Goldseeker5000

Nice to hear from you Justin, the pick is working out very well. Very nice weight, well balanced, diggs like a badger. Down the road here come summer, I will be getting back ahold of you to purchase another walco for a backup. Do they make them with a longer handle? I think mine is a 28" or 29". The solid swinger handle is amazing to swing with.

RVPopeye, if you are able to get an ICECO, then I would highly recommend it. I have been running mine 24/7 for a month, driving over rough roads and through washes, never a problem. These things were built for our kind of use. My Jackery will be at 100% charge when I hit the sack and when I wake up it will typically be down to 73%-80% charge left. By 3:00 pm it will be back up to 100% capacity.

I will be swinging the 5000 for the next week straight with the nf 25" ddx

Sounds like a challenge. Come on Gerry you can do it. Nice gold with the Gold Strike by the way.

Gotta have your bases covered. Right?!

For sure phrunt.😁

It is nice waking up to views of the West Rim of the Grand Canyon each morning.

More photos. 8 nuggets so far for a total of 1.5 g.

More photos

Since I am now a snowbird full time and will be living out of my 1995 4 cylinder Tacoma, I had to get creative to deal with everything from foul, rainy weather, wind, cooking, computer work station for editing my YouTube videos, sleeping, storing food for weeks, even months on end, showering, accessing my detecting gear, powering my ICECO 60Ltr. Fridge/Freezer, batteries for everything from detector, phone, computer, power tools and anything else I get that consumes power, my bases are covered. I utilized a ladder rack and added 1x8 and 1x3 boards to the sides, and then outfitted the top with a 4x7 ft sheet of 5/8" plywood. I then stained it with solid base olive drab stain. Next came taking a large military canvas tarp, cutting it down to four sections according to the measurements of each side inside the truck bed. I then got some 1"x 1.5" boards and fitted them to the top edges, folded the boards over the canvas and screwed them in place. Everything is a tight fit and the canvas is sandwiched between the interior boards and the exterior boards. The bottom edge is long enough to hang over the top edge of the truck bed when I am at camp. They will be tucked inside when driving, unless it is raining to shed water outside the truck bed. I have a tie down screwed down to the ceiling to hang a lantern for light and heat. On the driver's side I added three vertical boards to the exterior horizontal boards and put hinges on them to attach a counter top to accommodate my camp stove as well as space to work at the computer. My inspiration for this was a dream I had about a fold down bed attached to the ladder rack and it evolved into the work counter. I hang my solar panels from the passenger side upside down to angle them up to receive the sun better. I still may add the fold down outside bed platform if I can think of a way to still accommodate the solar panels. Well I just now figured it out so that will be a upcoming project. I keep my Jackery Explorer 1000 solar bank locked inside with heavy chains and paddle locks and my fridge is locked to the truck bed in the same manner. I am never out of sight of my truck and if I ever do, then I employ my 5th Ops perimeter trip alarm. Booby trapping the truck with Carolina Reaper pepper powder when it is detonated by would be theives. I have back ups for back ups living this way. That's how I roll. Hope y'all enjoy this creative setup and get some ideas to make your rigs better outfitted, if you don't have a camper. This enables me to get to very remote areas and enjoy creature comforts for long periods of time.

Question for Rob, Chris or Steve. Do any of you know why Fisher's Gold Strike never took off and became popular? I got to test one out several years back and it seemed to be a worthy gold machine.

You might look into frog togs. Very light weight, very breathable and effective at keeping you dry. Range of motion is excellent. You can probably get anywhere from half a season to two seasons out of a set if you use knee pads. They aren't really durable but they are cheap and unbeatable for keeping you dry. You can get a top and pants set for around $40-60 dollars. I wish I had them when I was in the Klamath river region detecting years ago. That place is always wet or at very least damp. It is all I use now for rain/wind protection.

If you don't play with the settings with your detector at every place you detect and see what happens and what is best for each place then you will never really learn your detector. It is so irritating when people give settings for huge regions or states and it is irritating when people buy in to their inexperience. Play with all controls and settings, it is the only way to get the most out of your detector.

