Ice road truckers feel the economic freeze

Pretty neat stuff though....
As I pilot I did quite a bit of "bush" flying when I lived up in Alaska....and i have been to Red Lake a few times....usually in the summer/fall....but still, doing anything on the edge makes you good fast...you either learn, and learn from your mistakes, or you make mistakes, and die or get fired if you are lucky!! Sure, I bet the TV show tries to dramatize stuff a bit to make it better TV, but heck, if you go up north, you better be a fast learner, resourceful, and be able to "think outside the box" to get the job done. Flying was like that in the bush...and I bet trucking is the same!

 

Chuckle snarf, I live in the Yukon and do pull tanker, super B fuel tankers amongst many other configurations which I just call "many wheels".
Where we go into we are in either the mud and pulled by a cat or in the snow and pulled by a cat, after you have put on two sets of triples that is and still can not go.
About the trucks, look at those poor things they are using, they are not bush trucks to start with and they are not exactly new, that one guy had no heaters and was still trying to drive that junk pile, now that is what I call desperate for a job.
Those roads they are on look real good compared to the cat trails we are on, get on some greasy 20%er with a thousand foot drop on the one side and little width to work with. How about a cat train trail that has been converted to truck traffic where you come down wet clay straight down incline with a bridge at the bottom that has only six inches to spare on either side of and no rails, sides or guides to keep you on, should you miss it is all over, no second chances. That is where the real money is made and that is where there ain't no boys, just hard core seasoned veterans that know their stuff. You will not see a one of them on any screen any where, and you will not find them talking about what they do in some coffee shop.
Bush bumpers and pull pins, skid plates and 52,000 LB diffs minimum are the beginnings of tuff trucks.
The one Iceroad episode I saw the guy was talking about the bad blizzard he was driving in, I wonder what he would do if he actually got into one if that was his idea of a blizzard. I know it is just T.V. but southern truckers who have never been north of sixty should not be fooled into thinking it is like that all over the north, that show is just showing the easy stuff.
There are jobs where you are the only one out there for hundreds of miles and you may not see some one for a day or days, where the temperature drops below what modern gauges go to, sometimes you actually have no idea what the temperature is when you are out there
but -80 is not out of reach. I have seen the truck batteries freeze while the truck was running, arctic fuel gel solid etc. that is when it is no joke.
The show is one thing, the real thing is another.

 

i know a bit of what you mean fuddleduck--i worked in iqaluit for 6 yrs as an ame--saw some pretty nippy weather there--and blizzards that were none driveable--just hole up wherever you are--i cant imagine trying to truck in that stuff---and the wind---you know its windy when the water in the toilet bowel is slopping side to side

 

Snag Yukon has distinction of having the lowest recorded temperature in Canada
-62 Celcius

 

end of the road, check your pm's

 

i saw -80--that was with windchill tho---it was nasty--couldnt keep the herman nelsons running outside for more than bout half hour--they would just freeze up and that was running on avgas---all the pipes in the hanger boiler system popped--- but of course the idiot boss kept all the aircraft going---was sure they were going to fall out of the sky---but thankgod nothing happened

 

What?? Where in my post did I mention that I was spending money?

FYI, the company I haul freight for on the Tibbitt to Contwoyto road out of Yellowknife (and I have done for the past 16 years), has just asked me to buy a couple more trucks for 2011 because they already have contracts for just under 10 times as many loads as we hauled this year.

But hey man, you seem to know more about it. Perhaps you can tell me all about how it works?

 

I work for RTL & everyone seems to think this will be a decent year, maybe not the 11 to 12,000 loads like the last few but better than the 3800 or so last year.

 

They are insured for this work although very costly. As for the condition of the trucks on that show rest assured not all the trucks up there are in that condition. I have taken trucks that are my own, up there that were as new as 4 days old. (379L 63"flats with all the goodies). And yes if you run into trouble you better be able to get yourself mobile, because there isnt any cell service. haha

 

ive watched every episode of IRT and i dont see how u can say its sissies. its -50outside, no one around if u break down, no cell service, you drive a top speed of 30 for 3 days sometimes up and down frozen mountains all day. yeah thats sissy right there.

As opposed to normal truckers who have truck stops every day, cell service to call people in case of a breakdown, qualcomms, mcdonalds every morning and night, oh yeah and nice well maintained interstates to drive on.

yes i am a OTR trucker and i think IRT is for elite people.