Heard a guy at the dock say his cutterhead was wearing out after 300 hours

I was loading fuel down at the Port of Tampa last Tuesday and overheard two operators talking. One of them said his cutterhead teeth were shot after just 300 hours in a sandy bottom. That got me thinking because I have been running mine for over 500 hours in mud and clay and they still look decent. He was using a different brand of teeth than me, so I asked him what he ran. He said he switched to a cheaper set to save money but now he is replacing them twice as often. I figure the extra cost upfront might actually pay off in the long run if they last twice as long. Has anyone else played around with different cutterhead materials or coatings to stretch the life?

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2 Comments

john_cooper2mo ago

Man I feel that pain. I burned through a set of cheap teeth in 250 hours once. Made me want to cry into my fuel can. Turns out my cutterhead was basically a butter knife in sand. Switched to a harder alloy set with some tungsten coating. Now I get almost 700 hours out of them. The upfront cost hurt my wallet but the downtime savings were huge. Feels like I'm finally not just digging holes for my money.

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eric7232mo ago

Honestly that "digging holes for my money" line hit close to home. Reminds me of the time I spent more on replacing broken shovels than I did on my first truck.

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