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Vent: Spent 3 hours fighting a clogged cutterhead on a Tuesday afternoon
Man, I had a dredge job out near Baton Rouge last week and the cutterhead just stopped digging like it should. Thought it was a hydraulic issue at first, checked all the pressures and flow rates for an hour. Turned out a chunk of old rope and some busted-up tires got wrapped around the shaft. Took me another two hours to cut it all out with a torch while standing in mud up to my knees. The whole job was supposed to be a quick 5-hour run and it turned into a full day. How do you guys handle unexpected debris without losing half your shift?
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lunag303mo ago
Third cutterhead clog I've had this year was a tangled mess of old fishing net and a steel cable outside of Mobile. @grantw32 makes a good point about listening first, I wasted a solid 45 minutes checking control pressures before I realized that dull thudding sound was the problem. Now I do a quick walkaround and listen for any weird noise before I even look at the gauges. I also keep a pair of bolt cutters and a sawzall in the tool box on deck, so I can start cutting debris away without needing to climb back to the shop for a torch. Saves me a good hour when it's just rope or light cable.
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grantw323mo ago
Nah pretty sure that wasn't a hydraulic issue from the start. Rope and tires wrapped around the shaft would've probably showed up as weird vibrations or a grinding noise way before you checked the pressures. Next time try listening for the clatter first, saves you an hour of messing with gauges.
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