Ingram Repowers With Cummins

Ingram’s big white line-haul towboats with their distinctive red circle stack logo are a familiar sight on the lower Mississippi. On the Ohio River and in other feeder routes, Ingram also operates a number of smaller vessels to put the big tows together. In the recent total rebuild following the sinking of one such boat, the 56 x 24-ft. M/V Charles B Holman, Ingram chose Cummins engines.

Mark Duley, General Manager-Motor Vessel Engineering, reports that the job was completed in June of 2007 with all the shipyard work being done at James Marine Services in Paducah, Kentucky. Lakeshore Marine Services rebuilt the vessel’s crew quarters. River Marine Electronics provided all new electronics including Carlise & Finch searchlights, Furuno depth sounder and Standard Quantom VHF radios and Dehart Swingmeter. Ingram’s manager of electrical systems, Kevin Groves, directed the installation of the electronic Mathews Steering system and Clear Command electronic throttles and reduction gear controls for the Cummins engine supplied by ZF Marine Electronics.

Cummins Crosspoint of Evansville, Indiana provided all the vessel’s Cummins Engines. These included a pair of 6BT5.9-G6 generator sets. The main engines are a pair of Cummins new QSK19-M Tier II compliant engines. These engines, capable of a continuous duty rating of 660 hp at 1800 RPM, were derated to 500 hp each for this installation. They turn into Twin Disc MG5222 marine gears with 6.10:1 reduction provided by Great Lakes Power also of Evansville. The Tier II-compliant QSK19 M engines are fitted with the Eliminator oil centrifuge system that replaces all spin-on oil filters. This can amount to significant savings, not only in the purchase of new filters, but the disposal of used filters.

Ingram ISS port engineers John Hines and James Adair oversaw the extensive rebuild project. The Charles B Holman, with 1000 Tier II-horsepower, is now back working on the Ohio River.