Dump Truck, worth it..?

[Big Mac 22]

Hey,

I've got a t3 setup at Old Arnold, using the front end loader to pretty much pick away the claim frim the front, following the bedrock down. Is it even worth buying the dump truck to load up the feeder, or just as easy to plug away with the loader..?

Thanks

[Joelle]

It is definitely worth it. I personally use my dump truck next to my excavator. I drive out to the area I'm digging, fill it up and drive it back into the conveyor belt thereafter. It seems to go much faster. I am considering a 2nd one now to be able to spend more time filling them up and then driving back thereafter, but may or may not go that route and perhaps will upgrade my T3 with some of the upgrades to the equipment instead.

You can also get the drill and see how much gold is in each area as it does make a difference. The places where the ground is lower, in the form of an old lake tend to have more gold. I have my digsite setup there and then ship the dirt back with the dump truck.

[One Of Five]

What's also nice about the truck too is you can put one load in the hopper, drive back to the loading area, fill the truck again and drive back to the plant... backing it right up against the conveyor. Then start the plant... and as the conveyor empties, dump your next load...

The dump truck is also cheaper than the frankenstien equipment... even though I can afford it, I have not found that I am far enough from the plant with my excavations that I can justify the expense.

[Big Mac 22]

Thanks for the replies. I am doing about 100-120oz per day at the minute, so only really just getting started (2 workers). I think I'll go for it and see how it works out. although I will have to upgrade # of machines on the parcel too I guess..

[Pwnocchio]

Worth it, especially the further you start digging from the feeder.

Be careful using the loader to feed your plant. There is a bug where if you dig from the bottom of the pay dirt (rather than from the top) gold is deleted. I mined seems with 700 oz of gold and only got 200oz in the clean out because I was using the Loader.

[Camzillasmom]

At the moment I actually do prefer the dump truck even to the Franks. I currently fill 5 of them before I start the plant. They don't use so much fuel and you can actually spend more time digging than refueling.
I would switch back to the Franks when the fuel bug hits me. See how it goes after the update end of month...

[will-ela]

i use both. fillig up the truck and feeding the frankenstein with it. three franks filled to capacity (including the belts) brings you around 55% in the buckets. the nice thing about it is that you keep everything turned off untill the franks are full then fire up the plant till the franks are empty and turn everything off again. saves fuel. i feed directly into the plant but still have the conveyer and feeder that i put up to 100% in case a few percent are missing to fill the buckets.

[SloJoe]

I've been trying to find someplace in the discussions about that bottom to top bug. Does it only apply to the loader, or to the excavators also? From my cleanouts it doesn't seem to apply to the big excavator, but I will do the math next time I start a new square and see.

[Welf]

Originally posted by SloJoe:

I've been trying to find someplace in the discussions about that bottom to top bug. Does it only apply to the loader, or to the excavators also? From my cleanouts it doesn't seem to apply to the big excavator, but I will do the math next time I start a new square and see.

Yeah iv post about this issues several times myself,And yeah it happens with excavators also.Just dig from the bottom of the hole you'll see how much dirt dissappears all the way up the side then watch how little it take from a upper one.If you want to test it yourself start new save file and then dig new square dig the whole area in layers one bucket depth at a time till you get to the bottom,clean the pay dirt then skip to dawn for report,record dirt moved and gold you got.Then reload save and dig the same square again they way you have been and see the differance.

Ill find one of the dicussion thread for you.

http://steamcommunity.com/app/451340/discussions/0/1698293068429459720/

read the last post by the Head Mod the dev's are aware of the issue.And are working on it.

Sorry OP didnt mean to highjack your thread just answering SloJoe's question..

[[BKM]Harry]

Front end loader takes 60 trips to fill the plant, Dump truck is 20 trips. Using the front end loader to fill the dump truck takes 4.5 bucket loads. I am not great at maths but some dirt is going missing with the dump truck.

