Cutterhead vs plain suction on a clay bottom taught me a hard lesson

I spent two full shifts running a plain suction dredge through a clay bottom on the Mississippi near Baton Rouge last month. Barely moved 15 cubic yards in 8 hours. Switched to a cutterhead suction setup the next day and pulled 80 yards easy. Same crew, same water, same clay. The cutterhead just chewed through it while the plain suction clogged every 20 minutes. Has anyone else seen that big a difference switching methods on sticky material?

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avery_nelson4mo ago

Yep, that tracks with a job I had on the Red River a few years back. Plain suction through that sticky blue clay was a nightmare, we were pulling it every 10 minutes to clear the intake. Swapped to a cutterhead and got almost double your numbers, it just broke up the clay way better before it ever hit the pump. The difference is night and day on that stuff, plain suction is worthless once you hit anything cohesive.

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gonzalez.vera4mo ago

Swap to a cutterhead first thing next time, saves you all that hassle.

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