Road Trip

cletrac (RIP) · #1 29-08-09, 07:17

My brother and I decided it was time for a road trip before we start our harvest. Now, a 500 mile trip doesn't count, so we headed to Yellowknife. By the time we got back, we'd put on 3400 miles.
The first pic is the 60th parallel on the way home. There's 1600 pounds of stuff in the back of the S10.
In case anybody doesn't believe the stories about the bugs up there, the second pic shows the cloud around the face of a wild buffalo along the road.

cletrac (RIP) · #2 29-08-09, 07:42

Gordon Piro took us to a junk yard that had the remains of three CMPs. The 60 cwt is quite complete but the yard owner wants to keep it. I tried to get the winch but no luck.
The second was a chopped down HUP that was converted to a towtruck and the owner wanted to keep it too. Before being a towtruck it was used as the headgear for a small gold mine.This HUP had a square roof hatch and plastic steering wheel but round gauges and no hub lifting flanges. Quite the combination.
The third one was the chassis of a 1943 HUP. I stripped it and got the complete front axle assembly, a crossmember that's missing on mine, all the U bolts, rubber suspension bumpers, steering box, master cylinder, spare wheel, convoy light and switch and misc other bits. This HUP broke through the ice on Great Slave Lake in 46 or 47 taking the lives of five RCAF members. They fished it out of the shallow water (the lake's 2040 feet deep in the deepest spot) and it sat in one place for 40 years before going to the junk yard. After I stripped it they threw the frame in the crusher.

Keith Webb · #3 29-08-09, 10:49

It's always interesting for us downunder to see CMPs in Canada - they are so much part of our countryside here, except for rarities like the HUPs.

There's something enormously satisfying stripping (and saving) useful parts from something destined for destruction.

Bet the locals love it when it gets too cold for the flying insects.

Thanks for sharing your trip.

cletrac (RIP) · #4 29-08-09, 16:03

Here's some vehicles in Yellowknife.
The first is Gord's F15A and last is his Alligator in the mining museum. The 6x6 is in the museum too and the Duck is elsewhere.
More pics later.

cantankrs · #5 29-08-09, 18:12

Hi David,

I'm enjoying your trip too.

Regards

Alex

cletrac (RIP) · #6 30-08-09, 01:26

How's this series then?
When you see this at a Duck crossing you just have to take it for a swim!
That's me driving and my brother as co-pilot. This was at the end of the summer road.

Gordons · #7 02-09-09, 19:34

It didn't take long for Dave to strip the HUP chassis, of course we have very little rust here, so he bolts came off rather easy.

Max Hedges · #8 03-09-09, 04:57

David the photos you have posted on your northern trip are quite interesting for those of us who come from the dry continent, all that water you have is hard to get used to. The people in those huts, how do they survive when the lakes freeze up?

YOu should try a rescue for that carrier that's stranded, as it would be an interesting challenge. I wonder how many 44 gal drums it would take to float the carrier. How far across the lake to the carrier?

We are planning a blitz road trip next year and a couple of friends from Ontario are coming for the camping adventure.

Max

cletrac (RIP) · #9 05-09-09, 05:38

Max, I guess when the lake freezes up those people can walk around the front yard instead of swimming.
Here's some pix of the abandoned Ptarmigan gold mine a few miles out of Yellowknife. That pic of the headgear makes me wonder how good that HUP worked doing the same job.
There was quite a pile of diamond drill core samples there. I brought some home as curios and one of them has some visible gold in it.

Max Hedges · #10 06-09-09, 04:46

David, you'd better buy a metal dector before your next visit, never know what you'll find.

One of these days we'll get back to Canada, we dream of driving through the rockies at sometime and maybe driving all the way to Ontario.

Max

Gordons · #11 02-09-18, 00:45

The junk yard is thinning out can finally see the old HUP

Quote:

Originally Posted by cletrac

Gordon Piro took us to a junk yard that had the remains of three CMPs. The 60 cwt is quite complete but the yard owner wants to keep it. I tried to get the winch but no luck.
The second was a chopped down HUP that was converted to a towtruck and the owner wanted to keep it too. Before being a towtruck it was used as the headgear for a small gold mine.This HUP had a square roof hatch and plastic steering wheel but round gauges and no hub lifting flanges. Quite the combination.
The third one was the chassis of a 1943 HUP. I stripped it and got the complete front axle assembly, a crossmember that's missing on mine, all the U bolts, rubber suspension bumpers, steering box, master cylinder, spare wheel, convoy light and switch and misc other bits. This HUP broke through the ice on Great Slave Lake in 46 or 47 taking the lives of five RCAF members. They fished it out of the shallow water (the lake's 2040 feet deep in the deepest spot) and it sat in one place for 40 years before going to the junk yard. After I stripped it they threw the frame in the crusher.

cletrac (RIP) · #12 02-09-09, 05:11

Max, the summer road just goes about 50 miles NE of Yellowknife and ends at a river. This is where the winter road starts that they show in the Ice Road Truckers show. In the winter the road is quite busy with a truck every 20 minutes or so.
That's Alexander Falls which is only a couple of hundred yards off the highway. The Hay River drops 90 feet here and another 40 feet a couple miles downstream. One funny thing, in southern Canada, you go down south and up north but in the NWT the rivers flow north so you go down north and up south. I'd never thought about it that way before.
The trees are stunted like that when you get north of the Mackenzie River. The barrens start about 80 miles north of Yellowknife but you can't drive there in the summer.
That buffalo walked down the road right beside us and came right beside the truck. We mentioned that in Yellowknife and were told that it was Buffalo Joe and he was looking for an apple. The truckers always feed him and called him that after Buffalo Joe who runs Buffalo Airways through the north. There's a 14 part series starting in the middle of October on Discovery Channel about that airline's operations. It should be pretty good.
The last pic is some "water squatters" on the lake. They get an old miners house from an abandoned mine and set it on an old barge or pontoons and anchor it by an island or just in the bay. That way they don't pay any taxes or the like but they have to make their own power. There's quite a few of them and they're all painted in bright colours. Can we sat old hippies?