kevin_williams•2d agoMost Upvoted

Switched from hand jets to a hydraulic one on my dredge last season

I used to run a 4 inch hand jet for years on my little dredge up in the Sierras. After I got tired of fighting it in heavy gravel I finally swapped to a hydraulic jet setup from a guy in Oregon. Cost me about $800 but my recovery rate went up by maybe 30% because I could run more material. Has anyone else made that switch and seen a big difference in how much you move?

3 comments

3 Comments

faithpatel2d ago

Hand jets have their place in fine material but I've seen way too many guys dump money into hydraulic setups and still struggle with tuning issues. The recovery rate difference is overblown if you know how to work a hand jet right in the right conditions. Most of the time it's just operator error not the equipment that's the problem.

margaret5512d ago

Did you have to mess with your engine or pump much to get the pressure right? I swapped to a 6 inch hydraulic on my dredge a couple years back and it was a pain getting the impeller dialed in but once I did it was night and day. The hand jet just couldnt cut it in the deep cracks where the gold hides.

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cora_west52d ago

Got a buddy who tried the same swap on his 5 inch last summer and he fought with it for like three weekends straight before he got it right. He had to mess with the pump impeller clearance a ton, kept getting cavitation until he shimmed it just right. @margaret551 you're spot on about the hand jet being useless in the deep stuff, it's like trying to suck gold through a straw. Once his impeller was dialed he was pulling color out of bedrock cracks he couldn't even touch before, total game changer for sure.