robin_wright•1mo ago

We switched from a 6-inch to an 8-inch cutter head on our old dredge in the Sacramento River delta last season. The silt load we moved in a day basically doubled.

3 comments

3 Comments

shanewells1mo ago

We saw the same jump on the Columbia with a wider head, but the extra wear on the pump was a real trade-off.

wood.john1mo ago

Yeah, that's the exact problem we ran into. @shanewells, how long did it take before you started seeing the pump issues? We got maybe two months of great flow before the extra strain really showed up. It felt like a constant fix one thing, break another situation. Not worth the trade off in my book.

haydenc101mo ago

Honestly sounds like you're just trading one headache for a bigger, more expensive one. Tbh, that "great flow" phase is just the pump lulling you into a false sense of security before the repair bills start. Classic case of fixing it till it's broke.