Just found out my cutterhead RPM was way off for 2 years

Ngl I was looking at my dredge logs last week and noticed something weird. I do a deep check every quarter on my Ellicott 370 and I always just trusted the gauge on the panel. Turns out after I finally put a tachometer on the cutter shaft I was running 15% slower than what the display said. That means for two full seasons I was chewing through material way slower than I thought. I pulled the manual from 2019 and it had a note about recalibrating every 6 months that I straight up missed. Now I have to redo all my production estimates from last year. Has anyone else had their panel readings drift like that or am I the only one who skipped that maintenance step?

2 comments

2 Comments

campbell.logan21d ago

Well slap me sideways and call me a stump grinder. Sounds like your panel was lieing to you harder than a used truck salesmen.

robin_foster121d ago

Man, I've been there with a bad panel before. What finally worked for me was just asking them to show me the actual math on the bill breakdown step by step, right there in front of me. Turns out they had me paying for some "administration fee" that wasn't even listed in the contract I signed. Once I pointed that out and threatened to take it to the state board, they backed down real quick and refunded like half of what I owed. Might not work for everyone, but sometimes you gotta get a little pushy with these folks to see if they're playing straight.