An old timer told me to run my cutterhead 10 minutes before digging in and I thought he was full of it

I was working a job on the Mississippi near Baton Rouge last month, clearing a silted up barge slip. This guy Bill, been running dredges since the 70s, walks up and says "you gotta let that cutterhead spin for a full 10 minutes before you even think about dropping the ladder." I thought he was just wasting time, you know, stuck in his old ways. But I tried it just to shut him up. That machine ran so much smoother, barely any vibration, and we pulled up way less trash and roots. I think it lets the bearings warm up and the seals settle. I always just slammed it in gear and went. Has anyone else heard of doing this or is it just a Mississippi river thing?

2 comments

2 Comments

mason_davis11d ago

Man Bill knew what he was talking about for sure. I had the exact same experience a few years back with an old timer on a Texas river job, told me to let the cutterhead spin before even touching the mud. Took his advice after I wrecked a set of bearings one time and man, that warm up time makes all the difference in the world. It lets everything settle in and get lubed up right before you put any real load on it. That old school wisdom is hard to beat sometimes, even if it sounds like a load of nonsense at first.

parker_patel8411d ago

Fixing to agree big time. Had an old hand down in Louisiana tell me the same thing about letting everything spin up before you get into the dirt. First job I ignored him and sure enough blew a seal on the cutterhead motor before lunch. After that I started doing the warm up thing and it saved me so many headaches. Letting the oil circulate and the bearings get happy for like 3-5 minutes makes a night and day difference in how smooth the whole rig runs. Those old guys might not explain why it works but they sure know what works.

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