One Of The Easiest Ways To Pass Someone On Ice Road Truckers Is To Prank Them
Given the time-sensitive nature of their profession, not to mention how dangerous it can be, you wouldn't guess that the drivers of "Ice Road Truckers" have much time for pranks. You'd be wrong though. Plenty of moments on the show have revealed many of the truckers' sense of humor. In fact, you might even say the spirit of a good practical joke is baked into the very beginnings of "Ice Road Truckers." When he received the phone call asking him to join the show, fan favorite Hugh "Polar Bear" Rowland at first assumed he was being pranked. And as long-time trucker Alex Debogorski points out, the industry has a tendency to attract some real characters.
Life can get tedious out there on the open road, particularly when the open road is made of ice and the temperature outside is well below zero. One must, inevitably, find ways to pass the time, and just so long as nobody is getting hurt — a very real possibility in this vocation — there's nothing wrong with some good, clean fun.
At the same time, being stuck behind another truck very likely just heightens the tedium. Anyone who has been stuck behind a slow driver can probably get a glimpse of how it feels. Now add in the harsh weather conditions of an Alaskan-Canadian winter, as well as the knowledge that the road could potentially crack out from under you at any time, and you probably get a sense of how impatient an ice road trucker might get. Luckily, a simple prank can get a slow truck ahead of you out of the way.
The case of the (un)missing styrofoam
Ray Veilleux, who appeared on Season 4 of "Ice Road Truckers" in 2010 after his Montana business went under, remembers one particular prank that a fellow trucker pulled on him. In this particular instance, Ray was hauling a load of styrofoam insulation. Needless to say, the exceptional lightness of the material made it easy to fly off the back of the truck. Behind him was another trucker who, Ray surmises, was likely tired of getting his snow dust kicked up into his windshield.
"So he calls out and he says 'Hey, Ray,' he says, 'I just saw a piece of that styrofoam insulation laying in the highway. I think it's blowing off,'" recounted Ray in a video interview with History. "So I come to a nice slow stop, and he gets around me, and I look at the whole load and it was just perfect, not one piece was missing. And that's one way to get around a guy."
Indeed it is. Ray didn't say who exactly this prankster was, though we're guessing that it's nobody on the show. Then again, the end of his story is followed by a clip of Hugh Rowland laughing heartily. Could it have been the Polar Bear? In any event, it was definitely someone with a sense of humor. Or maybe they're just an impatient truck driver.