Pleasure Way Excel in Alaska

[TdogKing]

Just starting week 4 of our Alaska Trip. We are pretty much the envy of alot of people when it comes to parking at attractions and finding somewhere to camp. In Canada at $6 a gallon I was even more glad of our choice. This size works perfectly to travel and sightsee, we can pull over anywhere or easily turn around to view wildlife. We have zero regrets.

[irv2fan]

Very nice, all loaded up for a big trip like that have you ever had the rear end sag too much for your liking or rough road suspension travel (alaska pot holes)? I have never looked under the excel before at the suspension setup is the reason for asking. Thanks.

[francheska]

Our 06 PW came standard with air bags as all do I believe.

[TdogKing]

I didn't take anymore than normal for this trip. With air bags in the rear its sits and rides perfectly. I have just enough storage to carry what's needed and no more so that prevents you from overloading. Rough road hasn't been too much of a problem but you have keep your eyes peeled at all times tho.

[Bruce C]

Great, safe travels and enjoy the trip. Post some pictures.

[TdogKing]

Just a few pictures, we are on our 6th week and enjoying every mile and minute !

[CLIFFTALL]

I went in 04 and tell everyone I can " don't die before you go ". Enjoy and thanks for the pics.

[Superslif]

Wish I was there... in my RV.... Planning a RVing trip in 2016' the year I retire. Been up to the Fairbanks / North Pole area 4-5 times in the last 18 years to visit sis-n-law. Will be up there this August for two weeks (flying up).

From those who have traveled the AL-Can thru Canada, how would you think a 25' tt and a pick-up handle the roads / stone damage?

And with gas (regular) running about $3.20 a gallon this week in Ohio, is all of Canada $$$ for fuel even the larger cities, or is it just the rural areas on the Al-Can?

We bought a new 2013 tt and plan to buy a new tow vehicle later this year. On my last few fly-up trips to AK. I noticed a lot of class "B" and pushers....The locals seemed to have a lot of tt's.

On our fly-up visits to AK. we have driven to Valdez, Anchorage, Denali and the Kenai Peninsula areas. The roads on general are fine for interstate travel....so you might have to hold your speed to 50, but that is a good thing, slower the better, so many places to pull off and take it all in. Sis-n-law lives 2 blocks from Santa-Clause-house in North Pole AK.

pics from 08' Alaska trip

[RSchleder]

Personally, I would have waited until AFTER my Alaskan trip to purchased either a new TT or a new truck. This is based on spending 3 months camping out in Alaska in the back of our 4X4 pickup with a small truck camper on board a few years ago.

[TdogKing]

We just completed our 10 week and 11,500 mile Alaska trip. I think if you can use common sense you can take any type of RV to Alaska. On the sections that were under repair or needing repair I just slowed down to meet the conditions and not tear up or rattle apart my MH. If someone was behind me and I felt I was holding them up I'd pull over , it's not that big if a deal and I wasn't in no hurry. The only road I made the decision not to travel was the Top of the World highway. It had been raining for 2 days and when I seen the vehicles coming off the ferry I made my mind up. Yeah it cost me $6 a gallon gas to backtrack 340 miles but when I got back to Whitehorse my MH was still in perfect condition and ready to continue our journey. Everyone we talked said oh you missed the best part but really couldn't pin point what they thought was so great. You can go on YouTube and see videos of what it looks like and on top of that I don't feel like we had been shorted of beautiful scenery. In some places your RV is dirty, real dirty but that washes off, I paid close attention to oncoming vehicles in tore up areas and pulled over as Far as I could and sometimes came to a near stop. That didn't happen too much. By far and without a doubt it was the best trip we have ever taken.

[onejosepm]

Hey what kind of gas per miles did you get on your class B . I have a travelcraft rv and haver never gone no where in it . But plan to do a trip like you did .

[scubastevee]

Hi Onejosepm ...

mileage is going to vary from one RV to another. What I can tell you is ... do not rely on the maps that show you where the gas stations are. As I found out, many are now closed (out of business). I'd recommend re-filling your tank before getting below 50% capacity.

I counted on a gas station being open and when I got there found it to be out of business ... looked at my gauge and had to make a call as to whether to go back (to where I knew there was an open station) or go ahead to the next town (but not know if that station was open or not). Decided to continue on b/c I didn't know if there'd be enough gas to get back and didn't want to be stranded in the middle of nowhere. Huge relief when I found the station was open.

It's an awesome road trip with outstanding scenery and wildlife beyond anything I was anticipating. Unfortunately, I did not have my RV when I did the trip and was pulling a TT behind a 4x4 Nissan. A Class B RV is perfect for this type of trip ... IMHO.

Cheers,

Steve

[pagosajoe]

No doubt you're familiar with/purchased this tremendous magazine to assist you along the Alaska Highway and throughout the state:

The MILEPOST: Alaska Travel Guide and Trip Planner

Cheers

[RV735]

Superslif, Here is a copy of a previous post that summarizes our trip and reference information used for our 2012 trip to Alaska.

We traveled form NY to Alaska and back in 4 plus months and 14K miles in 2012. Went across the northern US RT90. Turned north at Glacier Park thru the Canadian Rockies and onto the Alaska Highway up to Fairbanks. Took a plane ride thru Denali National Park and landed on a Eldridge Glacier. The Plane ride was one of two reservations made. The other was at Tutka Bay Lodge across the bay form Homer, Ak.; where my wife and grandsons participated in the cooking school. Tuned south and traveled on a Ferry on the Inter Coastal Waterway form Haines to Juneao, Sitka, Ketchikan, and back to Canada at Prince Rupert. Then down to Seattle, Columbia River Gorge, Yellowstone, Cody, and down to Denver, Pikes Peak and back home to NY.

Pick up a Milepost book of the Alaska Highway. Your Copilot will keep you informed about all of the up coming interesting sights and call ahead to the next towns campgrounds.

We created a blog of the entire trip starting in May 2012:
http://rvgr8escape.blogspot.com/2012...e-left-mt.html

We planed our trip using RV adventure Videos. These proved to be the most informative on roads, campgrounds, restaurants, interesting sights, and activities along the way. These are videos we used : "Alaska; RV adventure of a life time", "RVing Alaska", "The Great Rocky Mountain Adventure Glacier Park and Canadian Rockies", and " Alaska Inside Passage". See their web site: http://www.rvadventurevideos.com/

We also watched the videos as we traveled to make sure we captured all the sights.

Safe travels and THE JOY IS IN THE RIDE