i have been asked to write about what i know about the tv show ice road truckers well this is it lots of people give it great reviews, and some slate the show as total crap well i went there in 2011 and this is what i think hugh roland and Alexs were filming back in Canada as hugh had been fired from carlile for being a total k–b jockey.
one of my favorite people is Carey hall he’s from season 3 he drives the massise heavy haul truck i travelled with him firstly in his truck which was only 175 feet long then i swapped and went in the push truck with Tyler Mcdonald how strange was that driving gently into the rear of another truck so many stories were told between us what a true gentleman Carey is. Then i travelled with phil kromm carliles trainer and a true professional at that he knows every inch of that 500 mile road.
Dave redmond another big headed git definately not a team player carlile fired his ■■■ out the door to.
Tony Molesky i never rode with him only shared my accomodation on our nights back at fairbanks we had some great times he’s a great cook and a total devoted company man Jack Jesse called the ace is also a real nice guy. Maya Seaber a new york truck driver seemed to be nice enough to chat with looks great in her black swim suit posing in front of that ■■■■■■■■■ K.W. other drivers that i met were robert and jay pennick,tanker drivers along with loren hills, Jack macan, and rod cahill i ran with them pulling wide loads up the dalton anything you want to know about guns Rod Cahills your man.
thats one thing i found strange drivers with guns in there cab, of course i must not forget Lisa Kelly she really is a dam good driver and we have become friends since my visit and it was nice to meet up with her after the shepton mallett truck show in July for dinner and no it was not mcdonalds.
finally lane keator was a true american and a great chap to get to know my thanks go to the one person to who i owe my experience is Harry Mcdonald the boss of carlile cheers harry personally i loved it but i would not like to spend the rest of my working days running the Dalton well thats what i know from my own personal experience
We have a ‘REAL’ ice road trucker on here anyway … I refer to Bobthedog, and from what he has tod us in the past the program is nothing like life in the ice roads.
I speak as someone who drives the highways of the US lower states and I know that those guys in the program are nothing like the real ice road drivers and who can blame them ■■?
If I could choose between getting paid oodles of cash for being filmed and driving in make believe stuations and actually having to work for a living I would do the same. 
At the end of the day…it’s TV. It is intended for our entertainment and to give viewers some idea, no matter how small…the life of the ice road trucker.No-one can entirely believe in a TV programme and the only way to experience these things are to do it for yourself. I do know that Bulkerb has driven the ice roads and stayed with Harry McDonald and we both have met Lisa Kelly. 
Nick_of_Time:
At the end of the day…it’s TV. It is intended for our entertainment and to give viewers some idea, no matter how small…the life of the ice road trucker.No-one can entirely believe in a TV programme and the only way to experience these things are to do it for yourself. I do know that Bulkerb has driven the ice roads and stayed with Harry McDonald and we both have met Lisa Kelly.
I don’t doubt for one second that he is telling nothing but the truth my friend. All I am saying is that as you pointed out it is just a set up TV show.
just a quick reply i think that it is the tv producers that are at fault as if memory serves me correctly I.R.T. started in canada, where i believe they do actually drive across the frozen lakes.
unlike the dalton highway which is during the summer months a tarmac/dirt road all be it over 400 miles long. It is only during the winter months that it becomes frozen over it’s entire length so you can never fall through only fall off i.e. crash.
there are villages which are only reachable by truck during the frozen months and it is then that you can crash through the ice and of course when you transport supplies onto the ocean again there is a greater risk of falling through the ice.
as for people saying its not like what real ice road truckers do well i say it is. i give one example
when i travelled with Phil Kromm a driver with over a million miles on his card and over 15 years experience of driving the ice road we transported pipes to prudoe and comtaminated dirt in a 20 foot box back to fairbanks it was around minus 50 degrees i was truly knackered as well as being totally frozen as we arrived at prudoe bay the time was around 1am but still the camera crew asked question of me.
we had a camera man in our cab a screen mounted camera trained on the driver full time and a camera crew following us along the highway letting us know when they were going to film the truck as it goes by.
