Impeller blew apart on me mid-dredge this morning

Was running a job on the Mississippi near Baton Rouge around 6am when the whole rig started shaking bad. Shut it down quick and pulled the pump apart right there on the deck. Found the impeller had cracked clean through on three of the vanes, must have been a hairline from last week's gravel hit. Cost me about 8 hours of downtime waiting for the shop to bring out a replacement. Anyone else had a sudden impeller failure like that or was I just asking for it by running too hard?

2 comments

2 Comments

matthew_baker9d ago

Was the crack visible at all when you inspected it last week after that gravel hit?

butler.shane9d agoTop Commenter

@matthew_baker must have missed the "crack detection" chapter in his inspection manual. The gravel hit looked about the size of a grain of sand, so calling it a "crack" is like calling a paper cut a life-threatening wound. I'll check again next week with a magnifying glass and a dictionary.