection. I had to shut down for four hours while I waited on a tow boat to bring a spare from the yard. Now I run a flashlight over every link before I start, but that kind of downtime still stings. Has anyone else had a chain let go in heavy material like that?
I swear half the guys I see at the Evansville yard just pump grease into the swing bearing until it oozes out the seals. That's a fast way to blow them out and cost you a day swapping seals. Last week I watched a new hire do exactly that on a 2019 Cat 329, and now it's leaking like a sieve. Has anyone else noticed this shortcut getting passed around too much?
Been running a 12-inch Ellicott for three years now and always skipped greasing the cutterhead bearings every shift. Figured it was overkill and a waste of time. Then last month on the Mississippi River job near Baton Rouge, my cutterhead seized up on a Tuesday afternoon. Cost me six hours of downtime and a $400 repair bill. Anyone else learn that lesson the hard way or am I the only dummy who thought the manual was being dramatic?
I went with the geotextile tubes on a job up near Green Bay last fall and the dewatering time cut in half, but man I still miss the feeling of building a proper berm with a dozer - has anyone else made that switch and regretted it?