Hoffman Family Gold (2022–…): Season 1, Episode 9 - Big Risk, Big Reward - full transcript

That thing
is gonna freeze up.

Time is running out...

- How long?
- Half hour.

Ten minutes.

Right now,
we're at the home stretch,

trying to keep things moving.

on the roughest
mine in Alaska.

This equipment
is a disaster.

- How bad is it, man?
- That's not good.

After a breakthrough
gold yield...

What do we got?



... the Hoffman's
have finally found

the mother lode.

- Holy cow.
- Fifty-four.

Oh, my gosh.

About $89,000.

Jeez, man.

But with winter

crashing down on them...

Everything is frozen.

That's a sign of winter.

... they'll need to
revive their biggest plant.

With the Big Trommel down,

that's half
our production gone.

You gotta get that
thing running.



- Right. Right.
- This breaks us through.

To get
to the $1,000,000 benchmark,

they've got one week...

- Shut it down.
- Whoa, whoa, whoa.

Both rock trucks are down

so we're not hauling any
pay to the plant.

It's gonna keep on breaking.

...and one challenge...

I'm welding on top of weld.

... after another.

This plant might
be done for the season.

Whoa, dude.
What the heck?

That's good.

Gotta have some heat.

See that whole pond is frozen.

The pond is frozen.

We're freezing.

My hands are frozen.

Fire.

During the morning hot swap,

when the day shift comes in
to relieve the night shift,

a delayed refueling
causes the plant to freeze.

How do they feel, Mike?

Still froze?

Oh, yeah.

Damn it.

As the cold is getting worse,

you gotta make sure
you're constantly

greasing your equipment.

We're just in here trying
to thaw this box out.

We got space heaters going,

weed burners on, so...

it's gonna take some effort.

The team has been
able to thaw Z Plant before,

but they have to work quickly,

especially in these
brutal temperatures.

This isn't
a good thing.

Sparky has gotta get
that thing done.

What could
previously be accomplished

with one man
and a welding rod,

now needs a team
armed with torches

and multiple heaters.

Everything is good
and hotter,

we could barely even open
the caps to these

heaters right here
just to heat up the box.

We got one heater working

but the other heater
is not firing up.

I think this season
is coming to an end
pretty soon.

So what do you think
about today?

I have a feeling more stuff

is gonna break down, my man.

I feel the same way.

I think this is about it, man.

I don't think it's gonna get
any better from here.

So what's the move now?
Are you guys running or what?

We gotta get some pay stacked.

Yeah, we need pay pay.

Is Chris loading pay
over there?

He's waiting on it.

With both
the Z Plant

and the Test Plant
running night and day,

the mine is running short
on the manpower necessary

to run enough pay dirt
to the plants,

leaving Chris high and dry
on top of his pay pile.

We just got done
thawing out the box.

Everything is looking great.

But, unfortunately,
we don't have pay here to run.

We already have
everything thawed.

It might just freeze up again.

And then there goes our hour
of trying to thaw the box.

Hey, Dakota.

If you want to bring
that load over here,

we can shovel
a couple of loads real quick

and then you all
can fire it up.

I'm just gonna run it slow
until we get to something.

Okay.

Sounds good. We'll do that.

Just keep thawing it out,

and then I'm gonna get
in the loader and start

bringing some pay
so we can get started
here soon.

- Let's do it.
- Let's go, dude.

We only have a week left
in the season

and we still need
47 ounces to reach our goal.

With two plants running 24/7,

we're burning the candle
on both ends.

We need some help.

So I put out the call

to see if anybody was crazy
enough to come

all the way up here
and give us a hand,

and sure enough
somebody bit on that.

That's Chuck Feldhacker.

He's from my hometown.

Chuck has done a little
bit of everything.

He's ran trucks,
he's ran heavy equipment,

and he just can thrive
in any environment.

I sent Jack and Thurber
to go Nome,

down to the airport
to pick up Chuck.

He wanted to come up.

So talked to him and I...

Said he wants to come up
and mine basically or just...

