Picked a 12-inch cutterhead over an 8-inch for a tight channel job

Last month I was working a narrow channel near Savannah and had to decide between running my 12-inch cutterhead or swapping down to the 8-inch. I figured the bigger one would chew through it faster, so I went with the 12-inch. Turns out I was scraping the banks way too often and had to slow down a lot to keep from sucking up debris. Lost about 2 hours of production compared to what the smaller head would've done. Any of you guys ever pick the wrong size for a tight spot and regret it?

3 comments

3 Comments

jade5171mo ago

Man, been there. I'd rather lose a little time on the swap than fight the big head all day in a tight spot.

charlescraig1mo ago

Gotta stop you there real quick lol. That "big head" isn't the bolt head, it's the socket that's too big for the space. You're thinking of the bolt head itself, but the struggle is when your socket won't fit between the bolt and the frame. Swapping to a thin-wall socket or a six-point is the real move, not losing time on the swap. Just saying, been burned by that mix-up before and spent an hour cussing at a harmonic balancer.

holly_reed551mo ago

Nothing worse than fighting a stuck bolt all afternoon.