Ice Road Truckers (2007–2017) User Reviews

Poor Narrator

[wacocga · 7/10 · 19 August 2007]

The show is OK, but that narrator??!! Is he trying to imitate John Wayne or Howard Cosell? He has a halting, style so slow I could make a ham sandwich between words. He narrates many A&E shows, but for some reason his delivery is slower on I.R.T. He's also using a weird kind of accent he doesn't use on the other shows he narrates. The Characters are colorful enough, but I can't take the narration for very long. Apart from the narration, it's better than anything else during the summer rerun season on Sunday night. All in all, I think I'd rather spend a week on a crab boat and make twice as much as these guys without the expense of a big rig.

Over plays the danger aspect

[jenn-marshall · 5/10 · 15 November 2009]

Just an FYI this is filmed in Canada so when they say -32 or being terrible at -42 it would be in Celsius and it does get a lot colder then that they're further north than I am and it gets to be almost -60 with out the wind. Which is pretty cold.

This show is guilty of doing the same thing every reality TV show does, it amps up the danger aspect of the job when there is really all that much. Im from northern Canada and its really not a huge deal to be driving on frozen water. It happens all the time. its not a terrible show but like others have said it could easily been covered in a 2 hour special. They just keep using the same tired bits. History should know better but I think they're trying to up their rating by having shows that can attract the same crowd as deadliest catch.

Season 10 is Like Season 9 is Like Season 8.......

[cookingspray · 5/10 · 5 October 2016]

***May Contain Spoilers*** I happen to live in Winnipeg Manitoba where the show has been based for the last 4 years now. Except for our hockey team, The Jets, most people would not be able to point us out on a map. So I am glad we are at least portrayed on a show that is viewed around the world. YES... we get winter. Yes, Ice Road Trucking can be and is dangerous, that is why the money is so good. I have friends who are truckers, so I know a thing or two.

Sadly, the only thing keeping me watching this show now are 2 people. Alex & Lisa. To be honest, I think she is the only one bringing us males back to the show year after year. Without a hottie, the show has little left to roll on.

We keep seeing the same over dramatized dangers over and over. Believe it or not, Manitoba does have a government department that makes sure that the Ice roads and ice crossings are safe for passage. If the routes were as dangerous as the show portrays, there would be truckers dying by the truckload (pun intended) every year; and another method would be found to get vital supplies to the northern First Nations. They have been talking about using blimps (hey History..there's an idea for a new show). If an ice crossing was as flimsy & dangerous as the show portrays, it would be closed by the Department of Highways. The crossings are tested frequently by government officials. The roads are not nearly as rough as the show seems to make them out to be. Loads would be spilled all over the place, not to mention broken goods delivered on broken suspension systems. What we are seeing are real life truckers becoming actors & drama queens. Also, some very clever editing.

So really, somehow despite the danger, every load gets delivered. Even in the spring when the ice is dangerous, it seems they barely make it across with the last load... ice falling apart behind them, but somehow, they always manage to cross it safely again on the return trip home. We are never told how this miracle happens.

so... very repetitious and predictable. One final note. Irony is abound that after barely surviving so many brushes with near death on the ice roads, Darrell Ward was killed in a plane crash just before the start of season 10. So what happens to his business partner Lisa now? Does she go it alone? Sell the company? Perhaps..she will steal Steph Custance (the new hottie) from Polar & form an all girl ice road trucking company! I guess we will have to wait until season 11 (yawn) to find out.

Ice Road Rednecks!!

[darin-wissbaum · 29 September 2009]

Well, the last bit of intelligent TV viewing was lost when The History Channel sold out to the reality TV craze with Ice Road Truckers. The History Channel used to be a great channel that aired smart informative programs that made you think. Now they are airing crap like a bunch of rednecks driving along on frozen lakes yelling at each other over their CB radios. Who really cares about what these people do? I don't but apparently those that spend most of their time watching reality TV like it. It has nothing at all to do with history. It would be OK if it were on The Discovery Channel or something but not a channel that claims to be about history. By airing this program the producers of The History Channel show nothing but a contempt for their audience that want to be informed and not dumbed down.

