Had to choose between a hydraulic cutterhead upgrade or a new pump last month on the Mississippi job

Our old pump was losing suction something fierce near Baton Rouge, but the cutterhead was beat up from all that clay and shell. I picked the cutterhead because we were chewing through too much time on the cutting side. It worked out okay for a few weeks, but now the pump is really acting up. Maybe I should have gone the other way. Anyone else been stuck between two big repairs like that?

2 comments

2 Comments

joseph_lewis926d ago

Man, that's a tough spot. I've been down that road before and honestly, there's no great answer. In my experience, waiting on a failing pump just makes everything worse downstream. You might have gotten a little more life out of the cutterhead, but now you're stuck with a busted pump that could have been fixed for less.

rowan_thomas6d ago

Man, that's a good point. @joseph_lewis92 I gotta ask though - how do you tell the difference between a pump that's just making noise and one that's about to blow? I've had pumps sound like they're dying for months and keep running fine. Then others go quiet and just quit without warning. What's the tell you look for? Because I feel like everyone says "replace it early" but nobody really explains the signs clearly. Makes it hard to pull the trigger on spending that kind of cash.