12" Outback Pioneer Series Highbanker

Prospecting Australia

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Simple.
You will not beat it. You can not go wrong.
No other Modifications necessary,
Very well built,
Tremendous Back up and support,
What more could you want. :Y: :Y:

I have both seen them in build stage and met the builder personally.
Very honest fellow and also base my judgement on the comments I have
read on here.
I like a lot of folks build my own bankers and I have just ordered a dream mat myself. :D :D
 
I have the 8'' model. Well built & works well as is. Check on the pump size required as you may need a 2 " pump.
 
Yeah, I was just about to say, do you need a 12 inch?
Do you plan to use it near a vehicle? Or go for walks down hilly scrub?
I'm unfit as a sloth so keep that in mind, having a can break every 300m doesn't help :|
Edit, sorry I completely forgot to say about the banker, I have the dream matt and it's No1, no question... the banker itself is the best you'll buy, a bit pricey, but it will work from word go, no modifications needed.
I reckon by the time I got my sluicy banker stuffed around with mods etc then got the dream matt, it would have been cheaper to buy the gold rat in the first place and not raise my blood pressure, anyway I hope someone learns from my poor judgement.
 
I ordered the 12in highbanker this morning.
I can't wait to try it out. Just looking for a pump and get the hoses.
 
G'day as5,
I agree with everything said in this thread so far, however regarding price...
Yes it is more expensive than some Highbanker's, however you get ALOT more for your money; so in terms of value for money you needn't look any further.
The thread below contains a detailed review of the 12".
https://www.prospectingaustralia.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=20288
And yes, the Dream Mat is just that. :D :Y:
 
Hey HyperScott,

Here are some words from Dustin himself, I think it answers your question ... I'm still debating 8 versus 10 ... I like the idea of the portability of the 8.

the 8 will run well on a 3000gph bilge its also lighter smaller and easy to play with. The larger units support a wider shovel to feed need more water and have more surface area to run more material. If you are not planning on shovelling constant feed then any unit will do, the 12 inch is a beast that can handle constant feed all day. 8 bit smaller 12v potential and 10 is the perfect in between and most petrol pumps will have enough water i.e. 14k per hour
 
I am so excited as my 12" highbanker is being sent today. Looking forward to use it next weekend at Tuena.
 
I think you are going to have a ball with it. I'm really looking forward to ordering mine as well and heading out for another fossick, but it will take a little longer before I order.

Can you let us know how you go? I haven't heard much recently about creek levels or anything, but I'm sure you'll get a great run in!
 
as5672 said:
I am so excited as my 12" highbanker is being sent today. Looking forward to use it next weekend at Tuena.
Hi mate remember me from the park in Tuena when we had a chat about prospecting a couple of months ago? It Will be good to see how much better you go in the areas that you tried with your little banker, keep us informed if you can because if you do really well I'm thinking of getting the same in the near future as all the feedback I've heard so far has been extremely positive indeed.
Cheers Dolphin.
 
brendomac said:
Hey HyperScott,

Here are some words from Dustin himself, I think it answers your question ... I'm still debating 8 versus 10 ... I like the idea of the portability of the 8.

the 8 will run well on a 3000gph bilge its also lighter smaller and easy to play with. The larger units support a wider shovel to feed need more water and have more surface area to run more material. If you are not planning on shovelling constant feed then any unit will do, the 12 inch is a beast that can handle constant feed all day. 8 bit smaller 12v potential and 10 is the perfect in between and most petrol pumps will have enough water i.e. 14k per hour

Mate I don't know if this will help you or confuse you. However since using conventional riffles and moss and converting to dream matt, I have found the dream matt clears so much more quickly, you can process way more material in the same time with the dream matt.
So if you were previously happy with the performance of a 10inch conventional unit, then you'll be happy running an 8 inch dream matt.
BUT when you compare a 10 inch dream matt to the performance of a 10inch conventional, the difference is marvelous and you can just chuck shovels at the bastard.
So if you don't need to hump it long distances I would say get the bigger one, if going long distances or space is tight, then get the 8.
My 3600gal bilge only just runs it on 12v, so I feed the bilge with 14v via 2 batteries in series from a speed controller, but ideally, a bilge should only be for a 8 inch unit.
I personally would like an 8 and a 12, so you could do plenty when needed and have an 8 when humping distances, but if you don't think you'll use it a lot an 8 will still do the job and process a lot of material.
 
Thanks for the advice panner. I don't actually have a banker, I've only ever sluiced using my little angus grubstake. So i dont have anything to compare it to. moving to the highbanker will be an upgrade for sure. And no classifying, woo hoo.

The other thing about the 8 inch is the possibility of getting the 8 inch sluice, header unit etc and being able to mix and match with the possibility of using a bilge pump.

With that being said, i still have my grubstake which is very portable. So maybe i shouldn't be trying to force one thing to do everything. That is, have the banker as a solid, kick-butt banker and my sluice as the portable unit.

Decisions decisions !!!
 
Hi all
I got my 12" Gold Rat Highbanker yesterday, it looks awesome and very well built. I have a couple photos and did 2 videos. I did one video showing it running and another video in slow motion of the mat. The slow motion video had a bit of dirt as you can just see it dancing around.
I will do more videos when I am at Tuena on Saturday. Saturday will be testing day.
I have 3.5m suction hose and only 5m lay flat hose at the moment. I am using a 8HP pump and it was idling in the video.

[video=480,360]https://youtu.be/GFz9L2_RI18[/video]
[video=480,360]https://youtu.be/suz307Isjlw[/video]
1493786604_img_0409.jpg

1493786604_img_0410.jpg
 
Thanks for posting the photos and video up as56. I can see the big dog pump does well even on idle! I have an 8Horse pump aswell but have reduced it down (on the outflow) to 1.5" to have the lighter layflat. However I can see yours using the 2" rigid pipe hose rather than my 1.5" layflat, flows a bit better than mine. This is interesting to me. All the best finding the shiny with it...you won't be disappointed with the performance of this unit I'm sure of that!
 
I will be using the lay flat hose at Tuena but couldn't use it to test it as I didn't have the room. I have 2in lay flat hose.
 
I reckon a nice strong magnet incorporated into that unit somewhere for an open ender to adjust the leg angle brackets would be a nice addition.

Bloody top looking unit!
Lay flat is nice but is prone to kinking, so if you are only a short distance from the water, I find the suction hose more user friendly.
Good luck on the weekend :Y:
 
Occasional_panner said:
I reckon a nice strong magnet incorporated into that unit somewhere for an open ender to adjust the leg angle brackets would be a nice addition.

Bloody top looking unit!
Lay flat is nice but is prone to kinking, so if you are only a short distance from the water, I find the suction hose more user friendly.
Good luck on the weekend :Y:

some really nice comments in here :) reminds me whay i do this thanks guys.

Mate the legs are fully adjustable in every direction accept outward, they incorporate a thumb screw for height and two adjustable bolts for positioning the camber of the legs. see below slotted range

a magnet is a great idea and it was a consideration of the original watergate design, well see if it pops up in the future :)

asembled_highbanker_bracket_grande.JPG
 

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