Yeah, yeah, yeah. He just...

He wants to learn it at least.

You know, some of it.

Nobody's ever done
learning here I think, so...

No, when you quit learning,
you're dead.

Yeah. And it's a whole
a lot easier

with a guy that's not done it
than a guy that

thinks he knows it all,
you know?

We've had that happen.

Yes to that.

The more help, the better.

Strong back, weak mind.

We possess program, I think.

I go out. At least, I do.

He... He's needed
running equipment.

Well, good. We need the help.

Oh, there's a moose.

Yup. There he is.

That's a nice one.

Back at the mine,

the crew has Z Plant
thawed, fueled,

and ready for fresh pay.

Yeah, let's roll boys.

We got this plant
up and running.

It's time to make some gold.
You know what time it is.

It's gold time, baby.
Gold time, baby.

I guess what's next
is we'll go hit the bypass,

turn the shaker deck on,
and we drop a bucket of pay.

All right. Let's do it.

Let's get this going.

That water's clean.
Everything is working, man.

- Nice work.
- Yeah. That's it, baby.

Good job, dude.

The battle against
Mother Nature,

we manage to pull out
a win this morning.

Now we're processing gold.

Yeah.

It might be
our last run.

This is kind of sad.

Yeah,
but we sure did run far.

Yeah. Bittersweet moment.

I'm Chuck Feldhacker.

I've come from Sandy, Oregon.

Just got off the plane.

I'm waiting here in the field

for Jack and Thurber.

When this opportunity came up,
I couldn't say no.

It's an adventure
of a lifetime.

I've done a little prospecting
but I've never
mined like this.

This is like a dream come
true to come up here.

There he is.
There's old Chuck.

- Yay.
- Hey.

We made it.

- You made it.
- We made it. Yay.

- Woo, woo, woo.
- Oh, man.

You made it.
You're crazy to fly

in one of those little planes.

Gotta do what I gotta do.

Just throw it in
where it can't fall out.

- That's it.
- If you lose it,

Jack's got
extra underwear and stuff.

Yeah.
Don't worry about that.

All right.

Man, I'm so glad to be here.

Well, so are we.

- All right.
- Here we go.

Sure glad you guys found me
out in this little airport.

Chuck it's easy.
It's the only airport.

Yeah.

Gold mining
in this cold
weather is near impossible.

I will say it's nice to climb
up into this heated cab

and listen to my tunes and get
to be out of the elements.

We got this thing freaking up.
It's just a headache.

We've already had to deal
with that a couple times.

After the frozen morning,

Z Plant is operating well,

moving around 60 yards
of pay per hour.

The Test Plant is running
at its usual
30 yards per hour.

Meanwhile,
the highest yardage plant,

the Hot Mess, hasn't run
since the season's
first freeze.

Whoa.

Shut it down.

It sounds rough.

All the materials come
into one side of the shaker.

Yeah.

It still kind of evened out
when it's not loaded down,

but once you got it
loaded down,

it's all coming to this side.

Nick and Dakota
noticed that material

appears to be crowding
onto one side

of the shaker deck.

With Z Plant down for
the second time this morning,

Sparky is called in
to check it out.

I'm only
assuming what
could be the problem.

There's a structural piping
that goes from this side plate

all the way to this side plate

that holds the whole
screen deck.

There's three of them
parallel to each other.

And our issue here is that
this side plate right here

has completely cracked away.

There's nothing that we can
repair to make
any change to it.

It's gonna keep on breaking.

I'm welding on top of welds

and...

this plant might be done
for the season.

My dad's coming down
right now.

Mike thinks the bars

that are underneath the shaker
broke again.

But this time it's worse.

The violently
bouncing shaker deck

is braced by structural piping
that attaches to side plates,

but the side plates have now
disintegrated beyond repair

and nothing can prevent the
shaker screens
from collapsing.

Now, we can take off
the screens of you'd like,

but I'm gonna be fair
with you, man,

it's probably not even
gonna last for a day

if I were to weld
'cause I cannot even reach

the part of that pipe.

