Finally I am working my truck and Jennifer is busy working a the tiny hospital.
When the giant barges come in at terminal camp, there is a long line of truckers waiting to get some loads.One guy decides what company gets what load.We load a trailer, pull it to a large parking area and pull the chains off and grab another trailer. It can be tricky because it snows 2' a night and the lot rarely gets plowed.
We are getting loads for the pipeline itself starting just pass the summit of Thomson Pass. There are staging areas that unload 8-6.If the weather was ok I could make 2 trips a day, once in a while.The good thing was that you could drop a trailer and grab an empty of yours. Then when you come back the next day, they would unload both and deck the trailer.Just Tom and I ran these loads, so having the empty trailer very rarely worked out.If the pass was plowed, sometimes you did not have to chain up.80% of the time it was 2 sets of 3 railers. We used ice bar chains and we wore them out so we repaired them constantly. Sometimes in the middle of the night, with 2-3 ft. of fresh snow, I would spin-out and have to wait for a plow or road grader.I have put chains on "over the top" of other chains to get going but you have to drive very slow.
One night I screwed up. Backed under a load on a brand new 45' flat. Snowing very heavy. We always went under every trailer, used a heavy hammer and made sure each brake pad released.Running in deep, wet snow, often the pads were frozen to the drums.That is why you see those funny paint marks on trailer tires.I had to hang two sets of chains just to leave the yard.The snow is deep but the load seems to be pulling hard.Just pass the summit I pull over to piss and bump the tires; it is snowing X 10. I realize that I drug the rear, inside trailer tires off but did not feel anything.
 Later

@silver-duck


Did you ever use or hear of anyone using bleach to free up the brake shoes?




What kinds of temperatures were you dealing with?

I have never heard of using bleach, but I have been off the road for a long time.
 Because Valdez is on the water, 15 - 40 degrees; sometimes with 10-30 mph winds. But as soon as you start climbing the temp usually drops fast.

I was having a good day. I had already delivered two loads to a storage area just before Copper Center.I hooked up to another trailer, laid down for a couple hours, and headed over the pass. It was snowing pretty hard and it took awhile to get over the pass. I pulled the chains because the road was well plowed.
I am finally going to get 3 loads in a day. I meet a tanker, wave at him and find myself getting pulled into the 10' high snow bank.No damage but I am stuck.I am blocking 1 lane of a narrow road with tall banks on each side.It is 1:00 am so I stay on the CB to let everyone know where to slow down.Two snowplow dump trucks came by and asked if they could help.They chained the two 12Y dumps together, and tried to pull me out forward with no luck.I then started shoveling snow around the drivers thinking that I might be able to chain up but after 2 hours I had to give up.At about 8:00 am, a bed tandem came by and I begged him and offered money. He turned around to use his big winch and had me climb over the bank and hook a cable to a large tree to use as a deadhead.he also had metal ramps that he placed under his rear drivers that dug into the ice. He was very good and pulled me out slowly with no damage.I gave him $200; he was very kind.
I did make it to the drop a little late, but it was a long night.

Wow, the stuff you and your wife went through trucking in Alaska.

I worked for a small trucking company in SC in the 90s called Builders Transport, though not as a driver.

Very entertaining thread. Keep the stories coming, Mr. Duck.

Keep 'em coming, OP! These are some interesting stories, like playing Snowrunner in real life.

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I rated this thread epic.

Same.

