At 11:00 min to 11:13 min into the movie there are two men standing and talking. The man on the left the taller of the two is Earl Wesley Herning my father. I am Mark Richard Herning
Damn boy your pops was a hell of a man as were all of them. these were the good ol days when men could call themselves men and be damn proud of it. what happened to this world?
@Aaron Cubitt I see that history soars far above your grasp. I am afraid that what would be painfully obvious to any reader of average intelligence would be sure to cruise blindly right over your head like a ballistic missile armed with an obtusity warhead in the middle of a moonless fog laden October night.
My father was the Eskimo you saw in this documentary at 21:13 He was given the Bulldog hood emblem once the filming was finished, as a souvenir. I still have it
That's an amazing story. Would you be willing to share more details with the Mack Trucks Design Team? We'd love to connect and see where our roads can meet. If so, let's find a way to connect.
I don't think there will ever be another truck like a pre 2000 Mack Truck. Mack made amazing trucks for decades. The same RDs that hauled coal on the big jobs around here, are still hauling coal to this day. DMs too.
The early cold war era of the US army and military videos like this one are so cool and are really exciting to watch. I wish there were more movies that would incorporate that style of filming and commenting in an adventure movie or something. Indiana jones and the crystal skull did this a bit and that is actually the one part I like about it.
I grew up with three of these guys - the youngest of them is about 80 now, he was about 18 when he went on this trip. A really good book for anyone interested is Cliff Bishop's "Eighteen Wheels North To Alaska". He has a section in the book devoted to this trip with photos of the huge Macks. Its a good read and I encourage anyone interested in trucks and history to check it out, I believe the book can still be purchased on-line. Cliff would be in his 90s now and the guy trucked all over Alaska until he was about 80.
I have never seen one - ever. I would guess there are still a few here and there working on a gold claim someplace up north. When I was a kid there were a few of the Tundra Trains wagons here in Anchorage. Interestingly the guy that owns the Big Foot ford came up and bought all of them for the tires and wheels. The Big Foot that you see on TV with the 12 foot tires uses tires from the Tundra Train.
AlaskaTrucker I've seen that pick up in I believe it was St Louis. Yes. He has told the story about the tires also. He's. Got all sorts of trucks named Bigfoot. His wife got the name Monster truck going. He was the first one to drive over cars just goof'n round. And that's all it took to get that sport off and running. He had some kind of dealership. And he used the big trucks to bring people in to watch the show and hopefully buy something.... I think it was a Ford dealership. I was unlucky enough to be stationed at Fort Leonard Wood Missouri. When all that started.
@Don Olypopper I saw one of them trains down in White Horse at the transport museum. They said that they got it from Fairbanks. That was a couple of years ago..
My great uncle drove a old mack like those in the late 60s and early 70s around the James and Hudson Bay in Northern Quebec. He still talks about them with passion. He's 83 now and still tells his tales.
@@beckywatt5048 some of the other commenters mentioned that they reverse the engine fan and tarp the engine sides so it blows warm air back, apparently it works very well (I wouldn't know since I never done it)
These guys were the trail blazers, the real men. 1956 that equipment is amazing. I love seeing videos like this, makes you realize how easy we have it now a days.
Taiwan92Abarth And the people will Byers hook, line, and sinker.even our fellow citizens of America where they preach it in schools that Americans have done nothing wonderful in the world
I'd bet you my left arm there isn't any parts on those trucks stamped "made in China". Nope 100% made in America back then. Sad we cannot produce stuff like this today. Man have we fallen.
Right. You can tell by watching all these old videos. The can do spirit of getting things done and going places that was post war america. Things have sure changed.
Not at all. We can produce it, just not as cheaply as can be done elsewhere. We have the ingenuity, other countries have the cheap labor. So, we design it, they build it.
@@randyd9414 You must hate every country on the planet for expanding their territory. But it don't count if Israel and China do it. #amIright? Or does this guy just hate white people.
The trucks stayed there.. offering up themselves to become parts for generators temp homes for some of the crew..a few lasted as transportation years after..
