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PSA: Don't ignore that ticking sound in your pump like I did in Baton Rouge | Dredge Operators - SMM Buzz

PSA: Don't ignore that ticking sound in your pump like I did in Baton Rouge

I was working a job on the Mississippi River near Baton Rouge last month and heard a light tick from the cutterhead drive. Figured it was just some debris bouncing around, so I kept going for another two shifts. Big mistake lol. By the third day the whole assembly started vibrating bad and I had to shut down for an emergency pull. Turned out a bearing cage had cracked and the race was about to fail. Cost the company $4,200 in parts and lost three days of production because I didn't stop to check it sooner. My foreman just looked at me and said "you heard it and you kept running." Lesson learned hard. Has anyone else had a small noise turn into a major repair on a project?

3 comments

3 Comments

max4155mo ago

Had a buddy working a dredge up in Lake Erie a few years back who did the exact same thing with a hydraulic pump. He said it sounded like a spoon tapping on a glass but he just shrugged it off for like four straight days. Come Friday that pump seized up solid and blew a hose right in the middle of a deep cut. Cost them something like 8 grand in parts and a whole weekend of downtime while they waited on a replacement from Toledo. He still gets crap about it at the shop (you know, the usual "hey hear that? better call the mechanic" jokes).

kaid595mo ago

Oh yeah I heard that story before @max415, pretty sure that wasn't a hydraulic pump though. My buddy who works on dredges says that tapping sound is usually a failing bearing in the pump coupling, not the pump itself. Still cost em the same headache though, that's rough.

terry_carter154mo ago

Man that's a rough lesson to learn, and I bet @max415's buddy still hears about it every time someone cranks an engine. Had a similar thing happen with a conveyor motor on a job site once, heard a chirp for two days and told myself it'd be fine until Friday. She locked up mid-shift, threw the belt right off the pulley, and cost us a full day's work plus a tow to the shop.