Looking at get a suction dredge really need be able to carry it so 2 inch prob, but price diff between keene and proline huge is pro line even worth looking at , and i imagine the hoses they come with are not long enough, also im guessing carry far and a 2 inch gonna be 2 trips to get everything way in so do i just bite bullet and get a 3 inch ,input from any much appreciated even you jw i imagine this early in day lid still on whisky bottle, jokin dude any advice great thnx
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I’ve had a keene 2 inch.
Plenty off carrying involved depending on your claim.
I’d go 4 inch if you were going to go bigger 
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G’day mate. I don’t drink believe it or not. I would rather spend the money on other things that are way more important than getting a head ache & pissing it down the toilet. 
Been there done that. Not any more.
A 2” is really a waste of time for the material it moves. You could shift more with a shovel & sluice box. Depends on the situation. Good for sucking bedrock, cracks & crevices that a shovel cant really get into but not for moving volumes of material. Keen do make their back packable version. I made my own to suit my conditions & it was one trip to get it anywhere. I actually upgraded it to a 3” to move more material. I will add photos later as they are on my other computer. I did buy an older 3” dredge from a guy in Bernie, Tasmania. It was a crasher box dredge that came with power jet & suction nozzle. I ended up modding that to a 4” with a road cone as a flare into the sluice box. That was a bigger motor & 3 trips. Bigger box & pontoons. Once in it lived in there. Just carrying out the motor & pump. Have just used the box with no pontoons propped up in a shallow creek or even on the bank. I did get a keen highbanker 2” dredge combo for a good price on trademe a few years ago. Have never used it as I have a 2” highbanker dredge combo that I made that I can carry in one trip. Was handy when I was up the Coromandel. I haven’t used a dredge/motor set up for a few years now. Last time was the 4”. I detect & snipe these days. Lot easier carrying that gear & a small bivvy tent for a day or two overnighter trips in & out. The claim is a pain to get a decent size (4”) dredge in there. Nothing outside of a chopper but that comes at a cost & not that willing to leave it in there because of bastards.
Nothing wrong with proline. Or there wasn’t years back. Don’t know about today. Cheaper to make your own if you are handy with your hands. All you need to buy specialised it the motor/pump, suction nozzle/power jet & hoses. I kind of prefer a suction nozzle as you don’t need to reprime it when working in shallow ground & you can take it out of the water & stick it back in & away it goes again. Ideal for a 2” in shallow bedrock creeks.
JW 
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Cheers dude flag that idea then like most stuff online looks great and does jack, do ya still have 2 inch one send pic an price if cheap enuff may take of ya hands but its the carry extra shit that sucks the most lol ty much saving my $
I had a 50m 3 inch soft thin wall alkathene pipe hose that was using gravity, but fliating it in somewhere and rope broke was in gorge to dangerous to jump in had to watch it float away sorry nz environment, got it $80 marketplace over $800 new didnt know that until it gone prob would of jumped in, it had its ups and downs like carrying it back out lol worked good been looking ever since for another similar but nah
you wont get a proline unless its 2nd hand. theres been no new prolines come into nz for a year or so.
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Be a matter of bringing your own in & all the expense of that which is why if nothing available 2nd hand people fabricate their own. Dredge NZ seems to not carry any stock but will just order it in whacking on his mark up. Everything is “out of stock” last I looked.
JW 
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proline are having production issues too, they havent made small dredges for a while or pumps, you wont be able to get a new one even if you go to usa. think theyre focusing on the big commercial gear while gold is booming.
theyve always been terrible even when Alan Dunford was bringing them in, but yea the out of stock thing is rediculous at dredge nz, customer service is severely lacking. any normal business would go under running like that.
