Found a weird trick for clearing a clogged cutterhead suction line on the old 'Mississippi Queen'

After fighting a persistent sand plug for two days, I tried reversing the flow for 30 seconds with the booster pump, and it cleared the line instantly, so has anyone else used this method on a ladder dredge?

3 comments

3 Comments

clairem4711d ago

My buddy Jake did that on the 'Delta Dawn' last year.

oscar66611d ago

Backflow is a classic move. Reminds me of my uncle's old well pump out on the farm. He'd get sediment buildup in the feed line to the cattle troughs. A quick blast in reverse with a portable pump always did the trick, saved him digging up the pipe every few months. Different scale, same basic physics.

rileyellis2d ago

Absolutely works, did the same thing on a gravel pit dredge back in '08. We had a line packed with clay and small stones that just wouldn't budge. Flipped the valves and ran the pump backwards for maybe twenty seconds, heard this awful grinding noise, then everything let go. Sometimes you just gotta fight the flow to get it moving again.