The Jackery 1000 with 2 100w solar panels will run all what I have to charge. It has 3 ac ports, 3 or 4 USB ports, a 12v port and a USB quick charge port.

Well said Jerry. This Friday marks the first day of living out of my Tacoma full time traveling back and forth from Montana/Idaho to NV/AZ hunting gold and filming life living Overland style. I no longer have the drive to stay on the rat wheel and paying rent and keeping up with bills that come with a permanent roof over your head. I've always been in situations of wanting to be camped up in the mountains longer and longer periods of time, so now going full time overlanding hunting gold feels like I am coming home to what and where I was always ment to be and doing. All these ideas we all share on here make our stints out hunting gold more enjoyable for all with mobile versions of permanent creature comforts. Let the wandering begin. Reminds me of Robert Service's poem "The Prospector" - From the Tundras of the north to the Mesas of the south....

I've decided I am getting a Jackery 1000 with the solar panels. It will be the best method for me to charge my detector batteries. I'll be able to run my ICECO VL60 fridge/freezer 24/7 plus charge three batteries at the same time and never have to pay for power again.

I'm not sure yet. I will be calling them tomorrow and asking these questions and more. I have a 95 Taco

I have been curious about this myself. My Tacoma won't charge from the cigarette lighter socket without the truck running as well. I am trying to figure out if I should get a gas generator or a gas/propane generator or a solar generator. I am leaning away from the solar an more towards a regular generator with one or two deep cycle batteries as I will need to charge three detectors, GoPro/Canon batteries, computer, 2 phones, and a portable dual zone fridge/freezer. I will be living out of my Tacoma all this winter and next spring and Summer. I am not savy to all this electrical/ power consumption stuff. I am looking at two thousand watt generator. I want to get away from running my Tacoma in order to charge my detectors.

Valens L, is yours pretty quiet? Do you have a test nugget to test it on? Or a lead sinker. If it is overly quiet after noise cancel and ground balanced and not registering target tones then it has a problem. That is what mine did.

I did have suspicion about the 6000 back in Jan thereabouts based upon issues I have heard about with the 7000. Overall the 7000 has proven to be a great detector. Heavy, limited-expensive coils, but it did have issues with some units, more often than I care to hear about. When I heard early on what the 6 can do, I thought I should give it a chance. What I was again of happening, happened with the detector I received. I am looking forward to swinging it and seeing for myself, it's strengths.

Gerry, there is nothing funny about people on here getting defective products. Sure the 6000 has advantages, and I will appreciate those advantages in a couple weeks. Remember the detector and coil sales I sent your way. I am still waiting for the $100 credit you promised in 2018. How much is the 17" coil? Surely you would apply that credit to that coil. Right?

So some of you know that my 6000 arrived defective right out of the box and that I sent it back to be replaced the morning after I got it. Well the new replacement arrived yesterday and the detector works as I assume it should. Well, at least it will sound off on a nugget, so I assume it is working properly. I have the 14" DD on to test that out. When I picked up the 11" to pull it out of it's plastic bag, I noticed something odd on the top of the coil. There was a crescent shaped crack in the coil. What in the world is going on with Minelab and their quality control.?!! People spend thousands upon thousands of dollars on their detectors, you would think they would be more strict and precise with their quality control procedures. I sent the 11" coil back to be replaced, this morning at 9 am. It is possible it could have happened in shipping, however the inner box and shipping box were in great condition. No smashed areas anywhere on the boxes. Anyone else want to chime in about their particular Minelab detector defect. If Minelab is reading this, you have alot of people out there spending alot of money on your detectors because they are the best-Hands down, but it seems like since the sdc2300 came out the quality control is going down hill. I understand some defects can get by or crop up over a little bit of use, but this is not good.

This is red Jasper

My 6 will be here this coming Wednesday. They made sure it is working properly before they sent it to me. The Detector Center are good folks.

It's entirely possible something is wrong with it. Mine was defective right out of the box. Sent it back the next morning after it arrived. I was told they have some new ones in box's they would send one back to me now they don't have any left due to defective ones coming in. Now they are telling me they will get my replacement sent out as soon as more come in. Who knows when that will be, a few days, weeks or months. Especially with how things are going with shipping.