I`ve just watched the first 2 episodes of the new series , is most of this programme staged or is it for real ? 
ROMONE,as far as i am concerned .i like the ICE ROAD TRUCKERS, However it is all tongue in cheek,yes they do the trips, and have the bumps ,it is after all reality television, is it staged, is it researched, who knows and who cares so long as you are entertained ,sit back and enjoy, if not switch off.i have learned from years of watching television.
deckboypeggy:
ROMONE,as far as i am concerned .i like the ICE ROAD TRUCKERS, However it is all tongue in cheek,yes they do the trips, and have the bumps ,it is after all reality television, is it staged, is it researched, who knows and who cares so long as you are entertained ,sit back and enjoy, if not switch off.i have learned from years of watching television.
I dont recall stating I didnt like it , I would like to hear the opinions of the drivers over there who are not on screen, though who could cut through the crap that spoils a good reality show and tell us what it`s really like. 
I was in cyber contact with an âIce road Truckerâ in Canada, (not one in the tv series), we both restore old barn engines and he was on one of the related forums, plus I sent him some Lister parts. He said that you spend a lot of time at home waiting for work, and then you donât see home for several months! A lot of âshowbizâ in the tv series he reckoned, and of course they play to the camera in the same way that Stobart drivers do, but it can be a hard life especially if you encounter problems with the load or truck. I guess that the money is very good but personally I wouldnât fancy driving over a frozen lake when I can hear ice cracking!
Pete.
windrush:
I was in cyber contact with an âIce road Truckerâ in Canada, (not one in the tv series), we both restore old barn engines and he was on one of the related forums, plus I sent him some Lister parts. He said that you spend a lot of time at home waiting for work, and then you donât see home for several months! A lot of âshowbizâ in the tv series he reckoned, and of course they play to the camera in the same way that Stobart drivers do, but it can be a hard life especially if you encounter problems with the load or truck. I guess that the money is very good but personally I wouldnât fancy driving over a frozen lake when I can hear ice cracking!Pete.
Yeah I was thinking about how they play to the cameras , the things that stick with me are driving over 500 miles on roads made of ice and snow and when they have a problem they âjustâ drive all night to make the time up
Oh Gawd, not another.
David
Trucks and trailers is real though isnât it?
Yes ok RAMONE,You did not comment either way, do any canadians drivers use this site ,?i do not know,if they do hopefully they could shed light on what does go on in the making of Ice road truckers.
Watching reality shows on the industry you have been in all your life does bring some reality home, that is something you know you will never do, just like reading all the brilliant posts on here, about what other drivers have done ,and the ME stories,you are never going to do it now. but some did back then, the same as the ice drivers do yearlyâŚ
I was told the episode when the American and son were driving for lee rivers and the trailer was hitting all the sides of the road /cutting the road up in north Ontario and the drivers behind went nuts with then for what they were doing âŚwas REAL if it wasnât for the cameras they were getting a hiding! . The pay for the job now has bombed due to all the folk wanting to do it for the experience not the wages, the best paying job now is getting on with the road builders/maintenance for the season (talking about Yellowknife area).
The episode when alex jackknifed and wrote the motor off was realâŚi used to work wae the guy that pulled him out and he told me alex was really cut up about damaging the motor.
It is totally Hollywood, I have met a few of the stars of the show and they all said the same, to the point that Rick Yemm left as they were portraying him as a hooligan and he got tired of it.
newmercman:
It is totally Hollywood, I have met a few of the stars of the show and they all said the same, to the point that Rick Yemm left as they were portraying him as a hooligan and he got tired of it.
Not sure if Rick was acting on instructions from the crew at times but it must annoy the many other drivers who are doing the same job being portrayed in this way if he was because they will all get tarred with the same brush. I heard he had his own successful cleaning businessâ â ? away from the show which he normally worked at. On the other side of the coin the loads are very mixed so the drivers must have plenty of experience with the varied loads they carry
The wannabes only get a look in at the flash in the pan get rich quick firms that are out of their depth and soon realize all that glitters is not gold.
I have a friend that runs the Manitoba and Ontario winter roads, he reckons that Lisa Kelly is pretty switched on, away from the cameras sheâs just another driver.
The one that winds up proper drivers the most, Hugh the polar bear is a complete animal on the show, but I saw him on one of the South American episodes driving an F12 on one of those edge of a cliff roads and he was sat back with one arm out of the window, looking like he didnât have a care in the world as he belted along. I remember saying to the wife that he is actually a pretty good driver to be so relaxed and confident on a road like that.
The thing that â â â â â â me about the show is the terrible editing, one minute theyâre pulling a triaxle flat, the next a tandem box van and in the next shot theyâre back with the flatbed.
The replay of the last 5mins after each advert also drives me up the bloody wall, but then moat American TV shows do that as the vast majority of the audience in the land of the free is as silly as a cart load of monkeys.
