Dozer on the show Gold Rush Alaska

[caver]

Anyone see this episode Friday on Discovery? Bunch of novices doing modern day gold prospecting. It was an abandoned Cat they started after sitting for several ? years. I found this a bit hard to believe. It was hard to believe someone left that machine up there.

 

[DANOCHEESE]

I can see soemone leaving it. Startign that easy with a jump from a pickup Don;t think so. I think this show is going to turn into a DRAMA.

 

[BruceWard]

Personally I thought the bear hunt was more rediculous. Why would you waste your time and only bear tag on hunting a black bear when you have bears coming into your camp.

 

[ultrarunner]

Neighbors brother worked on the pipeline and said a lot of equipment was abandoned or left for scavengers...

Maybe in a cold climate the diesel didn't support algae growth and all they really needed to do was jump it with starting fluid...

Mine sat 11 months once when I was overseas and started without having to charge or jump the battery.

 

[JoeinTX]

Been watching this show and I think their claim is leased rather than purchased. That being the case, I can see the owner leaving equipment there if it hasn't been needed elsewhere so I don't believe it was abandoned (as the narrator seemed to indicate) so much as simply not moved recently for other use. I got the idea the owner probably told them they could use whatever was on-site as part of the agreement. That's also why, considering Alaska's winters, the rig started with relatively little effort......it's had some attention and maintenance done on it somewhat recently.

OT, but this show in general is something else. I've enjoyed watching it so far but I can't get past the first episode. All of these guys are moping around, living with their in-laws, talking about how bad it is and saying going to Alaska to find gold is their "last hope"............but dear Lord in the Sky how much money did they (or somebody) spend on equipment and guns and transportation???? I heard mention of between $150-$300k spent just to provision and move the whole outfit to Alaska. That's a lot of biscuits and mortgage payments. Is Discovery footing the bill?

That's somewhere between $25-50k per family involved in this expedition before anything got dug out of the ground.

 

[caver]

Sort of what I was thinking JoeinTX. The owner probably said they could use it and had someone doing minimal maintenance on it.

The neighbor had some serious pans of nuggets.
Or was that staged too.

Mods, I put this in Construction since it was about the dozer that had sat for a long period of time in Alaska

 

[DANOCHEESE]

How about when thye went and bought the shaker box and the guy settled for half the money. I think the camera man was waiving cash at him.

The bear shooting was odd. Spring bear don;t taste that good. The preacher is building a house he jsut came along for the ride and the families will show up and the drama will continue they need the massie brothers

 

[dfkrug]

Is Discovery footing the bill?

I watched it, and I will admit when cornered that I have watched some
other "reality" shows, too.

What if it went like this: some guys in OR pitched this show to some
producer, and they ended up paying for it. $300K or $400K can't be
much of the budget for a show like this, no?

(What about those 2 cool excavators? Did they buy them and ship from
Oregon, too?)

 

[EddieWalker]

To call them fools seems like an insult to fools everywhere. Why bring little kids? Why buy a lease that everyone before them has failed at and they don't know what they are doing? Either it's all scripted and they are getting paid no matter the results, and it's not their money that they are throwing away, or they are so stupid as to spend a ton of cash on a huge gamble on somehting that they have never done, in a place they don't know.

While I was impressed that they got the dozer started, especially with a 12 volt battery on a 24 volt diesel engine, what really had my scratching my head was the blade change. At first it was a six way, finish blade. Then it had a straight blade on it. Obviously there was two dozers there, I'm just not sure why they pretended there was just one. I also can't figure out why they have to excavators. That's a heck of a lot of money to spend on machines when the big one will do anything the smaller one will do.

I agree that it's going to ba all about the drama and getting mad at each other. I can't imagine this turning out well for them.

Eddie

 

[beenthere]

Just your (our) typical run of the mill reality show. Best to enjoy the scenery and leave the sound off.
Same as the Axe men, and a gazillion others that wannabe reality....with a producer, a director, numerous retakes, setting the stage for the "accidents", and on and on infinitum.

But some watch and like the afternoon soap operas, get highly involved in who is acting up, needs to be fired, is aggravating, etc.

It's entertainment for some. I enjoy the scenery if I watch at all. Sound off tho.