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Had a dredge line clog up on me near Baton Rouge last Tuesday and it changed my whole approach to pump pressure | Dredge Operators - Vivisector

logan_wood•3mo ago

Had a dredge line clog up on me near Baton Rouge last Tuesday and it changed my whole approach to pump pressure

I was running a 12-inch cutterhead in some heavy clay down by the Mississippi and the suction line just stopped dead. Took me about 45 minutes to clear it out with a backflush and a rod. My foreman walked over and said, "You're running that pump at 90 percent when the line can't take it." So I dropped the RPMs down to 75 percent and the material started flowing smooth again. Turns out I was forcing it too hard and just packing the pipe full instead of letting the slurry move steady. Has anyone else found that backing off the throttle actually gives you better production in sticky stuff?

3 comments

3 Comments

mark_chen623mo ago

Hold on, hold on. You guys cut the pipe open? I gotta hear more about that. Betty, you literally had to take a torch or a saw to a steel pipe because the clay packed in there so hard? That's insane. I've had to rod a line out for an hour and felt like a fool, but cutting the actual pipe? That's a whole different level of stuck. Makes me feel a lot better about my little 45 minute backflush, honestly.

betty_perry243mo ago

Yeah, that whole 'forcing it harder works better' myth." I learned that one myself on a 10-inch cutterhead in the Atchafalaya. Got her packed so tight we had to cut the pipe open. Foreman just laughed and said I was making mud bricks, not moving dirt. Dropping the throttle from 85 to 70 percent on the pump was like magic. Slower rpm, smoother flow, more material moved per hour. Made me feel real dumb for all that time I was just jamming it up.

baker.christopher3mo ago

Learned that same lesson on a 12-inch cutterhead up in the Arkansas River back in 2018. Had clay so thick it looked like modeling paste and I was running the pump at 95 percent thinking more power would push it through. Packed the whole line solid in under three minutes. @betty_perry24 is right about the mud bricks thing, I could have built a house with what I pulled out of that pipe. Dropped it to 70 percent and the stuff started moving like it was nothing. Makes you wonder how many other operators are out there just jamming their pumps full and wondering why nothing moves.