well the only thing we did different from any other driver running the ice road was to take longer to get from fairbanks to prudoe bay because the camera crew wanted shots of us hitching up to the trailer strapping down putting out wide load signs asking question after question as to what we were doing etc. the drivers in the tv show are regular carlile drivers some have done more than 2 million miles with over 20 years service for the same company,so for me carlile can’t be to bad to work for.
it takes around 12 to 15 hours from fairbanks to prudoe bay so in one week they can capture over 70 hours of filming thats just 1 driver times that by say 6 then you have alot of footage to make a 1 hour show there are also cameras fitted to the truck on there wheels or axel or trailer again to capture the shot yes the tv show does dramatise events but thats tv.as for the money aspect yes the drivers are paid more and can get a bit of fame which i don’t blame them but other than what i feel i have said they do nothing more or less than other drivers, again i can speak from my own experience because i have run with people like loren hills, robert pennick, and his brother jay, rod cahill all running tankers and all regular carlile drivers this i did enjoy i learnt so much from them about the dalton.
All im telling you is what i personally saw, and again i must say that i would not like to to be a full time ice road trucker.lastly on my return home people kept asking me was i scared of falling through the ice well that was never going to happen funny how they still see IRT but on the dalton you cant fall through the power of tv images cheers lester.
There is no doubt that driving up in Alaska is difficult in winter, as Hutpik has said, those of us that drive in Canada have experienced the same conditions many times, from October to March you can run from the East Coast to the West Coast and be in a winter storm the whole way, I had a run that started in North Carolina, where I was lucky enough to hit the eye of a major winter storm, from there I went up to Fort McMurray in Alberta and it never stopped snowing the whole way. From there I went to Calgary, switched trailers and went over the Rockies into Vancouver, again it was snowing almost the whole time, once there I switched trailers and came back in the snow all the way, but joy of joys, in the Prairies I also had ice and very strong winds trying to blow me in the ditch the whole way.
I then had a few days at home and set off to do a tour with Paul Brandt the country singer, this started in Penticton, BC and went up to Dawson Creek, BC before coming back down to Lethbridge, AB and then into Saskatchewan and Manitoba. It involved leaving each venue after the show and running all night to the next venue, every bloody night we got caught up in a storm and when I say storm, I really mean it, the weather in the mountains is brutal, under normal circumstances I would’ve shut down, but the show must go on, so we pushed on through it every night, it was bloody hard work.
After the tour, my next trip was to California, I had an easy run through North Dakota, but as soon as I crossed the line into Montana all hell broke loose, another winter storm, this one dropped 18" of snow overnight, running through the mountains into Idaho was pretty scary, total whiteouts, howling sub zero winds and you’re in the middle of nowhere, so pulling off the road to wait out the storm is not an option, you just have to keep going.
I’ll have the same crap to contend with this winter, we all do, there are thousands and thousands of drivers who do it day in and day out every year, it’s part of the job up here, always has been, always will be.
Anywhere north of the Mason-Dixon line there are drivers facing the same stuff as the ‘heroes of the Ice Roads’ This isn’t taking anything away from the guys up in Alaska, they do a very difficult job, but the reality is a lot different than you see on the box, take the Stobart programme for instance, they made that look as dangerous and dramatic as possible, yet all they were doing was delivering cakes from a yard to an RDC. I also saw a programme about logging in Oregon, the driver was pulling a loaded trailer up a hill and gobbing off about how the turbo could blow and the truck would explode at any moment, what a load of crap, it was a brand new truck FFS, yet the TV made it look like so dangerous, all he was doing was driving up a hill.
I’ve no doubt that there are good and bad up in Alaska, the same as anywhere, the better ones just get on with the job, the idiots (or those that act up for the camera) like Hugh and Rick make better TV, so that’s what we see on the box. BulkerB, you’ve been lucky enough to see it for yourself, so you know the difference between the men and the boys, the men don’t have a string of dramas, if they did they wouldn’t have 2million plus miles under their bumper 
Nice post newmercman…i’m a UK trucker and there’s noway that we ever experience what you guys do and like you said about the Stobart programme…it’s just about delivering goods on time and what fingers they have in different pies. Unless you’re a trucker, nobody else would know what we go through each and every day behind the wheel and get under paid for our efforts.
