Insane Swim Dredge: a floating gold dredge for FS25

Some ideas start in a meeting. This one started in our forum with a simple question: what if the gold mine could swim? A few weeks and a lot of rivets later, here it is, at least as a concept. Meet the Insane Swim Dredge, a floating bucket-line gold dredge for Farming Simulator 25.

What a swim dredge is

A bucket-line dredge sits in a pond of its own. At the front it digs gravel off the bottom, on board it washes out the gold, and at the back it dumps the rest again, so the pond moves along with the dredge. Machines like this worked for decades in Alaska and the Yukon. Ours takes its proportions from the Coal Creek Dredge in Alaska, which is documented in detail and in the public domain.

The numbers: a hull of 35 by 16 metres, a riveted bucket ladder 32 metres long with 72 buckets, and in digging position about 71 metres from end to end. The smokestack ends around 22 metres above the water. Yes, she is big. She is supposed to be.

From the bucket to the bar

That's the plan for the processing line. The buckets drop the gravel into a perforated trommel, the fine material runs over 12 gold tables with 432 riffles, and the coarse stone rides the stacker out over the stern onto the tailings pile. Whatever stays caught in the riffles goes to the gold room, then to the smelter, and comes out as gold bars on pallets.

Those bars are the same ones as in the FSMW Gold Trader. The dredge brings its own pallet, so you won't need the Gold Trader for it, and if you have both installed, they are meant to get along.

Where we are

Honest status: everything you see here is our own Blender renders and design sheets drawn from the 3D model. The game model with animations and sound is being built right now. A beta for our members is set for Tuesday, 13 October, at 18:00 German time, and the countdown is on our front page. The beta brings the basic function: she floats, the ladder moves, the bucket chain runs, and gravel you tip into the hopper with a loader comes out as gold bars. Digging on the lake bed and the full interior follow after that. You can also find the dredge on the roadmap.

All renders, the design sheets and the numbers are on the Insane Swim Dredge page, and soon there will be a 3D model there that you can spin. Got wishes? The dredge has its own section in the forum now. Tell us what she should be able to do while it's still easy to build in.