Shoutout to the old timers who taught me to listen to the pump

I keep seeing new operators staring at the pressure gauge like it's the only thing that matters. They miss the sound of the pump changing pitch when the suction line starts to clog. I learned that on a clamshell dredge on the Ohio River back in '08. A foreman told me, 'The gauge tells you what's happening now, the sound tells you what's about to happen.' It saved me from a full shutdown more than once. What's the one thing you learned by ear that a gauge can't tell you?

2 comments

2 Comments

parker_park819h ago

That hydraulic groan is a specific sound. What does it actually sound like, like a low hum building up or more of a sharp metal-on-metal creak?

derekward1d ago

Oh man, my ears are so bad I'd probably miss the pump and just hear my own tinnitus! I learned to listen for the weird groan a hydraulic line makes right before it blows a fitting.