Had an old timer on the Mississippi call me out for running the cutter too fast

I was digging a channel near Greenville last summer and this guy with 30 years on the river said I was just stirring up silt instead of cutting. He told me to drop the RPMs by half and let the weight do the work. Has anyone else had to unlearn something they thought was the right way?

3 comments

3 Comments

daniel_lane301mo ago

My buddy on the lower Mississippi swore by the same thing for years before I finally listened. I used to run my cutter wide open until I tried his way one afternoon and saw the dredge actually fill up instead of just blowing a cloud behind me.

the_patricia1mo ago

Your buddy had a good point about the dredge filling up instead of just blowing a cloud. I used to think running my cutter fast was the only way to get anything done. Then I saw @morganhill mention how the Corps study proved most guys just burn fuel and churn mud. I tried slowing down one afternoon last summer and my bucket was half full in no time, where before I'd get maybe a quarter bucket and a lot of splash. Changed my mind real fast.

morganhill1mo ago

Read a Corps of Engineers study a while back that basically said the same thing. They found most operators were burning through fuel and just churning up mud because they thought faster meant more digging. Took a buddy of mine three seasons to break the habit, said his trim tabs finally stopped getting clogged every trip. Old timers usually know their stuff even if they can't explain it fancy.