Yellowknife ice trucking

[troidus]

1203 is gasoline. 1999 is diesel. What's 1202?

[Phlemdog]

Originally Posted by Unique458

Sorry i know this is a long story.

No need to apologize, stories are the point of this thread. I much prefer this thread to the tv show.

Originally Posted by troidus

1203 is gasoline. 1999 is diesel. What's 1202?

D.O.T. Placard 1202: Gas, Oil, Diesel Fuel, Heating Oil, Class 3.

I think the diesel is specifically the off road variant.

[Unique458]

Originally Posted by troidus

1203 is gasoline. 1999 is diesel. What's 1202?

Originally Posted by Phlemdog

No need to apologize, stories are the point of this thread. I much prefer this thread to the tv show.





D.O.T. Placard 1202: Gas, Oil, Diesel Fuel, Heating Oil, Class 3.

I think the diesel is specifically the off road variant.

1203 is gas, and 1202 is diesel, the only difference in the diesel is the color, we were hauling clear diesel, looked like water, diesel you buy for your pickup/big rig is green, and home heating i think is red, it is all the all the same fuel...... to the best of my knowledge.

[Phlemdog]

Originally Posted by Unique458

1203 is gas, and 1202 is diesel, the only difference in the diesel is the color, we were hauling clear diesel, looked like water, diesel you buy for your pickup/big rig is green, and home heating i think is red, it is all the all the same fuel...... to the best of my knowledge.

We used red diesel (which in not the ultra low sulfur variant that the pickup/big rig stuff is), for the farm equipment. As a matter of fact, the sign on the pump said "For off road/farm equipment use only" along with a "Violators will be prosecuted" warning.

Of course, this is all US of A stuff. Could be different in Canada. I don't know.

[tmk]

Nice to see your posts from your first season , keep them comin' Unique . As far as diesel goes there were several grades RSD (Regular Sulfur Diesel ) LSD ( Low Sulfur Diesel ) and ULSD (Ultra Low Sulfur Diesel ) With different Pour Points ie. P40, P50 that I hauled when I was up there in '07 ,'08, and '09 . Looking forward to reading about your experiences !

[street tracker]

Very cool to find this thread up and going again!

I worked in YK in the early 90's cold weather testing cars, so I love seeing the pictures: many familiar sights, plus the place has grown a lot since then. Back in those days, it was still all about gold...

[John Fry]

Originally Posted by Unique458

1203 is gas, and 1202 is diesel, the only difference in the diesel is the color, we were hauling clear diesel, looked like water, diesel you buy for your pickup/big rig is green, and home heating i think is red, it is all the all the same fuel...... to the best of my knowledge.

Originally Posted by Phlemdog

We used red diesel (which in not the ultra low sulfur variant that the pickup/big rig stuff is), for the farm equipment. As a matter of fact, the sign on the pump said "For off road/farm equipment use only" along with a "Violators will be prosecuted" warning.

Of course, this is all US of A stuff. Could be different in Canada. I don't know.

The red/purple colour is just a dye. That way the tax man knows that you are using fuel that is taxed at a lower rate for farm/off-hiway use.
If they find dye in an on-road vehicle=big fine.

[Unique458]

Sorry guys, i've been busy, trying to update once a week, i will have an update soon.

[Unique458]

So we get to lockhart at 7 am, slept till 11, went into camp showered ate, and got going shortly afterwards. An hour later we caught up to 2 other guys in our group,who were in a group of 4, ( we might have been driving a bit too fast LoL! ) ( or they were a bit slow ) so up the lakes we went in a 6 truck convoy.






Leaving Lockhart we have a big lake ahead of us, : Mackay lake, it takes between 3-1/2 4 hrs to cross, i find myself liking the big lakes, cause you just set your cruise at 30 31 km/hr ( north of Lockhart they allow you 5km/hr more because the ice is thicker and the temps get colder as you go north ) Anyhow i like cruising the bigger lakes, sit back enjoy the view, play around with the GPS, radio, or what ever, the only bad part about crossing a big lake, is if you are tired, the lake seems to take twice as long to cross, and if you don't stay alert, you'll end up in the snow bank, you would be surprised to see how many end up there at the start of the year, it gets better as the weeks go by and people get used to the routine, i've only gotten caught once crossing when i was tired and let me tell you what a long haul that was, but that's another story into itself that i'll share later.

Ther road from Lockhart to Diavik, portages also were rough, lots of potholes on portages, and lakes were not much better.

We all get to the mine, just as we get there the first 2 in our group that left way ahead of us, has just got done unloading, so we made good timing after all.

