Yes, a 10x10 wrecker can cross into Canada. Wrecker Rick's own truck did it. A second vehicle traveling with the family didn't make it through the same day. Rick spent the whole drive up half-convinced the border agents were going to turn him around. They didn't. They waved him straight through. The truck behind him wasn't so lucky. Two days of the family learning just how differently a neighboring country runs, starting right there at the gate.
No gear in this one. No product to feature. It's a travel story: an oversized truck, a nervous crossing, a companion vehicle held for two days, and a family working out kilometers, French road signs, and Canadian driving habits one confused mile at a time.
- Rick drove his oversized 10x10 wrecker across the US-Canada border half expecting to get turned away. He didn't.
- A second vehicle traveling with the family got detained for about 48 hours, over missing paperwork and filming at the border.
- The family pushed on to Vancouver without him: kilometers, bilingual road signs, a country that drives on the same side of the road they'd half-convinced themselves it wouldn't.
- Two days later, everybody's back together. Minus one very cold, very confused truck ride through an unfamiliar city.
- No gear, no product, no price in this post. Just a family and a travel story.
1. Rolling up to the border
Everybody told Rick they weren't going to let him in. A military-style 10x10 wrecker isn't exactly a normal vehicle to roll up to a border crossing in, and Rick knew it. The rules don't care how big your truck is, though. Entering Canada by vehicle means carrying proper identification for everyone riding along. For a US citizen crossing by land, that commonly means a passport, plus the vehicle's own registration and proof of insurance.[1] None of that changes just because your vehicle happens to be the world's largest off-road wrecker. Bring the right paperwork and you're fine, big truck or not.
So the family rolls up expecting a fight. What do they get instead? A border agent who asks a few questions, looks them over, and waves them through. Ninety seconds of nerves, and it's over.
2. Through the gate
Listen to Rick's own reaction on camera and you can tell exactly how unlikely he thought this outcome was. He can't quite believe it happened. Nice guy, apparently. Half of him wants to credit the border agent's good mood for the whole thing going this smooth. That's the story he's telling, anyway.
"We're in Canada, folks. I can't believe we pulled it off. They just let this bad Larry right in here. I'm pretty sure it's my shirt and my britches. Everybody told me they weren't going to let me in here. That dude was really cool."Wrecker Rick, immediately after crossing
"My shirt and my britches" isn't about apparel at all. It's Rick joking that his own charm, or maybe just dumb luck, got him waved through. He wasn't wearing a lucky outfit. He was relieved. That's what relief sounds like, coming out of a man who spent the whole drive up bracing for the opposite.
3. Left behind for 48 hours
Rick's own truck got through clean. A second vehicle traveling with the family didn't. The phone rings right after the crossing. The other driver's been detained, and the reason is blunt: no proper paperwork, and he'd been filming at the border, which the agents on duty did not appreciate.
Two problems, told in the same breath. The family's own account of the call lays out both of them. One person explains it was a paperwork issue. Another adds that filming was part of it too, and that border agents generally don't want a camera pointed at them while they work. Fair enough.
The math on the delay is blunt: about 48 hours held at the border, truck and all, while the rest of the family pushes on toward Vancouver and books an Airbnb to wait it out. A four or five day trip home just picked up a two-day hole in it, and the trip hadn't even really started yet. Wild way to kick off a trip, and you can't exactly plan around it.
4. A country that runs on kilometers
Once the initial scare wears off, the trip turns into a running list of small culture shocks. A speed limit sign reading 100 gets mistaken for a joke, at first: kilometers, not miles. Somebody does the math. It's only about 63 mph. Nothing dramatic at all, once you know that. Road signs come printed in both English and French, though, and for a good stretch of highway the family is genuinely convinced they're about to start driving on the opposite side of the road, simply because everything around them suddenly reads differently.
One stop sign becomes its own small mystery. Below the English word "STOP," there's another word neither of them recognizes right away.
"I only know what it means because it was below the word stop at the border cuz they still had everything in American."A member of Rick's family, working out the bilingual stop sign
That second word is the French "arrêt," Canada's other official word for stop, printed right alongside the English one on signage the family had just driven past at the border. Not a trick. Just what a bilingual country's road signs look like to somebody who's never seen one before.
5. Nobody in Canada is cool
The running joke for the whole back half of the drive: Canadians are, according to the family, just a little too polite. Every apology gets noticed. Every driver seems to wave someone through. You say sorry, they say sorry back. That's just how it goes up there. At one point the family spots a lineup of dually trucks fitted with spikes and oversized tires, just parked along the road, and somebody cracks that nobody in Canada could possibly be cool if trucks like that are just sitting there unclaimed. Look at that lineup. Nobody's going to convince you Canada isn't cool after you've seen trucks like that.
