Swapped from a 6-inch cutterhead to a 4-inch on my last sand job and cut my cycle time by 40 percent

I used to think bigger was always better for clearing material fast, but after three months of fighting over-excavation on a tight channel near Tampa I finally downsized and the difference in control is insane, anyone else found a smaller head works better in confined spots?

3 comments

3 Comments

mileslane8d ago

Swapped out my 4-foot trowel for a 2-footer once and realized I'd been basically doing yard work with a bulldozer lol.

cole_murphy8d ago

I'll respectfully push back a bit here. Going down to a 4-inch in tight spaces makes sense on paper, but I've found it really depends on the material and the specific job. In my experience, a smaller head can actually end up costing you time if you're dealing with harder clay or mixed fill because you're making more passes to get the same depth. The control is definitely better, no argument there, but the trade-off in cycle time isn't always a net gain when you factor in the extra back-and-forth. I think there's a sweet spot in the middle that most guys overlook, where you keep enough mass to really dig but still have the maneuverability for the tight spots.

corah757d ago

60 feet of head pushing a 4-inch, that's terrifying @mileslane, I didn't know you could run that small for sand.