Pro-Trucker Magazine

Pat Robinson is this issue’s Rig of the Month Driver. This is his story:

I was born in Edmonton in November 1960. I took my grade one there and then moved just outside of Kelsey AB and went to school in Bawlf from grade 2 to 8. The families next move was to Mannville, where I took Grade 9 to 11.

 

My dad, Sam Robinson, owned heavy equipment and for 25 years he was a contractor to Ducks Unlimited. I started working for him in the summer before going into grade 8. He had a 1964 R210 International tandem gravel truck with a 5×4 and 504cid inline-six gas pot. Another young fellow and I would hand pick rocks along farmer’s fence lines and throw them into the bucket of a 410 JD hoe, which was then dumped into the truck. Once loaded, we’d dump the load around the control gate of the dam. I’d always sit in the passenger seat, listen to the engine, and watch how he shifted the 5×4. I had it down to a science by the second summer and since a lot of the work was off road, Dad would let me drive. Like so many other kids before me, I was soon hooked.

The next truck dad bought was a 1975 Chev tandem gravel truck with a 427 and 5×4 and we pulled a rubber tired hoe on a trailer behind it. One day in Camrose, I was stopped and asked for my class 1. I was 16 at the time and only had a class 5. The DOT let me phone my uncle, who had a class 1, and told me I was legal to leave as long as he rode with me.

Dad next bought a 1961 B61 Mack single-axle bed truck with a 250 Thermodyne engine and a 5×3. It was the first diesel truck I ever drove and the one I drove to get my class 1. It had arm-strong steering, and if you had a cigarette in your hand when you cranked the wheel, you’d break your smoke against the windshield. I loved the sound of that B61’s four inch chrome straight pipe and its distinctive turbo whistle.

Dad also had cats, scrapers, track backhoes and two 98 Linkbelt draglines. Arctic Transport, Rebel Transport and Brass Transport moved the bigger equipment for him and I’d always meet the lowboy, lead them out to where the equipment was, and load and unload for them. By the time I was 20, I had lots of experience operating and loading equipment.

The first truck I bought was a 1970 KW with a 318 and 13 speed. I wanted to put a gravel box on it and put it to work for my dad, but I was operating one of the draglines, and he convinced me I’d make more money doing that. Of course, I would. Sober dragline operators were hard to find, and he couldn’t bark at them the way he could me. I worked for my dad for five years until he sold out in 1982 and then I sold my 1970 KW to my father-in-law, John Bury, who still has it today.

My next truck was a 1979 KW winch truck, with a 350 Cummins, a 13 and 4, and a 40’ oil-float hi-boy. Dad was still doing odd jobs for Ducks Unlimited, so I would haul for him, then park the truck, and operate machinery for him. There was lots of oilfield work, and things were good for the first six months but then the National Energy Program started taking its toll. By the time I had the truck a year, I was two payments behind. There was no catching up so I gave the truck and trailer back to the finance company. By the time the smoke cleared, I still owed $5K.

I then went to work for Latimer Backhoe Services in Redearth, AB. They built leases, lease roads and supplied tow cats for rig moves. Overweight permits were unheard of, and moving D8 K’s with 463 scrapers still hooked up on an 8-wheel lowboy was quite common.

In August of 1984, I married Suzanne Bury and we have three daughters. When we first met, Suzie was in grade 9, and I was in grade 10, and we’re still together today. We lived in Edmonton at the time, where Suzie was attending the University of Alberta. I decided that it would be good to try highway hauling. I figured that with Suzie studying all the time, she wouldn’t even miss me.

So in 1986, I started with TriLine Expressways. At the time you just had to put $5 thousand down on a new cabover International (the cabbage patch trucks), make lease payments for three years, and you owned it. It was the first truck I drove without a 4-speed aux and the first one with air ride suspension. I had never hauled outside of Alberta before, but we were licensed for 48 states and all of Canada. I ran Vancouver and Winnipeg the first few months, and then I took my first load south to their yard in Houston, TX. This became a steady run.

Once I got more comfortable with border crossing, I preferred running south. One Friday morning, I left Edmonton with a load that had to be in LA Monday morning. I pulled into Baker Tool in LA late Sunday night and could see they would be closed until Monday morning. They had a long driveway with a nicely mowed lawn on both sides so I pulled up to the security gate and parked. It was really hot, and I had the vents open in the sleeper, but that didn’t help much. Then around midnight, I could hear sprinklers not 20 feet away. There was no one around, so I grabbed my shampoo and bar of soap and had a quick shower under the sprinkler. It was great, I cooled off and could finally get to sleep. The next morning the security guard invited me into the office for a coffee so I got dressed and went in. He said, “I see you got in about 11 PM last night.” I said “yup, how’d you know?” He grinned and pointed at the security camera. All I can say is it’s a good thing we didn’t have social media back then or everyone would have already met me.