I've not tried filling the plant with the excavator because... well i just dont think i could do it for more than 1 bucket.

But people saying the front end loader loses gold, but the dump truck loses dirt.
I dont know exactly how the wash plant mechanics work, but there are 30 missing front end loader bucket fulls.

And for the record the D-Rocker is much easier to use with the front end loader, as you dont have to lift it so high and it doesnt get stuck like the shaker.

[Welf]

Originally posted by BKMHarry:

Front end loader takes 60 trips to fill the plant, Dump truck is 20 trips. Using the front end loader to fill the dump truck takes 4.5 bucket loads. I am not great at maths but some dirt is going missing with the dump truck.

I've not tried filling the plant with the excavator because... well i just dont think i could do it for more than 1 bucket.

But people saying the front end loader loses gold, but the dump truck loses dirt.
I dont know exactly how the wash plant mechanics work, but there are 30 missing front end loader bucket fulls.

And for the record the D-Rocker is much easier to use with the front end loader, as you dont have to lift it so high and it doesnt get stuck like the shaker.

And your correct there is a diffreance in the mechanics from which piece of equipment you use vs the dirt and gold amounts for sure.
As for myself i use the excavator i dont like the loader just a preferance i guess.iv also noticed the truck takes as you pointed out 19-20 load to fill plant but for me its 16-17 at 6% per truck most likey the gold in the ground amount..Thats 9 buckets per truck = about 150 bucket to fill the plant.But when i use the franks it only takes about 120-130 bucket to fill the plant. dirt lose in trucks? must be.
Now some will say its the differance in the squares your digging and the gold in them could be iv just notice this a few days ago when i started using the truck again its been awhile.And i have not tested it with the test iv used before with redigging the same square to see the results maybe i will.But iv been tracking and watching my gold recovery vs gold in the ground for sometime now and ill bet the test will confirm a dirt loss.

[[BKM]Harry]

Gold squares make no difference to filling the plant... Try using the dump truck to dump in the conveyor... then go put it around the corner of the D rocker where the rocks shoot out and it will fill your dump truck, then put that into the conveyor and keep doing it and watch the plant percentages go up... you do not get any more gold you just using up the plant.

I have a theory that the plant works on a processing time frame, where using the dump truck theoretically utilises less of this time to process the equivalent amount if it were say loaded with a frank or front end loader.

A test could confirm this. buy 4 front end loaders and load them with paydirt. save and reload then processes the 4 buckets. and tally the gold. then reload and put those 4 buckets into the dump truck and proccess it. tally the gold.

Maybe its the conveyor thats causing a higher efficiency of the plant being able to process 50% more dirt in a single run.

Has anyone tried filling the plant using the frank to the conveyor rather than to the shaker? do the numbers change for that?

Originally posted by Mr.Mud:

And your correct there is a diffreance in the mechanics from which piece of equipment you use vs the dirt and gold amounts for sure.
As for myself i use the excavator i dont like the loader just a preferance i guess.iv also noticed the truck takes as you pointed out 19-20 load to fill plant but for me its 16-17 at 6% per truck most likey the gold in the ground amount..

The dump truck does ~5.3% per load and the number rounds at the buckets. you think you are seeing 6% but I dont think it is.

[will-ela]

Originally posted by BKMHarry:

Has anyone tried filling the plant using the frank to the conveyor rather than to the shaker? do the numbers change for that?

.

i run rivertown that way. have to check it out

[Big Mac 22]

WOW were you guys right!

After using the front end loader (bottom up digging), I was getting around 100-120 ounces per cleanup. On similar ground, using the excavator to load the dump truck, I cleared 230 ounces! Almost double. No doubt you lose dirt/gold when you use the front end loader!

[aviationatwar]

I found the loader clumsy to try to operate but gave it a chance for one cleanup. I was skeptical of the gold amount because I knew what that area was paying with an excavator, and I didn't trust the way it was interacting with the dirt. I'll stick with the excavator.