Dream Mat questions?

[Reed Lukens]

I bought the 8" wide Dream Mat to fit into my Gold Hog Multi-Sluice to be able to use it as a highbanker trommel with the trommel from my Gold Cube mounted on it. I'm wanting to change out the drum on the trommel to -1/2" or less, to get as much thru put as I can out of it. In other words, I want to max it out on water flow for the 8" wide sluice with Dream Mat in it. From what I have seen in videos only, I'm thinking that I can get a way with 2200gph and still run it off of my battery and Solar panel in the field.

How many gph will the 8" Dream Mat handle?
Is there any set angle to run it at with a known maximum water flow for best recovery?
What have you found is the best angle to run it?
Here's the link to the mat that I have -
https://prospectorsdream.com/collections/sluice-mats/products/vortex-dream-mat

 

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[Reed Lukens]

Not many using this mat yet? Haha.
When I was talking to the guys on Ed Marvin's program after the show, fortunately they all use the Dream Mat as well and they have run on everything from 1100gph to 4000gph and it all works. You just need to adjust the angle to match the flow. Ed runs his on 2200gph and that's where I really want to be running to get to be able to run it for a few hours on Solar power. Any more then that will be really cutting into the battery. I usually pull in around 5amps from the Solar Suitcase, the battery is around 26ah, so keeping the amps low from the pumps is the key. All of the 2200gph pumps that I have seen pull 8+ amps and I have 2 - 1100gph pumps that say they pull 3amps but I think they are closer to 5amps from what I have seen with the battery and the Solar.
There really isn't a lot of info out there at this point on the Dream Mat gph or optimum angle, but lots of people use it and I have been told that it's pretty forgiving. On a river, I can use a Honda WX15 and just run it above idle and it will run fine, but for a recirculation system here in Arizona, in full sun, I really want to be able to run it for free with Solar. I have the screen tent, I have the place to start digging and have the Multi-Sluice ready to go, so I will keep you informed

 

[RobertF]

I've got some dream mat myself but haven't used it yet.

 

[utah mason]

A few guys on kevins Facebook group, finding gold in Colorado run them. I would post it there as well. I'm sure you would get a quick response.

 

[Hamfist]

I'm waiting for the gold show next month to grab a section of this stuff. Last time the show was in Pomona, the dream mat was fairly new and I wrote it off as snake oil, but now I can't wait to get my hands on it because of how forgiving it seems to be. There is a gold bearing stream near my house but my bazookas are useless in it due to all of the migrating sediment. Dream mat should be much better there.

 

[Oregon Viking]

I bought the 8" wide Dream Mat to fit into my Gold Hog Multi-Sluice to be able to use it as a highbanker trommel with the trommel from my Gold Cube mounted on it. I'm wanting to change out the drum on the trommel to -1/2" or less, to get as much thru put as I can out of it. In other words, I want to max it out on water flow for the 8" wide sluice with Dream Mat in it. From what I have seen in videos only, I'm thinking that I can get a way with 2200gph and still run it off of my battery and Solar panel in the field.

How many gph will the 8" Dream Mat handle?
Is there any set angle to run it at with a known maximum water flow for best recovery?
What have you found is the best angle to run it?
Here's the link to the mat that I have -
https://prospectorsdream.com/collections/sluice-mats/products/vortex-dream-mat

Why don't you just use one of the 9 available Gold Hog mats?

 

[Reed Lukens]

Why don't you just use one of the 9 available Gold Hog mats?

Because another member on here said the Dream Mat does better on fines and I have and have used most all of the Gold Hog mats in the past and the dream mat supposedly doesn't need as much classification. Plus I've also used Bernie's Gold Well Sluice which works great and uses the same style of fluid dynamics found in the vortex cells of the Dream Mat, and it's something new to try
I've now talked to a number of people who use it on a different forum that I was recommended to by another member from here. Pat Keene messaged me yesterday and told me that he had experimented with it last summer. He told me to run it as flat as possible with a lot of water. Then Dave Peterson, the owner and inventor of the Dream Mat contacted me last night and we talked for about an hour because this is the small test. Next, if this turns out, it will become one of the first new sections for the sluice box on my 8' trommel. Right now, the trommel starts out with an Angus MacKirk Long Tom, then drops into the standard expanded metal over miners moss. Being in Arizona now, my options have changed for the better. California and Oregon have no say here... I plan on using the Gold Hog Multi-Sluice as is for my main concentrator if it tests out over the Gold Cube. I still have a few dredges sitting in California that I'm finally thinking of selling being that mechanized mining and being a proud American have been outlawed mostly on the lower left coast.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=kvLanE-q3fo

 

[lbd]

Interesting thread to follow...

I have some mini cell and some std cell dream mat on the way to install in both the main and side sluices of my dredge. Because the side sluices handle classified material I will be installing 18 inch sections of the mini cell dream mat.... In the main sluice I will have some of the coarser dream mat.

I do think it is folly to rely on one profile only to catch gold in a sluice so I always mix it up... the mini cell dream mat will be fitted at the tail end of the side sluice... after some miracle matt, then Razorback, then expanded mesh over moss, the GH bedrock 2.0, then mother load.... will be interesting to pan out the dream mat cons to see what is being caught there that the remaining mats have missed... report to come end of March.

 

[Hamfist]

After watching just about every video on YouTube about these mats, I'm starting to lose faith in them again. I was planning to spend some real money on multiple mats this Sunday at the GPAA show and kinda hope someone will set me straight.

