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Cutterhead clogged mid-channel in Mobile Bay and I had to think fast
Two weeks ago we were dredging a channel near Mobile Bay when the cutterhead sucked up a mess of old crab trap wire and stalled out hard. I killed the pump right away, but the ladder was already vibrating bad so I had the leverman pull the whole thing up slow. Took us 3 hours with a torch and a hook to cut it all free, and I could see one of the suction teeth was bent about a quarter inch. We finished the cut with the spare head and only lost most of a shift. What do you all keep onboard for wire and line wraps, because my usual snips were useless out there.
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hugo_craig1mo ago
That bent suction tooth is the part that would worry me more than the wire itself, because a quarter inch off on one tooth can throw the whole cut off balance and you won't feel it until you're fighting a wandering trench a week later. Nobody talks about the wear side of these wraps, they just want to know what tool cuts faster, but the real cost is what the stall does to your head and your pump bearings. You got lucky pulling slow, half the guys I know would've tried to back it out and chewed the ladder up worse. For wire I keep a set of cable cutters meant for fence work plus a hay hook on a length of rope, the hook gets under the tangle so you're pulling instead of poking at it with a torch while it swings. Snips are for rope, wire wraps need something with a jaw and a lever behind it.
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