Guy on a Mississippi River job told me I was running the pump too rich

Back when I was still pretty green, maybe 4 years in, I was working a dredge job on the Mississippi near Baton Rouge. An old hand named Walt, must have been 60 if he was a day, came by to check our progress. He watched me for maybe 10 minutes and then just shook his head and said "son, you're drowning that pump with too much water, you're just stirring up mud." I was running around 75% throttle on the pump and thought I was doing good. He showed me to dial it back to about 55% and let the cutterhead do the work instead of the flow. Changed everything for me. Now I always start with less water and more bite. Any of you guys ever get advice that completely flipped how you run your rig? What was it?

2 comments

2 Comments

jessicamiller1mo ago

Man, that's some solid advice right there. I had a similar wake-up call early on, a old-timer told me I was "chasing pressure not volume" on my pump. Now I always back off the throttle and let the cutterhead do the heavy lifting. Your mileage may vary but that change alone cut my fuel use by a good 20 percent.

gonzalez.anna1mo ago

@jessicamiller nailed it with that "chasing pressure not volume" thing. I see guys burn so much fuel doing the same mistake. Backing off the throttle feels wrong at first but the numbers don't lie.