Cutterhead depth was off for 6 months before I figured it out

So I've been running a 12 inch cutterhead on the Mississippi for about two years now. Last Tuesday I was digging near a sandbar and the material just stopped coming up. I checked swing speed, pump pressure, all the usual stuff. Then this old timer from the barge next to me yells over that my cutterhead is buried 3 feet too deep into the sediment. I had been setting depth by feel and eyeballing it off the ladder marks. Turns out my gauge was miscalibrated by about 2 feet the whole time. No wonder I was burning through double the fuel and coming up with half the output. Anyone else rely on a simple trick to check depth that I should know about?

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2 Comments

chen.adam4mo ago

Respectfully, I see it a little different. Running by feel and ladder marks is how a lot of us learned, but that old timer yelling over might have saved your dredge from a real problem down the line. A miscalibrated gauge by 2 feet is a big deal, but relying purely on marks without a backup check is asking for trouble. I've seen guys use a simple weighted line dropped off the side of the ladder to double check depth quick, no gauge needed. It ain't fancy, but it catches the kind of mistake you just had before it eats six months of fuel and time.

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sam_thomas4mo ago

Read an article once that said most dredge accidents start with ignoring the simple checks, just like @chen.adam mentioned.

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