Grain auger for mud

[Don in LA]

My son has a boat slip which is in need of cleaning. We mounted a towable backhoe on a barge to dig the muck from the slip. The main problem is moving the mud from the slip to shore. Sometimes we have to go 30' to 40' feet out into the river because of the silt buildup. The muck is mostly soupy clay and sand.

We are considering buying a used grain/feed auger to move the mud after digging. The mud would be dug, placed in the auger bin and then, hopefully, pumped through the pipe encasing the auger. I believe the auger would be placed at about a 15 degree angle. From the pictures I've seen of the auger it appears to have augers that are about 3" in diameter. It was used for moving pig feed. Any opinions on weather an auger like this would work with mud?

Thanks,

Don

 

[BrinkME]

the mud is going to weigh a lot more than grain/pig feed so the coupler on the drive may shear/break/give if the entire length of the auger is filled with silt. In principal yes, the auger will work, but is it beefy enough to handle the added grunt it's going to take to move the mud to the end . . . that I do not know.

 

[tow653]

The flighting of auger will wear rapidly with mud.

 

[zzvyb6]

Trash pump on the barge does a better job. You need to construct a cofferdam at the discharge location to separate the water from the mud and gravel. Use a couple of ropes to move the barge/raft slowly across the area to be dredged. Once it gets started with the inlet suspended from the raft, it goes pretty fast. On my property in the 1950's the local farmer put his Ford tractor and a PTO irrigation pump on a raft while he and the neighbor pulled it back and forth. I now have a Houle irrigation pump and want to go back at it his way. I used a rental pump previouslly. Don't get in the path of the pump discharge, it will take two weeks for the mud to come off and the family to stop laughing at you...

 

[aczlan]

Trash pump on the barge does a better job.

Note that a diaphragm pump will work better than a centrifugal pump for this as it will generally handle larger solids.

Aaron Z

 

[Egon]

Grain augers work well for water. If you could add a diluted slurry it should lift it.

 

[SandburRanch]

If the grain auger doesn't work I'm sure one of these concrete pumps will.

 

[MossRoad]

Better not let the Corps of Engineers see you dredging....

 

[Depmandog]

I had to provide a client an engineer's budget on a dredge project a few years back. I contacted Dredge - Dredging - Environmental Dredging - Dredge America and they were most helpful in designing what equipment would be required.

They are out of KC, but I believe they service the entire US. They have a rental fleet of dredges, pumps and dewatering equipment. Hope this helps!!