Is it really neccessary to mention every 5 mins that they could lose control and cause a major incident or fall through the ice when they are over water. The bit that really gets me is that theres some sort of load count competion its road haulage on snow at the end of the day not a game . The bloke with the beard whos appeared on the last few series seems to know everything ,i`ve worked with a few of them , but on the other side Alex seems as laid back as you can get and seems quite genuine. I think i prefer Highway To Hell
I like highway to hell, although thatâs getting a bit Hollywood too now. The weather and conditions are what they are, I regularly run that route and it is pure evil, the amount of snow that falls is unreal and it can be nice one minute and a full on â â â â storm in the blink of an eye.
But they are starting to focus on personality a little too much, theyâve got that Adam hollering and hooting at everybody and the stepson, well heâd last about 5mins with me. The thing that gets me is the damage they do pulling trucks out of the ditch, am I alone in thinking that the best way to get them out is the same way they go in?
I met Alex in Dallas at the truck show, my press credentials got me a one to one with him and heâs a real nice bloke, very funny and a proper lorry driver, after the show we hung out for a couple of hours and he was asking me question after question about driving in Europe, he never played the superstar at all and I came away pleased to have met the man. Heâs a big lump too, Iâm over 6ft and he towered over me and that booming laugh of his is infectious.
newmercman:
I like highway to hell, although thatâs getting a bit Hollywood too now. The weather and conditions are what they are, I regularly run that route and it is pure evil, the amount of snow that falls is unreal and it can be nice one minute and a full on [zb] storm in the blink of an eye.But they are starting to focus on personality a little too much, theyâve got that Adam hollering and hooting at everybody and the stepson, well heâd last about 5mins with me. The thing that gets me is the damage they do pulling trucks out of the ditch, am I alone in thinking that the best way to get them out is the same way they go in?
I met Alex in Dallas at the truck show, my press credentials got me a one to one with him and heâs a real nice bloke, very funny and a proper lorry driver, after the show we hung out for a couple of hours and he was asking me question after question about driving in Europe, he never played the superstar at all and I came away pleased to have met the man. Heâs a big lump too, Iâm over 6ft and he towered over me and that booming laugh of his is infectious.
Im glad to hear that about Alex , he comes across as very genuine and easy going but gets the job done.The bloke with the beard (Daryl?) the total opposite who knows everything and is the best theres ever been and consistently says so.
On the subject of Highway to Hell how on earth do they drive on roads that look more like ice skating rinks than tarmac , I donât care who they are you cant stop 44 tons on sheer ice and the hills they have to negotiate is a recipe for disaster but they still fly around at break neck speed. And I thought the M62 was bad
Those B trains run at 63.5tons, the main problem with them is not the road conditions, but the man behind the wheel. They are mostly driven by people from India and some of the stunts they pull have to be seen to be believed, youâve seen the aftermath yourself on TV.
As for the speeds, youâd be surprised how much grip snow has, itâs drier than the slushy stuff you get on the M62 and you can run at normal speed on it, stopping and cornering are not so easy though and again, youâve seen the aftermath on TV.
Ice is different, once it gets below -12c it loses the film of water that sits on top and thatâs the thing that makes ice so slippery, again you can giddy up on it as long as you take it easy cornering and braking, if you get it wrong, you end up on TV.
As I said I run that route often and a couple of years ago I did it week in and week out, the weather is mental and the roads are often snow covered, sometimes itâs nice and fluffy, other times itâs packed down into ice and I only had to chain up to pull up the Coquihalla twice and my tyres were changed the following spring, so there wasnât much tread on them.
It does take some getting used to though I have to say, at the start of each winter almost everyone drives like a complete fanny until they get their snow legs.
Intresting stuff that they forget or decide not to tell you on tv , on the subject of IRT i would have thought the health and safety brigade wouldnt allow lorries to travel over water if there was a threat of falling through, and whats the score with driving all night to make up lost time ,does this really go on. Ive seen Hugh getting pulled for hours regs on a previous series but they openly state driving all night to make up time .
Highway to Hell seems more down to earth , and as much as i find Jamie a likeable character his arch rival Al Quiring makes me smile with his no nonsense no bling approach and his little digs about chrome not making money always makes me laugh.With his sense of humour he could be mistaken for an englishman
this where the money is last winter on the bush on piece work.aye the last series I watched ARTie got pulled and made to do a reset at that newish scale in MB ,they try to make Artie look like a real swampdonkey but seems he ran the diavak run for years out o Yellowknife without any problems and now he is in MB on the bush roads a edited replacement for rickâŚbut if it pays good all the best for him. and for daryl an American buying a truck in Canada and competing against Canadians lol would never happen not allowed work permit etc âŚhe was driving a Lee rivers motor.
aye NMM I would love tae meet Alex and funny enough Hugh you donât run the roads as long as they do without being a real hand.
aye NMM I would love tae meet Alex and funny enough Hugh you donât run the roads as long as they do without being a real hand.