Planning a trip to Alaska next year questions

[Dhoman46]

I'm sure I'll have many questions but here's a couple. We have a 40 foot 5th wheel toy hauler and dually pickup. I know it's heavy, long and tall but I really don't want to purchase anything just for this 6 week trip. What do you all think of us taking this rig. Crazy? Second question: our rig is 13 foot 3 inch tall Wil we have problems being too tall especially in Canada?

[Roam America]

I've been told that in Canada the rule is 4 meters (which I believe is around 13' 6") on their highways. Less than that it needs to be marked.


I was planning to go this summer, but I had too many issues with my trailer and ended up getting a new one. I'll be watching this thread as I am planning on making the trip next summer.

[drdarrin]

Saw a guy last month pulling a 40’ three axle toy hauler with a Ram 5500 so your trailer may not be an issue if you have enough truck to handle it. Some of the grades on the ALCAN are pretty steep. He did tell me he had one of the springs on his trailer break in Dawson and was able to get it fixed there.

Height in Canada, on their main roads, shouldn’t be an issue. I remember being impressed that all of the over crossings we went under were 5+ meters tall. Remember that everything is meters here.

[bikermike]

Pick up a travel guide called the Mile Post, it covers the Alcan highway and Alaskan roads.

[sdennislee]

Second vote for The Mile Post. Doesn’t need to be latest edition either. The ads are the biggest changes each year.

Your rig will be fine, obviously there will be roads you can’t travel just like there are roads in the lower 48 you can’t travel. Park the 5ver and explore in the truck.

Lived in AK for 8 years, it should be on everyone’s bucket list.

[Roam America]

got the 2017 edition of Milepost as well as some other books on Fairbanks and Achorage camping/site seeing.

[Superslif]

40' toy hauler is no issue. The bridges over all are higher because of all the oil and gas drilling rigs and equipment that is brought up that way.



You sure 6 weeks is enough? In 2016 we spent 110 days / 14k miles. Also plan to go back in 2019.


Most common repair I saw were where the RV trailers spring hangers are welded to the frame. Or those small R-pod type trailers and their fenders getting messed up.



The biggest thing to watch for are the sections of road with frost heave damage. Most times marked with a orange cone or flag so you know something is coming up.

[bfisher003]

Yup, Superslif is correct. We were one of those broken spring hangers last summer after most likely hitting a frost heave too fast. Also bent an axle, but didn’t know that until we got back home and noticed a little bit of unusual tire wear. BTW, Willard’s RV Repair across the street from Fast Eddy’s restaurant (very good food) did our repairs. It looks like a run down junk place, but they did a pretty good job. You quickly learn to watch for the warning flags and wavy lines and SLOW down. LOL. Last summer we encountered the worst ones north of Destruction Bay. Six weeks for the total trip is not much time, for sure. We round tripped last summer from Florida in two months. The time went by way too fast. Three months would have been much, much better. It is an incredibly awesome trip!

[rarebear.nm]

We are seven weeks into a 19 week Alaska trip starting from New Mexico. We are towing a 32ft 5th weighting about 24k with a RAM 3500 diesel. We are 12-9 in height. No issues about clearances or width. Semis run all these roads an d you are smaller than them.

Bigger issues is you will be more limited in camping locations, but awe see rigs like yours everyday. Make sure you drive on the top half of your fuel tank. It can be a way between fuel stations. There ‘s been no need for extra fuel cans of diesel.

The Milepost any recent yeah is great, but our go to resource is Alaska Camping by Chruch. It includes what seems every nook and cranny camping place plus useful details about the campground, much more useful than the Milepost. What we found is that Canada is very sparse with their mileage, km, markets which renders the Milepost less than great. There are errors in both of these books, just so much info packed into them. We always cross reference camping in these books with info from the web.

The only reservations we’ve made so far were a few nights in the Denali area. Otherwise we wing it or call ahead about noon for that night. We did not find Canada had very many pull out sites along our route for dry camping.

Our solar system has provided 100% of our 12 volt power on this trip. Total generator time is under 10 hours in seven weeks, mostly for the microwave in dry camps.

