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Old timer told me to let the cutter head spin free before dropping it

Guy named Pete from a job up in Tacoma told me last week to let the cutter head spin free for 15 seconds before I drop it into the cut. I always just jammed it in right away. Tried it on a silty patch of riverbed yesterday and the suction picked up way cleaner with less bogging. Anyone else heard this trick or got other startup rituals that actually work?
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2 Comments
robin_foster1
Hang on, you tried it on riverbed silt? That stuff is like wet concrete once it settles. I'm honestly kind of shocked you got it to pick up cleaner with less bogging. I've been running a dredge for like six years now and I always figured that spinning free thing was just old guy superstition. I remember trying it once on a gravel bar and didn't notice a difference so I wrote it off. But if it worked on riverbed silt, that's a whole different animal. I might have to eat my words and give it another shot on a tough patch.
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the_miles
the_miles26d ago
Funny enough I saw a guy in Idaho swear by warming the hydraulic fluid for five minutes before starting anything and he found gold in a creek everyone else said was played out.
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