I kept the cabover for one year, then in 1987, I bought a new Western Star. I tried to get someone to take over the lease payments on the cabover but that didn’t work so I ended up giving it back to TriLine. The Western Star had a 444 Cummins, with 3:90 ratio and a 15 over. It also had a 66” stand-up sleeper. I loved the sleeper – there was no more losing the change out of your pockets when putting your pants on. I ran hard with that truck, and by the time it was one year old, I had 150 thousand miles on it and 3000 hours. I did logbooks according to how hard I was running and got shut down for 24 hours a few times for being over hours. Funny thing is I never turned in one logbook in two years and ten months with TriLine. When management finally caught on they wanted six months’ worth of legal logs. There was not way I could legally do that so they grounded me. That was the end of my highway hauling.

I traded a guy at TriLine the Western Star for a 1975 cabover KW. He refinanced the Western Star, and I took his KW in exchange for my equity. I loved working at TriLine and would have stayed if I could, but I was burnt out. I ran hard for three years and made good money, but I wanted a change. I made some life-long friends there and have some of the best memories of my trucking career.

I ended up working for Twin City Excavating in Edmonton, pulling end dump. It was seasonal from May till October, and then in the winter I’d do snow removal for the City. It was sure a nice change being home every night. I kept the cabover one year, then rebuilt a 74 HD Hayes over the winter. It had a 400 Cummins with a 15×4. I put New Way air ride on it because once you’ve had an air ride you’re not going to go back to a rubber block suspension.

When I got the Hayes, it was a single-stack dump truck. I took the box off and put on a 36” sleeper. I also rebuilt the front fenders, built a new bumper, added duel 6” exhaust, and a wet kit. Then I took it all apart, painted it, and put it back together in time for dirt hauling season. I pulled end-dump with it for a couple more years after that.

During the winter of 1992, I drove 1975 Pete winch truck and lowboy for Graham Bros, doing a powerline clearing job north of Manning. It was the first truck I drove with a cat engine. It pulled good considering all they had for lowboys were 16 wheelers. I was there till spring, then went back to my Hayes and pulled end-dump for the summer.

The engine finally went in the Hayes, and while it was getting swapped out, for a Cummins 440 magnum, I went back driving for Graham Bros. Unfortunately, by the time my Hayes was ready to go, there wasn’t much end-dump season left, so I just stayed with Graham Bros.

When spring came, I drove for Graham Bros full time. Their main yard was in Acheson, and they had one in Killam. The Mack went to Killam, and I got a 1988 KW W900 winch truck, 425B cat with an 18-speed that stayed in Acheson. They had a tandem oil-float hi-boy, a 16-wheeler, and 32 and 40 wheelers. That was one tough truck. The 425 cat was cranked and got two mpg hauling D9s and 631 scrapers. I wasn’t paying for fuel, so there was no babying it. I have a lot of respect for a 425.

After driving for Graham Bros for four years, I sold my Hayes and bought a D6H dozer. I put it on with Graham Bros, building leases and doing cleanups. I had to borrow Graham Bros’ truck and lowboy or hire someone whenever I had to move it, so I bought a 1981 KW and a tandem lowboy. The 81 was a nice truck, 36” sleeper, air windows, and 4:30 rears with an eight bag air-ride. When didn’t have cat work, I would haul equipment for Graham Bros. It wasn’t long before I was doing more trucking than cat-skinning, so I replaced the 36” sleeper with a 60” flat top, and re-painted it.

In the winter of 2000, I put the 81 KW on with Trak Equipment Haulers. I ran that old KW up to Zama City, Indian Cabins and Rainbow Lake all that winter, and it never missed a beat. After spring break-up, I went back to operating my D6H doing oilfield work with Alsike Construction from Breton. I worked there two years with the cat, and then an opportunity came up at Trak. I sold the cat and bought a 2001 T800 winch truck. I still kept my 81 KW but just parked it. Trak hauled a lot of heavy equipment, and they were prorated, so we hauled from BC to Manitoba. In the winter, we would haul into the Northern BC and Alberta oilfields. There was a wide variety of work at Trak. One day you could be pulling an 8-wheel lowboy, the next, a 48-wheel lowbed. We did lots of town work in the summer and then northern work in the winter. There was rarely a dull day.

In 2007 I bought a new T800 High Hood with a 72” high-rise sleeper. I put a 4-speed aux in it with a power tower to run a 30-ton winch. This was one of the nicest trucks I had owned since the 74 Hayes.

A couple of years later, I bought another 81 KW. This one was a long nose with a 3408, 15 over, 36” sleeper on an 8-bag air-ride. I went right through that truck, doing wiring and airlines and added a 4-speed aux, then painted and licensed it. I used it at Trak in the summer and loved it. When the engine started getting weak, I swapped it out with a 3408. I kept that long-nose for several years but worked it less and less and finally just took it to truck shows. So now I had two 81 KWs.