I even sent an email to the History Channel asking why they would air a program that had nothing at all to do with history. Their response was and I am paraphrasing, "We here at the History Channel stand by our program decisions." I guess so when you sell out informative TV broadcasting to reality TV nonsense for the sake of a buck.

I gave no stars to this worthless show except one big GOOSE EGG.

***ZERO STARS***

Too repetitive, over hypes danger by adding sounds and climactic music, some interesting characters. Drama...?

[NyxNax · 6/10 · 1 October 2014]

So maybe I was a little harsh in the summary, It does have some entertaining aspects. But after so many seasons the only thing really keeping it going is the drama and adding new characters. Which i'm not saying is a bad thing, the show is about the people driving these trucks through lovely weather and of course, ice crossings. If your looking for documentary type show just about ice road trucking though, this really isn't it. That could be made into a 2 hour documentary. Or just watch the 1st season and ya get the picture. If your into the people and the drama though, then keep on watching. There was a separate season where a few of the characters from the show like Lisa Kelly and Darrel Ward, went to South America driving truck on some of the worst roads in the world. I found that to be much more entertaining, and I believe far more dangerous as well. Driving a old piece of a crap truck on a 1 lane road with a mountain on one side and a vertical cliff on the other is somethin else entirely.

What bothers me is EVERY single time a truck goes across the ice they play "life threatening" ice cracking/popping sounds and then as the truck nears the other side they play this climactic siren music as if to scare you into not knowing if the truck is going to fall through or make it across. It becomes SOOO annoying!! In the dead of winter the chance of a truck falling through is very very slim. What they don't show is the tons of other trucks that are going across the ice. At the end of the season is when it becomes much more dangerous. If they were to save the climactic music and cracking sounds till the actual more dangerous times they're crossing the ice, it would make it so much more impactful! Not to mention the narrator over-hyping things as well. When it gets slick, the trucks drifting their trailers/cargo around corners is pretty cool i must say.

So all-in-all if ya like the drama of the show and the characters, keep on watchin, otherwise just watch the documentary or the 1st season. I do really recommend the season that was in South America to anyone. The environment, the native people, the culture, the danger, the language barrier played such a huge roll. I wont spoil anything, but I can see why there was only 1 season of that.

Fun to keep in a window on my computer - could be much better.

[jdonalds-5 · 6/10 · 25 December 2014]

We didn't know about Ice Road Truckers until we saw an advertisement for it on an episode of Top Shot we were watching. That peaked my interest so I looked it up.

It seems like anything done in Alaska (Ice Road Truckers, Alaska State Troopers, Flying Wild Alaska) attracts me. Alaska is quite beautiful, but so cold I would never want to live there.

I am binge watching Ice Road Truckers and enjoying it. However I have it running in a 6" x 4" window on my computer while I edit photos. It's the kind of program that doesn't require more than about 20% of my attention. This is one program that benefits from The History Channel's over-the-top dramatization process. But at the end of each episode I do a little review just for laughs.

To tell the truth very little of substance occurs across an entire season. Every episode is pumped up with many, "what could happen" commentaries, and scary graphics. However almost nothing ever really happens. The list of "exciting" things might contain things like these:

• The tires of the tractor slip going up hills. - Truckers have to stop to put chains on their trucks to make it up slippery steep hills when they are towing a heavy load. - Truckers get very tired while driving sometimes. - Trucks aren't always 100% reliable and things sometimes break. - Some truckers have negative things to say about other truckers. - Occasionally a truck goes off the road and gets stuck in the snow, requiring a tow from another truck to get out. - Trucks drive across lakes, the ocean, or down long stretches of rivers while they hear the ice crack. None ever fall through the ice. - Trucks going in opposite directions pass each other closely and honk at each other. - Some drivers are better at their jobs than others. Some are even let go because they are trouble makers or can't really drive well enough in the Alaska or Canada conditions. - As the truckers are paid for each load they deliver they want to deliver as many as they can. - Sometimes trucks hit bumps in the road. - Snow can nearly obscure the road ahead. - Occasionally a tire goes flat. - Sometimes a load becomes loose on the trailer. - Some of the loads the trucks carry are extremely heavy and/or large.

