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Just ran my cutterhead 2 inches deeper than usual and the pump load barely moved
So we were dredging this stretch of canal near New Bedford and running into a soft silt layer about 6 feet down. Normally I keep the cutterhead right at the face, maybe an inch of bite, because that's how I was trained. Well, we were falling behind and the pump was sounding a little rough so I figured what the heck, let's drop it 2 inches and see. Ran it for about 40 minutes and the discharge density actually went UP from around 12 percent to maybe 16 percent, but here's the weird part, the vacuum gauge didn't climb like I expected. Usually more bite means more load on the pump. I checked the ammeter twice because I thought the gauge was busted. What I think happened is the extra material was sliding in smoother instead of balling up at the face. We ended up doing the whole 300 foot run that way and finished a day and a half early. Anyone else ever had the suction get easier when you go deeper? Makes me wonder if I've been babying it for no reason all these years.
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