 Good morning, everybody. It's March 17th. It's Thursday. It's 2022. I don't know why I said it in that order. It's Thursday March 17th 2022 We're about to go back up to Norway house Manitoba. It's about a 10-hour drive from where I am now We're gonna bobtail up there. We're gonna pick up another one of those office trailers I'm gonna bring that one down to Selkirk. It's almost exactly the same thing we did yesterday Except that one we brought to Stonewall. Selkirk's a little further east down the road Pretty much the same thing though. 10 hours up there. We're gonna sleep there tonight 10 hours back down and we'll be back tomorrow Friday evening. It'll work out perfect Stop by the Timmy's here in At Deacon's Corner Look at all this. This is what happens when all the snow melts, eh? I don't know what that loader guy's doing if he's moving the water or if he's moving the snow I think he's trying to move the water Oh Boy, I don't want to get stuck here. Oh, oh, man. No, I'm not going in here. Oh Look at this. What a mess. No, I'm not going in there. Are you crazy? I'm bobtailing. I'm gonna get stuck in that stuff See we're not sinking in here. So this this part here is tough towards Harder just like where that guy is there too. He's safe there But this is all packed snow, right? And then at this time of year in springtime when it starts melting it gets all soft and it turns into this mess here and this is a Highway tractor's worst nightmare If you can see people got stuck here already And it'll just suck you right in and you're not going anywhere. It's gonna hold on to you real tight so these are the kind of things you learned in your first couple of years of trucking and How how different seasons I've produced different challenges in different climates in different regions I think we can make it through that but doesn't look too soft We'll just come a roaring through here and just plow right through This gas station is almost ready here. It's gonna be an ESO So when Timmy's It used to be Timmy's and Wendy's always now. It's always Timmy's and ESO so the reason I Pointed out the fact that I was bob tailing before when I decided not to go through that Was because you have less traction when you're bob tailing because there's no weight on your drive tires, right? You'll just sit there and spin However, you see some of these guys decided to plow through there Anyways, if I was fully loaded and at a gross weight of like 80,000 90,000 pounds I would definitely have gone through there too wouldn't have had a problem you go through there like a tank Then when you're fully loaded but when you're empty Even if you have an empty trailer behind you or especially if you're bob tailing That's like a that's like a quicksand trip Trit what trap quicksand trap you'll sink right in and you'll be stuck however if you're fully loaded Use your personal judgment. I mean I would go through that fully loaded But you still run the risk of getting stuck. So if you don't want to run run the risk Just go where you're not going to get stuck Just if you're fully loaded you could probably because you're you're pushing tracks through this way And if you suddenly get stuck and can't go forward well, you can just back up in the tracks You just made right and then take another running start at it probably won't get stuck Like this guy here, look at him He's gonna plow right through give her bud always gonna go for the path of least resistance there, but You see he's probably got a lot of weight in that trailer Even if it's an empty trailer is more than I have So those are the kind of things you learn over the first few years of driving, right? And that's why it's sometimes kind of hard to get on at a company without that experience because the first two years You learn so much, but then the question comes up like Where do I gain my experience if everybody requires experience? Usually like in any career you got to sort of start on something a little bit Closer to home a little bit smaller maybe driving some dump trucks gravel trucks for me personally I went and delivered Pepsi for five years Pepsi and Winnipeg is always looking well I shouldn't sit now it's been ten years since I've been there But they were really desperate for drivers and they hired me right out of the gate. I was 18 I didn't even have my commercial license when they hired me for the job They helped me get my license and trained me and stuff. I got my license and then boom I was out on my own the next day They really needed drivers and I got my experience that way, right? Another way you can gain experience is some of the mega carriers they have these training programs set up already It's a very expensive Big program that some of the big companies do have I'm not familiar with them because I've never gone through them But I know that they they'll train you and hire you if you sign a contract to work with them for an X amount of Time like a year or two after your training is complete, right? That'll train that'll pay back your training Sometimes they'll even train you for free if you agree to work for a year or two at a reduced rate to pay back the training, right? I'm not familiar with those. I'm sorry. I can't help you with those I can help you get work here if you're eligible to work with us here and you do have the experience already We do we do ask that We all a lot of specialized freight here, so we need a Drivers who are passionate about driving who love to drive know what they're doing and can get our freight from point a to point Be safely and in one piece without wrecking it, right? So we are looking for drivers and Even if you think you may not be eligible, but you want to apply anyways You can always send me an email my email address is always down below in the description Trucker Josh at Keystone Western comm there's a link down below in the description to make it super easy for you If you're thinking that you want to work here with us Even if you're wondering maybe I'm not eligible, but I should try anyways There's any a message anyway as we can chat maybe we can work something out, you know, maybe we can figure it out together Maybe you don't have quite the experience that we require, but hey, maybe we can work something out. We can We can figure it out and get you in a truck, right? Because we're looking for drivers, too