Production
Highway Thru Hell was created by Mark A. Miller, Kevin Mills, and Neil Thomas. Thomas met one of the heavy rescue operators for Jamie Davis Motor Truck & Auto after Thomas' moving truck broke down on Highway 5 in the summer of 2010. In the early winter of 2011, cameraman Mills and executive producer Miller dropped in on Davis' company while passing through Hope. The idea of a show about heavy recovery was discussed. The winter of 2010–2011 had been a record-setting season for Davis' business, and he expressed a desire to change the public's perceptions about his industry.
In his review of High Arctic Haulers , another reality-TV series produced by Great Pacific Media, Jim Bell of Nunatsiaq News described the formula used by this and similar shows: "Rugged teams of blue-collar heroes, mostly male, struggle against bad weather, bad luck and other hardships to transport the necessities of life ..." [3]
Highway Thru Hell debuted on Canada's Discovery Channel on Tuesday, September 4, 2012. [4] Steep hills, lethal drop-offs, killer rockslides, and the worst weather in a decade captivated audiences, resulting in the most-watched series premiere in the channel's history.
The second season premiered on September 3, 2013, and included 13 new episodes, as well as four re-edited Season 1 episodes featuring new content, factoids, and viewer tweets.
After Season 2, competition in the Hope area became more intense, causing Davis to seek out new territory, and expand his business (and fleet) along Alberta Highway 63. [5] In Season 3, Davis is seen dealing with the stresses of business expansion, especially as senior drivers step into managerial roles in his absence, and sometimes leave chaos in their wake. As an active avalanche season occurs on the Coquihalla, the issue of post-traumatic stress disorder is tackled by the series, as some drivers encounter difficult situations. Al Quiring's family business, Quiring Towing, is featured more prominently in this season.
Filming for Season 4 took place in British Columbia and Alberta during the winter of 2014–2015, when the days-long Hope Ice Storm occurred. Davis' company is split into two "camps", and he sometimes calls in his brother's company, Aggressive Towing, for backup. Mission Towing, a family business including generations of tow-operators, headquartered in British Columbia's Fraser Valley, is first featured in this season.
Season 5 kicked off on September 13, 2016, with an episode depicting a teary-eyed Davis selling his beloved rotator. Quiring Towing tackles some difficult excavator recoveries in British Columbia's nasty peat bog, and Davis' crew suffers some near-misses.
In Season 6, Davis closes his company's Alberta offices, shrinking his operation to Hope and Chilliwack, British Columbia. In an effort to make his business more lean, Davis begins buying and restoring older equipment to add to his fleet, such as a vintage 22-ton Holmes Python wrecker.
Season 7 began airing on September 4, 2018. At Davis' yard in Hope, classic Holmes tow trucks – some nearly half a century old – are replacing newer, costlier wreckers. For Davis, the vintage trucks are more than just a passion; they represent survival. Under pressure to reduce costs and stay competitive, Davis is confident he and his crew can tackle some of the toughest jobs – on and off the Coquihalla – using an older, rebuilt fleet. Colin McLean is back in Hope as lead driver, but since he has driven some top-of-the-line hydraulic trucks, Davis' "old iron" takes some getting used to. The seventh season sees some of the younger generation stepping up, with Cary Quiring one of the first to respond to a mass-casualty event [6] on the Coquihalla, and Dylan Greenwood of Mission Towing taking the lead on some big wrecks and recoveries in the Fraser Valley. Reliable Towing, out of Merritt, makes its debut in the second half of Season 7, first responding to a small wreck of a truck and trailer with pigs inside, and then to a six-semitrailer crash on the Coquihalla, north of Merritt. Mudslides and rockslides contribute to a tough time for recovery crews all around. The season ends with a tearful goodbye as Davis sells HR 117 to Reliable which adds the truck to their Mission fleet.
Season 8 opens with the winter of 2019 and the Hope Mudslide which almost destroys Davis' yard and buries The Coq in 20 feet of mud cutting off access to Merritt and Abbotsford. Davis buys a new Mack Anthem and dubs it HR 127 to close out the season.
Season 9 begins with Davis hiring Greg to drive HR 127 and marks the return of TR 37 to service which was under repairs in Davis' shop at the end of Season 7 to get a new motor. The season ends with the return of Colin and the passing of Ken Monkhouse who died in May 2020. Davis tries to get Colin back by ordering HR 130 but ends up selling HR 126 to pay for the truck. Quiring Towing is profiled as Quiring shows us his hobby of recovering and restoring old bulldozers and excavators and several recoveries featuring Quiring using his dozers to recover wrecks and trapped machinery from the peat bogs following the landslides.
Season 10 opens with Davis buying Columbia Towing and acquiring some of his former trucks back which he sold to them at the end of Season 3 when he closed Alberta and opening a new yard in Golden. Davis also gets Brandon back who now works for a flagging crew out of Golden. Mission is forced to bring out all their trucks and even ask for help when a logging truck goes over the edge. Jr. joins the Davis crew as a swamper and Davis announces his projects for the year. The COVID-19 Pandemic forces Davis to lean back his operation as mandates go into effect. The Season ends with Davis teaming up with Aggressive to recover a truck that went over the edge, Davis in Ely, Nevada buying one of his project trucks and a used boom for 47, and Davis in LA buying HR 56 from the LA Fire Department and adding it to his fleet. The Rotator is also profiled recovering two wrecks after its arrival from LA, a lumber truck that went off the road in the same spot another one did in Season 6, a logging truck that went over the edge in Fraser Canyon, and a tanker which almost causes a chemical spill. Davis also reminisces on 10 years of Highway Thru Hell on the air.
Season 11 opens with another mudslide in Hope which threatens to take out Davis' yard, Davis Towing acquires several new trucks some of which appeared on Ice Road Truckers and other shows, The Coq is rebuilt so Davis can help with the cleanup, Davis says goodbye to some of his fleet after HR 127 is lost in a fire and COVID forces him to make selloffs to pay Miller for replacements to keep his fleet running, and an old warhorse returns to the Coq while Jr. profiles his projects with Davis working on some of his own.
Season 12 opens with disaster. Rotator is run off the road and suffers a bad crash, FD 124 suffers a rollover and is totaled, Jamie's Mack Anthem 127 is torched, and Jamie is forced to sell HR 85 and the General as collateral to pay for a new truck. The season ends with the arrival of HR 100 and MR 134 who will fill in for Rotator and 47 and the cast of Highway Thru Hell says farewell as the series announces the death of Al's mother and father.
