That day I found out my cutterhead angle was wrong for 2 years

I was running a job on the Mississippi near Baton Rouge last month when a older operator walked up and watched me for a minute. He asked why I had my cutterhead tilted so far forward on that silty bottom. I told him that's how I always ran it, you know, to dig deeper. He pulled out his phone and showed me a photo of the exact same cut from his rig, and the angle was totally different. I had been forcing the machine to do extra work (and wearing down my teeth way faster) because I never bothered to match the angle to the material. Have any of you guys caught yourself running a bad habit for years without realizing it?

2 comments

2 Comments

wadem8919d ago

Did you ever go back and check if your fuel consumption dropped after you fixed the angle? Seems like that alone would have paid for the lesson real quick.

williamb2919d ago

Did you track it before and after, or are you just guessing?