Shoutout to the old timer who showed me how to use a mud paddle to break up hardpan before it hits the pump

I was fighting a job on Lake Lewisville last month. The clay was so packed it kept jamming our cutterhead every 20 minutes. I tried slowing down, speeding up, even dropping the ladder angle. Nothing worked. Then this guy named Roy who runs a 12-inch on the Trinity River just walked over and said stop being fancy. He told me to run a section of chain across the intake before the pump and let it smack the big chunks apart. I welded up a quick rig and it cut our downtime by like 80 percent. The clogs stopped cold. Has anyone else rigged up a simple pre-breaker like that? I want to make mine more permanent but I don't want to mess up the pump curve.

2 comments

2 Comments

the_elizabeth17d ago

Heard a guy on the Sabine River swear by a different trick. He bolted a few old grader blade teeth to the inside of his suction tube, set at an angle so they break up clods without choking the flow. Said it works like a charm for sandy clay mixes. Might be worth looking at if you're worried about messing with the pump curve, since it doesn't change the intake area, just adds some teeth to chew things up before the pump sees them. Have you thought about where exactly the chain might cause cavitation if it's too close to that impeller?

margaretw4117d ago

Gotta disagree with that idea. Those grader teeth might break up clods, but they'll also create turbulence right where the water enters the pump, which can mess with the flow just as bad as a chain would. I've seen guys try fixed obstructions like that and end up with weird pressure drops or even cavitation because the flow gets choppy before it hits the impeller. Chain moves with the flow, so it's less likely to create a steady disruption that causes those issues.