Having had experience of driving on both sides of the Atlantic, I have to say that it is a lot easier over here, even with all the extremes of weather, you don’t have to concentrate as much as you do on a Friday afternoon drive on any of Britain’s motorways, you have more more chance of missing a deadline or getting in an accident than you do running around up here in the winter
newmercman:
Having had experience of driving on both sides of the Atlantic, I have to say that it is a lot easier over here, even with all the extremes of weather, you don’t have to concentrate as much as you do on a Friday afternoon drive on any of Britain’s motorways, you have more more chance of missing a deadline or getting in an accident than you do running around up here in the winter
I’m almost sold but could you recommend a decent chainsaw before I return??
You need to ask bobthedog, he’s the man for chainsaw advice
Simple, buy Husqvarna. The cutting ability on tyres is far superior.
And for ice carving there is no better saw.
Newmercman that sounds kind of crazy but amazing at the same time something i would enjoy when can i come out and ride with you .i love canada was there in 89 for six months in alberta lived in medison hat went up the rockies to bamf andg jasper amazing so long ago now
newmercman:
Having had experience of driving on both sides of the Atlantic, I have to say that it is a lot easier over here, even with all the extremes of weather, you don’t have to concentrate as much as you do on a Friday afternoon drive on any of Britain’s motorways, you have more more chance of missing a deadline or getting in an accident than you do running around up here in the winter
Unless you have to drive the north east corridor of course
You need eyes in the back of your head on I-95 and across the Bronx mate
Pat Hasler:
newmercman:
Having had experience of driving on both sides of the Atlantic, I have to say that it is a lot easier over here, even with all the extremes of weather, you don’t have to concentrate as much as you do on a Friday afternoon drive on any of Britain’s motorways, you have more more chance of missing a deadline or getting in an accident than you do running around up here in the winterUnless you have to drive the north east corridor of course
You need eys in the back of your head on I-95 and across the Bronx mate
hi pat, what are eys? 
is that whitehall speak.
Pat Hasler:
newmercman:
Having had experience of driving on both sides of the Atlantic, I have to say that it is a lot easier over here, even with all the extremes of weather, you don’t have to concentrate as much as you do on a Friday afternoon drive on any of Britain’s motorways, you have more more chance of missing a deadline or getting in an accident than you do running around up here in the winterUnless you have to drive the north east corridor of course
You need eys in the back of your head on I-95 and across the Bronx mate
I find that drive a joy, it allows me to release a whole year’s road rage in one afternoon
The CBE at rush hour is just like London or Rome and I drive accordingly, I use the indicators as a warning, not a request and enjoy every minute of it 
bobthedog:
Simple, buy Husqvarna. The cutting ability on tyres is far superior.And for ice carving there is no better saw.
See, I would’ve recommended Stihl, just goes to show, you want good advice, ask an expert
bulkerb:
Newmercman that sounds kind of crazy but amazing at the same time something i would enjoy when can i come out and ride with you .i love canada was there in 89 for six months in alberta lived in medison hat went up the rockies to bamf andg jasper amazing so long ago now
If you’re a twenty something girl with long leg, ■■■■■■■■ and no morals, send me a PM, I’ll pay for your ticket
or if your not so lucky,… big legs, no ■■■■ and long morals.
wire:
or if your not so lucky,… big legs, no ■■■■ and long morals.
If that’s the case then there’s no room for you in 361
newmercman:
wire:
or if your not so lucky,… big legs, no ■■■■ and long morals.If that’s the case then there’s no room for you in 361
Don’t be so ■■■■■■■ tight,I’ll fund the ticket if the guy wants to ride along with you in 361 Would be the ultimate redneck adventure.