Even with the screens out?

Even with the screens out,

like it wouldn't last a day.

This is... This is so gone.

I think what
we should do for now

is take... Go down
to the Big Trommel,

hook everything back up.

- It's all drained.
- Yeah.

It's got fresh
carpets on, right?

Yeah.

We need to pull that suction

and reset the suction
sitting in mud.

We'll haul some pay down there

and we'll get it ready
for tomorrow.

We only got four hours
of daylight left

and it's gonna take much
screwing around

to get this ready
and I got no pay down there.

So I will get you pay,
get the carpets out,

go get the Big Trommel
ready to run,

take the 270 down there,
get them on patch.

Make sure everything is fueled

and greased
and it's all ready to go.

- Yeah.
- All righty.

Okay.

Let's get started.

Todd, the Z Plant is down.

It's done.

There's no way we're gonna
get it going again.

10-4.

We ran that Z Plant

way longer
than it should have been.

I'm honestly surprised
that it lasted this long.

Springs being bent,
all the welding,

all the holes, and everything.

And we gotta figure out how to
get the Hot Mess
up and running

and running dirt now.

Holy...

So what I'm doing right now
is I'm having Matt

and Al move the orange pump

from the Z Plant pond
over to the Big Trommel pond,

because it takes
a lot of water
to keep that thing running.

So I'm having the guys
go over and pull
the orange pump

out of the Z Plant pond
before it freezes up.

We gotta keep that
pump running.

I'll get those hoses
loaded up.

Then get the basket.

Grab it out of the pond.

This stuff gets cold,

and aluminum doesn't take
a lot to break it

so you really
gotta be careful.

Then I'll grab the pump.

Try to do it one trip.

Get it over to Big Trommel.

Okay.
I'll see down there.

All right.
So we're gonna set this pump

down here where the deeper
water is coming through

on the creek still.

I will set it here
and then run

the hose right up
to where your pickup is.

Hopefully, I can get it to run
down to the pond from there.

All right.

I'm gonna run the hose
to our sluicing pond

so that we have some fresh
water to run in our plants.

Right now Big Trommel
can't run

'cause we don't have
enough water in our pond,

so we gotta get this done
so we can...

we can get it fired back up
and make our season.

This could be make
or break for us here.

Just go ahead
and stretch your hose.

Looks good.

All right.

With the Z Plant water pump

now at the Big Trommel,

Randy needs to make sure
the plant is fully thawed

before they try to get it
up and running.

That's 68 inches
of ice in there.

If I heat the steel up enough,

I may be able to get it
to melt faster.

It would be great
if we could have more than

one plant running at a time.

All right.

Flame on.

Chuck. How you doing
this morning, my man?

Oh, dude, I'm okay.

We're gonna be
running trucks today.

Yeah.

Sparky
and new trucker, Chuck,

have a solid morning's
workload.

They need to move
the pay stacked at Z Plant

to the Big Trommel

and then keep the mine
running at full capacity.

Having Chuck here
makes it possible

that we can run pay dirt
over to the Big Trommel

and, hopefully,
we can keep running pay

over to the little Test Plant.

You're gonna be headed
to the little plant.

All right. How many loads
you're gonna need up there?

I'd say about six or seven.

- Six or seven loads?
- Yeah.

Let's go hit it, dude.

We're gonna have
some pay to haul today.

How about Sparky,
you got a copy?

Go for Sparks. Go ahead.

All right, man.
How you doing?

You ready to do this?

Let's get
to rocking and rolling, baby.

Then pour.

Have a good day,
my man. Let's get this.

With pay stacking up,

it's time to see
if the Hot Mess

will run again.

Dakota, Hunter,
do you guys have a copy?

Yeah.

You guys ready
to get this guy rolling?

Yeah. We're getting people
in position.

We finally got
Big Trommel thawed out.

We brought the pump
over from Z Plant.

I mean, this thing's
been down for weeks

so I'm hoping it works out,

'cause if it doesn't,
then we're done.

Let's fire this up.