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I’m building a 2" dredge for a mate. It’s alot cheaper. That road cone is the jet flare, you slice the tip open at 3 points to fit the powerjet up it. I’ve ordered a jet log from DREDGENZ to make my own powerjet. Got the combo dream-mat. And an old 2" honda that was laying around. And the other red pontoon was borrowed by mumsy-what for I don’t know but i’ll be getting it back. So you can make your own Pal. There’s plenty of cheap 2" 3" inch water pumps on trademe and about 3 places that sell OD 50mm 2" inch pvc pipe. Storage Box has 10L and 20L plastic jerry cans.
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Totally agree. 3’inch or even better a 4"inch. Hoofing it in that’s the short term pain
Wholeheartedly agree with your comments about dredgenz, it was always going to be difficult for the new owners to replicate the sort of service that Dan provided (going above and beyond consistently), but on the two times I have ordered things from them, the service was really subpar
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Stay posted. We (three of us) will keep you all updated shortly regarding availability of more dredge/fossicking gear becoming available to us NZ Prospectors 
Cheers,
Marto & Co.
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It’s harder getting anything now. So sometimes you gotta make your own stuff. I got a combo dream-mat, jetlog and a jet flare blank from DREDGNZ always try to support in-country. Alibaba is a nightmare and it’s a dice roll. I tried to get a 3’inch dredge minus the pump imported from CHYNAH - ($680 NZD shipping).
Well said John.
As I’ve seen recently with a couple of blokes in particular, their custom products are made above what Keene produce. Made in NZ, good quality & more affordable too. Unless people change the “that’s all I use mentality” you’ll be waiting like a dog for dinner re: Keene gear, esp as Proline have moved away from ‘small-scale gear’.
Be interesting to see what people think.
Cheers
Marto
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If you want something small for prospecting check out the goldibox backpack dredge. Whole thing including hoses etc all fits in a backpack and can easily be brought anywhere in one trip. Significantly cheaper as well. Just need to clean it out every 45-90minutes if you are in heavy sands. Pretty sure they ship world wide. Then once you find a good spot with the 2” get yourself a 4 or 5” subby dredge. =)
Yes, I have seen these. (Goldiebox) Battery powered 2” bilge pump set up. You can get different stages of the three different configurations or the whole caboodle. There are lots of attachments for all case scenarios. The smallest most light weight set up is the one that can be used as a sub surface as well if you get the extra slide over lid that covers the small “sluice box” end.
Then you can get a typical standard 2” sluice box type set up with flare & open sluice box.
3rdly you can get a highbanker type set up that I assume uses the same sluicebox as the dredge set up..
There is the suction nozzle set up & you can also get a power jet set up. There is also a double inlet connection in the form of a Y for running two pumps into one to increase suction. More stuff to carry. You can buy just the boxes & their suction nozzle & bits & pieces & supply your own hoses, pump & battery. Prices will be $US plus postage on top of that. Every thing is 3D printed so I have to wonder on durability. You then have the issue of battery life which I think is about 4 hours. So not going to get a full days use out of it. If you are going in somewhere remote & going to be camping over a weekend, that is a problem. You could take two batteries & a solar panel charger set up but it is all more gear to cart in.
At the end of the day it is just a 2”. So not great on moving volume of material but more suited for shallow bedrock & cracks & crevices.
If just a day trip in & out then 4 hours dredging will probably be it. By the time you walk in, set up, dredge until battery flat, then walk out. That’s your day. I would prefer to stay in there once in. Would have been handy when I was up in the Coromandel. It was the noise of my petrol powered motor/pump that gave me away & got me in the shit. That was a 4” though.
JW
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I run mine on 16-18v batteries and the suction is awesome. I get 2 hrs per 30ah of battery. It really shines in public areas where I take the kids swimming in the summer. Rarely does anyone notice it. I have also used it with a Honda wx15T 49cc pump. I use 25’ of pressure hose and tilt the sluice up a bit. Probably not great for fine gold with the gas engine but does pretty well and runs for hours at 1/2 throttle. A longer suction hose for when I run the gas engine would probably help as well. I would love to have a 3 or 4” version of this and run it off a more powerful electric pump in places where gas is not allowed.
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