This trip started out with four of our trucks (153-Dale, 170-Jimm, 171-Rudy and 328-Robert) headed to Wisconsin with loads of trailer crossmembers destined for two seperate Stoughton trailer plants one in Stoughton, WI and the other in Brodhead,WI. Then it was over to our reload site in West Allis, Wisconsin a suburb of Milwaukee for the start of our 2054 mile journey with the loading of four large vessels, one for each of us. These vessels were the hydraulic pressure and return tanks for the largest OSB (Oriented Strand Board) press in North America.

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With a few missed starts namely a broken loading crane that had to be worked around and time delays waiting for over dimensional permits from the state of Wisconsin we finally got underway. The treck saw us travel through three states (Wisconsin, Minnesota and North Dakota) and four provinces (Manitoba where in Winnipeg we were joined by two Earl Paddock Transportation drivers (Huey an owner/ operator and Larry a company driver) who were bringing loads of their own out of Ontario. Then to Saskatchewan, Alberta and British Columbia) on past the "Gateway to the North" at

Dawson creek, British Columbia
which has the distinction of being the location of


Mile post 0
of the Alaska Highway.

From there a short 47 miles to Fort Saint John, British Columbia the site of this new OSB plant owned by Slocan Canfor mills.

The tanks Robert and I had which measured 25 feet long and weighed in at 50,000 pounds and 52,000 pounds respectfully were unloaded inside the building with the use of a 150 ton crane who's boom reached 100 feet into the air (which by the way was only a few feet short of the height of the inside of this building) and a 30 ton crane. The latter used to hold the base as the larger crane lifted and uprighted the tanks. With each tank suspended in the air this huge crane crawled to a new position and moved the tank into it's final position.

It is a really odd feeling to drive a semi around inside a building large enough to make you feel as though you are still out on the freeway.

The Paddock drivers (Huey and Larry) also shared in this feeling as they too unloaded their two hydraulic pistons inside this building.

Unfortunately and fortunately for them Rudy and Dale unloaded outside in the cold (9 degrees fahrenheit) as is shown in the pictures (accessable below) with the fortunate part being they were unloaded a lot quicker.

To take a look at the trucks and loads



Click on the image above

Upon returning to Winnipeg I began to wonder if we really had it all that bad, weather wise, up in Fort Saint John as the temprature at home was minus 22 degrees fahrenheit -- sort of made the 9 degree temprature up north seem almost tropical -- not!

Links of Interest

OSB Alaska Highway Trucks and Loads

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Publisher: James E. Jeary
Keywords:Fort Saint John, Dawson Creek, Searcy Trucking, Earl Paddock Transport, Milepost 0, Alaska Highway

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