So you see it's pretty much run of the mill trucking but in very cold, snowy, slippery, hilly, and scary conditions. But rarely does anything of any real significance happen.

In no way am I suggesting driving on those roads is easy or anything less than dangerous. But it just seems to me that hundreds of thousands of miles are driven by truckers there with relative little to have created eight seasons of episodes.

Still I will continue to binge watch until I burn through them and move on to something else.

Update: I'm watching Season 7 now. I can't wait for this season to end and I can move on from this irritating competition between Polar Industries and VP Express. I can do without all the personal drama.

What I wish Discovery would do is expand the format in some areas and cut out all of the grumbling. I'd like to know more about the trucks and loads. I'm binge watching through several seasons and not once have the producers of the show shown us through a truck once. How about each gauge and what they mean? There are obviously gauges we don't have in our cars. How do you shift with so many gears? I presume it has overdrive. Can you use overdrive in any gear? These are things any 18 wheel driver would know but I've never driven anything more complicated or larger than a U-Haul. Show us through the sleeping quarters. Do they have places to hang clothes? Drawers? Come on folks.

Who owns the trucks? How much does the insurance cost for these trucks that can get lost breaking through ice or being run off the road and left for a year? How much does a driver make per load? Who pays to fix broken trucks? How much is the fuel and how much is used per trip?

You've shown us hundreds of videos showing trucks driving on snowy roads and over ice. Enough already.

How about some perspective on the shippers and those who receive the loads? It just seems like there are other things to show than what they've shown for multiple seasons.

I can't believe Ice Road Truckers goes on for eight seasons when so many other shows are better and cut short after a season or two.

Essentially an informative documentary, although some abrasive characters

[Flynn2 · 6/10 · 25 February 2008]

Channel 5's new television series, "Ice road truckers" was suitably intriguing at first sight. Further into the series we are introduced to more and more characters and we see their personalities unravel before our eyes.

We learn about aspects of their job such as the huge machines they use to carry out their bidding, and what kind of a life they lead while trawling the Ice Road. All the truckers we see are working for the head honcho "Hugh Roland" a big, hairy, macho man nick named "the polar bear" by his employees.

Soon enough, the true personality of the drivers is revealed; from the very likable southern Californian "T.J." to the rather arrogant Rick Yemm. That brings me to another point, the swearing. Unfortunately the drivers tend to swear every other sentence which leads to a series of very annoying beeps.

The introduction for every episode has so far been repeated from the pilot episode, which has lots of cheesy introductions like Alex's line where he says "It's called the dash for the cash" which makes for some cringe worthy viewing. Apart from these small hang ups (and all the other stuff I have no doubt forgotten) Ice road truckers makes for a likable documentary and some easy Friday night viewing.

Zzzzzzz...

[Mauseum · 2/10 · 27 February 2019]

Basically, it's show of where the premise of possible disaster is the entertainment while also filled with fake scinarios (scripted hostility between main characters).

Reality show

[pammozuch · 8/10 · 30 October 2023]

Short and sweet and to the point. Is anyone aware or understand that this show is a Reality Show? So what makes a Reality Show? Google has your answer if you need help in finding what a Reality Show is all about Google it This show was awesome and for anyone who loves to drive them big rigs Watch Ice Road Truckers. In my opinion the music blended right in with the suspense of driving on Ice and making it across to the other side safely. They did an awesome job with the drama on the show. Didn't this make you watch what happens next? I mean really that's what Reality Shows are made for and people criticize too much on the Characters personalities These characters on the show are definitely not the people in real life off camera. Does anyone follow what I'm saying?