For anyone wondering, i found out these are Mack lrvsw (A variant of the lrsw) with a v12 cummins, supposedly two nh220s sharing a crank. Two seperate injector pumps, pretty cool
I figured they'd be V 12 Cummins. The power plants on the Dew Line where powered by Cummins L,'s or K's ( not to be confused with the "KT's of the 70's ) these engines had separate cylinder heads about the size of two cases of 24 tall boys stacked on top of each other. The V-12's had compression release which would have aided in starting. My truck bay foreman back in the 70's was denied security clearance to fly in to do service work because his last name was Jensen. Talk about the red scare. Frank ran a woodworking shop out of his garage into his 80's. No threat there. Thanks for the movie. It must have been tough on everyone who took part in building this defence system that would be obsolete not too long after its completion. Those engines must have been running on jet fuel ?
another 12 yr old who's grandpa did this lol. Think you'll get more "friends" junior? go make some real friends and you wont need to make up interesting lies to tell your "e-friends"
Yeah they really earned their pay. My Grandpa use to plow snow with a open cab loader. He had to do like a 30mile route in sub zero temps plowing power sub stations. The old timers were tough that for sure.
enduro trucker Ernie Desjardins yeah it’s ridiculous up here, any new diesel up here is gonna be trash because they need Def Fluid. This is also why Alaska is the biggest collection of 90s car/trucks lmao.
Big Enos and little Enos Burdette were waiting at the end of the trail to pay them off. Double or nuthin, go back to Valdez and get some pizza and wings!
@@jamiebutcher8833 morning love Cummins but new diesels are half of what they used to be with the new emission regulations. Weak aluminum blocks, bad electronics, etc. where’s the 7.3 powerstroke?
Thanks alot Mister................ Spit my coffee all over the screen............. Dammmitt........... Just had a thought tooo Can remember when there was only one hole on the NE extension........ And how long a trip it was across the east west with 44thou in the box...... With a sick 270 in a 68 frieghtliner COE....... Thanks for the memories
@@wilburshuman sorry about your coffee,,, I do remember the pain going across the bottom with a good jag in my old RIO cab over, it had a great big 290 in it though. I could eat my whole lunchbox empty going up the blue ridge tunnel hill and still have time for a smoke before I got to the top. Good old days my ass,,,,, lol
Film quality is really good for the mid 1950s and the custom made trucks were very impressive as they managed to travel the snow and ice covered roads. The narrator did a fine job explaining what the early warning military bases were for on this Dewline project. I bet those truck drivers got paid very high wages for that time period.
Probably $5-8 an hour or $800-1,000 month. Up to 1960 in Northern California, minimum wage was less than $1.00 per hour. Gas was 24.9 cents gal,1qt of milk 22 cents, white bread [24oz] 25 cents. A union plumber brought home just over $100 a week, a tract house $7-8k, an American sedan under $3k. A doctor's visit $15, a burger, fries and shake 50 cents. I don't miss it, I was 11 yrs old.
@@lifuranph.d.9440 Thank you for the information about wages of the Truck Drivers in the Arctic plus the low wages and cost of many goods which seem hard to believe looking at today's prices of all we consume.
@@fasx56 Hello Friend. The reason for this is simply Inflation. Originally the USD [US$] was backed by Gold. With inflation i.e. just printing money without backing it with something of actual value. Now the inflated USD is only backed by the US Military alone. Oil from the mid-East was originally paid for with Gold. Now it is paid for in inflated USD. Take payment for your Oil in USD or else the US Military will darken your doorstep...or worse. Spend and Tax. The Democrat way. Taxes too high? Inflation? Start a war. Read History...or be doomed by repeating it. Where are you, @fasx56 and how old are you? I'm 75 and in San Francisco...after midnight.
@@lifuranph.d.9440 even the bulldog isn’t the same- he’s owned by VOLVO (perish the thought) ironically in the 1950s Mack had to go to Sweden to show scania vabis how to build a bevy full sized transit bus (Mack c50)
Totally awesome truck documentary! (Rates way more than to be called a video.) The style of the photography and the the narrator's voice takes me back to watching Walt Disney documentaries in the 60's when I was a kid. As some others have said, I too am surprised there weren't any 6 X 6's. However it appears a couple of them were. Maybe the planners decided with just a couple of 6 X 6s and the dozer, if any of the other trucks got stuck, there would be sufficient equipment on hand to get going again? I'm also surprised only one set of tires were chained up instead of all of them. It would be interesting to see a companion documentary on the building of the road to begin with.
