Will doing a conversion be as simple as it looks? Here is what I would like to acomplish. I would like to run it off a bilge pump and battery in highbanker mode and assume I need a bigger gas motor to dredge. Is that correct? Can I sluice/dredge/highbank all with the same riffle configuration or would I need 3 different riffle systems. Same question for mats and carpet. Is there a "universal" setup or different for all 3? Just trying to come up with as many different uses for the sluice with the minimal amount of parts to get the maximum number of applications. I dont know the first thing about dredge/highbanker components but have plenty of time to get a handle on it. Got about 6 months of snow and ice to deal with before next prospecting season. Any info would be appreciated.
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I'll add a little information here. A highbanker will work with a semi-trash pump and a 2" should work for most highbankers that you can hand carry. Engine size should be in the 5 to 6.5 hp range. You can always slow the engine down to get the proper flow. A dredge needs a pump that has more pressure to make the venturi work well. That is usually expressed in pump head height. The higher the head the more pressure the pump produces. Along with the greater water flow the dredge needs a different width sluice box and different rifffles to accomodate the increased water flow thought. That flow is needed to move the larger rocks through the box.
Look close at the pump on a semi-trash pump then compare that to the pump that you see on a dredge. The difference is impeller design in the pump. Much tighter clearances in the dredge pump to get the pressure.
Hope this helps you.
Dickb
bob i would go with a 6.5 motor and pump you can always throttel it down if you need to pump should be a 2 inch in and 2 inch out for max performance
Hey! I just finished converting a Keene A52 over to a dredge. I had bought a Honcoop triple tray highbanker two years ago but wanted to get "out in the water". So, I took the 2" trash pump from the highbanker, converted it to the dredge, and converted the A52 to the dredge frame/pontoons, that I bought from Keene. Learned the hard way this summer that I needed a different set of riffles for the dredge. So, I ordered a set of "dredge" riffles from Kenne along with minors moss. I kept the greene mat that came with the A52, then put the minors moss down and then the new riffle tray. I'm planning to try it next weekend if I can catch a breath of warm weather(it's getting rather cool here in Ohio now). Now if I want to dredge, I can...if I want to highbank, I just set the dredge in the water, and use the same pump to pump water to the highbanker, or I can use the same pump to do both. Hope this helps you.
Thanks for the replies. I was thinking pretty much the same sluice set up as you. How big is the motor youre gonna use? I'm looking at a couple different pumps from harbor freight but not sure how big to go. Also when it comes to power jet/suction nozzles, what are the pros and cons to each. This is my crude plan....pump to a suction nozzel to a sluice on a big inner tube. I'm going for functional and on a tight budget. Say i get an engine that does 90/100 gpm, how do I figure how much 2" hose I can run between the nozzle and sluice? Would using 1 1/2" hose allow greater length? Watched a lot of videos about these but noone goes into detail about the specs.
I think I just jumped into the deep end of the pool without learning how to swim first. I'll be better off if I take on 1 project at a time. I really want a small backpackable dredge so I think thats where I'm gonna start. Time to do some research and I'm sure I'll have lots of questions.
#1 elec pumps are not designed to work a lot of material my opion stay with the gas motor n pump you will be happer you did
#2 the a51 or a52 are 10 inches wide and around 3 to 4 foot long so if you use a elec pump its got to be big as all get out to work right but since this is my personal opinion do some research to your ques and see what you come up with for infolike i have said in the past any piece of equip off the shelf leaves a lot to be desired for changeing brand name dont mean jack turkey as to how good it is #3 dont use the keene or proline hoppers they suck bad and hard to moditiy to an adavantage
You should be able to use the same motor for highbanking or dredging, if you get the correct one to begin with. That would eliminate the need for a bilge pump and battery, which probably wouldn't provide enough flow, anyways. For a dredge setup, you will need different riffles than the standard stream riffles. Someone else will have to comment on the riffles for highbanking. Many different opinions on carpet/matting/minors moss, but any should work fine with any setup, unless you want to refine each to catch the smallest of gold, too. Do some Google searches, as there are all kinds of examples out there. Also, on Youtube. Good luck and post lots of pictures of your builds!