We had to pull the whole pump assembly on a 14-inch cutterhead dredge near Mobile Bay last month

It was a Tuesday morning and we started getting a bad vibration, like something was way off balance. The foreman shut us down and we spent the next two days just getting to the pump. Had to disconnect the ladder, winch it up, and then break every bolt on the suction elbow. Found a piece of old logging chain wrapped around the impeller shaft, must have been down there for years. The real kicker was the wear ring on the casing, it was worn down to almost nothing on one side. My boss looked at it and said, 'That's why she was shaking, boys.' We had to wait for parts to come in from Baton Rouge. Ever had a simple vibration turn into a major teardown like that? What's the weirdest thing you've pulled out of a pump?

3 comments

3 Comments

lauras8326d ago

You said you had to winch the ladder up to get to the pump? On our setup, the pump is usually on the ladder itself, so you'd winch the whole ladder and pump assembly up together. Maybe your dredge is built different. We pulled a whole truck tire out of a pump once, shredded to pieces. That wear ring being gone on one side will definitely make it dance.

the_charlie26d ago

Shredded truck tire, wow. We found a bowling ball once, jammed so tight it took a torch to cut the pipe.

alicecooper20d ago

How do you even get a bowling ball stuck in a pipe? That's wild. Makes me think of the time we pulled a full car battery out of a settling pond. Thing must have been down there for years, all crusted over. It was so heavy it nearly snapped the cable. You find the weirdest stuff when you're moving dirt.