Drove past a job on the Missouri River and noticed something off about their swing anchor setup

I was hauling a load down by Sioux City last Tuesday and stopped to watch a crew working a cutterhead. Their swing anchor cable had about 20 feet of chain wrapped around the cleat instead of a proper dampener. Has anyone else run into issues with chain shock loading on hard clay?

3 comments

3 Comments

paigem451mo ago

Switched my mind on this after a bad season a few years back. Used to think chain was fine for those anchors too, but then I saw a setup like that snap on a hard clay job near the Platte. The shock loading just travels straight through the chain and into the cleat, no give at all. Ended up with a cleat that literally split in half and the whole rig drifted into the bank. A good rubber or rope dampener eats that shock way better and saves your gear. Now I won't touch a swing anchor without one, learned that lesson the hard way lol.

the_fiona1mo ago

@paigem45 that's how it always goes... one bad snap and you see the pattern everywhere in life.

emmaj3319d ago

That bit about the chain snapping and the cleat splitting really stuck with me. A friend of mine had almost the exact same thing happen on the Missouri a few years back, and it was a costly mess. I think some people just don't realize how much that shock load jolts the whole system.