diff --git a/source/net/yacy/htroot/Crawler_p.java b/source/net/yacy/htroot/Crawler_p.java
index d6b19e883..e95562713 100644
--- a/source/net/yacy/htroot/Crawler_p.java
+++ b/source/net/yacy/htroot/Crawler_p.java
@@ -799,10 +799,14 @@ public class Crawler_p {
                 wPPM = 30000;
             }
             final int newBusySleep = 60000 / wPPM; // for wantedPPM = 10: 6000; for wantedPPM = 1000: 60
-            final float loadprereq = wantedPPM <= 10 ? 1.0f : wantedPPM <= 100 ? 2.0f : wantedPPM >= 1000 ? 8.0f : 3.0f;
 
-            BusyThread thread;
+            // we must increase the load limit because a conservative load limit will prevent a high crawling speed
+            // however this must not cause that the load limit is reduced again because that may go against the users requirements
+            // in case they set the limit themself, see https://github.com/yacy/yacy_search_server/issues/363
+            float loadprereq = wantedPPM <= 10 ? 1.0f : wantedPPM <= 100 ? 2.0f : wantedPPM >= 1000 ? 8.0f : 3.0f;
+            loadprereq = Math.max(loadprereq, sb.getConfigFloat(SwitchboardConstants.CRAWLJOB_LOCAL_CRAWL_LOADPREREQ, loadprereq));
 
+            BusyThread thread;
             thread = sb.getThread(SwitchboardConstants.CRAWLJOB_LOCAL_CRAWL);
             if ( thread != null ) {
                 sb.setConfig(SwitchboardConstants.CRAWLJOB_LOCAL_CRAWL_BUSYSLEEP, thread.setBusySleep(newBusySleep));