Could have been good

[tgp1994 · 6/10 · 24 September 2015]

I marked this post as containing spoilers since I don't know if we consider inter-season changes to be spoilers.

If this show had just stuck to its format of the first three seasons, I would have rated it much higher. After the first one or two seasons, the cast & crew were kicked out of the Canadian diamond minds, and went to Alaska. The following one or two seasons then were good, but steadily went downhill as the the crew moved back to Canada and started moving shipments to small Canadian settlements. Essentially it turned into a drama between two small trucking companies, rather than an interesting reality TV show following the original likable personalities.

same s### different day

[miltonmunster · 1/10 · 18 February 2019]

Unfortunately another victim of what started out interesting is now overly repetitive,padded out for time,overplayed & just too contrived.Fake tension & poor acting have taken over from a few interesting situations & some rather ninkompoopish people being thrust into jobs they shouldn't be anywhere near.Then there's the big talking hugh finally showing his true self the biggest backstabber ever,then a grovelling pos promising the world to those he's shafted for ages,not to mention the unsafe practices just a big mouth backstabbing buffoon a pathetic excuse of a big baby

Great Idea

[mirosuionitsaki2 · 8/10 · 8 March 2008]

History Channel is one of my favorite sources for History information that is actually not boring. Ice Road Truckers is not history, but it's a reality show that probably seems like it shouldn't air on the History Channel. But, it still airs on the History Channel. I decided to watch it anyways and I found that this show is very rewarding. It's interesting to see the life of Ice Road Truckers, truckers who truck on ice with convoys. Although, you might think this idea is very uninteresting, it depends on what person you are. If you like reality shows about people who hate each other living together, don't watch this. If you like reality shows about people who have lives, then watch this! What this show is actually about is the lives of Ice Road truckers. These truckers drive on icy roads. It is quite dangerous which brings for quite entertainment that is good. These truckers have a mouth full of trash, so watch out for the bleeping censorship. If you don't pay attention to the bleeping censorship, then you'll be alright.

I recommend this show for many people who like reality shows for basically anything.

Perhaps the best of the job-related shows

[patrickfilbeck · 6/10 · 28 December 2021]

In addition to so many other programs oriented towards certain adventurous professions, this one at least has charisma and better pictures. The job is also interesting, but could be processed in a more informative way. Nevertheless, the show is fun, especially in the sense of a little pastime and dreaming of the cold northern regions of the world.

Totally Staged

[anwaee-78990 · 1/10 · 28 October 2017]

I have been suspicious of this being staged for a long time. Now I know for sure after seeing Todd getting his rig stuck on a tight turn. Even a novice knows you do not make a sharp right turn from the very right hand side of the road. It looks to me it was done on purpose to give the show something that a trucker might do to try to get out of trouble. A trucker would never put a rig in that position to start with, even with the least amount of experience. Good By IRC.

monotony

[haroldhecuba · 27 February 2019]

Used to be interesting despite the overall repetitive nature of it harping on the dangers seemed neverending to pad it out.Had seen it for a while but just started watching again and it really has rapidly declined into a soapie,hugh & vlad are just totally loathsome backstabbing babies.Even Darryls become quite irritating the whole thing is now too repetitive & scripted

strange

[gunnvald-kleveland · 7/10 · 17 January 2009]

I am from Norway and don't think the temperature is so extreme , if i calculate it right -32F is just at water freezing, and they show it as terrible at -42. Also i think the trucks are so different than we are using, many things looks like its been around since the early 80's. Who in his right mind uses steel-wire to load and unload the trailer on the rig. That's my opinion,you're technique and solutions are strange for me. And to use alcohol on air tanks was a system we used 20-30 years ago, now its just air drying system, so many different ways to the job. So I think its a good series but some of the characters are a little over the top for me,they are a little full of themselves :)

Loved the show when it first aired! Just started back at Season 1. It's just as entertaining!

