Everyone says you need a full crew for a 12-inch cutter suction dredge, but I ran one solo on the Ohio River last season by rigging a remote camera on a pole to watch the ladder.

After the third guy called in sick, I hooked up a cheap waterproof security cam to a 10-foot conduit pipe with zip ties, fed the video to a tablet in the cab, and managed the cut and swing myself for three straight days without a single hang-up.

3 comments

3 Comments

kevin_sullivan2mo ago

Totally get that. Been there trying to make a one-man show work when the crew bails.

brooke5332mo ago

Remember my buddy who tried to film a whole short film alone? He ended up with hours of unusable footage because he was trying to do everything himself. It just proved you really can't be the whole crew.

wyattbennett16d ago

Dang, hours of unusable footage? That's brutal. You'd think even a solo act could at least get something watchable out of it. What was he using, a potato taped to a stick? I'm picturing him running back and forth, hitting record, then sprinting into frame out of breath. Probably looked like a nature documentary about a stressed-out groundhog.