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An old-timer on the dredge told me 'slow is smooth, smooth is fast' and it took me 3 years to get it
I was working a job on the Mississippi near Baton Rouge back in 2018, and this guy named Pete who'd been running dredges since the 70s saw me fighting the controls during a tight cut. He just walked over, put his hand on my shoulder, and said that line. I nodded but didn't really listen. Kept trying to rush through everything, burning more fuel and messing up the cut profile. Last month I finally had a shift where I slowed down every step, and my output actually went up by about 15%. Has anyone else had a piece of advice that took years to click?
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noah_palmer424mo ago
That Pete sounds like he knew exactly what he was talking about. I've seen the same thing with my crew where the new guys want to muscle through hydraulic work and they end up breaking fittings and burning out pumps. Once you realize the machine or the water or the pipe will tell you how fast you can go, everything changes. Little things like letting the cutterhead settle before you start swinging, or feathering the swing lever instead of mashing it, that's where the real speed hides. Your 15% gain doesn't surprise me at all, the drag from fighting the controls adds up quick in fuel and wear.
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rubyj114mo ago
Man, that line is a classic for a reason. I used to fight the same way on a crane barge, jerking the controls around and always having to redo lifts. Once I finally started moving with the machine instead of against it, my hook time dropped by a good twenty minutes a day. It's funny how the simple stuff is always the hardest to really learn.
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