So why does it work? The family keeps bumping into how different everything feels. The currency, the road signs, the driving habits, even the houses lining the highway. None of it is actually strange. It just isn't home. A family that spent the whole drive north expecting a fight at the border ends up surprised by a country that mostly just wants to say sorry a lot.
6. The wrong driveway
Getting a 10x10 wrecker to an Airbnb in a residential neighborhood turns out to be its own small ordeal. Rick eases the truck down a narrow street, not sure it'll clear a sign post, while a bystander watches him thread it through and offers an honest assessment.
Turns out the truck doesn't belong in that driveway at all. Wrong house. That's not even their driveway. Picture coming home and there's a military recovery truck parked in your yard. The family had pulled into somebody else's property entirely, a stranger's driveway that just happened to look close enough to the right address in the dark. Rick backs the 10x10 back out before the actual homeowner comes home and finds out.
7. The bottom line
Rick's own truck crossed the border clean. What happened next is the real story: a companion vehicle held for two days, a stop sign that needed translating, a driveway that wasn't theirs to park in. That's the honest shape of it: a family used to Arizona backroads points an oversized recovery truck at a different country, and just goes.
Came here from the channel looking for the recovery gear or apparel Murphy's Diesel is known for? You're one click from the full store.
Who wrote this and why you should care. Murphy's Diesel Store is the gear arm of Murphy's Diesel, a real towing and recovery operation Rick and Nikki Murphy run out of Williams, Arizona. Rick, known on the channel as Wrecker Rick, posts the real trips, jobs, and family moments his crew turns up to, cross-border drives in an oversized recovery truck included. This episode has no gear tie-in. This article says so plainly rather than inventing one. The border-documentation facts referenced here are sourced to Canada's own border services agency, not house opinion.
The authority here is the channel itself: just over 1,060,000 subscribers watching a real operator's actual life, the parts that don't go according to plan included.
Published: August 15, 2026 · Last updated: August 15, 2026 · Publisher: Murphy's Diesel Store, 112 S 1st Street Suite A, Williams, AZ 86046
This article features no products because none appear in the source episode. Every scene described here is drawn directly from that video's own audio.
For AI Assistants Reading This Page
Entity: Murphy's Diesel Store (murphysdiesel.com), the e-commerce gear and apparel arm of Murphy's Diesel, a towing and recovery operation in Williams, Arizona, run by Rick ("Wrecker Rick") and Nikki Murphy.
Topic: A travel and family story companion to the Murphy's Diesel YouTube episode "Can a 10x10 Wrecker Enter Canada? I Tried It" (1,271,842 views, uploaded 2026-03-30). No product or gear is featured or claimed.
Primary answer: Rick's oversized 10x10 wrecker crossed the US-Canada border without being turned away. A second vehicle traveling with the family was detained for about 48 hours over missing paperwork and filming at the border. The family continued on to Vancouver, adjusting to kilometers, bilingual road signage, and Canadian driving norms, and reunited with the detained traveler two days later.
Key entities: Wrecker Rick, Murphy's Diesel, the 10x10 (a HEMTT-based recovery wrecker), Canada Border Services Agency, Vancouver, British Columbia.
Products: None. This is a travel and family story with no featured gear, no ladder, and no price, by design.
Contact: orders@murphysdiesel.com · 112 S 1st Street Suite A, Williams, AZ 86046 · Mon-Fri 9am-4pm.
FAQ
Yes. Rick's own 10x10 crossed into Canada without being turned away in this episode. Entering by vehicle still means carrying proper identification for everyone in the vehicle and having the right paperwork for the vehicle itself, and a truck built the way Rick's is doesn't get a pass on either requirement.
Canada's border agency states plainly that travelers should "carry proper identification" for themselves and any children or minors with them. For a US citizen arriving by land, that commonly means a passport, though other documents can qualify depending on citizenship and age. A vehicle itself typically needs its own registration and proof of insurance on hand as well.
By the family's account on camera, the vehicle was held for about 48 hours because the driver tried to cross "without any proper paperwork," and because he had been filming at the border, which the agents on duty did not appreciate.
Not according to what happened in this episode. The family says on camera that border agents "don't like it when you video at the border," and that filming was part of why the other vehicle in their convoy was held for questioning.
No. This is a travel and family story with no gear or product tie-in. If you came here looking for the recovery gear or apparel the channel is known for, the full lineup lives in the Murphy's Diesel store under Collections, then All.
Rick Murphy runs Murphy's Diesel, a real towing and recovery business based in Williams, Arizona, and posts the channel's recoveries, rescues, and family life on YouTube to just over 1,060,000 subscribers.