Recommended Alaska trip modifications?

[IamSpartacus]

Jayfeather 23' BHM.

1500 Suburban, tow package.

It will be 5 kids 2 adults, from Florida and then back...yes, I know it'll be wonderfully crazy.

Any modifications you think need to be done?
Will be doing a fully packed and kitted up shakedown cruise over spring break.

Any maintenance kit necessities that I should pack?

Recommendations?

Thanks ahead of time.

[Bmiller]

Get yourself a copy of the 2020 Milepost travel guide, it will give you a lot of info and tips for driving the northern part of your route.

[us71na]

Have a good handle on your gas mileage before your get to Canada. Gas stations can be few and far between in some areas in Canada and Alaska.

Make reservations for where you plan to stay as campgrounds fill up quickly in some areas. You may be too late already to make reservations at some.

Set rules on the use of electronics during the trip so they kids actually look out the windows for a portion of each day. Maybe limit electronics to night use only.

Fuel and food are both expensive north of the 48 border. Most places in Alaska limited each credit card purchase at the pumps to $100. You can ring up multiple purchases at a single station.

Mosquitos are pleantiful so be prepared with wind breakers and head nets.

I highly recommend the full day bus tour in Denali.

[Xboaters]

Originally Posted by IamSpartacus

Jayfeather 23' BHM.

1500 Suburban, tow package.

It will be 5 kids 2 adults, from Florida and then back...yes, I know it'll be wonderfully crazy.

Any modifications you think need to be done?
Will be doing a fully packed and kitted up shakedown cruise over spring break.

Any maintenance kit necessities that I should pack?

Recommendations?

Thanks ahead of time.

2 spare tires for the trailer and new tires all around! We wore the new rear tires out on our trip to Alaska. Keep your fuel gauge above half full at all times. Go with the flow and have a great time!

[Coasty AV8R]

Extra spare tire for both trailer and vehicle, bring a gas can if you have any doubts about where a gas station may be. I had to wait a day and a half for a gas station to get gas when I drove up on the Cassiar Highway. The Milepost atlas is a great suggestion as well.

[curver900]

i just did this trip last year from MN.. 9000 miles round trip. you get to add another what 4000 miles?

1. new tires on the trailer all the way around if c rated go to d if d go to e

2. new tires on your truck all the way around go up one rating

3. new spare tires for both unless they are all less than 3 years old if older than 3 years I stick by my recommendation.

3.25 - shocks if more than 4 years old go with new ones, plugs, wires etc...

3.5 a big bottle jack with 2-3 pieces of 2"x8"x2'

4. figure out your mileage per TANK. If less than 250 miles per tank buy and 2 or 3 6 gallon jugs for gas.

4.5 before you cross fill up at least one of your gas cans (you will thank me later) i had all three filled up... wind can change your mileage and gas stations are hard to find in Canada it isn't America that is for sure!

5. pack your wheel bearings

5.25 I put in new shackles as well with the grease fittings old plastic stuff was of no value.

5.5 extra set of lug nuts

6. bring a spare hub and bearing set greased and ready to go, extra set of grease seals

6.5 2 quarts of oil

7. all the tools to fix about anything -volt meter, hammer, wrenches etc...

8. very good towing insurance had AAA and my Insurance and my truck still was covered. Some tows are more than 300 miles if you get to the wrong spot.

9. go up as far west as you can before you turn into Canada. Gas started at 1.09 a L and went up from there... most of the time we were paying around 1.56L.

9.5 we went in through the Sweetgrass check point. Top off gas at the duty free station...

10 we went up through MT to edmonton and to pink mountain (station on the West side) get gas in pink mountain and ask for the list of gas stations they have a list with miles/KM and distance between. It should be updated as we gave them a fully updated list when we came back it was about 1/2 right. You will need to make sure you have extra gas for this leg or be prepared to pay north of 2.40 L for gas.

