Hit 10,000 hours on my dredge pump last week and it finally clicked why the old-timers always talked about 'feeling' the suction instead of watching the gauges.

I always thought that was just veteran bragging until I realized I'd been running on instinct for the last 200 hours and my production numbers actually went up, has anyone else noticed their gut feeling getting better after a certain hour count?

2 comments

2 Comments

ellis.susan5d ago

Does your pump ever make that weird harmonic hum right before it starts pulling clean? I had a similar awakening with my grinder mixer a few years back. I was trying to dial in feed consistency for corn silage, and I kept ignoring the auger's strain gauge because it looked fine on paper. Around hour 1200 or so I started noticing a subtle vibration through my boots when the kernel processing was off, even though everything read normal. Once I started trusting that feeling over the readouts, my TMR actually came out more uniform. It's funny how your body learns the machine's language before your brain does.

terry_barnes5d ago

That harmonic hum thing is real... I had an old Case 1840 skid steer that would sing this particular note right before the hydraulic oil got too hot. Gauges would still say 180 degrees but I'd be hearing this faint B flat coming from the pump. Finally figured out it was the viscosity thinning out just enough to change the resonance. Ran that machine another 900 hours by ear after that. Funny how you stop looking at the dummy lights once your ears start telling you what's happening under the hood.