Ya! What's the deal? Anyone know "Jobe" v.s. "Keene" v.s. "Royal" i.e.??? No sales reps please. Durability, hinges, metal gauge. Big THANKS for any experience regarding this. OR is a 2-3' model really the only way to go.

I have a Jobe folding stream sluice, best thing I can say about it is that it folds and fits into a five gallon bucket. While its weight is slightly more than expected, its good for packing in, great for storage, and vehicle transport. Durable enough, works on par as far as recovery is concerned. While it never folded and pinched my fingers this sluice uses wing nuts to tighten bolts in the bottom of the sluice to hold the pieces straight, they can be a little difficult to hand tighten enough to keep all of the curve out when you set it in the stream. Came with 2 steel riffles, 2 pieces of expanded metal, and two sections of ribbed carpet. Has v mat applied to the top section before the riffles. The folding sluice requires a modular approach to the riffles, due to its folding. This provides an unexpected benefit, I can run one, both sets, no riffles or just the expanded and carpet, or half riffles and half expanded depending on water flow, and alternate top and bottom.

Thanks for the feedback Ken.

I have a Royal Folder.
I swapped out the all the riffles and expanded metal and miners moss with Gold Hog matting.
The times I have used it out in the field, it has done well and captured the gold.
It did not fold up on my unintentionally at all, and was standard set-up with a sluice that size.

As far as loosing gold at the hinge points/overlaps.....who knows.
But for me that minimal amount - if any - I do not loose sleep over.

This unit is now used as a recirculating system at home.
I was a Bazooka Sniper in the field now.

Hope this helps.

G

I see keene has a new metal folding sluice out.

I have the Jobe. I could never get it tuned properly or straight in the stream. Always looked like a W. The flare would bend down into the water. The wingnuts, being in the current flow, disrupted it. The water always shot up from the first riffle to the third. I have since popped out the screws for the wingnuts, taped the 2 for the riffles and flipped the 2 at the joints, swapped matting, riffles and expanded metal for Gold Hog matting and bought a stand. Now it works well.

The Keene worked for me just as good as my one piece Jobe. I do have to sometimes work a bit harder to get it set straight because the joints make it appear curved. Also, I put the wingnuts on the outside to keep them out of the way of the water flow.

     I also have the Jobe Folding Sluice box. The first modifications were drilling holes on the sides and adding bolts when it's open. I never heard of them collapsing but they sag like a happy face.

   The other major problem is...You need to classify to 1/4" because...When it loads up with 1/2" rocks, the riffles stay loaded up...So people run them too fast which loses the Gold. So slow it down until it slowly moves the material.

   About the rooster tails...I set the wing nuts straight with the flow.

   Like others said, I like it because it fits in a back pack, but it's heavy. Everyone else I know uses the light weight green le trap box.

I have a Royal and I do like the portability. I have never had any problem with sagging or folding. The wingnuts seem to fit tightly and hold everything together nicely. I agree that putting the wingnuts on the outside helps. I, too, noticed the rooster tail from the first to the third riffle. I recently read an article in an old prospecting magazine that said this means you do not have enough water flowing through your sluice. Not water speed, but water depth. The water flowing through the sluice should be deep enough that it runs fairly evenly over the riffles. Then adjust angle or speed (using a wing dam, etc.) to get your flow set right. I will be trying it out on Friday to see if I have better results. Hope this helps.

I've got a royal and I've never had any issues with it sagging or wanting to fold while in use. I've also set it up as a recirculator at home and it works good. I bought the stand for deeper water and that works Good too. I'm going to replace the riffles and mats with gold hog mats. Love the portability.

I have a royal 50" and I've not had any issues with it trying to fold up while using it. It is catching fine gold but I'm not sure about the carpet. I'm considering replacing it with rubber matting similar to piece already in the top and running riffles too. Anyone done this?

Update: I installed deep v Matt and still used expanded metal and riffles. Increased the amount of cons but mainly black sand. Same amount of gold but a few larger flakes

Anyone tried using the Gold Owl mat system in a fold-up? I am thinking of getting a folding sluice (I currently use a small GoldCroc from Oz) and am thinking about the setup. Thanks in advance for any advice.

Garrick,

Did you leave the GH Matting modular or did you glue/tape it all together and just let it bend when folded?
Did you use their V-Mat or did you use another model matting, like their Motherload, UR or Talon mats?
I've been looking for a reliable folding sluice but was wanting to use matting instead of riffles, x-metal and moss. Thanks for the info Garrick, and other for their point of views. With limited funds, I am not looking to have a "collection" of sluice's by years end lol

(sorry for the late response, I'm new to the forum and GPAA)