Every time these
plants fire up,

there's a little bit of smoke.

It's just part of the...
part of the game.

Chris, you got a copy?

Talk to me, yes.

Are we good
for me to hit the water?

We're ready now. We're ready.

Start that pump.

So we got the generator
warming up right now,

Nick's in position,
so I'm gonna fire this guy.

Water's on.
Should be coming up soon.

I'm about 1,200 RPM right now.

We got water now.

Good flow.

Okay. Here goes the trommel.

Okay. Yeah, you got water.
Start feeding.

So far, everything looks good.

The water looks good.

The tailings
are coming off clean.

I'm really happy we got this
thing up and running again.

Right now, it's all hands
on deck with this plant.

We're gonna be swapping
night shifts in

once it gets dark

and we're
gonna run this thing 24/7.

This thing
has to be going nonstop.

We can't afford
to shut it down

so I'm praying
for no breakdowns.

And as long as
this thing's running,

we're on track.

The Hot Mess
is finally back up.

All she needs now
is plenty of pay dirt.

How about it, Randy,
you got a copy?

Anybody got a copy?
Todd, you got a copy?

Got a copy, Chuck. What's up?

This truck just

made some horrible noise
and shut down.

Afraid he may be
out front doing some fuel.

Maybe get something down here
to move me out of the road.

I'll go take a look
underneath,

but it was a nasty noise.

We're broke down right

in the middle
of a narrow patch of road,

and Sparky is right behind me
with his haul truck.

Gotta get it out of the way
so we can continue working.

What's going on, dude?

Truck just flew to pieces.

It sounded like a rod maybe.

Yeah. She started
clanking really bad

and she's dead on the spot.

We just got Big Trommel
up and running and now we got

this rock truck stuck
in the middle of the road

and this was our last hope.

If we don't get enough
pay to Big Trommel

just to have it running
for tonight,

then it's gonna freeze up.

And at this point
in the season,

it's like
we don't have time anymore.

Randy, you got a copy?

We're on our way.

Chris is coming
with the excavator

and I'm gonna come
and look at the truck.

Oh, crap.

They're gonna bring
the excavator over here?

I don't know
if that can pull this thing.

You think the excavator
can pull it?

We just gotta tow it
about 30 feet,

get it out of the way.

Chris is coming
with the hoe right now.

400 is broke down
in the middle of the road

over there in front
of the old equipment.

While Chris
maneuvers the excavator

to move the truck and Andy

determines the best way
to clear the road...

You got a shackle?

Randy shows up

to examine
the broken rock truck

that is critically important

to the success of the season.

So what do
we got going on, Randy?

Not good.
One of the U-joints let go,

swung elliptical,
took out a hose.

I don't think
I have this U-joint.

And the last time
we had a U-joint go bad

it was seven days
before we got a new one.

We really don't
have seven days.

See what you can do.

We just got
the big trommel going.

We need both trucks running.

I need your magic. You need
to be Magic Randy on this one.

- All righty. All righty.
- Okay. Do your best.

- I'll see what I can find.
- Okay.

Maybe I can rob Peter.

Do you know where
there's a guy named Peter?

Took it to the tooth.

A fully loaded rock truck

weighing roughly
140,000 pounds

has broken down
on the mine's main road.

If the excavator,
which isn't designed for this,

can't clear the truck,

the whole operation
will grind to a halt.

We only have about

maybe a day's worth
of pay down the Big Trommel,

so the nightshift,

that's a question depending
whether we get this thing

out of here or not.

Okay. Let's go.

Come and be careful.

Perfect. Keep it going.

Start going to your right
a little bit.

Easy.

Keep going, straight back.

Good. Hold.

Right there.

Good.

At least it's off
the road good enough

that we can get smaller rigs
around it,

excavators, loaders,
and that type of stuff.

Randy will work his magic.

He'll make something
out of the garbage can.

He'll find parts somehow.

He always does.

I'll leave you to your task.

Thank you.

Thanks, Randall.

You guys have a good day.

Do you copy, Randy?

Crap. Now what?

