Hey Guys, I'm new hear. I'm a field mechanic working in Northern Canada. Thought I'd post up some pictures of where I'm working, what I'm working on, that kind of thing. My wife likes to tell me that I just grabbed most of these pictures from Google Few scenery pictures to start. Never ending views up here. The last one we had a few pretty smoky days this summer due to forest fires
Old....New....Old.....New New torque converter install in a D9H Tandems removed from a Volvo 940B grader, line boring the articulation lugs, Volvos are prone to pounding out the bearing lugs when a wing is installed on the machine Relief valve issues in a Hitachi UH14-2 (UH171 in north american terms) New Injectors, DOC & DPF in a Hitachi ZX290LC-5
I'm jealous. I'd love to be up in that country. One of these days I'll make it up. Funny thing is I'd have more fun helping you than I would doing tourist crap! Don't be stingy with pics and stories. Most of us live vicariously through other members!
You should definitely get up here one day. If you don't have the time or dollars to drive then make your way to Vancouver, its a direct flight to Whitehorse and a 1hr flight to Dawson from there. The tourist stuff up here is honestly not for everyone it's very historical, not "exciting" tourism. I love it though there's so much to see and learn here, even day to day business is like working 20+ years ago. 20 years is not history I know but doing business on a hand shake and a beer (or whisky) is a thing of the past....as good as history. Here's some pictures of the Steam Boat Grave Yard in down river from Dawson City. The "rich" pioneers could afford a ride from Whitehorse on a steam boat mostly freight was moved by paddle wheel though. Rivers flow backwards up north, they flow south to north, so many potential gold miners would hand build rafts and float/pole themselves to Dawson, many where lucky to make it to Dawson alive. When the gold rush dried up most everything was left to decay, these Steam boats (3 of them) where pulled from the river and left to die on the banks of the Yukon River.
Looking at all the old boats would be 10 times more enjoyable to me than tourist trap stuff.
Those are some great pictures. Have to get up there myself one day.
I need to get out that way some day too. I do love the Northern landscape. I'll have to upload some photos of the Wood Buffalo region one day when I get some time.
Great pics and thanks for posting. That's somewhere I would like to vacation!
I would like to get up there myself. Good jetboating rivers around the area to I believe.
excellent jet boating up here, trying to find it in the budget to buy a boat, even an old one that needs fixing. Some of the best hunting is along the rivers. Few more pictures. My old service truck running across one of the many extremely "confidence inspiring" bridges up here. 40 Mile Caribou herd on the move. This herd is protected in Canada, they're damn near docile over here, you can pretty much get out of your truck and knock them down with a rock.
Heres a good one. John Deere 844J. 6125 engine. Idler gear between the crank and cam (adjustable for backlash) busted itself out of the case. Engine stopped solid for a moment and push the camshaft up cracking all the journals in the cylinder head, mushroomed over several valves and snapped the water pump shaft....amongst other things.
Can't make that up lol
Nothing too exciting to post at the moment. I'm doing a bunch of work on my service truck, I'll get some overall pictures up soon. When I bought the truck it was a gorgeous truck but filthy and disorganized, rather it had good bones but did not have much thought put into it. Few before and after pictures. Dash switches, nothing was laid out in a method that made sense. Example, T-case engage, high/low range select, and diff lock switches where all in different locations. I found some OEM freightliner auxiliary switches on Ebay and spent the time cutting out new holes for switches and adding a few new gauges/switches. There was some absolutely horrific wiring behind the dash, the truck couldn't sit for a day without killing the batteries. Also recently removed the troublesome Webasto heater and installed an Espar coolant heater in its place.
I've run freightliner service trucks in the past and the cabs are like a tin can, the oldest I ran had a Mercedes engine and you couldn't even hear yourself think. One of the first things i did was strip out the cab and insulate it with a sound deadening mat. It made a big difference in engine and road speed noises and as an added bonus helped the cab to retain heat. I can shut the truck off and sleep for most of the night (in a heavy outfitters sleeping bag) in -20C temperatures without freezing my butt off. Also build chain hangers, yup, tire chains are a semi regular occurrence, just to run a service truck. And build tin covers to help duct auxiliary heat from a coolant heater into my welder/air compressor.
