Swapped from a 4-inch to a 6-inch suction hose on my small cutterhead dredge

Always thought the smaller hose was fine for the muck we pull in the Mobile Bay channels. My lead hand kept saying we were leaving too much material behind. We tried the 6-inch for a full shift, and the production logs showed a 22% increase in yardage moved. The pump handled it fine, just had to watch the engine temp. Anyone else make a simple hose swap that paid off big?

3 comments

3 Comments

cameronp477d ago

Hold on, that 22% jump might not be the whole story. A bigger hose puts more strain on everything over time, not just the pump. You might see more wear on the engine and the drive system that you are not counting yet. That extra material could also mean you are moving more water with it, not just more solids, so the real gain might be less. Sometimes the simple fix just moves the problem somewhere else down the line.

the_tessa7d ago

You're overthinking the wear and tear. A 22% jump in yardage is real money, even if it's a bit more water.

gavin2287d ago

Wait, 22% more yardage just from a hose... that's insane even if @cameronp47 has a point about wear.