Ice Road Reality Check Please

I don't think they can get that much, these rigs will tare in around 40,000.

 

A couple of years ago, I picked up a college kid from London hitch hiking up to prudhoe bay, just seeing the sights.
I picked him up between atigun pass and galbreth, and it was not long before he ask me about ice road truckers, it seemed like it was quite popular in England. lol
Anyway he ask if I had ever driven on it, now it is summer time at the time and pretty much 24 hours of daylight. I told him he was on it now. He said he knew, nut had I ever driven on it. lol
I again told him he was on it, that hill coming up is galbreth, the same one on tv. lol
We got to Prudhoe and I dropped my trailer and grabbed another one, then ask where he wanted me to drop him off. He ask where would be best and what was there, I told him, you have seen what there is, I can drop you at any of the camps, and you can go in and hang out in the rec rooms or what ever till they serve breakfast, which will be another 2 1/2 hours, or there is a store that does have some gifts and such, but you will have to hang out in the parking lot for four hours or so till it opens, and bears have been known to hang out there too. lol
So now he ask what there was to do, and again, I tell him , you have done done it, only thing left to do is get breakfast. lol
So now he wants to know what I am going to do, so I told him I was headed to coldfoot, so he just rode back with me. lol

 

I was thinking 10,000 gallons most.

But

My 3 axle only hauls 7,000 though. 4 axles would be 7500 gallons. I'm thinking 8,000ish gallons for 5 axles.

My tare is 37,500 full 100 gallons fuel. But I have a steel vacuum trailer with a pump.
The aluminum trailers would be lighter but the 2 extra axles would probably make em close to the same weight.

IIRC, the 2 axles we hauled bio to Cali in were about 5,000 gallons.

 

Snowwy, our trucks themselves are on the heavier side, 24 to 25,000 by themselves, and the trailers are probably as heavy speced as they can get them.
I am at 40,000 or very close with a 3 axle side dump, several trucks I have driven were a tad over that.
I am not sure what those 5 axle tankers weigh in at though. I seem to remember a friend mentioning 9,000 gallons, but I could be wrong.
I know a few years ago when the road was down for a little over a month, the state turned them lose and let them dome them out for a month or so, and they made some bucks during that time.

 

I"m going off your 115k.

I"m 97ish with 7000 gallons. The 4 axles with 7500 gallons are around 105ish.

But I don't live in AK. You all might have different rules like the east coast does.

And I don't haul fuel to know the exact weight. So that number I posted above was using 7.5 lbs. Rough guess.

 

Well I am not sure now, becuase when I figure the axles up for what we can gross on a 53 foot 5 axle flat with a 3 axle group and two steerable spreads, I come up with 123,500. Maybe the tankers are not long enough to get the full bridge on the belly axles.

It is funny, a flat bed with a spread and one spread steerable axle can gross 105, and that is what all the mud trucks use, but the tankers with 5 axles have a 3 axle group on the back, so almost lose what the extra axle can carry when you add in the weight of the axles and wheels, and only good for 42,000, versus 40 on the spread.

 

Some of them quad axle fuel tanker are 11,500 gal.

 

I know the limiting factor is weight, not what the tanker can hold.
You guys mnay be closer on gallons though. Our trucks are heavier, but we are allowed more weight than most states too, so they may be close to the same gallons you can haul down there. I have never inquired much about fuel, since I never got into hauling it, nor wanted to

 

When they need a good cliffhanger.

 

I do not think they showed anything breaking through the ice in the Alaska series, maybe Canada, where they were driving across a lake, or they claimed to be.

The only scene they showed here that they were actually over water was when the camera was under the ice showing the truck crossing over it, it was a staged scene far from the highway over at the lake that the diving school built the scene for them. lol
At least that is the only one of the kind I knew of.