While Americans whine about their blizzard, Canadians are making trucks out of ice

By Peter Braun Published January 3, 2014

So what do you for fun in a part of the world where your winters last eight months of the year? Why, build trucks out of ice of course! Actually, this amazing ice truck was built by a Canadian tire company to show off its winterized battery. The name of the Canadian tire company? You guessed it: Canadian Tire.

Obviously, none of that makes a lot of sense. I mean, why is a tire company advertising a battery with a truck made out of ice? If you can ignore the fact that these things don’t quite add up, there is a lot to enjoy and be impressed with in this video.

For starters, building things out of ice that move is a bit tricky. Ice is awfully heavy. The ice bodywork slapped onto this used truck weighs 14,000 pounds. That’s the weight of nine Smart cars, or two Chevy Avalanches. Needless to say, that is a lot for any truck frame to handle.

But that’s okay because ice is really flexible … oh wait it’s not. It’s the opposite of that. To prevent the ice from shattering when the truck drove over a crack in the pavement, the entire frame had to be welded stiff to keep it from flexing. Then came the work of actually carving and sealing the ice together.

The end result is pretty damn impressive: A truck with clear bodywork that has the lights embedded into it. And all this to demonstrate that a battery will work at negative 40 degrees Celsius. Remember I didn’t say that it made sense, but it is cold as ice. Sorry, I couldn’t help myself.

Besides, while they were at it, the Canadian Tire company managed to break the world record for travel in an icy vehicle. Which apparently, is a thing.

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Peter is a freelance contributor to Digital Trends and almost a lawyer. He has loved thinking, writing and talking about cars…

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