Yeah, go ahead.

Yeah, I got
a little issue here myself.

Shouldn't be
frozen full of water.

What you do when you have
an idiot do your scheduling

to how long you're
gonna to be in the bush?

This is what happens

when you out
extended your welcome.

Right now,
we kind of messed up.

What happened didn't...

I didn't disconnect the hose,

kind of forgot about it.

And it goes down
on the ground.

It goes up to the pump.

So, all the way to the hill

where it's level with the pump
is all full of ice,

which is what I have here.

So, I'm gonna get it
thought out,

we'll get it fixed.

If you leave these hoses out,
they freeze, you know?

And, you know, it's just...

It's that time,
it will thaw out.

You stick
it right in a hot water.

Let me pull it right up
and into that hot water.

Well, here's this guy.

But don't hit that element,
it will melt the hose.

That sucker is hot.
I need the heat though.

We just got to do it slow.

You know, it's just
the hose full of ice,

but it's the hose that brings
water to the gold room.

So, need water,

that's the key
to this gold room is water.

And if we can get all this
in there,

thaw out pretty quick.

Our hose
is going in the hot tub.

Okay, well,

so, I'm gonna get
this thawed out.

I'll go down,
run the hose back out.

We gotta get that pump
as full of water as we can

because this might be
the last time.

This is already a big hassle
to get it full.

It's cold.

Sparky, you taking pay
for the little trommel?

Yes, sir.

You're good to go.

Oh, come on.

Oh, crap.

Randall?

Go ahead, Sparky.

So, the rock truck

literally stuck
in the middle of the road.

I'll be right there.

With the 400 rock truck

out of commission,

the 350 must now move pay

to both the big trommel
and test plants.

Well, we didn't need this.

So this, uh...

This is the 35 ton rock truck.

And as you can see,
the tire is completely flat.

- Sparks.
- My man.

We got a bit of an issue.

I see that.

It was right
when I was coming in

for my third load
when Andy was done loading me,

I noticed that the tire
was slowly...

Oh, man.

It happens a lot on the mine.

You get a small piece
of quartz in the road,

it's just as sharp
as a razorblade.

And that's
what has happened here.

Sliced right through
the face of the tire.

We cannot load with this

because the load is equalized

over these two tires.

And with that big old cut
right there

in the face of that tire,

it's not usable.

I can't... I can't patch it.

I can't repair it.

This tire is junk.

No good.

Gotta get another tire.

The 400 is down.

Now the 350 is down.

Randy calls
a meeting in the dome

to discuss this major issue
with the team.

Now we have no rock trucks.

I got to go tell these guys.

They're not gonna be happy.

I got some bad news.

Yeah,
Chuck told me about the truck.

350 is down, yeah.

- The 350?
- Yeah.

I thought the 400 was down.

The 400 is down also.

What happened to the 350?

It took a rock through
the face of a tire.

Unbelievable.

What happened?
Did he just run into a...

A quartz, slice.

Oh.

Six to eight inches long.

- Jeez.
- It's done.

I can't repair it.

And we got nothing.

Okay.

Unfortunately.

So basically
what you're telling me

is we have no rock trucks?

None.

We cannot move pay.

Zero trucks.

Randy, we need
at least one rock truck

or we have to shut down.

Randy, we need at least
one rock truck

or we have to shut down.

We got enough pay
on two plants for one day,

we got 48 hours.

Give me the status on the 400.

So here's the thing.

- There's a return hose.
- Yeah.

That's got a pipe
in the middle of it.

- Okay.
- And that pipe

is two weeks away.

I've got to see
if we can't replace

the whole thing with a hose
instead of using the pipe.

The problem is
what is that hose?

It's a return line.

- Of what?
- So it's low pressure.

- Of what though?
- Trans fluid.

Transmission fluid.

How do you put on hose clamps?

- Yeah.
- Basically, two hose clamps and a hose.

- Two on each, yeah.
- And one of them comes off

and our transmission boils up
on our only truck.

I can have it back together
probably tomorrow.

