The day the suction line ate a car tire in the Willamette

We were working a channel near Portland, pulling up gravel with a standard 10-inch cutter head. The pump started making a sound like it was chewing rocks, and the pressure gauge spiked hard. Shut everything down and pulled the line, found a whole shredded radial tire wrapped around the impeller. Took three of us with pry bars and a sawzall to cut it out, lost about four hours. Anyone ever have a bigger piece of trash jam up a dredge?

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3 Comments

the_logan6mo ago

Car tires are the worst... always carry bolt cutters.

7

bettyhunt6mo ago

Bolt cutters seems like a bit much for a flat tire.

1

oscarcooper4mo ago

My last flat was on a back road near the old mill, and I spent a good twenty minutes just trying to get the stupid hubcap off. I mean, maybe I'm just weak, but in that moment a pair of bolt cutters felt like a totally reasonable tool to have. I probably would have tried to use them on the lug nuts too, which tells you everything about my car repair skills.

1