There is plenty of road damage from frost issues. Both frost heaves and just plain old pot holes. In much of Yukon the highways are chip sealed not hot pavement. So water, frost and snow plows do it lots of damage. In some sections there’ll be long sections of constant damage in one or two tire tracks. You wind up crossing the center line frequently to avoid this mess. Traffic in many places has been light, perhaps 5 -10 minutes between vehicles. In Alaska the roads are built and maintained better for the most part.

Most important thing, just do it.

[bfisher003]

That’s a great update on road conditions, rarebear. We had both the latest Milepost and Church’s book last summer and our experience was the opposite of yours—we rarely used the Church’s book, but once my wife figured out how to use the Milepost she practically wore it out. LOL. We also never made reservations more than a few hours in advance. Tons of great pullouts, etc., places to camp in Alaska and the Provincial Parks in Canada, especially the Yukon were great (and cheap).

[Superslif]

but once my wife figured out how to use the Milepost she practically wore it out. LOL

Same thing with my wife. I gave it to her a few weeks before our trip and told her to scan it (Milepost) over to get the gist of how you interpret it. Took her a few days to understand it and I found a high-lighter works good. Ours has duct on the cover now. I would highlight my planned next days camp spot in green and other points of interest in orange.


I found I really liked Mike & Terri Church's book as it dealt with only camping, and no advertising. The Church book covers "ALL CAMPING" from North of Banff National Park in Alberta into northern half of BC, Yukon and all of AK.


Also check out the website Yukon Sights, as it has many good photo's of the roads and campgrounds in BC, Yukon and AK. Gives you an idea the contours of the road.


It was either this thread or another Alaska thread where someone was saying about all the steep hill / mountain road climbs. Personally I didn't really feel there were any overwhelming steep hills. Ones I can remember were: West bound on the Alcan nearing the Summit Provincial Park, North bound on the Ice Fields Parkway between Lake Louise and Jasper National Parks in Alberta and lastly the climb (Thompson Pass) out of Valdez AK.


Maybe living in the Midwest I could tell you many others much, steeper and narrower than any I encountered going to Alaska. (PA. OH. WV. and VT.)

[twogypsies]

Originally Posted by Superslif

I found I really liked Mike & Terri Church's book as it dealt with only camping, and no advertising. The Church book covers "ALL CAMPING" from North of Banff National Park in Alberta into northern half of BC, Yukon and all of AK.

Same here. The Church's have personally looked at the campgrounds, RV parks and boondocking spots in their book. They lived in Fairbanks and traveled the roads south all the time. The ads for campgrounds in the Milepost are paid for.

We did use the Milepost for the history of the road we were on as we traveled and to know what's coming up so we didn't miss something.

[bigbutt2002]

We used the Milepost and we started at MP0, which is Dawson Creek, BC. I logged onto several caravan websites and looked at their tours - to expensive. But they listed their entire route and departure time. We left MP0 3 days before caravan and had no problems finding campgrounds with lots of empty sites. Most of the caravan's stops are in a small town with only one campground. Make sure you go to Dawson City and ford the Yukon river on the ferry, get to the ferry real early. Once across the river you are on "The Top of the World Highway" It lives up to it's name. You end up in Chicken and when we were there they had 3 campgrounds, mostly full but with spaces available. Be very carful of frost heaves. If you are carrying anything in the rear of the toy hauler make sure it is strapped down. Leave nothing on shelves or tables. Put safety straps on the big screen to keep it secure. And two more things; if you see someone pulled over on the side of the road please stop. Either they need help or they are looking at wildlife. One of our stops was rewarded with a big Grizzly lying on his back eating something from his belly about 30 yards away - we did not get out to take pictures.

[ByeTheWay]

Slow down for bridges: decking is like a cattle guard, for drainage


Slow down for frost Heavies, usually marked, some are fixed some are not


Get the 2 for 1 tour book. We found ours in a Grocery Store in Alaska. Paid for itself with first use.


We boondocked the whole way up and back. Alcan up and Cassiar back. Also did Top of the World highway, prior to it being redone.



Great Trip. Enjoy!!