Yellowknife ice trucking

[squonker]

^^ A little heavy on the tare weight though! ^^

[gsd4me]

Originally Posted by squonker

Ideally I'd have a Scania 143 V8 500.

I've always like the look of that particular model, and of course, the note from the V8 is great.

As you run the engines all the time when out in the field, do you just idle them or up the revs a bit? On the Volvo`s and Scania`s, I put the cruise control up to about 700rpm when sitting, so the GPS won't pick up prolonged idle time.

[squonker]

I always idle up as a matter of principle, it brings the oil pressure up, eases the 'strain' of idling (high compression engines don't like to idle), plus on the ice it keeps the temps up. On the winter road I use 900 rpm as a 'base', and bring the revs up from there if I need to. I think occasionally I've had to have them as high as 1200 just to keep the coolant temp in operating range, but not very often.

Here in southern B.C. under 'normal' conditions I usually bring the rpms up to about 700. It not only helps with the oil pressure (as mentioned above), but if a truck has one of those automatic anti-idling things that shuts your rig down after 5 mins, using the high idle will override that.

[troidus]

When my dad started working for PIE, he got the shit scared out of him by the automatic idle control. He was taking a roadside nap and the idle control suddenly raised the engine speed. He said he bolted upright, thinking he'd fallen asleep while driving, and it took him a second to figure out what was going on.

[Unique458]

Well here i sit at the motel in Edmonton again, thankfully it will be the last night, tomorrow we head to the yard to pickup our trailers and from there we head north, today was spent finishing up safety's on the trucks, and a few other nik nak,s.

I heard that the ice road is ready now, the portages are a bit rough, they haven't had a lot of snow this year, so they are hauling snow from the lakes to fill in the holes on portages.
I will be hauling to the Diavik mine this year.

I am glad that i was able to keep busy the last few days, there was not much to do, but there was some stuff to get done and it killed of some time each day.

The past few days have been cold out here - 30's and -40's

[squonker]

Thanks for checking in! Glad that you managed to keep busy and I hope that everything goes smoothly for your trip north. I assume that the trailers you will hauling to YK will be full?

A friend in Yellowknife texted earlier this evening to say that it is currently -42c there - they may be lacking in snow but they sure have the temps to build a good road!

[gsd4me]

Originally Posted by Unique458

Well here i sit at the motel in Edmonton again, thankfully it will be the last night, tomorrow we head to the yard to pickup our trailers and from there we head north, today was spent finishing up safety's on the trucks, and a few other nik nak,s.

So then, what sort of truck are you driving, and what is your opinion of it? I thought you just hooked up to whatever trailer was ready to go at the loading area, and didn't use your own.

[squonker]

Originally Posted by gsd4me

I thought you just hooked up to whatever trailer was ready to go at the loading area, and didn't use your own.

That's one difference between hauling fuel and freight. Fuel haulers will, as a rule, have the same set of trailers all season. Fill them up, take them to the mine and empty them. Drive empty back to the rack and to re-fill, then repeat...!

[gsd4me]

Originally Posted by squonker

That's one difference between hauling fuel and freight. Fuel haulers will, as a rule, have the same set of trailers all season. Fill them up, take them to the mine and empty them. Drive empty back to the rack and to re-fill, then repeat...!

Ah, OK, I didn't realise he was doing tanker work.

[squonker]

...trying very hard to bite my tongue here.....

[troidus]

Originally Posted by squonker

-40c is sort of a significant point on the temperature scale, steel acts differently when it becomes that cold. It is much more brittle and much more likely to break. The City of Yellowknife, for instance, is very reluctant to grade the roads at -40c or below because the grader blades can simply start falling apart with only average use.

Anybody ever try to make a hollow plow blade that could have hot air blown through it to keep the steel from getting too cold? It'd need to be enough below freezing to not have snow and ice stick to it, but warm enough to not be brittle. Maybe -10C would work.

[gsd4me]

Originally Posted by squonker

...trying very hard to bite my tongue here.....

Please explain?......

[Drif10]

Last week I had a run out of Alexandria, 3 hours east of me. 0600 Thursday tee time, finish Friday aft.

Forecast for Wed nite there was -50 windchill. Old Freight that was a spare truck, didn't run much.

Go up early Thurs like they wanted? Yeah, right. Done a lot of time in the Artic, so I went up after supper Wed eve.

Truck rolled over 4 times, click, click, click... call in a mobile, get it fired with some juice, lots of conditioner in the tanks. 3 hours to get it running, brakes unfroze, an hour to pound the ice off the fifth wheel and get it working, pinned, trailer unfroze...you know the drill. I was one cold puppy when I bunked up.

Go to leave 6 hours later, and it won't do over 50k. On a down hill. Lines still froze. Limp it 90 minutes to Cornwall (a 48 km run), and all the shops are booked, solid. "Maybe next week..." was heard a lot. Let the company push the buttons, they got it into a shop, lost 8 hours on the day. Things did not get much better from there.


I don't miss artic ops.

Not a bit.

[squonker]

Originally Posted by gsd4me

Please explain?......

Nothing about what you said, David - I originally wrote a comment on the old 'fuel haulers Vs freight haulers' thing but deleted it and wrote what you quoted instead

[squonker]

Originally Posted by Drif10

Last week I had a run out of Alexandria, 3 hours east of me. 0600 Thursday tee time, finish Friday aft.

Forecast for Wed nite there was -50 windchill. Old Freight that was a spare truck, didn't run much.

Go up early Thurs like they wanted? Yeah, right. Done a lot of time in the Artic, so I went up after supper Wed eve.

Truck rolled over 4 times, click, click, click... call in a mobile, get it fired with some juice, lots of conditioner in the tanks. 3 hours to get it running, brakes unfroze, an hour to pound the ice off the fifth wheel and get it working, pinned, trailer unfroze...you know the drill. I was one cold puppy when I bunked up.

Go to leave 6 hours later, and it won't do over 50k. On a down hill. Lines still froze. Limp it 90 minutes to Cornwall (a 48 km run), and all the shops are booked, solid. "Maybe next week..." was heard a lot. Let the company push the buttons, they got it into a shop, lost 8 hours on the day. Things did not get much better from there.


I don't miss artic ops.

Not a bit.

Bloody hell! Good on you for going in early, you got grief but a lot less grief than you would have had if you had turned up when they told you to. Did you have the opportunity to speak to your boss and say,"Wtf"?