And we're willing to to work with you so that we can get our freight moving and get you working Buckle myself in so I don't fall out Start her up so we can move forward put her in gear All right But the lights on We're ready to rock. We have 825 kilometers to go. That's 500 miles approximately And we want to do that tonight Let's give her. Oh am I stuck? Nope. Nope. No. Yeah, let's give her no stopping no stopping Yeah, we can't go too fast or we're gonna Go flying out the window over all these bumps Yikes Okay, keep moving just keep moving just keep moving Keep moving. I don't even have to lock up the diffs or anything here Okay, this is a little bit of a soft part here. We should be fine. There's a tow truck right there if I need them Okay, okay And didn't even have to lock anything up Beautiful we've got our Tim's It's always a little bit of a rough ride Bob telling so it's gonna be a bit of a rough ride up north But once we hook on to a trailer, it'll be a smooth ride back south We get to go over that ice road again, that's pretty cool Told my wife last night that I went over the ice Shouldn't have done that Oh, well, it's only half a kilometer and the ice is probably like eight feet thick What do I know? These guys are Bob telling to maybe I should go that way. You know what I'm gonna go that way. I Don't know that way. I changed my mind change my mind doing this way Is this way leads up to the road we call doogled and doogled will take me to the perimeter The road that I want to go to we're gonna go around the north side of Winnipeg and Shoot up like an arrow up up highway six The one highway leading up into northern Manitoba, and it's pretty warm down here right now. It's plus three degrees Celsius Yesterday when I was in Norway house, it was minus 22 up there So it's quite a bit colder there, which is good because I don't want that ice road to melt out. I Don't want to fall through I Know the camera's got a steady camera option on it See you you really aren't seeing how bumpy this road is right now as I'm bob-tailing up the six I'm between what is that Grand Rapids and? Where the six turns east on the way to Thompson? Holy smokes. I forgot already. It's only been one day since I've been up here But yeah, we got to tighten all the bolts and we get there Yikes Look at this thing. Look at everything shake How bad the road is here there's nuts And this is the better part of it. It was worse over there. I pulled over because it was so bumpy I had to give my head a break. It's getting a headache. We're coming up to the generating station Genpeg I think there's a bunch of parking right here or in there, too could always park In and around here if I have to later, but I'm pretty sure I'll have a few hours to keep going yet narrow bridge It'd be interesting taking oversized loads through here I'd love to go inside these hydro dams and actually see how they work. I Think that'd be a really neat field trip Do any of you work in one of these somewhere if not here in Manitoba? Maybe somewhere else? Must be a pretty neat job. I'm surprised there's not more cabins or something up here Is all the lakes like this down in the southern part of the province in the southeast every lake like this has a Multi-million-dollar cabins and cottages lining it. I Guess up here. It's it's untapped one day. It'll be filled with all kinds of cottages One day Manitoba doesn't have enough people yet eventually we'll all spread up here We're coming up to the ice crossing Just about dark out here now On our way back. It'll definitely be pitch black outside Good thing. It's not a very long crossing like I was saying yesterday Usually there's a cable ferry that goes back and forth But when the water freezes We just drive over the water You know most countries they they build or most places I should say Canada to most places build bridges To get over rivers and bodies of water, right? No, not here in northern Manitoba Why build a bridge you just drive right over the water? Way easier cheaper too. Here we go. That's where the ferry usually sits And we got to go down here. This is just across. This isn't even road. This is just down the riverbanks Onto the water over there. It's been a bit of a warmer day today So we'll see how it is. Water we go. It's definitely a lot wetter than it was yesterday Yeeks. Yeah, there's water pooled up on top of the ice here already All right, let's give her On to the water we go driving on the water Insert Jesus joke here very slushy Yikes want to get stuck out here doesn't get your heart pumping. I don't know what does We got to go back across that with a loaded trailer There's my trailer right there exactly like the one I picked up before It's a regular 53 foot reefer trailer by the looks of it the reefer engine has been taken off on the front the refrigeration engine and It's just been converted. I Really want to get back over the ice as quickly as possible I Was only my second time coming up here I guess my third time going over the ice and Going back will be my fourth time but second time loaded and it's been a really warm day As you saw a lot of water and slush had pooled up on top of the ice already That's normal from what I've heard, but it still makes me a little nervous because I'm not used to that I don't do that that often. I don't want to get back over that ice as fast as possible So that I can just be back on the mainland I guess Because this is technically an island that I'm on right now. There's no bridge I mean, there's got to be a time during the year where you can't leave the island right because the ice is too thin to drive over But it's still too thick for the ferry to run back and forth So there's got to be a period of time and both spring and fall where no one can come or go I Don't want to get caught in that time. I don't think that's still like April next month, but I I want to get out of here. I'm gonna get back over that water Guess if you haven't noticed the roads were so rough on the way up here That these brackets actually broke Right off the frame. That's a steel bracket in there. This bracket here Defender like that. That's usually over here Broke right off. I'm lucky it didn't actually fall off I pulled over and it was sort of just hanging off a thread here and laying on the tire and Figure well, that's not good so literally just Picked