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I used to hate running the Grizzly 8-inch all day but last Tuesday changed my mind
We had a 14-hour shift clearing a silted-in marina up near Port Clinton. Normally I would swap to the smaller cutterhead after lunch to save fuel. But the discharge line kept plugging up with clay chunks and I was tired of unclogging it. So I just left the Grizzly screaming wide open and let the drag pump eat. We moved 220 cubic yards by 4 PM which is almost double our usual rate. That engine noise still hurts my ears but I guess the bigger cutterhead keeps the slurry moving better. Has anyone else had better luck running their big cutterhead longer than they thought they should?
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rosel501mo ago
...and honestly that's the thing people don't get about cutterhead sizing. I ran into the same problem a few years back on a job down near Sandusky where we kept swapping to the smaller head to "save fuel" but we ended up burning more diesel idling while unclogging anyway. Once I did the math (which I hate doing) the bigger head running flat out actually used less fuel per cubic yard moved. The real trick is keeping your velocity up in the discharge line so the heavy stuff doesn't settle out mid-pipe, which is exactly what that Grizzly does with its higher flow rate. Sounds like you found the sweet spot, just keep some earplugs handy for the noise.
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troy_scott1mo ago
Funny you mention Port Clinton. My cousin runs a landscaping crew up near Toledo and last summer they tried using a mini excavator with a tilt bucket to clean out a creek behind some condos. Took them three days and they still ended up calling in a vacuum truck. I told him he should just rent a dredge for a weekend but he said the HOA was too cheap. Anyway, that silt is nasty stuff, clings to everything like wet concrete. Glad the Grizzly worked out for you.
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