I was running my cutterhead way too fast for years and never knew it

I was working a job on the Columbia River last fall, moving a lot of sand and gravel. My pump was running fine, but I kept having to stop to clear the suction line. It was eating up hours. An old hand from another boat came over for coffee and just asked, 'What's your cutterhead speed?' I told him, and he just shook his head. He said he runs his at about half that speed in that material, and it lets the pump keep up without clogging. I tried it the next day, dropping from 22 rpm down to about 12. It felt wrong, like I was barely cutting. But I didn't have a single clog all shift, and my yardage actually went up because I wasn't stopping every twenty minutes. I guess I always thought faster cutting meant more material, but it just jammed the system. Has anyone else found a sweet spot for cutter speed in sandy bottoms?

2 comments

2 Comments

richard_mason1mo ago

Funny how that works. I ran into the same thing thinking more speed meant more dirt moved. Slowing it down let the pump actually keep up and move more material overall.

craig.brian1mo ago

It's like @richard_mason said, sometimes slower is actually faster.