TIL a 12 inch suction line beats two 8 inch lines for our harbor cleanup

We ran a side by side test for a week on the Baltimore project, moving the same silt volume. The single bigger line had way less clogging and used 15% less fuel overall. Anyone else ditch multiple smaller lines for one big one and see the same results?

4 comments

4 Comments

alex_nguyen1mo ago

That "15% less fuel" stat is a huge deal. I guess the bigger line just has less friction to fight, which makes total sense. My crew would probably still find a way to clog it, though.

oliver_wilson491mo ago

Have you guys ever tried swapping lines and realized halfway through you forgot a critical adapter fitting? Because I definitely have - spent three hours on a Saturday driving to three different supply houses while my crew sat around eating donuts. But yeah, once we got the 12 inch line hooked up properly on a harbor job last spring, it was like night and day compared to wrestling with two 8s. The clogging just stopped being a problem, which is good because I swear I could clog a garden hose if I wasn't paying attention.

vera_murphy1mo agoMost Upvoted

Oh man, I'd probably clog the big line just by looking at it wrong. My luck is like that. Did you have to change the pumps at all to handle the bigger pipe?

campbell.tara1mo ago

Jumped on this last year with a 14 inch line for a similar job. Had to swap out the pump impeller and adjust the rpm a bit to keep the flow right, but after that it ran smooth as butter with way less babysitting.