I stayed at Trak till 2011, when it sold to Entrac. The owner of Trak, Terry Colban, and I have remained good friends. He built a shop in Winterburn (West Edmonton), and I rent a bay there to this day. I stayed with Entrac over the winter, then bought a new scissor neck lowboy and went to work for Bill Morgan at Carmacks. That was good steady work hauling paving equipment and asphalt plants after that I went hauling for E-Construction, which was similar work. They kept me very busy from May till November.

I wanted a backup truck I could put a winch on and found another 81 KW long nose in Toronto with a 270” wheelbase. I run provincial, not federal, so heelbase isn’t an issue. It was a day cab, so I originally thought I’d put a 60” sleeper and winch on it which would give me a spare truck. It was a beauty—lots of power, cruise control and smooth ride. So now I had three 81 KWs and the 07 T800.

The 81 day cab was in such nice shape that I hated to cut the back of the cab out for a sleeper on, so I held off doing anything to it. The next winter, I found another 81 long nose KW in Kansas with a 270” wheelbase and a 60” flat top so I flew to Kansas and drove it home. Now I had four 81 KWs. I sold the 81 day cab to Terry Colban, who still has it and I sold the other 81 with the 3408 to Ben Kowalczyk, who also still has that one.

The first year I had the Kansas KW I had the KTA inframed and put on a Braden 20-ton winch and then the next year I licensed it. I didn’t care for the super 10, so I replaced it with a six speed. Now it was a 6×4, which was a nice combination with the 3:70 ratio. That 6-speed lasted a year so I replaced it with an 18 over. The 18 was nice, but I would rarely use the 4-speed so I found a rebuilt six-speed and returned to a 6×4, which is still in it today.

For many years I had wanted an A model aerodyne high-rise bunk and my buddy Kim Wylie found one for me just south of Regina. In the winter of 2018 I took the flat top off and took the truck and 60” high-rise over to Western Star to be painted. As usual with any truck that old, there were a lot of cosmetics to fix before painting. It was there for two months and when I showed Suzie the bill it was the first time I ever saw her jaw drop.

I ran the 81 every spring from May to September, then went back on the 07 KW. I loved it even more with the high-rise sleeper because you can stand up to put your pants on. Instead of a passenger seat, I have an upholstered 12V cooler that gives me easier access to the sleeper, and cold water and lunch are just an arms-reach away.

The KTA is definitely a keeper. It gets anywhere from 5.5 to 6.5 mpg while pulling a tridem scissor neck which is usually better mileage than the 565 ISX in my 07 KW. I never licensed it in 2021 because I traded my 07 T800 on a new 2020 Western Star 4900 EX DD16 with an 18-speed ultra shift transmission. It has an 82” high rise sleeper, 20-ton hydraulic winch, and 300” wheelbase. I wanted to get all the miles I could on it while it was on warranty, so I ran it all year. The WS is roomy, quiet, and the smoothest truck I’ve owned, and I really like the ultra shift.

I bought a nice light Raja tridem lowboy last fall, and wanted a nice light tractor to pull it so I could haul a 66,000 lb payload. I found a 1996 cabover Freightliner with an N14 and 224” wheelbase. It’s a 100” cab with a 42” mattress, and the speedo shows 498K km. It’s in really nice shape. This is my winter project this year, and I think that’s gonna be the last one.

About five years ago, I found and bought the 1978 Freightliner Conventional Suzie and I borrowed for our wedding truck back in 1984. It’s in real nice shape with a 8V92 430 hp and 60” flat top sleeper. So now I have the 2020 Western Star, two 81 KWs, a 78 Freightliner, a 96 cabover Freightliner, and a 2010 Freightliner sport chassis that replaced the 1980 cabover KW.

I have loved trucks and heavy equipment since I was a kid! Nothing sounds better than a 46A D8 working with a straight pipe or a 3406 in a truck with straight pipes. In the same breath, nothing makes me madder than a truck with straight pipes, jaking into a rest area at midnight.

My greatest mentors were my dad and Terry Colban. Once you’ve worked for your dad, you can work for anybody. You learn not to argue because it won’t change a thing. You’re not gonna get a pat on the back for a job well done because that is what is expected of you. You just have to be happy with the fact that he’s proud of you.

Terry Colban is the best person I’ve worked for. I’ve known him since 1989 and have rarely seen him angry or in a bad mood. Instead, he finds humour even in bad situations. He’d never push you to go that extra mile, but you wouldn’t mind doing it for him if you had to. His kind and friendly demeanour towards his customers got him most of his business. You soon learn from that and treat his customers the same way because you represent Trak every time you haul something. I made so many connections working for him and for that I will always be grateful.