it up and the rest of it broke off of here and I had to strap it on to the back there We'll get it fixed when we get back to the shop But that's what I mean. I'm not kidding you the roads are terrible coming up here. I need to do something about that The truck is falling apart Need some smoother roads But we made it We made it In one piece the whole piece is still here. We didn't lose anything It's right there Crazy, it's always something. It's always something Just pulled it out just from beside the building there so that I could do a proper walk around Also made sure it was hooked on properly and I got to go grab these Landing gear pads check the tires tires roll turning on this side so the brakes aren't frozen. That's awesome Lights are working back here Fantastic, everything's locked up fantastic All right double check these You can tell that neither tire was sliding because the tracks in the snow So once again, you can tell that it's good by the way that it is Doors are closed and locked locked Okay, so now I've got to Find a place where I can tie down those Dolly pads, I think I might just put them in here There's room in here. We'll see if I can do that And then we'll be on our way Gotta get over that ice sooner the better I don't know if you can see them There's one there one here. I was hoping that because they were frozen into the ground, right? It's kind of hoping that driving over them would loosen them up. They're still frozen to the ground. So we got to go get our trusty fix it tool You know, which tool I'm talking about The trusty crowbar Fixes everything You could pry stuff with it. You can whack stuff with it. You could poke stuff with it haha, I Can't lose But you right here, I guess See the dolly pad down there, right? All right now, should I pry it or should I whack it as the ground thaws Trailer like to sink right into the ground If you don't put it on means I put them under there That way I have them with me very important because if this trailer sinks in in the front there That's a big mess to clean up and nobody's gonna be very happy with me and I like keeping people happy. I'm a people-pleaser Especially when I'm working. I have this thing about pleasing customers. I like them to be happy So that they call back to the ice road All my stuff is just all over the truck. I had this all organized before And I've already cleaned up a lot of it roads just were absolutely nuts and I have to some clean up later now Just nuts so much stuff under here, too Man, and what are my clothes doing up here? Those were all the way back there on the bed They made it all the way up here under the dash It's just a rodeo It's winter roads for you Okay, we're coming up to the ice crossing. I saw a produce truck go in the other way So he came across here fully loaded. That made me feel a little more comfortable There's a car in front of us here is gonna cross in front of us I don't know if you see him way down there Google's my GPS down here still telling me to take the ferry Can't do that this time of year google Okay, now there's a sign off to the right here that should say that the ice crossing is still open And the maximum weight allowed This is seafalls ice crossing. It says open max weight 39.5 tons Uh, that would be 39,500 kilograms So here we go and turn traction control off You know lock up my axles a bit Now you don't want to go flying down onto the ice. You want to go A steady speed but not too fast Let's avoid that little pool of water right there Okay, not too fast not too fast Okay We are on the water Let's get across don't hear any cracking This time of year. I'm not really expecting anything to go wrong, but Since I don't do this that often Uh, it does make me a little nervous when I get so slushy and watery like this on top of the ice Get on to the Banks here. Okay. Now we're on the land I believe And we want to go up the riverbank. Actually, you know, this is the edge of the river yet, right? And we want to give her a little bit going up here Give her give her give her Come on get up here. Here we go. Look at that another successful ice crossing Look at us. We're a bunch of ice road truckers now all of us All of you watching from home. You're now an ice road trucker Cross the ice roads together. It wasn't so bad Thanks for hanging out with me all the way to the end the crossing on the way back was a Well, the second crossing like the second this today was a little bit more uh, uh Intense for me. It's it was only my second time ever going there and back across an ice road and The guy explained it to you right there. There's like a few inches of just slush and water on top of the lake Apparently that's nothing yet though because the locals there were telling me that sometimes there's a foot of water on top of the ice So you're you drive out into the the river and it's just water You drive out. There's a foot of water on top of the ice that you're driving through the water To the other side. You can't see the ice. It's under the water. That's already melted, but it's still good Still good. You still go across Ah, I'm glad I I'm glad I wasn't there for that that would I'm a southern boy. I live in southern canada. I like living in the south You know where we don't have to drive across rivers. Why don't they have a bridge? Apparently the government's been promising the the first nation reserve up there a bridge for like years and years already And they just haven't built it Doesn't that just seem right in line with everything else that they've been promising, you know I Having trouble getting fresh water up to these reserves and we're having trouble building a simple bridge across a little river It's not even that big of a river Come on guys build them a bridge already. That's crazy. Come on. Let's let's get a bridge built up there for norway house man Anyways, uh, that's that's just the way it is up there right now fairy by summer Ice road by winter and I'm guessing there's a certain amount of time during the year Where neither is working because the ice is too thin to drive on but too thick for the boat to go across I don't know I don't know problems that that you know a Just a bridge would solve simple solution Whatever Hope to get one soon. Thanks for watching everybody and I'll see you in tomorrow's video. It was fun crossing the ice road with you