[collectorofsorts · 7/10 · 10 May 2021]

Most of the characters are good and entertaining. Hugh and Alex are old 'work horses' and are always fun to watch. And, yeah. Hugh isn't the best driver. He speeds and abuses the truck. He's aggressive when other drivers call him on it. But he's so entertaining. And this is a TV show. I watch for entertainment. Drew and Rick? They just needed to stay out of the bars and remember to take their Midol. I really feel sorry for their wives or mates, whatever they have. Most of the other guys were great too. Bear, he was a relic of older days like Hugh and Alex. They don't make them that way anymore. Lisa Kelley? I like her. She's entertaining and seems to be a good driver. But I had forgotten how whiney she was. She whines about wanting to be treated equal. Then, the next scene shows her flirting with some guy to get him to do work for her when her truck's broken down on the side of the road. 'Well I have an air plug to put in the leaking valve but it's really muddy under there. Could you crawl under there and do it for me?' Jack Jesse? He seems a little lazy. He's Top Dog in that area. And he probably really went at it for the first 4-5 years to get that title. Then he relaxed and got lazy. I've seen that many times when I worked the oil fields. He regularly shows up hours late for work. Then we see him at the truck stop with what looks like 4 pounds of food on his plate and he comments "an old timer once told me to never pass up a chance for a hot meal". The cameraman cuts away to his trucking buddy sitting out in the truck waiting on him and them comments "an hour later" and they cut back to Jesse still working on that 4 pound breakfast. These tiny villages depend on those loads. If they don't get everything to them before the roads melt, they have to wait until next year. Show some respect and some responsibility. Dave Redmon, ever known someone who nothing is ever good enough for? That's Dave. He tucked tail and ran back to the truck stop when the roads got a little messy. Others kept on going. Young Maya the New York newbie kept going. Darryl was a workhorse. Sad to hear of his passing. Mark who ran Polar Trucking seems to be a lowlife. Vlad his controller said he left the company without being paid. Hugh said Mark didn't keep his word to him. Darryl even left him after he put a newbie trucker over him. Then Hugh and Vlad's new company VP Express ended up repo'ing a trailer that Mark had leased a year earlier and didn't pay for. Notice a theme there? Doesn't pay his bills. Doesn't keep his word. Doesn't respect his top workers. Lowlife... Is the show scripted? Probably not. Is it 'creatively edited'? Most likely. It seems like the editors piece the show together in a way to make it seem more of a rivalry thing than it really is. I worked on the oil pipeline out there years ago (former oil and shipping worker). And, guys in that line of work generally pull together and help each other. Except for guys like Rick and Drew. We always ran those off quickly because a bad worker endangered the entire crew. In dangerous surroundings, your life literally depends on the person working beside you. You don't want someone there who's going to cut and run at the first sign of trouble. Art Burke? He seemed Psychopathic. He would routinely threaten to punch people (even the cameraman). He was shown stealing from Marks garage. He talked about shooting people and wanting to throw a cup of acid in someone's face. Turned out he was just a burnt out stoner. Now he's REALLY burnt out. His drug lab exploded in his apartment last year and he had burns over 40% of his body. He's STILL driving the ice roads as of last year and waiting to be sentenced on that.

Good at the begining, then reptative

[dm-62539 · 6/10 · 21 August 2021]

Ice Road Truckers is not perfect. The Series was great for the first five. But jumped the shark near the end with the battle of the Truck companies.

