Why doesn't Ice Road diesel gel?

[Bushman]

Like a lot of you probably, I watch the Ice Road Trucker series on TV. Last week they showed the actual temperature at -47 degrees below zero that they were trucking in seemingly without a problem. For as long as I've been watching that show they have had frozen up brakes, air lines, an air intake and the jacks, but there has never been a single mention of their diesel fuel gelling in the cold weather. Around here even when it gets down to zero in the winter, I see big rigs stalled along the highway with gelled up fuel systems. What do those guys in Alaska know about running a diesel in cold weather that northern states guys don't know?

[LE]

Well I put anti-gell in my fuel tank. I also have a heater with recirculation. My guess is they keep in warm with heaters.

[DancesWithKnives]

I don't know how they keep the fuel warm but in '93 I drove the haul road up to Deadhorse, near Prudhoe Bay. When you stopped outside a business it looked like they had an Old West style hitching rail out front---except it was lined with all-weather electrical outlets. Guys with gas-powered vehicles would sometimes plug in 3 engine heaters when they stopped. In winter, the diesel guys would leave them running. It was a bit different than what I was used to in Los Smogeles!

DWK

[Greywolf]

like Le

Siloo fuel addative -, wintermix fuel -(more kerosene), fuel heaters and never shut it down except to check oil.

brakes will freeze in spite of alcohol if there is a leak somewhere in the pumps system. This usualy will give you warning in the form of "puke" coming from your air dryer valve instead of just spitting moisture.

[Bushman]

I wonder if what I'm seeing stalled along the road in winter then are southern trucks that filled up down there? I do remember talking to one trucker from Dallas that said that when he gets up here, that he never shuts his truck off from the time he leaves until the time that he gets back. A week or two back they finally froze up a truck engine on that show by leaving it sit outside all night not plugged in or running. They probably just needed to create a little drama because even I wouldn't have done that and I've never owned a diesel.

[Greywolf]

Yeah they create drama allright.
The Northern Loggers or whatever the name of the show is, is filmed here in Milnocket Me. It's a neighbor of ours that owns the outfit that they film.
It's like going to the Stock Car Races, no one admits it, but everyone is there to see the crashes.

[Bushman]

Greywolf, I was going to ask you if you knew anything about that Pelletier Logging operation and actually looked up where Fort Kent was in relationship to Milinocket. I wonder how their restaurant is doing? They seem to have a nice setup there and run some very nice trucks. Lots of those logging shows kind of run together in one's mind after a while, but I can identify with your woods way more than I can some of those others. It has been a real eye opener how mechanized logging has become. This area is full of logging history too and it just amazes me how tough those old time loggers must have been. Instead of a big hp Stihl or Husqvarna chainsaw or a feller-buncher, a person got the other end of a crosscut saw. Grandpa drove the freight train that pulled a lot of the big white pine out of northern Wisconsin and he and his crew never went out after dark for fear of getting sandbagged. Pretty rough areas north of here back then.

[Greywolf]

http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/photos-ak-snc1/v2608/44/120/1099762703/n1099762703_30178624_453480.jpg Grandpa was a teamster.Hear was a load of pulp back then load of pulp



Seems the investment, when I was a kid, was in a saw and a good horse, plus a little rigging.

Today the cut one helluva lot more pulp or logs but at a humonus investment in machinery. And most of them aren't living any better for it (Most)

[Greywolf]

wow, the keys on this board are sure sticky, or mabe my fingers aren't goin where I tell the to anymore. sorry for the bad grammar.

[Bushman]

Greywolf, I see they are running the new season shows of American Loggers from up in your neck of the woods. Now they are building logging truck trailers too which I think fits their business plan better than that restaurant that they refurbished last season. Not a single mention of it this season so far on the show. Are the Pelletier woman running that now or did they sell it off?

[Greywolf]

Bman'
as far as I know, the restaurant is still their's. Never been there. Have not been down to Millnocket since....whew, I know I was in my teens then.
My wife went to school with some of the Pelletiers. They showed at the last Class reunion, and acted exactly like they were movie stars, go figure.
" six muce ago i could not spell muvy star,now i are one" lol

On those trailers, building log trailers is probably the better business to be in around here.
I can't bad mouth them though. They open up access to a lot of land that would otherise take me a day and a night to walk in to. And you know you do not want to carry a deer or any extra weight through the bogs that are common to this neck of the woods.
I have stepped into little muck holes no bigger than two foot square, on what seemed to be fairly solid ground, and sunk clear to my crotch. just one leg though. That left my arms and the other led for my buddies to haul me out with. I hate when that happens.