On tonight’s Gold Rush on Discovery, fuel troubles and labored engines are what is in store for Juan Ibarra, Tony Beets and his Master Mechanic son, Michael Beets. The noise tells it all as the two are inside the boat hauling equipment to the wash plant, and the engines are barely able to function.
The exclusive clip opens with Beets and Ibarra side-eyeing each other as they roll on the river. Why? Their boat isn’t really going anywhere too fast and the groaning from the engines sends Juan on a “look and see” mission to find out what’s going on down below.
Remember that Tony Beets has been really kicking major buttocks this season. With Mike’s siblings Monica Beets and Kevin Beets running washplants their Papa B. has been in overdrive, meaning loads of gold has been pulled out of the paydirt. So the pressure is on.
But Michael Beets isn’t having the luck of the Dutchman rub off on him today as he is hauling a heavy load which is grinding down his gears.
But just like his dad, he has plenty of f***s to give.
It will take two long days to reach dredge number two at remote Thistle Creek.
Looking worried, Juan asks: “How’s the speed, Mike?”
Right out of the gate, Mike lays it on Juan: “Slower than sh** through molasses!”
He adds: “We dropped from three miles an hour to 0.62.”
In slight panic mode and ready to investigate down below, Juan says: “Oh Man, no…I don’t like that… I’m gonna check.”
Juan climbs below to the boiler room and looks around and sees the engines are working overtime. He says: “That motor…those motors are laboring bad!”
Mike realizes they are in big trouble and says: “We’ve gone about five miles in two hours and my biggest concerns are I don’t know how fast this s*** [fuel] burns.”
Juan looks at him and says: “You are gonna burn a lot [of fuel].”
Mike didn’t like hearing that. “That’s not something I want to hear!”
Then Juan brings the situation into focus. “Just off the top of my head, I bet we will probably burn ten gallons an hour per engine, that’s PER engine, Mike! So at the rate, we are going, how much longer before we get there?”
Time for math skills as Mike works it out and says: “So I don’t know what my average is but you could say – so we’re not even we’re barely even getting half speed so basically what we did was we added another two days to our trip…”
Juan is quietly taking this in and finishes the equation. “Instead of it being a two-day trip it’s a four-day trip upriver.”
Mike is now in full Beets’ potty mouth mode and shares his gallows humor with Juan, who isn’t having any of it.
He says: “I think we’re gonna end up burning out for our fuel before we even make sixty miles, isn’t this f****** great f*** d*** $%#&%$@*%&!”
Good times! Tune in tonight to see what papa Beets will add to this bleeping conversation.
Gold Rush airs Fridays at 9/8c on Discovery