Suction line ruptured on a job near Mobile last Tuesday

We were pulling sand out of a pond for a housing development, about 50 feet of 8-inch hose. Around 3 PM the suction line just blew apart at a coupling. Lost about 15 minutes of production before we could get the pump shut down. Had to rig a bypass with spare hose sections we had on the truck. Cost us half a day overall because we had to reprime the whole system. Anyone else dealt with old couplings giving out at the worst time?

2 comments

2 Comments

thomas1054d ago

Read somewhere that a lot of those older couplings have a rubber gasket inside that just rots out over time, especially if they sit in the sun or get exposed to chemicals in the water. I remember a thread on a dredging forum where a guy said he started replacing every coupling over 5 years old with stainless steel ones, even if they looked fine. Sounds like overkill but after reading about a 10-inch line popping on a guy in Louisiana, I kinda get it. That bypass you rigged sounds like a pain, but at least you had spare sections handy.

roberts.jordan5d ago

Old couplings are like alarm clocks, they always pick the worst time to go off. Had a 6-inch line blow at a coupling on a retention pond job last fall, sprayed muddy water across half the site before I could hit the kill switch. Spent the rest of the afternoon digging gunk out of my boots and re-running the prime line. Pretty sure the pump was laughing at me.