That moment during a cutterhead jam in the Calcasieu River when I realized I'd been running my pump too fast for soft clay for two years

Old dredger on the bank just waved me down and yelled 'ease off the throttle, you're just stirring mud into soup' and sure enough my production jumped 30% that afternoon, anyone else figure out a basic setting change way later than they should have?

2 comments

2 Comments

nathanj5612d ago

I hit 15 years running a 10-inch dredge on the Mississippi before I figured out my ladder pump was set too deep for the sand we were pulling. I always thought deeper meant more material until a buddy told me to pull it up four feet and run at half throttle. Production nearly doubled and I felt like a complete idiot for wasting that much time. Your story about the cutterhead jam and the old timer yelling at you hit way too close to home.

perry.evan12d ago

Nah, deeper always works better for me, man.