11. There is allot of NOTHING for a LONG time. The roads are great/not so great/ great/ poor/ really poor/ great and so on... there are areas where you really need to slow down or you will bottom out most of that was around the boarder between canada and AK and about 100 miles into AK.

12. Groceries in AK weren't all that much more in Fairbanks and Anchorage small towns are well expensive. We stopped at a COSTCO and it was on par with what we pay here

13. if you go to COSTCO in Canada they do not take VISA and some other stuff it was weird... for gas

14. DO an exchange with your bank before you go. We took 2.4k in funny canadian money and the exchange rate here was awesome. We used it all especially at campgrounds and gas stations.

14.5 your CC company charges a fee for using the card in Canada usually and exchange rate fee... if you pay cash you save that.

15. When you go matters for reservations... if going in July you will need to be booked up. We went in August and only had one reservation.

16. you can park just about anywhere once you get in the yukon and camp. AK has a free campground right after you cross the boarder. But isn't very big and was full when we got there.. buy ONE car... arrrrg... but we just went about 15 miles and pulled off and camped there.

17. Make sure you carry about 20 gal of water in your unit for pitstops.

18. almost forgot my daughter and I made blackout curtains that we velcrod on so you can sleep at night. DON'T forget the roof vents!

If you want more info PM me... I can give you a call and give you more info..

Other than the truck breaking down... long long long story we never got stranded and nothing failed that I had control over.

we did the all day Denali bus tour

if you are going to hike in you need to reserve a bus in denali
there is only 14 miles of road you can drive in on to denali no campers allowed after one of the campgrounds.

we did a cruise out of Seward

We can truly say we did AK. We were there for 3 weeks... absolutely spectacular.

I found the mile post book to be worthless...

A good atlas and set of maps was more useful and a GPS.

We did it with a 2014 1500 and a 26' Octane...


Best part is the ol' lady made me buy a new truck when we got back.. wooot woooot!!!

[IamSpartacus]

To all that pushed information, thank you. I will be using it to ensure my trip north doesnt go south... see what I did there?

[Kim Gass]

We found our trip on the Alaska Highway to be easier than our trips in Northern Maine as the road is paved or chip sealed. There is a possibility that you may encounter as we did gas stations that do not have electronic capability.. ie you have to pay cash. ( Liard Hot Springs )
Not all credit cards have a foreign transaction fee . Ours does not.
Be prepared to wait for construction as road construction months have to coincide with travel months.
Sometimes dirt is better than paved due to discontinuous permafrost. We loved the dirt Denali Hwy from Cantwell to Paxon ( rt 8). Camp at any turnout. The Top of the World Highway from Dawson City to Tetlin Junction has some pavement but dirt is still better. They are replacing pavement with insulation under the pavement and that is interesting to see.

We have done the trip four times and so far never used the Milepost. I never was interested in it as you can find pertinent info online and I need not know that I am going over a culvert at mile 661.3. Now if you want to travel the Stewart Cassiar Highway that is an entirely different animal and wow spectacular ( done twice. With gas can)

The Alaska Highway is well stocked with cinnamon buns and not the feared ogre that it once deserved to be.

We have a smaller unit so we never had reservations nor were turned away. Do keep up with road construction advisories. We traveled the Klondike Highway in 2017 and for 200 km it was mud. When we got to Tok AKA( via Top of the World Highway) we did have to wash the beast ( Tok is an RV service heaven) as we could not move the steps!. There are wash facilities for RVs in some towns like Dawson City too.
So to carry:
spare tire
cash
bathing suit ( Liard Hot Springs)
full gas can or something that gets you in the 300 mile range. If you are getting towards a half never pass up a refill . Its easy peasy

[AmericanBiker]

Originally Posted by IamSpartacus

Jayfeather 23' BHM.

Any modifications you think need to be done?

I would re-enforce the spring hangers and repack the wheel bearings in addition to the other advice here.