I finally get why some guys swear by the old hydraulic dredges

Spent 6 months on a newer electric model thinking it was the future, then helped out on a 1970s Ellicott job last week and the thing just chewed through a clogged channel without any fuss. Has anyone else had an old machine show up a newer one on a rough day?

3 comments

3 Comments

daniel5932mo ago

Honestly, have you tried swapping out the old hydraulic pump for a remanufactured one? It's like fifty bucks more than a rebuild kit but saves you three days of headaches. Also, keep a spare set of hoses in the toolbox, the old ones are thicker and take a beating. The electric models have those fancy variable speed drives that just brick when moisture gets in. But with the old Ellicott, you can fix almost anything with a wrench and a pipe. Just don't let the newfangled tech guys touch it, they'll screw up the timing.

the_ryan23d ago

Funny you say that, @daniel593, because I used to be all about chasing the newest tech. But then a buddy of mine had his fancy electric dredge brick itself during a rainy week, and he spent more time on the phone with support than actually working. Seeing the old Ellicott keep chugging along with just a wrench and some spare hoses definitely flipped my thinking, you know?

lisak262mo ago

Man that tracks so hard. I've seen it with other equipment too. The old stuff was built to survive the apocalypse, not to hit some efficiency metric. Newer models have all these sensors and circuit boards that just give out when things get nasty. You fix one thing and two more problems pop up. The hydraulic systems on those old dredges are just brute force monsters. Keep the old one around for backup. It'll save your butt more than once.