New to Higbanking - Gold Rat Highbanker or other

[ryanonthevedder]

Nice Hopper there ryan, The ideal is to never have to touch the top box except to shovel in, but the reality i'm seeing with smaller machines is they all need some sort of manually clearing the larger material from the top box. You either run the top box with more angle and rerun material, or run it shallower and clear more of it out manually and allow a longer washing time for more clayey material.

I hear ya. We do have plenty of gold in clay up north, and guys do struggle to break it down. I am lucky that there is little to no clay exactly where I am, but you dont have to go more than a km to find it. My main reason for coming up with this design was to solve the problems you stated. Too much angle and all the pay rushes accross the mats at once, and too little angle and you are forever clearing rocks off of the classifier. This hopper allows the material to be processed slowly and consistanly at a low angle, without the need to clear the grizz bars.

The video of it working is up on the youtube section.

You cant buy one though, its a DIY thing if your into that kind of stuff.

Cheers

 

[V_8]

Lol Goldigga, all good mate - appreciate you taking the time to shoot it, bloody technology - sometimes its your best mate, other times you want to throw it at a wall. I'll give you a buzz when i get home from my 9-5 job to have a chat and arrange a few things about 6pm.

Hey there BB, Nice Highbanker you got yourself made, what made you choose Gold Hog mats over Wal's design? I was tossing up between GH mats and Wal's setup. From all the videos i've seen of various members setups is that with Breadcrate setup nothing gets through it.

Cheers, V_8

 

[shivan]

Looks like i am a little late.

Love the look of the gold rat, would love to have a closer look at one.

From my experience the gold hog mini, is a nice small lightweight highbanker but you need to keep playing with the top hopper to clear it. And it cant take as much digging as some of the other units around as it is narrow. But it does the job, and is fine for 1 person who does not dig like a backhoe. Because of the shipping fee's and US$ you would definatly get better bang for your buck looking to get locally.

Looks like G0lddigg@, has you covered on the gold rat, so good luck whatever path you choose.

 

[V_8]

Cheers guys for all the help, yeah the forums has done its job very well indeed.

Thanks for the advice Shivan, i got all hooked up in the GH mats and for a ready to run machine it looked pretty good, and Doc sells his stuff well. Only when i watched your Tuena video i actually got an idea of it in our conditions, and realised it is a good 1 person unit, but too small for 2 which is what i will be doing alot of the time.

 

[BumbleB]

Lol Goldigga, all good mate - appreciate you taking the time to shoot it, bloody technology - sometimes its your best mate, other times you want to throw it at a wall. I'll give you a buzz when i get home from my 9-5 job to have a chat and arrange a few things about 6pm.

Hey there BB, Nice Highbanker you got yourself made, what made you choose Gold Hog mats over Wal's design? I was tossing up between GH mats and Wal's setup. From all the videos i've seen of various members setups is that with Breadcrate setup nothing gets through it.

Cheers, V_8

Mate I'm not so interested in gem stones, also I really love the theory/physics that has obviously gone into the Gold Hog mats- it all makes perfect sense to me with the different vortex that are created by the different mats. I'm running 3x UR, 3x Scrubber, 1x Cut-down River Hog, 1x Full River Hog, 1x Razorback, 1x Riverhog & 1x Razorback. This gives my run varying/changing vortex for the slurry to be exposed to. Also I love the easy clean up with these mats, as opposed to the miners moss etc. But look, I'm the first to admit that I am a very long way from being an expert on the matter, & I am not going to claim that the Gold Hog mats will work any better or worse than Wal's design. Clearly Wal's design works extremely well, & no doubt has been fine tuned multiple times to get it to what it is- no doubt I will have a similar journey of fine tuning with my baby.

 

[V_8]

Cool BB,

I too like the idea of bugger all cons and those mats sure do work, so many choices. You really have to commit to them though with increased water rates and pretty much have to run them exclusively in your box. Look forward to seeing yours in action BB, you don't look too off.

 

[hardyakka]

G'day V_8,

I can put 1 together for you for around the $500.00 mark, depending on riffle/matting configuration you decide on.
They are made from 2.5mm aluminium sheet, all tig welded and folded, not riverted together.
The sluice is 1200mm long x 350mm wide with an adjustable hopper which is 480mm long x 350mm wide
with 40 mm spray bars and 4 adjustable legs.
The hopper has a 12mm screen in it.

I'm in sth gippsland if your interested

regards

hardyakka

 

[BumbleB]

Cool BB,

I too like the idea of bugger all cons and those mats sure do work, so many choices. You really have to commit to them though with increased water rates and pretty much have to run them exclusively in your box. Look forward to seeing yours in action BB, you don't look too off.

You're right, it not something that you build & then let sit in the shed.
The cost for all the bits & pieces do start to add up, but once you have them, you have them forever (just about anyway).
The water pump, depending on what you go for; & the Gold Hog mats, work out about $300-400 each, then you got the lay-flat hose & the suction hose; both of which can also add up if you get 20-30 mtrs; but short of a blow up in the pump, they're a one off cost.
If one chooses the Hog mats, then yes, you will have to get a pump that gives to very good water velocity. I have mentioned in other posts- I got a 7HP Trash Pump, which apparently pumps up to 1100 Ltrs/min- WAY more than I need, even for the Hog mats, but if I ever need to pump up hill, I have got that grunt under my belt. I imagine that I will run the pump at just under half throttle in most cases. I'll have a much better idea after this weekend when I give the little baby a good hit out- I will take photo's & post them for everyone & give my report.

 

[BumbleB]

V8, another thing to consider is the portability of you equipment. If you think that you will be going to areas where you might need to carry ur gear into an area, then size & weight really do matter. My 7HP pump is HEAVY- 30+kgs so I will not be carry it too far- I did get one of those garden trolleys (350kg rated) from Bunnings to carry the stuff around, but if the ur dragging it thru the scrub....well you just can't! It really is the case of choosing which way you want to lean & be done with it- play to your strengths.

 

[V_8]

Hi Guys, Thanks for all the input. I had an opportunity to go out with Goldigga on Saturday and check out the Gold Rat as in my OP. After giving it a good test run with a friend i will be getting one. Its very sturdy and well built, handles that awful grey rubbery clay really well, and took any rock size we threw into it no dramas. We ran a AM Boss off the end to see if we had any losses and nothing. Caught some real fines and a few other small pieces. Thanks Goldigga for making time to give us a demo, and for answering all mine and my mates questions.
Can't wait for it for Aus Day weekend but with 30 plus degrees for the next 2 weeks i don't like the chances of having much water about.

On another note - has anyone bought one of those $189 ebay LIFAN 2" Pumps? 21kgs isnt too bad for a 33000 lph pump.

Anyway's all cheers, the bug has well and truly hit hard and am already planning trips to Eldorado and a few other spots. Hope to see some of you out and about.

Cheers, V_8

 

[Teemore]

Congratulations on your purchase, no doubt you've now witnessed the volume of stuff this HB can handle, I was impressed anyway and why muck around, unless you're very much into DIY, unless you have a well set up workshop the time and expense in getting everything you need (materials, new tools etc etc) can easily equal your outlay.
At least this way you get a proved product.
Just need some decent water.
Cheers Tom

 

[G0lddigg@]

glad you had fun V_8 you and your mate seem like you've really got the bug and I can tell your committed to the cause, those lifan motors are fine they require regular oil changes but do the job well once run in. Make sure you get yourself a good check valve for the intake because the impeller design only allows for 2mm to get through grass will flog it out real quick, I'll see if i can dig up some mesh for you for you.

Look forward to having a proper crack at it with you blokes some time.