The two old trucks belong to Bill Unfer and Tom.These guys were serious truckers. I have more stories about Tom later.
 Hell, maybe a quick one now.Tom was a great driver and mechanic; he loved Mack cab-overs and was tough as they come.
Fast forward to about 1982 and Tom is still an owner operator and he is hauling a load for me from Seattle to Ohio.He calls in and says he is broke down in eastern SD and is at a small truck stop.He says the motor sounds bad [ Mack V-8 ]. I ask him if he wants me to put another truck on it, he says give me a day to see if I can fix it. I call the customer and let him know.Next day no call from Tom; not uncommon, but it makes me mad.Same the next day.on day 3 he calls and says I will deliver day after tomorrow.I ask how he fixed his truck?
Tom borrowed a forklift from a shop behind the TS and pulled the motor.Then hitch hiked to western Minn. to a wrecking yard for trucks and bought a motor.He had them band it to a pallet and he hitch hiked back on a flatbed going west with his motor. He installed it in the back of the TS and was eastbound when he called me.I knew Tom so all I said was call me tomorrow.
I loaded a powder magazine [ an old 40' dry van, lined floor to ceiling with bricks; it weighted 40,000,empty.] It was going to a storage area outside of Fairbanks where all the construction co's store their explosives. When I get to FB, I call someone who can unlock the gates and show me where to leave it.I get to FB about 8:00 pm and it is -48. I park at the local restaurant/bar where us truckers hung out. In that weather you never set your brakes and when you stop, you have to wait 5mins. and pull ahead about 4' and wait 5 more and back up, sometimes for a long time. Tires are warmer than the ice where you stop so a small amount of moisture between the two will freeze you to the ice.I was very careful and had dinner and a couple of drinks and went to bed because the guy was coming at 6:00 am to get me
He showed up at 6 and said follow me; it was -52, zero wind, and very thick "ice fog".I am frozen to the ice, he comes back to see what is wrong.
You have to be very careful that you don't break a U-joint, drive-line, clutch, axle, etc.The only thing you can do is just let out the clutch a slight bit, very easy to rock forward; then the same in reverse.Over and over again, you can not get in a hurry.I had a bellytarp that went from the the front bumper to just behind the transmission
To keep the trans. shifting in these temps. No synthetic oil then.The guy is getting pissed at me but all I can do is wait to feel a little give and then go for it.We get to the storage place and have some problems. I drop the trailer and start to bobtail back to Valdez but there is a big problem.it is now 9 and the Fairbanks traffic is crazy.
The exhaust makes the ice fog worst along with the semi-daylight.I can only see 20' past the hood and I don't know my way around Fairbands very well. These people drive like crazy and I can't stop fast with no trailer.
Fuck;  then it happens. I rear-end some guy, hard.I get out and walk up to a like new station wagon, with some body damage. The guy comes back and looks at the damage and say's; it is too cold and dangerous to be here. He jumps back in his car and disappears into the fog before I can say 5 words. I jump in the truck and slowly head back to Valdez.
 " I would rather be lucky than good"!

It is time for a "Thanksgiving day trucking story" and I have a good one.
I was always trucking on Thanksgiving because I took some time off at Christmas; two young children at home and a hard working wife.We have been married 55 years as of yesterday, by the way.
I loaded a large therm-o- forming machine In Yakima, Wa. going to NY and I wanted to unload on the Friday after Thanksgiving, allowing me to reload a big milling machine in Worcester Mass. going back to Boeing in Seattle.I left in plenty of time and stopped in N. Lima Ohio [ Ohio / Pa. line, just off the toll road.] It was Thanksgiving afternoon and I went in and had some turkey and laid down.
The truck stop is shaped like a bowl with the pumps, restaurant,and shop, all down in the low spot. Across the rim of the top of the bowl is a row of parked trucks facing down hill. About 20+ and I parked in that row. Very few truckers around and several of the trucks were running.Some I noticed were very old.
I got up about 11:00 pm and went in for a piece of pie. The restaurant was empty except for 3 young, cute, waitresses, sitting around, bored. They gave me my pie for free and I set down looking out the window at the car gas pumps and row of trucks along the rim.The pumps are about 50Y up the hill and the line of trucks another 50+ yards.
I hear a loud exhaust and see a beautiful, black, Trans am, pull up and park at the pumps;on the uphill side, between the pumps and the line of trucks.Out comes a good looking guy, dressed up and looking like he works for "Tony Soprano".He comes in the restaurant and the girls get excited. The guy and the 3 girls sit in a big round booth and start laughing and goofing around.I am the only other person in there and from what I can hear, he is the manager of the truck stop.
I see some movement and look up. An old junky cab over Jimmy with a dry van behind it, that has been sitting there running with nobody in it, starts rolling. It is picking up speed and heading for the gas pumps.Now I see it is headed for the trans am and hits it hard on the passenger side, a perfect "T-bone". Then it bounces back up the hill a little and hits it again. Bounces back a little more and come's to rest against the trans am; motor still running.
I look over at Mr. Cool and the ladies and they saw nothing.Only I saw it happen.
 I walk over and say; sir, you better check out your car.All of us run out there and look and his ride is a mess. The good part is that truck would of hit the gas pumps if the car was not there.
What are the odds of the brakes bleeding off, 30 minutes after he parks there.I slept a couple more hours and took off.

@silver-duck


Did you carry anything in the truck for dealing with bear or wolves while you were in Alaska?   (Thinking in terms of if your truck broke down and you have to hoof it for a ways).  


If so, what did you carry?




Thanks!

All I had was the High-Standard, .22 mag. revolver.
 I was checking the chains on my load and I got an uneasy feeling one time. I turned around and a very large wolf had walked up behind me and was about 40' away.Just staring and frozen and his eyes stood out. I had a long cheater pipe so I was not to worried.I went around the trailer and got in. I had food in the cab because we could have anything we wanted to eat in the pipe-line camps. I rolled down the passenger window and gave him some steak.