Tried a cutterhead upgrade on an old Ellicott and got way more than I bargained for

I put a new style of cutterhead teeth on my old Ellicott 370 last month, the kind with the hardened inserts. My goal was just to get through some packed clay a little faster, maybe save a few hours. Instead, my production rate jumped almost 40% on that job near the river bend. The downside was I had to clean the ladder twice as often because the finer material clogged the suction inlet. Has anyone else run into that trade-off with aggressive cutter upgrades?

2 comments

2 Comments

hollyc925d ago

Maybe your suction hose is too small for that kind of production.

graceblack4d ago

Man, I gotta push back on that! A 40% jump in production is a win even if you gotta clean the ladder more often, you just need to tweak your suction setup or add a trash pump to keep things flowing. Clogging is basically a sign the cutter is doing its job way better than before, not that the upgrade was a bad call.