EnglishTrucker:
I know one thing. That Drew is a total Muppet. Who turns up in the Arctic Circle with no coat■■? No wonder he was left on the sidelines. I’m sure this programme hasn’t done him any favours, I mean would YOU employ him■■?
As for Rick, he is trying to milk it for all it’s worth.
Certainly a lot of bovine manure, but if the guy see’s an opportunity to make a few bob then it’s down to the mugs (sorry, customers) that buy the stuff. I think he’s just making hay while the sun shines, or should that be ‘until the ice melts’? I’ve not seen the second series but I did enjoy the first series and the one thing that struck me was that nobody wore thermal clothing, why not? I did a job in New York state many years ago in the middle of winter, we were issued with ‘one piece’ thermal suits, a bit like overalls. They were so warm you only needed underwear under the suits, and it was around -8c + the chill factor at the time. So why dont they wear this sort of kit?
EnglishTrucker wrote:
I know one thing. That Drew is a total Muppet. Who turns up in the Arctic Circle with no coat■■? No wonder he was left on the sidelines. I’m sure this programme hasn’t done him any favours, I mean would YOU employ him■■?
As for Rick, he is trying to milk it for all it’s worth.
I missed it yesterday, I enjoyed the first series but as has been said - too dramatised and too repetetive. There needs to be more about the job itself how things are done, more driving and vehicle spec’s
like “hugh’s truck weighs x tonnes and has 12 wheels - that’s about Xtonnes per wheel” or whatever, just a bit less of “look how dangerous it is”
THEY WOULDN’T DO IT IF IT WAS THAT DANGEROUS
last time they said how many inches of ice there was (in the thinner spots) and it was over three feet deep. I remember walking on 2" of ice as a kid, someone even cycled on it - we were fine.
EnglishTrucker:
I know one thing. That Drew is a total Muppet. Who turns up in the Arctic Circle with no coat■■? No wonder he was left on the sidelines. I’m sure this programme hasn’t done him any favours, I mean would YOU employ him■■?
As for Rick, he is trying to milk it for all it’s worth.
Simon:
When I was driving army trucks, we had a small bottle of alcohol fitted to feed it slowly into the air compresser.
It held about half a pint and lasted about a month.
We had to release the alcohol and other muck out of the air tanks quite often, but never had frozen brake lines.
IWe had to use the small trailer gritters, stand in the back with shovels and spread the grit by hand. It just froze up and wouldn’t run onto the spinner to be spread by machine.
The grit froze, our brakes didn’t.
I remember the alcohol chamber on most of the trucks I drove Simon, although it was very rare to ever have any alcohol to go in the reservoir. I bought a Jeep Wrangler from Canada and it had electric heaters and a plug in point to keep the block and oil warm during the night. It is funny I never needed to use them when I took it to Africa
EnglishTrucker:
I know one thing. That Drew is a total Muppet. Who turns up in the Arctic Circle with no coat■■? No wonder he was left on the sidelines. I’m sure this programme hasn’t done him any favours, I mean would YOU employ him■■?
As for Rick, he is trying to milk it for all it’s worth.
I find the program very entertaining.
I can shout at the telly like some people do when they watch football.
I know it’s hyped up for the audience, but what shows don’t do the same.
I don’t think it’s a big deal driving on an ice road, If it was so dangerous then it wouldn’t get done.
But i like watching the big mouth tossers making fools of themselves.
I haven’t seen the second series, only bits of the first. I agree pretty much with whats been said. The costs involved are never fully explained and the guy with a couple of wagons has clearly been wound up by the producers tp ham it up a bit. Everytime I see it one of his sheds is in the fitters and hes moaning that the drivers a moron (that maybe true but one guarantee with haulage is BREAKDOWNS ). All good fun though.
hiya ,
ice road truckers , trucking load of rubbish watched half a show , no worse than tramping over shap in midwinter have seen whiteouts on there thicker than the old london smog and no snow chains either but this was the 50s and 60s pre m6 you certainly earned your coin in those days ,
thanks harry long retired .
