Dredge Idea

[Whydah3]

Has anyone ever tried to split a five inch dredge hose into two smaller hoses, like a four inch and three inch? As long as the total hose area/volume is the same this should work. My idea is to weld a five inch pipe with a four and a three inch split, so that two divers can work two different hoses. Just trying to think of better ways to use two guys on one dredge to move more material.

 

[Oakview2]

You want to guys to work more material, have one diver moving rocks, and one on the hose. You are not going to move any more material, unless you have a second dredge. JMHO

 

[russau]

Oakview is right! and 2 people useing basically the same hose will plug that hose ot load that dredge sluice in no time!

 

[omnicron]

Overload the sluice and you are just throwing gold back into the water! Just have the second guy move rocks and you can double the material you move in a day.

 

[Timberdoodle]

Best to follow Oakview's advise on this one. Technically you would be faced with plugging problems also. As the suction load in one hose varies with material it will change the volume and suction in the other thus not providing constant suction to overcome larger rocks etc..

 

[Hoser John]

A 4" and a three would hardly put out as much water as a single 5" AND you'd move 5X the amount of cobbles by hand and run much less material through the box. The 2 headed hydra has been tried,and thrown away by many 100s in years past. Mo' bigger ALWAYS more better. Do the math with Pi x r squared and viola instant proof of capacity. Much less plugups also so much more production loss also.-John

 

[Jason in Enid]

The entire reason to user a larger dredge is to reduce the "hands on" time moving cobbles. Splitting a 5 inch means you have move many, many more rocks. It will also lead to more hose jams.

 

[bill-costa rica]

i know of 1 guy that split his 10 inch into a 6 and 8 inch. he said it worked ok, a 10 inch hose was to much for his dad to handle so he did the split for him. again he said it worked ok.

bill/cr

 

[dredgeman]

Unless it is two separate systems on one platform, Like 2 8" setups it is not advantagous

 

[2cmorau]

think of the hand chuckers you have to move 3" vs 6" hose, let the hose do the work like John said
my two half barrels are loaded up with rock the winch huals out for me, and getting in and out of the water to operate the winch will wear you out

 

[Hoser John]

2 smart men can kick butt with any dredge if properly utilized. TYPEWRITTER method is my methodolgy. 2 men down,1 guy sucks up the smalls and leaves his movers,then passes nozzle to other dredger who moved his cobbles whilst the other fella was dredging. Then you ALWAYS have 1 sucking and 1 moving oversized materials,the hole is much wider and you never gettn' downtime on the nozzle. You have totally eliminated that dredge being idle,set the nozzle down and move cobble,then resume dredging waste a good dredge time. Because your now not trying to ram,cram and jam as big a rock as possible you eliminate many plugups also. Then when you come across a big rock 1 man can't easily move,you also eliminate stopping to move,crowbars (sometimes) and just tap your buddy on the shoulder and 2 divers move them monsters instantly much easily. Now here comes the hard part though-YOU GOTTA SHARE YOUR GOLD hahahaha -John PS My ol' bud PZZZZZZ calls it the corn eating method as back and forth action and the cobbles disappear just like corn from a cob

 

[lowctoy]

Make sens to me, split the 5 inch and get a 10 inch in there, one hose and flip that creek inside out ,hahahahaha that will move more dirt.

 

[Jason in Enid]

Make sens to me, split the 5 inch and get a 10 inch in there, one hose and flip that creek inside out ,hahahahaha that will move more dirt.

Not if you don't know what you are doing. If you split a 5 into 2 2.5 inch or a 10 into 2 5inch then you are losing 50% of your material capability. When you double a hose size, you quadruple the volume (and flow).