Greetings Gold Dredgers,
O.K., O.K., I took my Gold Cube & brand new "Topper" unit out to the Arkansas River for a 1st run/use recently, despite the below freezing temps, ice, snow flurries, and limited time, before the real snow hit......last night...
...............and I can say it's a 110% winner! Mike & Red have sure done a great job 1 upping the Gold Cube with this add-on highbanking "Topper" unit!
Sadly, I forgot to take my 2 Gold Cube stand extensions, left them on the shelf in the garage, so I had to improvise in the field, by making the standard length work, with the help of a rock at first, then the weight of the gravel/rocks that built up on the lower end to hold the Topper solidly in place.
So, for 2+15 hrs of running, I did my best to scrape & dig and scoop the available unfrozen gravels & sand thru my Gold Cube Topper unit...basically the top 1 to maybe 3 inches of sand/gravels behind some big rocks and a little gravel bar at the edge of the bank.
As the time went on, and more ice was forming on the pump, Cube and such, I left the water pump running for the last 45 minutes vs. start/stop with each pail of material.....didn't want the 2 trays to freeze over solid.
After 2+ 15 of hard fun, I simply had to stop........to cold, & too little available gravel left to run. Winter in effect...
Broke it all down, took it home in pieces, went home, did a clean up in my garage & panned all my cons....
I got some great Colorado flood gold, given the harsh conditions & available material. I was able to really reduce my work effort, run more, sweat & work less!
NO doubt this Topper is a huge winner. Will use it every chance I get in the future! I was soooo easy to simply dig & shovel with a No 2 shovel into a 2 1/2 gal pail, and then run it. The Topper worked fast & efficiently. I'd scoop the firsh half of the material out of the bucket, load it under the spray bar, wash it around a little and scrape it off. Once my pail got half empty, I just picked it up and dumped it directly onto the spray bar & let the water stream do its work. Even faster than scooping. Next will be to get a 2,000 GPH pump & longer hose to work right on site, where I am diggin' and shovel directly onto the Topper & save even more time/effort & run more material.
Oh, the one caution I have on the Cube is running material with any amount of organic material in it..........like grass, leaves, roots, pine needles, etc., as the Vortex matting tends to grab & hold this stuff, clogging it up & slowing the water flow. So, you really need to run clean material. BUT, with the Topper unit, I was running a lot of material scraped off the surface of the river bed that had a LOT of pine needles in it. I found that 99% of the needles stayed on the screen & went over the end, not thru the unit, so I could wash the good stuff out of the material & not avoid it. Just one more thing to like about the Topper...
At home I was happy to see all the little flakes & fines caught in the 2 "nugget" traps, in the black sand, even before it got into the Cube proper
Show me the gold: I ended up getting 11.5 grains or .75 grams of nice Colorado flood gold in 2+ 15 hrs of "hard fun". That's really good given the conditions & available material in my book!
Yep, I am a 110% fan of the Topper. Will work to get a bigger water pump & longer hose to let me highbank at my dig location, saving me even more time, effort, energy!
Here's the fine gold I got for the time I spent:
Since it was so cold & the Topper base/screen was basically frozen together, I didn't risk damage to it to remove the screen and clean out the rocks that stuck in the 3/8th screen, that built up over time. Really, it just didn't matter. There are soooooo many holes, the sand/dirt/gold all washed thru w/o a problem, and normally in the first 10 inches below the spray bar. In warmer weather it would be a snap to stop, pull out the screen, rake the rocks off/out, and get running again. Pics here:
Anyways, if you have a Cube and you are even remotely thinking about turning your Cube into a streamside gold production unit, DEFINITELY spend the $ and get the Topper. You'll be VERY glad you did. The Cube isn't just for garage use any more running cons from some other piece of equipment -- it's now both -- a cleanup tool & a production device!
Simply can't wait to get back out and run it again...
Cheers,
Randy "C-17A" http://www.goldadventures.biz
P.S. Many, MANY thanks to Leonard, John, Rick, Ed for letting me play on several of their claims here close to my house!!!