The change in our draghead setup over one season in Mobile Bay

We used to run the standard 5 tooth draghead on our dredge in Mobile Bay for sand work. Last spring, the foreman switched us to a 7 tooth pattern with a wider spacing. Within 3 weeks, our production numbers jumped from about 800 cubic yards per hour to 1100. The old setup was just clogging up too much on the shell mix we hit after storms. Has anyone else seen a big jump from tweaking tooth count like that?

3 comments

3 Comments

craig.parker12d ago

Buddy of mine on a different dredge out of Pascagoula said the exact same thing happened with their setup last year... switched from 5 to 7 teeth and their numbers jumped way higher than anyone expected.

margaretc4212d ago

Wait, 300 more yards per hour just from changing teeth? That's insane. Are you sure it wasn't something else too like different pump speed?

shane_wilson12d ago

That 300 yard number is wild. I had to read it twice. I've seen wear parts make some difference before, but not like that. You're talking about a 15-20% bump in production just from different teeth geometry. That doesn't add up in my head unless there was something off with the old ones from the start. Maybe the old teeth were worn down way past where they should have been, or they were the wrong type for that particular sand and gravel. Still, even accounting for that, a jump of 300 yards per hour is hard to swallow.