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c/dredge-operators•paul117paul117•3mo ago

Tried a new cutter head design on the old Erie Sand Sucker in Mobile Bay

We swapped out the standard teeth for a staggered, heavy-duty pattern from a company called DredgeTech. The old setup would clog with heavy clay every 45 minutes, but the new one ran for a full 4-hour shift without a single slowdown. Has anyone else tried a staggered tooth setup on a ladder dredge for sticky material?
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3 Comments
hugopark
hugopark3mo ago
Staggered teeth are a game changer for clay, but have you checked your pump wear since the swap? Moving that much more material, even smoothly, can tear through impellers and liners faster. We saw a 30% increase in pump maintenance after a similar upgrade. The teeth did their job, but the downstream cost caught us off guard.
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jason112
jason1122mo ago
That's a solid point from hugopark. It's like upgrading your car engine but forgetting the brakes will wear out faster. You fix one bottleneck just to create another one down the line.
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bettykim
bettykim3mo ago
Wait, a 30% jump in pump maintenance? That's insane. You'd think the smoother flow would help, not make things worse. Did DredgeTech warn you guys about that at all?
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