Ooh, okay.

But then we're back
to one truck

but it is the 40.

One truck will keep
one plant going.

Question is, do we risk it

with just a bush fix?

I mean, I don't think
we have any other choice.

What do we wanna do?

No guts, no glory, you know,
that's what I'd say.

- Go for it.
- Go for it.

This late in the season,
we don't have a choice.

Okay.

We get enough gold, we can buy
a new transmission next year.

All right. Let's do it.

You got 48 hours
of pay, Randy,

you're gonna have
to fix this thing...

or, uh, we're shutting down.

All right. I'll get on it.

- Thanks, Randy.
- Thanks, Randy.

See you guys, later.

No pressure, buddy.

Yeah, never was.

Go do something.

Wow.

Hey,
did you hear the plan?

No. What's the plan?

We're gonna pull the box at Z,

get everything that we ran.

Only got a few
hours of daylight left,

so we got to hurry up.

Z Plant
is done for the year.

All that's left to do
is to get out any gold

still left in the box.

Okay. Okay.

Dakota, are we pulling
all of them?

Or we're just gonna clean
from top to bottom really good

and that'll be that.

Hey, this is the end
of an era right here.

End of an era, the Z.

It's the happiest
I've been in a while,

never been so happy to get
rid of boards in all my life.

Okay. These grates
are coming up next.

Still frozen
a little bit over here.

Give me. Give me.
Give me. Give me. Give me.

I will say we got dang good
and dang quick

at changing these mats.

That's for sure.

Let's get it
cleaned up

and it's time to switch gears,

get over to the big tromm,

so we just got
the last mat pulled.

This is gonna be the last one
I think we do at the Z here.

Yeah. The repairs on the Z
are just gonna be too much.

Big trommel is all
we got left.

With this weather coming in
right now, we can't stop.

I mean, once that trommel
stops moving,

things freeze up,
pipes freeze up,

things start to break,
so it's gonna be nonstop

24/7 pretty much
till winter comes.

We got nothing
to fall back on right now,

so that's gonna be pretty much
our last chance.

All right, man,
these are the last two.

Bittersweet,
let's get out of here.

Oh,
that's a heavy girl.

What you got, Randy?

We cut the face of the tire.

- It's no good.
- Okay.

Uh, we found another tire.

I didn't know
we had one up there.

Okay.

But, uh,
I'm gonna need your help.

We got to debead this,
knock it off,

put the new tire on.

I was wondering
if I could get your help

with an excavator.

Yeah. What do we got?

320, I suppose.

Go get it, bring it over.

I think
that's a good idea.

While you're doing that,
I'll jack this up,

get the lugs off

and, uh, chain it
and we'll pull it off,

- set it here.
- Okay. I'll go get that.

I'd be 15, 20 minutes,

I can be back here.

All right, take it easy.

Okay.

It's below
freezing out.

It's cold.

Our 400 is down.

Now, we've got this,

uh, thank goodness we found
a tire for it but,

uh, we still have
a lot of work

to get this tire off
and a new tire on.

We're gonna be
super cautious about it.

I don't really wanna stay up
all night doing a tire

with the wind and the cold,

but I have no choice,
we have to have a...

At least one haul truck,

so I guess I know

what my evening plans
are gonna be.

Yeah.

Yeah, I'm just
dropping this off

and we'll go back
to the Z Plant.

So where is this from?

Z Plant.

I'm bringing the last batch.

The structural bracing
on the screen deck

is all cracked around
and busted.

Like all of them?

This time, it's done.

You know and I know
it's a piece of crap.

- Yeah, piece of crap.
- It is tired.

- Yeah.
- That metal,

you just can't weld it,
it's gonna crack right

by the well. It is what it is.

- It's done.
- I'm gonna head back...

- Thanks, man.
- and grab some more carpets

- and I'll be back fellas.
- Yeah. Okay.

Well, thanks a lot, man.

Yes, sir.

I'm gonna fill
this gap with some grease.

I got the tire off
at the spare

and onto the 350's hub,

but I'm having a hard time
keeping it inflated.

