My foreman in Galveston insisted on running the cutter head at 12 RPM for silt, I thought he was nuts

I was on a channel maintenance job and wanted to crank it up to 18 to move more material. He said at that speed we'd just make a cloud and lose suction. Ran it his way for a shift and we cleared 30% more yardage without clogging the pump once. Anyone have a good RPM chart for different bottom types they'd share?

2 comments

2 Comments

david7396d ago

Man, your foreman was spot on. I learned that the hard way on a sand bar job. Pushed my cutter to 20 RPM thinking faster is better, and we just churned up a huge mess that killed our pump efficiency all afternoon. Slowed it down to match the material and it was like night and day. I don't have a chart, but I keep notes on my phone now for sand, silt, and clay. What pump setup were you running with that?

harper_wright6d ago

Yeah, I had to learn that lesson with a 6-inch pump on clay.