Loading…
25
Watched a pump guy in Baton Rouge pull 40 feet of suction hose by hand and now my winch sits in the toolbox
I was on a job outside Baton Rouge about 6 months ago and this old operator named Ray showed up with nothing but a hand line and a 6 inch pump. He told me his winch froze up on him in 2019 during a flood job and cost him 4 hours he could not get back. So now he just walks the hose out by hand, 10 feet at a time, and it takes him maybe 15 minutes for 40 feet. I tried it myself on my next job and yeah, my back hurt that night, but I was not fighting a cable or a stuck drum. My winch has been sitting in the toolbox since March and I honestly do not miss it. Anyone else here ditched a machine for the manual way and never gone back, or am I going to regret this when the mud gets deep?
1 comments
Log in to join the discussion
Log In1 Comment
max_schmidt772d ago
Ray got lucky that day and you are going to find out the hard way. 40 feet of 6 inch hose is one thing, try dragging a 4 inch trash pump line through cane mud after a rain when every step you sink to your shin and the hose is full of water. That winch is not about your back, it is about getting the pump set before the water beats you, and 15 minutes by hand turns into 45 real quick when there is nothing solid to stand on. I have watched guys go manual and then go begging for a winch at 2am when a levee is about to cut loose.
3