The History of the DEW Line was nothing short of Amazing, yes American Build, be proud. I personally worked the DEW Line from 1989 to 1993, all 35 sights from east to west, + 1 in Alaska, Barter Island. As a Project Coordinator, responsible for site closure of the DEW Line stations, I have seen these trucks on a few occasions. Buried in hillside, washed up on shore after storms. I had the pleasure of driving some that still stood time. I always wanted to view the videos of building of the DEW line. Each sight was to have a real-to-real film copy of it. Unfortunately at the time as I traveled and worked every site, the films were always missing? Thank you for those that have preserved and posted them.
When This president commented offhandedly about 'buying' Greenland, he knew that the USA already had saved it from the Third Reich [that ate Denmark during lunch break] and protected the free world from the Russian bear... by building defense infrastructure on it. Denmark's current 'twit in chief', including leftist's MSM, knows absolutely nothing of history. Thank you for your service..
These Macks had particular issues with their axles, there was a book written by a guy who was really close friends of the drivers in this particular convoy and discussed this and many other issues. I think the book was called 18 Wheels North to Alaska.
My father worked on the dew line repairing generators for the radar stations from 58 to 63. I have pictures of construction machines and supplies being unloaded from Navy ships on shore.
My dad and grandfather worked on the Alaska Pipeline in the 60s and 70s. Men were men. Grandpa was a Foreman, always had his .357 on his side for protection from wolves and bears.
it looks like the trailer wheels have power to them, you can see when theyre climbing that really snowy hill the trailer wheel are spinning forward, how would they manage this back then? a hydraulic system?
They probably have a smaller diesel engine connected to them, back then they had powered dollies with smaller engines, often with an Allison automatic transmission linking the engine directly to the axles.
“Mack Tough” for sure. Late ‘70s-early ‘80s I did hazmat tank haul, mostly in northern New England and eastern Canada. Power was R-Model Macks: 300 Maxidyne, 9-speed Fuller, manual steering, leaf-spring suspension. The Mack was bullet proof, for sure, but beat a driver up unmercifully, especially on some of the rough-ass roads I was traveling. My winter driving experiences paled in comparison to what these guys dealt with day after day, but give me some understanding of what they endured. They were the best of the best. My hat is off to them.
What a movie! When winter was WINTER and the ice could carry 165 tons- wow. But that poor slob who had to ride the open dozer- aaaawful. It freezes me only looking at him. "Well how was it?" "Oh, quite nice. just two toes less, now. A good trip" Brrr.
50 mph wind is insane. I was walking around in 22 mph wind the other day at 6F and it totally overwhelmed my mittens. Can't imagine the clothing you'd have to wear to not die in that.
@@dynamo3059 yep .I go with under armour base,cotton Carhartt long johns,carhartt jeans,then the insulated Carhartt bibs with matching Arctic coat. Same on top,base, johns,thick hoodie. Danner snow boots have become my favorites over the years. I don't like to freeze,I work outside.
@@larryteague871 with all those cloths you would freeze from sweating! Here its -25 right now and on my un-shielded skidsteer to move snow i will wear a longsleeve shirt, Tshirt and a hooded sweatshirt, jeans, stocking cap,steel-toe boots and 'off the shelf insulated gloves.if the wind starts howlin i MAY put on a second sweatshirt you must be a pooosie that works in a warm valley
Well written, well filmed, music is classic 50's, this had to be a tough job for all the WHOLE crew/workers/drivers to do. The temps are cold!!!! When you see the "snowflakes" whining about how life is to tough... they wouldn't last 15 minutes doing this job. To fly in those conditions too! As a former pilot, tv producer and a current truck driver this was a great video to watch.
When you see the condensation cloud from the exhaust drifting 50 yards away from the truck and still not dissipating as it goes off screen, that means it is COLD!!