Not for Canadians

[aerovian · 4/10 · 8 February 2009]

I had always been baffled about why this shot-in-Canada show, which I'd heard was such a big deal in the US and overseas, never aired on any of the Canadian networks. Then I got around to picking up a season one DVD set on eBay and the mystery was quickly solved. If you've ever done any serious winter driving on any of our worst stretches of highway (e.g., Calgary to Revelstoke at night with road conditions rated "poor") you've already experienced white-knuckle driving that's at least as scary as anything you'll see on this show. For the average Canuck, this series is about as exciting as watching people drive to the supermarket (in fact in most cities that's more likely to be a lethal proposition than is a trip up the Ice Road.) One thing I did appreciate, however, is that -- notwithstanding the stereotypical ice-and-snow motif that forms the obvious foundation of the program -- the producers give Canada a very fair, balanced, and generally positive portrayal. This is one of those rare occasions when we come off more as a modern economic powerhouse that just happens to have some very cold bits, rather than a nation of backwards, mostly frozen eh-sayers living in a 19th-century wasteland denominated primarily by beaver pelts, maple syrup and lumberjacks.

Cool

[bevo-13678 · 10/10 · 9 November 2020]

I like the bits where they drive the trucks across a frozen lake

Edge of Seat

[lynetteann-99640 · 6/10 · 4 February 2023]

First time I watched this show I was impressed with their skills in getting an 18 wheeler out of a tipped situation in the middle of a blizzard The quality of the show was very much like Deadliest Catch super attentive to safety The episode I have watched this evening were a bunch of instigated scenarios where the drivers are passing one another out to get to the destination before closing basically safety practices abandoned Could be the way the film crew edited the footage although I somehow feel a personal offense due to the way Alex & Carlyle felt devilishly accomplished after deliberately driving unsafe paired with the music score that screeches like an injured child this was only two episodes tho.

Unbelievably unexciting

[CaptainJinks · 1/10 · 23 August 2016]

There is absolutely no existing reason known to man to watch this. Why History Channel keeps airing this is beyond me. Typically it revolves around some trucker who drives his vehicle while saying "I'm so scared" in countless verbal variations. Maybe this is very interesting to some, but I really don't get it. Equal shows like Deadliest Catch at least have some pay-off when you get to see the catch. But here? Nothing. It's basically promoted as a show about going down dramatically through the ice. But they never do. So if you really want to see trucks disappearing through a hole in the arctic ice, this is not it. Then it's the music. Fact: dull moments don't become exiting just because you put horror/action-movie music on them. I get that it's inexpensive to produce programs like this. But that's all there is to it, really. And that it's boring. To the point that people with average brain capacity get offended. Please excuse my bad English, I'm angry and Swedish.

They Freeze Ass So That We May Live Free!

[marvanhogan · 10/10 · 8 January 2020]

This show delivers for me. The pure harshness of the frigid North pitted against the blessed functionality of the cab heater is the most delicious tension that beats out the others. The other contrived frictions and dillemas of the gig, including the dreaded cracking lake ice, are a distant competitor to the miracle of cruising comfortably in a climate resembling a distant planet. But said dilemmas do provide for some interesting conversations up in that silent void. And the time I got to spend hearing Alex and Lisa explain themselves and their occupations to me is a time I felt at the feet of wonderous and beautiful adventurers.

I get it

[robnels2000 · 4/10 · 17 August 2008]

There truckers that drive on the frozen lakes, rivers and seas of Northern Canada.

It is a vital supply route for diamond mining in the arctic. And it's dangerous.

So why does it take 2 seasons to tell us this? I got everything I needed to know about this from the documentary the History Channel did about the man that started the whole thing back in the 60's now.

I find it as boring as all other Reality TV.

I mean it does take a special person to be able to take the stress and hours required to succeed but they also not very interesting to watch.

Very over-hyped

[Midd1994 · 1/10 · 11 May 2008]

After watching several episodes I thought that this show was over-hyped -- where every moment is made out to be a life-or-death situation. After seeing the same graphic of a tractor & trailer falling through the ice -- shown 3 or 4 times per episode -- it gets to be a bit hard to believe. And the narrator, Thom Beers, is obviously trying to sell us on a danger that is probably a lot less significant than the TV producers want us to believe.

Then, I found out that a coworker had spent almost 20 years driving on the ice road! After hearing her descriptions of what it was really like -- well, I won't be watching this over-hyped piece of crap any more!