Reno Ward fills his father’s seat in most recent ‘Ice Road Truckers’ episode

Reno Ward drives his father Darrell’s old truck in the most recent episode of “Ice Road Truckers.”Reno Ward drives his father Darrell’s old truck in the most recent episode of “Ice Road Truckers.”

Last week’s episode of the History Channel’s “Ice Road Truckers” featured the much-anticipated debut of Reno Ward, the son of the show’s late star Darrell Ward.

As Overdrive sister site Truckers News Editor David Hollis writes, the episode was both rewarding and frustrating. The rewarding part of the episode, according to Hollis, was Reno Ward. The frustrating part, however, was the fact that it left viewers hanging as Lisa Kelly sped toward an “ice road calamity.”

Ward made his appearance to help Polar Enterprises deliver one of the largest loads in the show’s history – a 32 feet by 14 feet prefabricated metal building. Polar owner Mark Kohaykewych drove the pilot truck, and Kelly was hauling the building itself. Ward was tasked with hauling another flatbed of materials for the load. He even gets to drive his dad’s old truck.

A blizzard slows the trio down, but they get rolling again. Kelly then has to navigate a 15-foot-wide bridge with a 14-foot-wide load, leaving her just six inches of wiggle room on either side. The next obstacle was another narrow bridge, except this one was at the bottom of two 18 percent grades – one going down and the other going up. The trick for the trio would be to get enough speed going down the first grade and across the narrow bridge to be able to climb the other grade.

Ward went first with the smaller load and crossed the bridge at around 65 miles per hour and got up the next hill. Kelly was next, but the episode ended before she made it to the bridge.

Other IRT stars Steph Custance and Art Burke also had their own problems to deal with. Custance’s load was shifting on her, and Burke had mechanical problems with his truck.

See full coverage of the episode with Hollis’ recap here. Ice Road Truckers airs on the History Channel at 10 p.m. Eastern on Thursdays.