Trucking in the Northland

[The Shooters Apprentice]

Not sure how many of you guys know what I do for work. I spent 12 years mainly doing road construction and oil field work and a few other odds and ends, but moved into trucking full time last fall running the Dalton highway up here in Alaska. 

I’ll try to post pics here and there on this thread and maybe tell a tale or two from the road. Right now it’s transitioning to winter. Snow and ice on the roads, but way too warm and even some rain so it’s been slick out there. 

This guy had a bad day and slid backwards off of finger mountain with a set of chains on. 

[tommag]

I'm looking forward to you updating this thread as conditions permit. Keep it on the road sir!

[srjdsmith]

That’s like some Ice Road Trucker crap right there. Stay safe!

[Towtruck]

What is the round saddle tank on that overturned trailer for?  Been involved with trucks for forty years and never seen a saddle tank on a trailer unless it was there to catch refer water from a fish truck.  (most all refer fuel tanks are mounted under the trailer)

Winter is coming here too.....I'll be back to doing the chain up thing before long....

[MontanaLon]

What is the round saddle tank on that overturned trailer for?  Been involved with trucks for forty years and never seen a saddle tank on a trailer unless it was there to catch refer water from a fish truck.  (most all refer fuel tanks are mounted under the trailer)

Winter is coming here too.....I'll be back to doing the chain up thing before long....

From my view that tank is under the trailer but the trailer is sitting on its side so it looks wonky.

[The Shooters Apprentice]

What is the round saddle tank on that overturned trailer for?  Been involved with trucks for forty years and never seen a saddle tank on a trailer unless it was there to catch refer water from a fish truck.  (most all refer fuel tanks are mounted under the trailer)

Winter is coming here too.....I'll be back to doing the chain up thing before long....

my guess is that it is a fuel tank. That was a Fracking trailer owned by Halliburton

[The Shooters Apprentice]

Got busted by the Mermaids yesterday.

Usually the scales here are pretty cool and only care about axle weights. New kid must be trying to prove himself and did a level 2 on me, first time I have ever had an inspection and first time for a log book inspection.

I run Elog and took my 10 hours off Sunday starting at 1:30am and took off at 9:30 am. Of course, with it being day light savings the logs only showed 9 hours off instead of 10 and I had to really fight him to let that one go.

My drive axles were also 500lb overweight but I made him reweigh it, and when he wasn’t looking I cranked the knob for the tag axle on my trailer about 3 turns and when I came back around I weighed 900lb overweight on the trailer tag. Told him his scales must be messed up and talked my way out of that one.

He did get me a violation for no reverse light though. We run LED light bars on a switch and they don’t come on automaticity when you put the truck in reverse and he didn’t like it. He wanted to get me on a marker light that wasn’t working too but I gave it a good smack and got a flicker out of it and was able to convince him it worked when I left the shop.

Guess talking my way out of 3 of the 4 wasn’t too bad…..

Photo from south side of Atigun pass last night

[tommag]

Wow, that's a heck of an aurora display!

[Towtruck]

I trained a couple of the scale officers from Fairbanks five years ago. Great guys. As a 40 year driver and a 24 year employee/ instructor at a truck scale I can say I have seen it all for shenanigans trying to get out of a weight ticket. 500 pounds is not worth the fight on the enforcement side and we would rarely hold anyone up for that small of an overweight. I routinely overload my logging truck by 880 pounds as I know on my route to the mill if I ever get stopped for weight the officer has to give me 1% . If I'm going to take the freeway I have to be within 280 pounds. The new guys at the scales take time to figure out life and stop messing with the small stuff. Once they get a few big overweights, a few broken frames, busted suspensions then they will see that the small stuff is not worth messing with.

I do gotta love the smacking of the lights though....I don't care if it works when you hit it, it did not work when asked to turn it on. Whacking it is not a fix and you will still leave my bay with a violation for that. The guys that when circled for weight who decide to stop out back and adjust before I can weight you for the first time are my favorite. You will be getting that ticket for 200 pounds and a failure to obey a regulatory sign for not following directions and coming to the scale. You should hear the excuses for that stunt.....just come around and get weighed, it won't be as bad as admitting you know you are heavy by trying to fix it on the way around the building and getting caught. The guys that play with tag axles don't get far either on our scale.....that is an admission you know you are heavy and again we don't take kindly to it.

The drivers that follow directions and take their lumps when heavy or long without all the excuses are my favorite, they are just doing their job and not trying to get away with something. and 99% of the time they leave without any tickets.

[The Shooters Apprentice]

I trained a couple of the scale officers from Fairbanks five years ago. Great guys.  As a 40 year driver and a 24 year employee/ instructor at a truck scale I can say I have seen it all for shenanigans trying to get out of a weight ticket. 500 pounds is not worth the fight on the enforcement side and we would rarely hold anyone up for that small of an overweight. I routinely overload my logging truck by 880 pounds as I know on my route to the mill if I ever get stopped for weight the officer has to give me 1% . If I'm going to take the freeway I have to be within 280 pounds. The new guys at the scales take time to figure out life and stop messing with the small stuff. Once they get a few big overweights, a few broken frames, busted suspensions then they will see that the small stuff is not worth messing with.

I do gotta love the smacking of the lights though....I don't care if it works when you hit it, it did not work when asked to turn it on.  Whacking it is not a fix and you will still leave my bay with a violation for that.  The guys that when circled for weight who decide to stop out back and adjust before I can weight you for the first time are my favorite. You will be getting that ticket for 200 pounds and a failure to obey a regulatory sign for not following directions and coming to the scale. You should hear the excuses for that stunt.....just come around and get weighed, it won't be as bad as admitting you know you are heavy by trying to fix it on the way around the building and getting caught.  The guys that play with tag axles don't get far either on our scale.....that is an admission you know you are heavy and  again we don't take kindly to it.

The drivers that follow directions and take their lumps when heavy or long without all the excuses are my favorite, they are just doing their job and not trying to get away with something. and 99% of the time they leave without any tickets.

not trying to make too much of an excuse, but there is nowhere to weigh up here in Fairbanks currently, with the exception of the Lynden yard if you are hauling their freight, and their scale is not accurate. I’ve got a squeeze on my truck, and between that and a little bit of luck, I’ve never been overweight before, or at least not enough to have them pull me in. 

this time I was hauling fracking sand on a trailer I didn’t load. With 80lb on my trailer tag I was just a hair over 42k on my load scale, but had no way of knowing what my other axles weighed. 

42k is legal up here in the winter time. We are allowed to take weight off the trailer axles, and put it forward on the drives, but the overall weight has to stay the same. With this load I was allowed 106,400 and I grossed 105,800 on the scales so I was right there.