They tell me that sleeping at Diavik is not a good idea, the sleep area is in some sort of a pit, and being that far north it's damn cold, so when trucks sit for hrs in the cold like that, they get stiff, it feels like your brakes are on a wheel or two. All of the oil in your transmission / rear end / axles get so cold it's like molasses in cold weather. It's -41 here today, So the plan for the rest of the day is to get unloaded and head back to Lockhart for some sleep, but doing so mean crossing Mackay being a bit tired, it's gonna be a long night to get back to Lockhart.

At 3am we finally see the lights of Lockhart, thank god! time to sleep. Plan is to get up at 8:30, and on the road to Yellowknife by 9am.

The next day ( Day 10 ) On our way to YK i had some issues on my bridge, ( first trailer suspension ) i had no air in the airbags, got out to look at it, looks like the air valve leveler broke off. It being so cold, it doesn't take much to brake stuff, and i did not want to attempt to fit it cause i could make it worse, so since i'm empty there wont be any harm done going back like this.

Got my truck into the shop right away upon arrival in YK, fixed up, and off to the tank farm to reload, and we were the first in line, good , no one in front of us, it's a pain in the ass when your trying to hurry up to load and get a tee time out and there's 7-8 trucks to load before you, at 40-45 min each it takes a bit of time to get your turn, although they load at 3-4 stations at a time, there are still loading for 3 different mines, so it takes time.

8pm all ready to roll, we went inside for supper and a tee time for 4am .

[gsd4me]

...So here are a few pics I took the other day.

Kenworth K200 Aerodyne in 26 metre B double configuration, looks like a fairly new unit.





Interesting way of getting the A and B trailers as close as possible, and good for loading vehicles; a bit hard to see but there are fold back ramps just in front of the backhoe tracks. There are so many ways to use this rig, it wouldn't be idle for long.

[Unique458]

Day 11, 4am, I wake up to find someone has taken my chock blocks, NICE! Thanks for that, like i don't have enough troubles as it is, and in my own yard .

Down the Ingram we go, something didn't feel just right on the truck this morning, a bit later, low air, so i decided to take a better look at it at the "meddows" which is your first check point on the ice. Sure enough another brake down, this time it's the hard line feeding air into the airbags on the rear suspension on the truck. So my running partner took a quick look and said you wont be able to fix this here, so he opted to continue on leaving me behind to get fixed up, i was a sitting duck, even if i could unhook the trailer, i did not have enough air to release the brakes to get myself back to town.

I made a phone call ( sat. phone ) for the repair truck, they are on their way, 3 hrs later , still no repair truck, WTF ! c'mon already, it only takes about an hr or so to drive from town to the meddows, another 2hrs finally they show up, took another hr to get fixed up, in the cold nothing wants to work the way it should, your fighting it every step of the way. 6 hrs later, away we go with the next passing group.
Later on that evening, at "hotel 49" that's portage 49, i stopped for a few hrs sleep, ( 5 1/2 hrs so do it ) i was really tired, i had not even stopped in to have supper at Lockhart, i was just trying to make up some of the time i had lost earlier in the day, and again i was awful tired, it was all i could do just to get to 49, ( stupid mackay ) cant stop on lakes remember, so i had to push on ,today was another 23hr day, see the trend?.


Day 12: Delivered my load, and waited a couple of hours to hitch a ride with the next southbound convoy, being separated from my group, i'm sort of at the mercy of what ever traffic is heading in my direction. This group i was in were all stopping at Lockhart, some to sleep some to eat, i decided it was a good time to get a few things done, like shower/laundry/and a decent meal.

Once i was all done that, i was again looking to hitch a ride with another convoy heading south, I guess thats the bad about being solo, waiting to get a ride , vs 2 guys running together, you come and go as you please.
At 5:50pm, i'm stilling waiting for a ride south, at this time i wont be able to re-load tonight, it will be too late by the time i get back, it will have to be in the morning.....in a long line up, waiting some more LoL! it's the way it goes i guess.
It being Thursday, i 'm hoping to be loaded first thing Friday morning, and up to and back from the mine by Sat. night, that would give me 3 loads this week + a few break downs.

Finally i get a ride south, only to be held up at Charlie's hill, It was about 7:45pm , talk on the radio says there has been spinout's all day long south of Lockhart, it turns out this group of trucks heading south that i'm in was the last to leave Lockhart for the night, so that the sand trucks can sand down all the nasty spots for the mornings rush hour traffic..........i'm glad that i got out when i did. I wrote in my journal that it was a slippery night of driving south of Lockhart, and a stressful one also, i will sleep good tonight!

Stay tuned for Day 13...............

[squonker]