trolling motor dredge onboard an ROV

goldmine1

Tenderfoot
Apr 21, 2003
6
1
Glasgow, Scotland
Primary Interest:
Prospecting
Hi folks,

I was playing around in my head with the idea of attaching a trolling motor powered dredge onto my ROV for an application I have in mind. The unit I have is 32lbs of thrust and I was thinking of just using a standard Y shaped venturi with the trolling motor providing the thrust for the suction. Has anyone ever seen or heard of such a thing? I'd be interested in some objective input as to what kind of suction I would have and any pitfalls. There's no problem with controlling the motor as I have extra outputs on the ROV and plenty of current from it's on board battery for short dredge bursts.

I just want this as a simple unit, place nozzle over target, hit thrust and in the bag it goes.
 

stevemc

Bronze Member
Feb 12, 2005
2,121
277
Sarasota, FL
Detector(s) used
Whites Surfmaster PI Pro and Whites Surfmaster PI, Minelab Excal NY blue sword. 2 White's Dual field pi, Garrett sea hunter pi II (but don't use it for obvious reasons) 5' x 3 1/2' coil underwater Pi
Primary Interest:
Shipwrecks
I would say try it in a pool or shallow water. As you know any thrust is going to make the ROV move around a lot. Should work. You could have the propeller in a PVC tube which is then necked down into the Y venturi. Hard to say how much suction it would have, I have worked with PVC suction dredges using powerful water pumps ( 6 1/2 HP, 2" pump), and it is a problem getting all the sizes and angles right so it has enough suction power. But when it is set up right it had plenty. We found that the pressure had to enter at a fairly steep angle( like straight in) and of course the pipe sizes had to be right. We had 2" going into a 3" pipe.
 

Harvest

Full Member
Apr 6, 2008
139
101
Daytona Beach, Fl.
Detector(s) used
Whites SL90, Surf PI, Minelab Excalibur 800
Primary Interest:
Shipwrecks
What size is the rob ? I have no problem with my rob and a clearing attachment
 

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