I've watched just about all of the videos posted by a YouTuber by the name of Khrysos GodofGold - some of which compare the Gold Cube to this "Speed Banker." In his videos, he talks about how he gets less than 50% recovery rate on his gold cube as compared to a highbanker with mini dream mat installed. There are A LOT of things wrong with his (very long) video titled "SPEED BANKER VS CUBE 6X STACK," one being that my Cube seems to work approximately twice as well a his, another being that there is lots of visible gold in the last riffles of the mat in his highbanker...and another being that his email address is the name of the company that appears at the top of the page when you search "Dream Mat" in google. He mentions the latter in the comments when someone asks where these these mats can be acquired.

Why is it so hard to find reviews of these mats by someone who isn't selling them or who has the slightest bit of experience? These have been around for a few years now. Many such reviews should exist. I'm starting to tip back toward my initial impression of these mats! (see snake oil comment in previous reply). Am I missing something? Should I also trade my Super Sluices for Gold Claws at the show? lol...

 

[utah mason]

After watching just about every video on YouTube about these mats, I'm starting to lose faith in them again. I was planning to spend some real money on multiple mats this Sunday at the GPAA show and kinda hope someone will set me straight.

I've watched just about all of the videos posted by a YouTuber by the name of Khrysos GodofGold - some of which compare the Gold Cube to this "Speed Banker." In his videos, he talks about how he gets less than 50% recovery rate on his gold cube as compared to a highbanker with mini dream mat installed. There are A LOT of things wrong with his (very long) video titled "SPEED BANKER VS CUBE 6X STACK," one being that my Cube seems to work approximately twice as well a his, another being that there is lots of visible gold in the last riffles of the mat in his highbanker...and another being that his email address is the name of the company that appears at the top of the page when you search "Dream Mat" in google. He mentions the latter in the comments when someone asks where these these mats can be acquired.

Why is it so hard to find reviews of these mats by someone who isn't selling them or who has the slightest bit of experience? These have been around for a few years now. Many such reviews should exist. I'm starting to tip back toward my initial impression of these mats! (see snake oil comment in previous reply). Am I missing something? Should I also trade my Super Sluices for Gold Claws at the show? lol...

I was in the middle of watching this video when you posted. I haven't watched any other of his videos, but he had a lot of gold in his catch pan. It was his first time using the dream mat, so maybe he didn't have it tuned correct. I think I'll stick with the goldhog mats, even when I first got them I didn't have much if anything in my catch pan.

 

[Hamfist]

I was in the middle of watching this video when you posted. I haven't watched any other of his videos, but he had a lot of gold in his catch pan. It was his first time using the dream mat, so maybe he didn't have it tuned correct. I think I'll stick with the goldhog mats, even when I first got them I didn't have much if anything in my catch pan.

Wow, I hadn't seen that one. Entertaining! Maybe the mat is difficult to tune, but I never saw that in the tailings when first getting the hang of my Gold Hog mats either.

Yeah, I think I'm with you. No point in converting to something less proven. Maybe I'll just try to add a flare to my GH mini extension and use that in situations where there is sediment in the stream, which renders BGTs/GGTs useless.

As far as super concentrators go, the Khrysos guy is either has no idea how to operate a Gold Cube or is fudging the results BIGTIME in order to sell his mats. I feel like I wasted money on the third tray since there's never anything in it, and he claims he's getting less than 50% recovery with SIX trays.

 

[mendoAu]

"I feel like I wasted money on the third tray since there's never anything in it, and he claims he's getting less than 50% recovery with SIX trays.

Ditto on that cube. I've used by friends and also noticed none to minimal in the third tray. Can't imagine how you get get gold past the third tray let alone the six' even if you tried.

 

[Reed Lukens]

I was in the middle of watching this video when you posted. I haven't watched any other of his videos, but he had a lot of gold in his catch pan. It was his first time using the dream mat, so maybe he didn't have it tuned correct. I think I'll stick with the goldhog mats, even when I first got them I didn't have much if anything in my catch pan.

There's lots of info on different Facebook pages from the guys using dream mat. 7° is a good starting point on it. The weather, mods to the trommel, and illness here has kept me from running my own tests on it yet but I'm in the process. Lots of guys swear by it and it looks real good, but you want to run it pretty flat. The more different styles of mat in a sluice, the better, I believe. I love my Gold Hog mats and the Dream Mat looks good but time will tell. The guy in the video above looked like a complete newbie... I couldn't believe he had gravel in his pan when looking for the gold... Clueless...
Look up prospectors corner on fb

 

[russau]

It looked to me he was feeding the H.B. to fast and thusly blowing the gold out!

 

[Reed Lukens]

I met a guy today who sold his dream mat because it was losing gold at the angle he was running at. I believe it was set too steep myself, but I wasn't there. He ran the gold Hog first, then the dream mat for test 1, then reversed them for test 2. But he didn't remember the angle. I've got my Gold Fox ready to run tomorrow and it's finally Dream Mat testing time with the tailings from the Gold Hog mats that I set at 9° exactly. Tomorrow I will set the Dream Mat to 7° that some of the guys say works great and we'll see what happens
I keep making small adjustments to the Gold Fox Lil' Monster, so this will be the first run with those mods also. I was getting blow back thru the pump, so I enlarged one bank of holes by a 64th and widened them a touch for better flow to the top spray bar. I made a battery box out of an ammo can with switches mounted on the outside, finished it up this morning and was going to do a test run today but... I had 3 different groups of people come thru to ask questions about my set up, so I ended up bs'n all afternoon instead of running In other words, I made some new friends, and had some fun. I've got the only Solar powered trommel in the area I guess

 

[lbd]

My dream mat has arrived at home ready to fit to my dredge side sluices... what a pity I am still at work for another week...

I will let my impressions be known here after I have run it for a couple of weeks...

Attached is the image of 6 x Gold cube mats all glued together 24" wide x 36" long to make two mats 22" wide 18" long for the side sluices with sub 3/8" material.