What we're trying to do
is plug up all the air holes.

Hopefully, we can get some air
to stay in the tire

long enough to bead it up
and seat.

Let's see what we get now.

Come on, baby.

Now, it's leaking
on the bottom side.

Yeah, I can hear it.

Which means I'm gonna have
to stand it back up.

I got this wheel
all greased up with the tire,

uh, trying to get it
to inflate.

The tire is really stiff,

so it's taken a lot of grease

and, uh,
both rock trucks are down

so we're not hauling any pay
to the plant.

Everybody's breathing
down my neck

trying to get at least
one of these rock trucks back.

We can't take a tire
from one to the other

because they're
a different size.

So we got to do this.

And I'm not catching
any breaks today.

It's starting to snow.

It's just gonna be
a horrible day.

Dude, the bullfrog rod, dude.

I heard Hunter is gonna
teach us how to fish.

Hunter,
are you gonna teach us
how to fish today, dude?

I've never even been
fishing before.

Call us from the radio.

Yeah, I can cast
backwards, dude.

I don't trust Mike.

Oh, yeah. Good catch, Mike.

Dude, across, dude.

Fish on. Fish on.

Fish on. Oh...

- Okay.
- This is my lure.

Oh.

Ain't no damn fish here.

That's why they call it
fishing, not catching.

Now it's leaking
on the bottom side,

which means I'm gonna have
to stand it back up.

But I don't have an operator

so I got to do it by myself.

Al got called back
to the big trommel

to prepare
for the first nightshift.

It's our last week
and everyone's busy

trying to keep
this place running.

Yeah. Yeah. Big gaps.

Nothing but big gaps.

Everywhere. One more time.

I'm gonna try
to put this wheel

here on these blocks.

With enough force,
I think I can get it to seat.

Missed.

Missed the wheel.

I need some help.

This is ridiculous.

All right, wait a sec.

Kidding me.

Get one side pushed in
and the block of wood moves.

What's wrong with that?

I'm trying to support
the wheel on the backside

to seat the backside.

Oh, man, am I frustrated.

Stupidity.

This is a wasted cause.

Trying to keep the air in it

so that the tire will expand,

problem is the tire
is so stinking stiff,

the air pressure
has to get up so high,

there's just no way
to expand this tire.

Not in this weather.

I'm done.

Todd, this 350 can't be fixed.

It's impossible.

Randy must turn his focus

to fixing the other rock truck

which is now the only way
to get pay

to the wash plants.

Meanwhile, the swap is on

from day shift to nightshift
at the Hot Mess.

Night shift, baby.

Oh, yeah, got some good sleep.

Yeah.

- Got lots of pay.
- I saw that, got a...

got a good load
of pay in here.

So this is the first time
we run Big Trommel,

needs to keep running.

We can't let it shut down,

otherwise things start
freezing up.

I'll be running
loader tonight.

Running loader,
keeping them...

Keeping the pay,

keeping the large tails off.

I'm ready, primed and ready.

Hey, Dakota,
you ready to swap out?

Yeah, go ahead.

All right, man.

It's all yours for the night.

How did it go today?

Not too bad. You're on her.

- All right. Good deal.
- Yes, sir.

All right,
awesome, dude.

We got an issue
or are we good?

Dude, it's fine.

It's fine?
Running good?

I think she'll make it
through the night.

You know what though,
there's only about 150 things

that could go wrong,
but you know what?

God will be with you
and a few things

will go right,
so that's what we need.

Only a few days
into their last week,

Todd and the team
still need 47 ounces of gold

before they get shut down.

We have enough pay dirt
to make it through the night.

What Randy has to do is
he's got to get that 400

fixed immediately,

but we can do this,

we only need 47 ounces of gold

and we hit our goal.

We need it,
we need a win here.

Quickly running
through their pay dirt

with no working rock trucks
to deliver more,

Todd and the Hoffman crew
need to come together

one more time to make
a miracle happen.

Everything's running
and at least for right now,

pretty damn thankful.