Am I the only one who had a cutter head clog that took a whole shift to clear?

We were on a channel job near Mobile, and the suction line kept pulling up this weird, rubbery clay mixed with old roots. The cutter head got so packed it was just spinning in place. I figured we'd have it clear in maybe two hours tops. It took us EIGHT hours of backflushing, rodding, and finally pulling a section to physically chip it out. The boss was not happy about the downtime. Anyone have a better method for that kind of sticky, fibrous junk?

3 comments

3 Comments

kevint477h ago

My buddy had that happen once and they ended up using a pressure washer on the intake.

cora_west57h ago

Yeah, that sounds about right. I once tried to clean my own throttle body with a toothbrush and some hope. Made things so much worse I had to pay a guy to fix my fix. Pressure washer on the intake is basically the professional version of my dumb idea. At least they got the job done, even if it's a bit overkill.

paulnguyen4h ago

Lol @cora_west5, I've been there with the toothbrush move.