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Found a trick for cleaning out clogged suction lines on the fly
Had a job near Baton Rouge where a wad of roots kept jamming my 8-inch cutterhead every 20 minutes, so I tried backflushing with a garden hose shoved into the discharge port (just a dumb idea I had at 3am). It actually cleared the debris in under 2 minutes and saved me from pulling the whole pump assembly apart. Anybody else got a weird field fix that somehow worked better than the manual says?
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oliver_morgan18d ago
No kidding! Did that exact hose trick on a job in Shreveport. Worked like a charm.
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the_charlie19d ago
Gonna push back a little here. That garden hose trick could work in a pinch, but backflushing a cutterhead can force debris deeper into the impeller or seals if the clog is more solid than just loose roots. I've seen guys wreck their pump housings doing that on older equipment. A safer field fix I've used is taking a wet/dry vac to the suction inlet while running the cutterhead slowly, lets you pull the clog out without risking internal damage. Your mileage may vary, but I'd rather spend an extra 10 minutes on a careful clear than gamble on a repair bill.
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jana11919d ago
Hold on @the_charlie, just gotta correct one thing. A wet/dry vac on the suction side while the cutterhead is running won't pull anything out on a positive displacement pump; on a centrifugal, maybe but you'll likely just cavitate the impeller or suck air. You really want the pump off and the suction line pulled if you're gonna vac it out safely.
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