Gold Rush

[Maffume]

So a question.

Annoying programme more often than not and I know that most of them are terrible ops etc.
However my question doesn't totally relate to that specifically but the program makes me think about this every time I see it.
Why do they not use a scraper for such a purpose.
Surely picking up the yardage and stockpiling in a fashion which could be compiled is their game.
Are they used similarly in the mining industry in general in this fashion?

For what it's worth, I work in construction but I am not a plant op.

Just wanted to clear this up in my mind and felt asking on here would help me find more information and opinions.


Thanks.

Matt.

 

[FleetEng]

Tony beets has used a scraper box in previous seasons

 

[TiltyShaun]

I just loved it for the entertainment value!

 

[Maffume]

Tony beets has used a scraper box in previous seasons

I must have missed that.
All I hear Tony go on about is getting Dredge No.2 now for the last three series.
That and his money from Parker.

 

[powercom]

I cant watch it i'm Afraid I have tried and quite like Tony, parker and his old grandpa when he was on, but the rest are idiots and the arguments and bickering are more than i can handle

 

[Gez_lewis]

I'll watch it if its on and nothing else jumps out at me,
Tony seems a shrewd bloke done well for himself

 

[pettsy]

Watched a couple of series when I could watch via amazon fire stick/kodi. Lots of staged drama shortly before add breaks which I found annoying.

 

[BertB.]

So a question.

Annoying programme more often than not and I know that most of them are terrible ops etc.
However my question doesn't totally relate to that specifically but the program makes me think about this every time I see it.
Why do they not use a scraper for such a purpose.
Surely picking up the yardage and stockpiling in a fashion which could be compiled is their game.
Are they used similarly in the mining industry in general in this fashion?

For what it's worth, I work in construction but I am not a plant op.

Just wanted to clear this up in my mind and felt asking on here would help me find more information and opinions.


Thanks.

Matt.

In real mining the biggest scrapers you can get are Cat 657 twin engine scrapers I can't remember the tonnage they haul but its generally too small for most open pit and strip mining operations. They usually shine in places like stripping topsoil and subsoil and in the reclamation process afterwards depending on the operation too. In Western Canada and much of the U.S. they are used at coal strip mining operations for stripping the topsoil and subsoil and of course the reclamation process. However most open pit mines won't use them except at the beginning stages provided they aren't working in rock right off the bat but for the most part places like the Diamond mines in Northern Canada that's all rock from the beginning to the end, in the oil sands operations they are dealing with very wet ground like a peat bog when they start stripping which is the worst enemy of a scraper and the technique used to strip the muskeg and later the overburden doesn't work for a scraper. I'm not sure if a scraper would work in that coarse gravel in the Yukon Territory I think if it did you would see more people using them they are also very hard on fuel which would make an operation like that very expensive to run. And in a proper mining operation the ore is usually dumped right in to the crusher and processed immediately so I can sympathize keeping some stockpiled and then loading in to a hopper but constantly rehandling is like throwing fuel, grease, and wages out the door for no reason.

 

[Hydremaduck]

Why do they not use a scraper for such a purpose.
Surely picking up the yardage and stockpiling in a fashion..............

I'd say, first and foremost, they don't have the operators to run them.

We all know (especially those who are not operators ) anybody can drive a digger or ADT, jeez, I've even seen some truck drivers load themselves it's that easy
All of which we know is complete bollocks but hay, ho

I'm pretty sure that he right men could make scrapers work in some of the process and be very productive at it BUT whether the costs involved in getting the kit and right men there to work for the window they could operate in, is another question all together.

 

[Mark]

My thoughts is to why aren’t they using bigger trucks than a40’s. Once the vegetation is stripped off and there down to the hard surely it would be more profitable to run cat 775 or 777 size trucks. One truck doing the job of two a40’s, would be less fuel burn. Granted the a40’s are 6x6 drive and the larger cat trucks are only 4x2 drive.

 

[Shovelhands]

I used to watch a few shows like that, Gold Rush, Ice Road Truckers etc. Just got bored of the ‘drama’ that the production company insists on making a large part of the show!
Tbh I don’t think those shows are aimed at people like us at all, we’d be more than happy to follow Clint Eastruck for a week, see him pick up his loads from various places, see the kit they use etc. You get the idea, real stuff, no drama, unless it actually happens! Which it will, it does, we know that, we’d watch the ‘real’ drama with a tear in our eye and have plenty of sympathy for the poor fellow who’s just had a wheel come off the wagon ect. BUT these shows are not for us! They are for the general public, who think the ‘drama’ of it all is real, they don’t see the errors in the editing, the repeated shots of something going wrong, or the director making a mountain out of a molehill! “If Cody doesn’t get his truck free, he will be dead by 2am! And he will loose his job!” Etc etc

Best one I think, was Swamp Loggers, there seemed less made up drama in it, things went wrong, as they would, you saw how they got out the muddles they were in, and it was genuinely interesting. It didn’t stop the production and editing trying to make more of the drama than is necessary, which I believe is why they stopped making the show? The owner of the company, iirc Bobby Goodson, refused to make things go wrong and create drama for the camera, good for him I say! Can’t recall where I heard that, possibly the old forum, when this subject came up on there, don’t remember who it was though?

Outback Truckers was good too, I think it ended up with more drama than necessary, but a few of those truckers were legends, Steve Graham was one, the places he went and the scrapes he got into were always interesting and I certainly respected that guy and what he had to go through on a daily basis. Several other good characters on there too, some lemons, but that’s just life!

 

[Maffume]

From that perspective your right, they are all massively dramatised and annoyingly the keep dragging the idiots along with them for too long just for the laughs really but I find that annoying, like Steve from Bering Sea Gold, or whatever that is called now.