Randy's Gold Cube "Topper" Equipment Report

[C-17A]

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!!!

[russau]

Super report Randy!

[C-17A]

Russ,

Thanks............just trying to get the word out there for others...........good or bad............to help them make a better buying decision.

For fine gold, this Gold Cube & Topper unit is the best I have ever found... We just don;t have many nuggets/pickers in Colorado, but fine gold, flood gold we do. This setup gets it!

I wished I'd had the camera with me, so I could have taken some "on location" pics to show the setup, river, ice, snow and such... My wife had the camera with her skiing up at Monarch ski resort that day.

She says I am crazy...........yeah, probably am.

Randy "C-17A"

[golden optimist]

Thats some pretty looking Colorado gold! It looks like maybe Russ and I might need to move over to one. We might be able to handle moving one of them around.

Leonard

[russau]

Leonard,ive been thinking of it!

[dickb]

Hi GO:

Might be tough to use it in Left Hand CN, but it might work real well in WY, if the overburden isn't too deep.

It doesn't weigh very much or take up a lot of room.

Dickb

[golden optimist]

I think the best place is on the Arkansas where he's using it. I just happen to know someone with access to a couple of miles of the arkansas. All of it has as good if not better gold than what he's finding.
Leonard

[C-17A]

Leonard, Russ,

Have only had the Cube w/Topper out once, and only for about 2 hrs so far.... Love it. Everything was freezing up, had to keep the pump running and go as fast as I could...

I could only scrap the top 1 to maybe 3 inches of sandy/gravely material off the surface, as everything was frozen like concrete below. I wished I could have found those layers of coarse black sand vs. the finer, grayer black sand, as the coarse stuff seems to have more flood gold in it, but just to frozen. I felt I did good just scraping up what I could.

This thing seems to do a great job separating fine gold from black sand, soooooo if you have access to a couple miles of Arkansas river that's better, I say get one w/Topper and go for the gold!

It's not all that "big" in size or weight, but you do have to make several trips up/back from parking. I ended up making 4 trips --one to carry the car battery, one for the 3-stack, one for the frame/pump/buckets and a last one for the shovel/misc. Not complex to setup, easy to break down. WAY lighter than muscling around even a 2 1/2 inch suction dredge together or in parts & then assemble/disassemble on site, especially if you are by yourself.

The best part of the Topper so far is you get to work standing UP most of the time. No more on your knees diggin' & classifying bucket after bucket. With the bigger 2,000GPH pump and more hose you can be up to 15 feet away from the water on site. That's my next goal/purchases.....don;t even want to have to fill & carry 2 1/2 gal pails any longer...

Will be glad to show you my "Cube" whenever you and/or the gang come out to BV!

Thanks again!

Randy "C-17A"

[russau]

thats a great offer Randy! im looking forward to it!

[COArgonaut]

Hmmm.....so I how do I hook the dredge up to it?
It just might fit in the highbanker for a dredge combo.
hmmmmmm

ed