Old foreman said to run the dredge at 80% instead of full throttle

My first year I ran our 12-inch cutter suction at full RPM all day, every day. This old foreman named Carl from Louisiana told me to back it off to 80% and let the material settle in the pipeline. Turns out I was just churning up water and wearing out the impeller twice as fast. Anyone else get told to slow down and actually saw better production numbers?

2 comments

2 Comments

spencerm521mo ago

Wait, 80% actually moved more material per hour? That goes against everything I thought I knew about dredging. Carl sounds like he had some serious wisdom hidden under that slow drawl.

linda3051mo ago

Actually it's not that 80% moves more material per hour, it's that it keeps the solids from falling out of suspension in the pipe. If you run full bore you get more water and less sand (or whatever you're digging) because the impeller can't grab the heavy stuff cleanly. Carl was right about the wear too - I burned through impeller rings in half the time before I learned to back off. The production numbers stayed the same or even went up since I wasn't just recirculating fines all day.