Taking a truck on the ICE?

[bobisfishin]

Not that im even considering it. Strawberry has plenty of ice to do so if one was inclined and I've heard that people use to drive out. Is it allowed anymore ? Old timers?
[signature]

[klam]

I have never seen a truck on the ice at the Berry, ever. It is as legal as a ATV. A few years back some guy tried to drive from the store parking lot across the top of the ramp to the main parking lot and buried his truck. Costly tow bill for him.
Today there were at least 4 layers of ice somewhere between 24 to 36 inches thick. All the top layers are slush frozen solid.

I say go for it. Just wear a dry suit, life vest, ice picks, have a rope with a float, and drive with your doors open. Go early in the morning ice will be hardest and you will have all day to get home if you have issues.

Oh and please take lots of pictures
[signature]

[BrigfishJR]

It would be pretty nice to fish from the cab of your truck, heater going, radio on. Nothing to do but kick back and watch the fish swim by overhead. [] Seriously if the conditions were right it would be pretty cool. Sure make getting out to your favorite spot a lot more convenient.
[signature]

[mtncat1]

the problem isn't the ice thickness
it's the snow and ice layers and the fact that you are going to be stuck and stuck bad, they do this in the mid west and east but they don't get the snow layers on the ice like we do here. they used to hold ice oval snowmobile races on a lake here and to do so my friend plowed the snow off the ice with his ramcharger so it can be done with preparation.
[signature]

[captainjac15]

We get too much snow here in Utah for that, compared to other places where ice fishing is popular across the country. I used to ice fish on lake Champlain back in Upstate NY as a kid from a station wagon. We would set up our tip ups in two long rows and drive the car down the middle when we got a flag. We were allowed 15 tip-ups per person, and also allowed to use live minnows for bait. A very different scene than here in Utah. The thing is that they get a more solid form of ice, solid clear ice. There is less snow and when it falls the water content is higher. If you were to look at the ice on Strawberry it is really more snow/melted refrozen slush than true hard ice.
[signature]

[outdoorsman1]

I watched some guys in an old 80's Nissan pickup doing it at firehole on flaming gorge a few years back. The ice was over 20" thick and no snow. It was funny to watch they went all over the place....[]
[signature]

[Therapist]

A few years back, some kids from Heber tried to drive on Deer Creek with their truck. There was 8-10 inches of ice, but they dropped it through anyway. I don't believe that it is a very good idea here except on certain waters. As already pointed out, we get to much snow which insulates the ice from continual freezing, creating slush, etc. Just not a good idea !!

[Jedidiah]

I'm going to start taking pictures of the differences in thickness between holes just in my own tent. Case in point, Echo reservoir earlier this year: two holes in my tent, about 4 feet apart. One 6 inches of clear ice from the surface to the water, the other just under 4 inches. The difference in thickness that you see from one hole to the next is what keeps me from thinking about driving my vehicle on the ice.

Lakes in Minnesota, Michigan, Wisconsin, they're fed by much larger rivers than anything we have and the geology of the lake bed is much more stable. Here in the west we have reservoirs that have been sitting in a valley for anywhere from 120 to 20 years and some of them have multiple springs with pretty variable output, not to mention the known dangers of a full on river flow that keeps mostly separate from the rest of the reservoir clear down on the bottom all the way to the dam and out. If you could see that river on the lake bed with infrared you would see a warmer flow from inlet to the dam, with multiple induction zones moving warmer water from the bottom to the top and creating variable ice along the flow. It doesn't fit the physics of normal materials because water doesn't act like any other liquid either when freezing, or at the temperature breakpoints (39 degree fahrenheit lake turnover for example) and that's where the trouble comes in and why you get those inexplicable changes in ice thickness.
[signature]

[lilfish]

Have done it on bear lake as a kid I remember lots of trucks in certain areas guys fishing right out of the door radio on having a great time. Obviously risk involved. Been a few years since we've had ice safe enough for in IMO
[signature]

[bassrods]

Yes they use to at Yuba back in the 70's and 80's but one went down so they stopped doing that..

The trucks had been modified some and no snow was on the ice or very little..The ice was around 24" with no slush..
[signature]

[liv2hunt]

I have seen a few trucks and SUV'S on the ice at the gorge in the last few years. Crazy as hell if you ask me. One guy was an elderly gentleman that could not walk very well. He sat in his truck and fished his hole right outside his driver side door. The other was a Chevy blazer with a couple of guys and their kids. Made me laugh, i kept watching and listening for a large crash and splash, but it didn't happen. Both vehicles never fell through. Nuts, a car through the ice would be an expensive trip!!!
[signature]

[Therapist]

Hey Cliff, how about your little incident at Yuba with your 4 wheeler ?? Although that was due to someone cutting a huge hole with a chain saw, you never know when you will hit a thin patch. Not worth the chance you will go through !!

[bassrods]

Back then there was on most days 2 to 10 people on the ice on the weekend, and the lake was all but full..
[signature]

[bassrods]

Back east on the Great lakes they drive on the ice all the time, it's all about how many inches you have..
[signature]

[Squawminnow]

You see it all the time on midwestern lakes , including tow behind ice trailers and shacks. It's pretty safe there because they fish lakes that for the most part do not fluctuate in water level like our reservoirs do. It would be nice to have good solid edges at every place we fish but reservoirs don't really help with that. Minnesota and North Dakota also get storms with sustained arctic winds which means huge lakes like Devils Lake can lock up solid enough to drive all over. Not so with Utah Lake or Bear Lake.
[signature]

[KOKANEE]

I've been to [#6a6a6a]Panguitch Lake in the past and been checked by the game warden driving his truck all over the ice checking peoples license's. Was freaky at first seeing a truck on the ice lots of cracking and banging of the ice as he drove around.[/#6a6a6a]
[signature]

[bassrods]

Yes the edges is the big thing..
[signature]

[Fowl-Hook]

25 or more years ago my Brother and I drove a Honda Four Wheeler from Lincoln to Bird Island. Ice was stacked 20 ft high on the Island, it looked like super mans Castle. Warm springs around the Island were open and steaming in the frigid temperatures. Don't Know what we were Thinking!!
[signature]