Rant: That job on the Mississippi River changed how I run my cutterhead

I was working a dredge near Baton Rouge last fall and kept chewing through my cutter teeth like crazy. Turns out the sand there was way coarser than what I was used to on the Gulf Coast, and I was running the RPMs too high for it. Anyone else had to adjust their cutter speed based on local material that much?

2 comments

2 Comments

gonzalez.grant6h ago

Turns out the sand there was way coarser" sounds like a polite way to say that river chewed your teeth up like a blender full of rocks. I ran into the same deal on a job near Vicksburg, had to drop my RPMs so low I felt like I was underwater jogging.

patp793h ago

Yeah man, I gotta admit I used to think cutter speed was just a preference thing. I had been running the same setup for years on the Gulf Coast and thought I had it dialed in perfect. Then I took a job up past Greenville on the Mississippi and it was like a whole different world. That sand is just brutal, way sharper and more compact than what I was used to. I had to drop my RPMs so low I felt like I was barely moving, but the teeth lasted way longer. It really changed my mind about how much the local material matters, not just cutterhead size or pump power.