Caught myself running the cutterhead at 50% throttle for way too long on a job at the Port of Houston last month

Was working on a tight channel dredge near the turning basin and kept seeing the suction drop off. Knew something felt off but just kept going. Then the old timer running the next shift came in and asked why my gauges looked like that. He pointed out I was starving the pump by running the cutter too slow for the material. Never realized I was just wasting hours of production time. Any of you guys ever catch yourself stuck in a bad habit on the controls?

2 comments

2 Comments

alice1217d ago

Switching to full throttle fixed my suction problems on a Galveston job.

jason5246d ago

Oh man, "switching to full throttle fixed my suction problems" is exactly the kind of simple fix I wish I figured out before burning a whole shift. I feel like a dummy because I kept thinking it was a pump issue or a clog somewhere, not that I was just mashing the wrong button the whole time. My old timer would have laughed his ass off seeing me sit there staring at the gauges like they were gonna magically fix themselves. Honestly, I still catch myself doing dumb stuff like that even after years on the water. It's embarrassing how easy it is to just get stuck in a rut and not step back to think. At least the next job will be smoother lol.