Horizontal whiteouts. Sixty degrees below zero. A road made of ice. Nothing can bring out the “Never Back Down” fearlessness of our Star Nation brethren more than Alaska’s Dalton Highway. Rocky Wagar, owner of Wagar Transport in Fairbanks, hauls drilling pipe, explosives, and heavy-haul fuel along this treacherous stretch of road, relying on his Western Star 49X to get him through the Arctic extremes without batting an eye.
Growing up in a Montana trucking family, Rocky always wanted to become an owner-operator. “I was riding in trucks with my dad since the day I learned to walk and helped him maintain trucks since I could understand directions as a kid,” recalls Wagar. At 18, Wagar started driving log trucks in Kalispell, Montana. At 21, he added interstate to his license endorsement and took his first long-haul trip from Missoula to Dalton, Georgia, hauling paper rolls in a dry van.
While working for the family business, Wagar got a taste of several truck makes, including Kenworth, Volvo, and Peterbilt. Says Wagar, “I loved the 389 Pete, and I never thought I’d get away from that.” But when the more financially rewarding opportunity of ice road trucking called him northwards to run his own business, he went with a heavy-haul Western Star 49X as his first-ever truck purchase.
“The biggest thing was the ride. It was like going from an old Dodge power wagon to a Cadillac,” Wagar recalls. Even though he had never sat behind the wheel of a Western Star, nor had he any preconceived notions about the brand, the new owner-operator absolutely loved it. “Our Alaska trucker community is as friendly and helpful as they come, but we are old school and resistant to change. That was me, but once I got into this Western Star, my eyes were opened.”