Probably at that time their greatest fear was having a nuke dropped on them. That had to be on their minds constantly. The Soviets did not want the Dew Line built. The other thing that is interesting to me is Ike was the one who pioneered using trucks. As a captain he led a truck convoy across the continent before the First World War. Took like 28 days but he proved it could be done. Then he was President and Commander in Chief when this happened. It must have made him think back when he ordered it. Plus he knew it could be done!
My father spent many field seasons, decades in fact, conducting research on Bowhead whales. These men and those like them played a part in making that research and so much more possible.
"I wouldn't have believed any chassis could stand that wrenching, yet it does" "River clutch hungrily at the trucks" They pay people good money to write lines like that.
Mack trucks 60 years old or even more , are working today and I see them every day carrying steel bars to our construction place . They are cheap and easy to maintanance and almost immortal !we love them.
Isn't that incredible, we had 700hp engines for tanks in ww2. It was pretty normal with that strong engines in all lines of work by the time the 50's arrived.
Most were rated at less than a hundred horse power.. my 36 one ton chevy was a wapping 45 horse power and at least ten of the horses had passed on when I acquired it in 59
@@muffy469 power not available in truck s at the time.only in the 21st century did that kind of power come readily available in class 8 highway tractors, tanks had .massive large displacement diesels, 30-40 litres,weighing 5 tons and .more.
@RightISright Allright The Soviet KV-1 was introduced in 1939, it had a 600hp engine. Same engine was used in the KV-2 and KV-85. The American T34 Heavy tank came in 1945 with a 700hp engine. Medium and light tanks were 300-500hp, but heavy tanks had very strong engines, around 500-700hp.
Anyone who drives for a living knows what an adrenaline rush it was to make these runs. Though some drivers won’t admit it that’s why they do what they do.
Magna Carta Sam Adam's A five ton +on Roids , that was part of what they learned in Korea , fuel fired manifod heaters , all 24v systems , Mack camelback suspension (the most rugged) etc.
@@nutmagnet22 I wouldn’t say Volvo is the mindless trucking factorypumping company. It’s the foreign, Euro company making it as comfy as possible. Modern day Mack and Freightliner are the cheap highway trucks.
@@coledavis5212 Volvo owns mack. Volvo motors etc. I don't remember calling them anything other than a Volvo with a bull dog on the hood. I've owned some volvos. Ride good. Plastics suck on them. Motors prior to emissions were long life motors.volvo was to mack what AMF was to Harley Davidson,a life line to a failing company.
Mac Trucks did much to further the development and security of this country. I do not deny their day in the sun. They have it. Can you just imagine 600hp at that time?
I wouldn't a put one nickel on any type of truck without tracks making it and as a kid growing up then and riding in some of them that made other corners of the map. I didn't know that they were anywhere near that power range then. I am not sure they make a truck today that will match that. Truly a testament to the "Break your back Mack truck". I'n 1958, I bought a truck, my first real truck.. a B 52 which was a 51 model truck that was no where near these trucks. I hauled logs to a saw mill in the Skagit Valley and that truck paid for itself many times over. Over five hundred thousand miles on that Thermodyne engine and transmission which was three transmissions hooked together to be called a triplex. Three levers and most the time only need two of them but when you dropped into the deep hole, she would move and she did till it broke into many pieces like a broken glass and gears laid on the ground but by then I could afford a better 5 an 4 transmission set up and the drive lines were the deal breaker almost. Those were the days
my mum worked there at "Mack Trucks" in Montreal and we all knew "Mack's" were great but never thought how until this video and those men are so tough to handle this freezing place!!
One reason for the saying strong as a Mack Truck not alot of amenities until 2004. Then 2005 Very Dark Days with Volvo CEOs and a bad economy, then they pulled their Shit back together in 2011. I recommend anybody to visit the American on Wheels exhibit in Allentown Pennsylvania sponsored by Mack Trucks or the mack truck Factory in Macungie the country was built by these trucks and wars were won, I'm very proud to live near where they were made and to drive one to this day for 20 years
i used to drive a 1973 Mack concrete mixer , was a old Roadway mack long haul semi , was converted and frame lengthened to be able to mount the mixer set up as a tandom axel straight truck . this thing would go through anything ... was a two stick hi/lo , had 8 reverse gears , they sent it out on muddy jobs , wasnt much it couldnt do
