The new guys keep running the cutterhead at full throttle in sand

Was working a job on the Mississippi near Baton Rouge last month and watched a younger operator chew through a whole set of teeth in about 6 hours. He had the cutter cranked to max RPM trying to dig through a sandy bottom. I tried to tell him to drop the RPM and let the swing do the work but he said he knew what he was doing. Sand doesn't need that kind of aggression, you just wear out parts twice as fast. Anyone else seeing this more often with the newer guys?

2 comments

2 Comments

christopher_coleman171mo ago

Buddy of mine runs a dredge over in Texas and he said the same thing. Had a new kid burn through a cutterhead in two shifts because he wouldn't listen about backing off the throttle. Ended up costing the company like 8 grand in parts. You figure these guys would learn after the first set of teeth goes to hell?

anthonykim1mo ago

Ok but what if the kid was actually right though? I've seen crews baby the cutter in sand and end up with a clogged suction line every 20 minutes, which costs way more in downtime than a set of teeth does. If you keep the RPMs up you keep the material moving through the pump and don't have to stop production to blow out the line every hour. Maybe the old school way of creeping along at low throttle just doesn't work on the Miss River where the sand is super loose and fine.