-1
My cutter head hit 10,000 hours on the meter yesterday and I wasn't ready for it.
We were doing maintenance on the big suction dredge for the Savannah River project and I saw the clock roll over. That's a lot of sand and gravel. Some guys on my crew say you should do a full rebuild at that point to avoid a major failure. Others say if it's running smooth and the wear plates are good, you can push it to 12,000 or even 15,000 hours. We've had zero issues with the pump pressure or vibration, but the manual from the manufacturer is pretty clear about the 10k mark. What's the real world rule here for pushing past a big service milestone?
3 comments
Log in to join the discussion
Log In3 Comments
ivan5222mo ago
The Savannah River project is no joke, that's a serious amount of hours on a cutter head. I saw @chen.jade mention a buddy who pushed it to 13k and had a catastrophic failure, which is basically the exact nightmare scenario. My own take is that 10,000 hours is the manufacturer's way of saying "we've done the math and this is the safe bet." If you're running smooth and the wear plates look good, you could probably squeeze another thousand or two out of it, but I'd rather spend a weekend on a rebuild than a month explaining to the boss why we need a new head unit. That manual is written by engineers who don't have to pay for the downtime, so their "clear" advice is usually just covering their butts. Real world rule: push it if you're feeling lucky, but have a backup plan ready when it grenades.
5
chen.jade3mo ago
Buddy pushed his to 13k. Catastrophic failure.
3
jessel353mo ago
Oof, that's brutal. I've seen a few of those meltdown videos where the whole screen just goes black and you hear the fan die. It's the worst kind of silence. Pouring all that time and money into a build just for it to fry itself. Your buddy has my deepest sympathy.
2