Serious question, who else switched from a straight suction to a jet-augmented setup?

I ran a straight suction head on the Mississippi for 15 years, pulling sand for the Corps of Engineers. Last fall, during a tight channel job near Baton Rouge, I finally tried a jet-augmented system and it cut my plugging issues in half. Has anyone else made that switch and found it worth the extra hp for the pump?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_jennifer16d ago

That Baton Rouge stretch is notorious for weird flow patterns, but I'm curious if anyone's run into cavitation issues with the jet setup once you push past 80% solids, because that's what scared me off making the switch on the Lower Mississippi.

parkernelson15d ago

Jumped into a jet augmented system about two years back on a job near Natchez and honestly it was a game changer for me. I was running a straight suction setup for years on the Mississippi too and the plugging issues were driving me nuts, especially in tight spots like that Baton Rouge stretch. With the jet system, I pushed it up to around 75-80% solids on a few runs and didn't hit any cavitation problems, though I kept the pump throttled back a bit to stay safe. What really worked was tweaking the jet nozzle size slightly smaller than stock, it gave me better pickup without burning extra fuel. That extra hp cost stings at first but it paid off fast in less downtime. I'd say if you're fighting plugging all the time, give it a shot just run it at 70% solids first to feel it out.