Not all snocat adventures happen on the mountain in deep snow. Last week me and my wife set out to Canada from Wyoming to pick up our newly acquired Tucker. We were going to take the Duramax and a tandem dually goose neck trailer. Adding up the weight with the cat the extra blade, mounts and spare track, the whole load with the pickup would be 34000 lbs. So it was decided to take a big truck. (better to have the load than the load have you) We already had passports so getting threw customs at the border was easy, took less than 3 minutes, then off to Trans Canada (DOT) where we were told that they were going to do a level 1 inspection of the truck. So inside the building we went and 90 nail biting minutes latter and after dyno testing the brakes on all axles, they actually let us go. Canada has the roughest roads on the planet after 8 hrs of bouncing off the roof and doors of the truck my wife was like a caged bear. (this made things enjoyable) Because of the stop at the DOT we arrived in Edmonton after dark, had to find a place to stay that we could park the truck had to back track 20 miles to get this done. Next day we loaded the Tucker with no big issues and headed out. 20 miles out of Edmonton the truck lost power and we could not go over 45 MPH, of course no towns ahead, for 70 miles, that we could get a fuel filter. (Reddeer) We finally made it changed the filter which fixed the issue and we were off again. (You can't know how that feels not knowing if your going to make it to the top of the next hill. felt like the truck could die at any minute.) Back with full power we headed back for the border. We didn't get there before dark because of the fuel issues. This meant another night in Canada because of the wide load at night issues. Next morning at the boarder (Dot) didn't even stop us but at Custom the meanest guy on the planet keep us there for another 90 minutes while I had to convince him that I was really a Rancher and didn't owe them $4000.00 duty. They finally let us go. It felt like getting out of prison to get back in the US. (The sky is bluer and the roads smoother) One more Dot port where they checked our truck for red fuel ( they think all farmers and rancher run red fuel for some reason) and we were on the last leg of our journey. We thought we were home free but 150 miles from home the seal went out of the front diff and was spraying 90 W all over the front of the trailer. Found out that the vent was plugged by cutter bees and pressuring up the diff. pretty easy fix but made a big mess. Now that we are home I am going to make the tucker a 4 door and add a back seat (has the same cab as the 4 door version) I'll post some pics of the progress.
