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Rant: Almost blew a hose line from not watching pressure spikes
Was on a big canal cleanup with the cutterhead dredge and everything seemed fine until the pressure gauge started jumping around. I brushed it off as a sticky valve, but then a joint on the discharge hose started leaking bad. Learned the hard way that sudden debris chunks can cause surges that stress the whole system. We had to emergency stop and lost half a day patching it up in the rain. Now I keep an eye on that gauge like a hawk and have the crew do visual checks upstream. If you see the needle dance, don't wait, shut it down and clear the intake. A small leak can turn into a burst real fast with all that force. Trust me, it's not worth risking a full blowout and the safety hassle that comes with it.
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pat_thompson396mo ago
Honestly those gauges jump all the time, it's just part of running a dredge. I've seen plenty of small leaks from worn seals that we just band-clamp and keep going. @linda_knight51, shutting down for every little spike kills your production numbers. You learn to feel the difference between a real surge and just some normal chunking in the line.
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linda_knight516mo ago
Thought pressure spikes were no big deal lmao, but your leak changed my tune. Now I'm all over that gauge.
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