The cutterhead setup on the Lower Mississippi made me question everything

I was down near Baton Rouge last month helping a buddy with a weekend job on a cutter suction dredge. We were digging through some nasty clay and the whole setup felt off to me, like the cutter was chewing but not really breaking things loose. The guy running it had the teeth angled way different than I've ever seen, more like a digging bucket than a standard dredge head. I watched him for about 30 minutes and he was pulling less than half the volume I'd expect for that engine load. He swore the old timers down there taught him that way, but I've always run with a steeper attack angle for clay. Has anyone else seen regional differences in cutterhead setups that just seem to ignore the basic rules?

2 comments

2 Comments

milestaylor19d agoMost Upvoted

Yeah, did you try switching to a steeper angle mid-run like I did in Mobile Bay?

lily_singh219d ago

Did you ask him what kind of production they typically see versus what you were getting that day?