What’s the heaviest rig you take on the ice?

[Sooner]

Originally Posted by SamSteele

Had a near miss on the ice one time a number of years ago and haven’t driven a vehicle back out since. Sleds or ATVs only for me.

I and the GF(wife now) went through a spring on Lac Nannone 30 yrs ago on sleds. I got lucky, my sled sank near the island and didn't go under as it was shallow. She went in deeper and while standing on the seat, the water was boob high. I had to pull her out with a skinny long dead tree I found on the island. I'm still super nervous when driving on the lake and prefer my sleds or dads Argo most times.

Heaviest truck on the ice was my 97 F350, CC, Long box 4x4. That only went on when I knew the ice was thick.


If you ever been to the Pigeon lake fish derbies, you know how strong ice is just from the full parking lots they plowed onto the ice.

[SamSteele]

Originally Posted by AltaBorn

Nothing is for sure out there. Can’t leave us hanging like that though, what happened?

I partially broke through with a 1/2 ton at Long Lake a number of years ago. We were able to get the truck out and off the ice without the it going through, but it was enough to keep me from driving on ever again. That feeling of your front wheels dropping through is something you will never forget and an experience that I don't want to ever have again.

SS

[tight line]

Originally Posted by KegRiver

Heaviest rig I have driven on unfortified lake ice is a C65 10 ton water truck.

Minimum ice thickness for it was 24", company rule.

A couple of times I found the ice to be only 16" after I was out on the lake.
That's something I would not willingly do again. It was incredibly scary since water would gush out of the hole as soon as I drilled through into the water below.

But I never broke through in hundreds of occasions of driving that rig on ice.

Haha thats crazy! I would have the windows down for sure..lol

[Bushleague]

Used to drive my old welding truck on the ice all the time. It was 98 chev 1ton dually with an old Lincoln classic welder and steel deck (probably 3000 extra lbs). Also had a heavy loaded service skid on a 2012 Ford 1 ton that I'd use for ice fishing sometimes. Never went out until I had lots of ice, and always stuck to areas where lots of other vehicles had gone, same as any other vehicle, and never had any trouble.

[Frank_NK28]

I ran logging trucks for 10 years and each year we routinely did water crossings(river) with loads ranging from 72,000kg gross weight to as much as 112,000kgs depending on our trailer configurations/end destination. Our crossings were monitored daily. For the highway configured loads(74,000kg max) we had to have 36" ice minimum and when we ran off-road configuration(10'-12' wide and 14'-6" high) we were always 110,000 to 112,000kgs gross weight on a crossing that was flooded to a minimum thickness of 54". We ran 5 axle trailers, 4 fixed and one airlift. We made sure all 5 were down and we crossed at a maximum speed of 10km/h with only one truck even empty allowed on the ice at the same time. As for personal use I feel safe with my pickup on 12" good solid clear ice. I won't venture forth until there is 12" consistently.

[Bushleague]

Originally Posted by Bushleague

Used to drive my old welding truck on the ice all the time. It was 98 chev 1ton dually with an old Lincoln classic welder and steel deck (probably 3000 extra lbs). Also had a heavy loaded service skid on a 2012 Ford 1 ton that I'd use for ice fishing sometimes. Never went out until I had lots of ice, and always stuck to areas where lots of other vehicles had gone, same as any other vehicle, and never had any trouble.

Actually this is a lie, the heavyest rig I've ever run across the ice was a Neighbors well servicing rig... an old Kremco single to be exact. About 4 hours north west of Red Earth we crossed a number of small lakes on the way in... Dangerously into spring breakup too. I actually suspected Neighbors was hoping the rig would get stuck back in there and they could charge for it all summer.

[cube]

Originally Posted by EZM

The other thing to consider is ice has buoyancy. I saw a video of a truck on the ice and some guys cut through 18" of ice around the truck all the way around about 10 feet away from the truck and she didn't even budge.

Your story made me smile. Do you remember how much snow was on top of the ice at the time?
Snow can certainly add allot of weight and change that buoyancy equation. Have drilled my share of holes to have water come up out onto the ice when snow loads are heavy.

I love those Russian videos.

[KegRiver]

Originally Posted by tight line

Haha thats crazy! I would have the windows down for sure..lol

We were told to roll down the window and stand on the step and steer through the window.

I did that only once. We were hauling Pine Point houses across the Peace at Shaftsbury late winter. I didn't trust the ice so I stood on the step and steered through the window but the other drivers didn't so I never did it again.

2013 me and another AO member checking out the ice crossing over the Peace River at Carcajou.

Farmer made ice bridge. That is the truck I totaled a couple of years ago and my AO friend from England.

[cube]

Originally Posted by cube

You might find this useful.

"BEST PRACTICE for Building and Working Safely on Ice Covers in Alberta"

https://open.alberta.ca/dataset/6125...-pub-sh010.pdf

Just thought I would add this one as well.

http://www.highways.gov.sk.ca/Doing%...20Handbook.pdf