Real Ice Road Trucking

Now ya, 20 years ago they would truck them in. They stopped cause of security risks associated with moving them over the ice. It was bad enough that the list of approved carriers to take that load was basically non-existent.

My friend is 72. Lol he ran ice roads while the diamond mines were still building.

 

If I remember what he told me correctly, the driver didn't even know he was hauling diamonds. They kept him completely out of the loop, and gave him an unmarked tandem trailer to take to Yellowknife Airport. All the bill said was it was a load from Divac mine's going to the airport. It was like a one-off deal and he hasn't heard of anyone doing it since. But there has been word of some loads getting done during that time all in unmarked trailers

I've heard so many stories about those mines and how they view money it's mind-boggling. I've heard of shipments falling through the ice and they just order a new one like it wasn't even important like money was no object because of these guys money means nothing to them there's maybe three companies in the world that mine diamonds. Those guys up they are in the north are the biggest in the world.

 

I quit hauling ice roads 25 years ago. It can be a nice change but I cant be bothered putting my name on the list and not getting home in time for dinner. Morgan Fuels hiring. Come up and show 'em how its done

Winter Road Fuel Delivery Driver (AZ) | Drivers & Security | Thunder Bay | Kijiji

 

Id love to, maybe when i get my own truck ill find a run to take up there and then stay for the ice road season. Cant afford to fly out there and go searching for a ride...especially being my first year as a driver.

 

In all seriousness, you probably won't ever haul anything for the mines specifically. You'll get more loads going random places than anything but, if your serious and want to inquire.

Landtran group of companies. They own Continental cartage who has running rights, Tli'cho has running rights for the ice roads. They look for guys every year to go up. Gotta have exp meeting their needs tho. Can't think of anyone else right away aside from maybe Manitoulin, they run up to yellowknife.

Everything is controlled by the Inuit, so not just anyone can go up. You gotta get approved by them or work for someone already approved. I've been debating going up there for the past 3 years, and LandTran is your easiest bet up there.

 

I was up in '17. Plauged by a plugged DPF that year.
Hoping to go up again this year. (Unless our clients get busier locally).

 

That's one thing in my opinion that will never belong up there. Emissions can't handle the cold, and most times your not moving fast enough to do a proper regen anyway.

Our government sucks when it comes to this emissions crap.

 

I live about 6 hours south of the Territories, and have a few friends that run up there under contract. the small guys that are running the ice with their own trucks are running deleted or pre emissions engines and making money. the margins are so brutally thin now that running any emissions engines is a gamble.

 

Grimshaw/Peace River?

I never had DEF when I was running up in the NWT, but with Cummins ISX we had tons of EGR and DPF problems. Fortunately the trucks were rentals so not a big issue. The only time I had a de-rate was on a pipeline right-of-way on the Athabasca River way NE of Wabasca and I had to take it all the way back to Red Deer. I was going on days off anyhow and wasn't bringing a trailer back so it worked out. And the de-rate happened after I dropped my load. If it had happened 30 minutes earlier it would have been a huge headache because there were some stupid-big hills and of course no way for anyone to get around.

 

yep, in Grimshaw. 52 years in business. if you've been thru here in the last half century, you've driven past our shop.

a friend of mine owns a rig moving outfit here in town with a sizeable fleet, he told me that they get an average of 12,000 hrs out of an emissions engine before it's toast. 15,000 hrs is considered extraordinary, best they've seen out of ANY emissions motor is 18,000 hrs. he's swapped a few 6NZ engines into a couple newer trucks just for fun, says they go a minimum of 20,000 hrs before having to even look at them. 32,000 hrs on one of them so far, no troubles yet.