Simon:
When I was driving army trucks, we had a small bottle of alcohol fitted to feed it slowly into the air compresser.
It held about half a pint and lasted about a month.
We had to release the alcohol and other muck out of the air tanks quite often, but never had frozen brake lines.
I was clearing snow on an airfield one mid 80s winter. It was so cold that when the day shift loaded our gritters hopper for us (with rock salt), by the time we started our shift half an hour later, the grit had frozen solid. We all spent the next three weeks driving around with a 4 tonne brick on the back of the snow plough.
I was told at the time that the temp was -42. I dunno if that was including wind chill, but it was bloomin’ cold that’s for sure.
We had to use the small trailer gritters, stand in the back with shovels and spread the grit by hand. It just froze up and wouldn’t run onto the spinner to be spread by machine.
The grit froze, our brakes didn’t.
We had those bottles on the old F88s. Even the wipers were powered by air so when you used the wipers an alcohol vapour was released into the cab & your driver got very drowsy & woke up with headaches. Didn’t figure it out until electric was invented.
Firstly, it is rarely the lines that freeze. It is usually when some turnip drops the trailer as soon as they stop and put the brakes on, and the linings freeze to the drums. I know this because I have had several frozen brakes this year. We are not talking a cold snap here, we are talking prolonged temperatures of below -30c, and like it or not, that takes some withstanding no matter what kit you have.
As for the alcohol for brakes, we all carry it, but if the linings have frozen then no amount of pouring that stuff down the lines will help. The only cure is a sledgehammer on the trailer or diff lock and a block of wood on the drive axles if you want to be delicate.
As for it not being dangerous… wel think on this. You are many miles from anything even close to civilisation. Miles away from any roads or communications. It isn’t as dangerous as they make out, provided you are sensible, but a mistake could have very severe ramifications. It surely feels spooky when the water is squirting up on the edges of the roads.
It ain’t that easy, more difficult than dangerous and not something you should do if you are not going to see it through. That means working outdoors when it drops to -55 and your breath freezes in your throat and you actually breath snow out. When your sinus’ freeze and your nose bleeds like you just got nutted.
Maybe the series ■■■■■. I have no idea as I have not seen them. I have no wish to, either, but I do know what it’s like. It is something I enjoy and you have no idea what you are talking about.
The job is, that’s for sure. No idea about the series as they haven’t shown it in Canada. Sadly, they do show corrie, but about 6 months late!
I do know that the guys in the shows bigged it up, but it is cold, it is tense, it is rough on you and the truck.
Makes me laugh though. The only European truck I would ever entertain taking up there would be a Scammell Crusader. It’s the only thing from that side of the pond that would have a chance of surviving.
I liked the first series but thought the second was garbage…it was to stage managed…it seemed like they went to the companies and paid them to employ the drivers then made a reality TV show about it,where as the first one seemed more documentary like.
In the first series the polar bear was an owner driver running three trucks in this one he was employed by someone ■■?
And as for Rick and Drew
As BTD has said it’s extreme up there, the knobheads that are on the TV show are exactly that, knobheads, the type of drivers we avoid like the plague.
As for the equipment, it may be ice but it’s not smooth in any way, a euro lorry would last about 20 miles before it fell to pieces on the roads up there, it wouldn’t make it as far as the ice.
All the talk of Shap & the M1 is a load of bollox, you cannot comprehend the cold until you experience it, my coldest so far has been -46c I tried to take a pic of my tempreture guage in the cab, but my camera wouldn’t work as it was too cold!
We get brakes freezing, but what can you do? A dropped trailer has no power supply so you can’t heat anything electronically, it’s not all the time so when it does happen, out comes the big hammer & all is well, apart from that though, everything else just keeps on going, day in, day out.
