Why does nobody talk about what to do when your cutter head jams on a buried cable?

We were working the channel near Mobile last month and the whole rig shuddered like we hit a wall. Turns out we'd snagged an old power line that wasn't on any of the charts, and the head was completely locked. We had to reverse the flow, bring up the ladder, and cut it out by hand, which took the better part of a shift. What's your go-to move when you find something unexpected that stops the head cold?

2 comments

2 Comments

grace_chen10d ago

My old foreman in Galveston always said the first step is to kill all rotation and suction immediately. He drilled into us that trying to power through just winds the cable tighter and can wreck the drive. Letting everything settle for a few minutes before you even touch the reverse can sometimes let the tension drop enough to back it out clean. It's a real pain when the charts are wrong like that.

jade_lane10d ago

Letting it settle can make the jam way worse in my experience.