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After 8 years of running a swing dredge I finally switched to a cutter suction setup | Dredge Operators - Librear

After 8 years of running a swing dredge I finally switched to a cutter suction setup

I used to swear by my old 14-inch swing dredge on the Mississippi near Baton Rouge. Then last summer we took on a job with heavy clay layers and I was spending more time unclogging than digging. Bought a used cutter suction from a buddy in St. Louis and it cut through that muck like butter. Has anyone else made the switch and found it way easier on certain bottom types?

3 comments

3 Comments

grant_gibson3mo ago

Luna, that's a good point about the fines. You ever notice how with a cutter, the whole slurry stream just feels more consistent? I swear on my old swing, half my time was spent with the ladder trying to chase pockets of loose material, but the cutter suctions steady pull ruins that. Plus, that constant hard cut on the face probably did save my impeller some abuse, since you're not picking up big chunks of mixed muck that beat the hell out of everything.

luna_sanchez3mo ago

My buddy down in Plaquemine runs a 12-inch swing on the Atchafalaya and he had the exact same problem with that blue clay they got down there. What nobody talks about is how cutter suction setups handle the fines way better too. With my old swing, I was constantly fighting that silty stuff that settles back in on the second pass. The cutter suction just chews it up and sends it on its way. Maybe it's just me, but I noticed way less wear on my pump too once I switched - the clay and silt combo was eating up my old impeller something awful.

jesse_thomas273mo ago

Man, that's the first time I've heard someone bring up the pump wear angle with the fines like that! But here's something I've been noticing that nobody ever seems to talk about with cutter suction setups. The way they keep the material suspended in the water column is totally different from a swing. With a swing, you're basically dropping and lifting, so the heavy stuff settles out way faster. But a cutter suction keeps everything churning and mixing in the cut itself before it even hits the suction pipe. That means the clay and silt stay mixed in with the sand longer, so you're not just sucking up pure mud one minute and then straight sand the next. I swear that alone changes how the whole operation runs, especially when you're dealing with that tricky blue clay that Luna's buddy has down there.