Changed my mind about using a 4-inch versus a 6-inch suction line on a river job

I was working on a channel cleanout near Baton Rouge and figured the smaller line would be fine for the silt. My boss said to go with the six-inch, but I set up the four-inch anyway. After two days, we were barely moving material and falling behind schedule. I switched to the six-inch line on day three and we cleared the target area in eight hours. Has anyone else had a job where the bigger hose was the only thing that saved you?

4 comments

4 Comments

lily572mo agoMost Upvoted

Ever think the smaller line would save you time?

drew_jones312mo ago

Yeah, that bigger line makes all the difference with wet material. Had a similar mess with slurry in a settling pond once.

dixon.james1mo ago

Man, tell me about it. We ran a four-inch on some real soupy stuff last month and it just couldn't keep up. Switched to the six and it was like night and day, no more clogging every ten feet.

cole5492mo ago

Honestly, sometimes the bigger line just adds cost and hassle for no real gain. I've seen guys like @drew_jones31 push for the six-inch on every slurry job, but that extra diameter can kill your pump's vacuum if the material isn't thick enough. On that Baton Rouge silt, a four-inch with higher water flow might've worked if you'd just given it more time to break things up.