Had the truck moved out of the shop to bring in some engine parts. Rebuilding a John Deere 6068 out of a 270C LC. I bought the truck used at the tail end of the down turn in the Alberta Oilfields. Truck is 4 wheel drive, with a 10 speed stick, 2 speed transfer case, and rear diff lock, 35,000lb GVW. Cummins 8.3L that I've turned up to 400hp & 1200ft/lbs, straight piped with a 5" miter cut stack, has a really nice bark to to it . Sleeper bunk in the cab. 8000lb Hydraulic Cobra Crane and Miller 302 Airpac welder/compressor. Since buying it I've: -Swapped out 11r22.5 steer tires for 385/65r22.5 rubber and installed fender flares. The 385's are a much much smoother ride on our sorry excuse for highways up here and they straddle the small pot holes etc in the bush, instead of the 11r22.5s that fall into everything. -Moved PTO tank from service body dog house to a frame mount (more space) -Installed 3 battery frame mounted box and a battery charger tied into the truck and welder batteries. I can plug in to "shore power" when I'm on site or staying in the camps, keeping 12V power for my Espar heaters, work lights etc. -The dog house was full length enclosed. I shortened it and raised the roof a foot, this gives me space to store a pallet as well as more room in the dog house and height enough to stack oil 3 pails high. -Espar air and coolant heaters. Air heater for the cab and coolant to keep the engine as wells cabinet & welder heaters up to temp. -lotts of other odds and ends.
Building storage in the cab and in un-usable space in a couple of the cabinets.
I just recently restarted reading on the forum site and first post was this one! Thanks for sharing! Seems like the Yukon would be very adventurous place to be a field service guy. I work in Toronto and spend most time in traffic. Lol. Do you ever run into tv people from gold rush?
I ran a service truck in down town Vancouver, I didn't mind sitting in traffic when I was on the clock, but spending up to 4 or 5 hours a day of my own time trying to get to/from my home was not good times. Up here I can travel for a day and not see a single person or vehicle. More likely to have to stop for Caribou then traffic. I used to have a little toyota 4x4, my wife and I would always go exploring. I stopped doing that when we came up here. Brought my wife on a job with me one day. After fording a river and spending the day climbing and decending 30% grades to get to a machine broke down on the side of a mountain she told me she understood why I don't want to go 4x4ing anymore As for the TV guys....I spent several years working with them on the Dealership level. I do my very best to steer clear of them now, they do them, I do me. The TV show is not popular up here, they've done a horrible job at showing the world how Placer Miners operate and brought a lot of negative light to the industry. Believe me, it is nothing like what you see on TV. Most Placer Miners have a great respect for the ground they work, they make their living and raise their families off that ground. And the day to day operations of a real placer mine....more uneventful then watching golf.
I never got into those shows that much, figured 99% of the drama was thought up by some guy who never saw a piece of heavy equipment! I could imagine government safety people would close down those operations before the end of the week if the DEC didn't beat them to it!
Love seeing the truck and how you have it laid out. 6x6 10 speed with a straight pipe and a crane body.... "jealous" wouldn't even be the right word. Keep it coming!
Sweet truck Jeff! Brutus service body? Nice setup up, always liked the Brutus bodies. Looks like no wasted space left on that truck! Looking forward to setting mine up, although I'm usually fairly close to my shop, maybe 3-4 hours max, rarely farther. Are you a one man show? And do you have a shop you work out of as well or just the truck?
I kinda disapeared for bit. Working out in the cold and then away for Christmas. Couple pictures of the truck taken not too long ago. Where abouts are you in the lower mainland CK? send me a PM, I'm down on the coast right now, with the truck. Body is a Brutus Body, I would say there's no better body but the last couple brand new trucks I've seen and the recent work I had done on this one, even Brutus is starting to cheep out on things No shop right now, just the truck and a parachute or tarp....depending on whats falling from the sky I'm aiming for a shop eventually but that's at least a couple years away yet. Just me right now, if I could find the right guy, I'd consider a second truck, but that's a big step too.
PM'd you the other day Jeff! What are you using for cabinet heaters? Coolant or an electric heater? I'm thinking of adding a heater to my tool cabinets and was considering just putting some small 12 volt electric heaters in the tool cabinets on a switch in the cab.
Nice truck Jeff, and nice scenery too. I took my family across the border to Dawson this summer in July for a weekend and had a good time. Really educational at the gold dredge up that valley just south of Dawson. Wish I knew about the steamboat graveyard at the time. I did partake in some very tasty Yukon brew though. We saw the 40 mile herd about 5 minutes inside the Canadian border too. I like how you used the Espar heater. Keep the pics coming. Edit.. I discovered poutine too, yummy!!
I did some contracting for Grubens on the inuvik-tuk highway back in in 2015, and i stayed in the hotel on the main drag in Dawson city on the way home. I went down to the pub for dinner and a beer and there were a bunch of goofs from the show in there. I couldnt get out of there fast enough, what a bunch of ignorant idiots. Not surprised to hear that locals like yourself aren't thrilled with them either. Nice truck and work pics