POI's - Fuel

[Alan_Hepburn]

If you find a TA, or any other major name, that is missing from RVTW you can send a report to the Help Desk and it will be added - eventually. Most of the POIs come directly from the map provider so it can take some time to get updated but it can't be updated if it's never reported.

[Skilletface]

Originally Posted by akeagle

Capt Morgan: If you haven't done so already, get yourself a copy of The Milepost. It has all the info you could ever want about travel in Canada and Alaska. Its a great tool for trip planning.

As far as TA truck stops, we've made three trips from Alaska to the Lower-48 in the last 4 years and can vouch that there are no TAs in Alaska and we never saw any in Western Canada. From Montana south to New Mexico we saw only a couple on I-25. One was in Las Cruces, NM and I think the other was in the Denver area. From our two trips to Indiana, I got the distinct impression that TAs are more numerous in the East and Midwest. We primarily used Pilot/Flying J and Loves once we entered the Lower-48. They are VERY RV friendly and will often allow you to overnight on their property if you should have the need to.

In Alaska and Canada there are few if any major truck stops, so you can't be too picky about brand names. Most of the fuel stops we used easily accommodated our almost 30 ft Minnie Winnie. A few might challenge your close quarter driving skills.

On your way north, its wise to drive on the top half of your fuel tank once you pass Dawson Creek, BC. In summer most of the stations are open but there are some with seemingly "newish" signs, but have been closed/abandoned for some time. In early spring (April/early May) some stations that closed for the winter may not be open for the summer season yet. In late fall (late Sept/Oct) many of those seasonal stations will be closed.

Road conditions in Alaska are generally good, but you must be aware of frost heaves that cause very noticible humps in the pavement. Some can be minor, others can make you and your possessions hit the ceiling. You'll quickly learn how to spot the bad ones. Canada knows how to maintain roads in the far north, but last year it looked like COVID may have forced them to defer maintenance on the stretch from the Alaska border to about 50 - 75 miles to the east. That stretch was very bad and I don't believe we exceeded 35 MPH.

Hope I didn't make the trip sound like something to be avoided. Quite the contrary, its a great trip and the scenery is spectacular!

This expectation description needs to be a sticky. Short and to the point.

[Edd505]

Originally Posted by Captain Morgan

Thanks, that's all great advice. I have an older copy of Milepost we used for planning as our original trip was to travel to Alaska in 2019. Covid put the brakes on that trip. So, now we are planning to leave in mid April of 2022. I ordered a new Milepost and it's being delivered today! I used TA as an example of my frustration with POI's in RVTW as I use them a lot when I travel up and down the east coast. I also use the Open Roads (TSD) app to find stations due to the heavy discounts. My initial thought was to identify potential fuel stops along the route in RVTW but due to programs limitations I backing off including them.

This will be our first trip to Alaska and we are really excited and looking forward to it. I'd love to just completely wing it as we won't really have any time constraints other than old man winter. Even though I've done a ton of research I lack the level of knowledge and experience you have, so I'm no doubt over thinking and over planning at this point.

Back to RVTW... I think, at least for me, the problem would be solved if there was a way to set a custom icon for a stop and/or filter the type of stops on the route.

Hope you will keep us informed on the trip. I was going to take my5W but heard stories of "expect" to have damage to your RV. I opted for a cruise June2022 to see Alaska, only state I have no been to.

[Captain Morgan]

Originally Posted by Alan_Hepburn

If you find a TA, or any other major name, that is missing from RVTW you can send a report to the Help Desk and it will be added - eventually. Most of the POIs come directly from the map provider so it can take some time to get updated but it can't be updated if it's never reported.

I don't have any problem sending a bug/missing/wrong data report but in this case it appears it's a chronic problem with RVTW and TA POI's. I was hoping it was something I was doing wrong and could some guidance from this group (the reason for my post here) to solve the issue.

[Captain Morgan]

Originally Posted by Edd505

Hope you will keep us informed on the trip. I was going to take my5W but heard stories of "expect" to have damage to your RV. I opted for a cruise June2022 to see Alaska, only state I have no been to.

I will be creating a travel diary for the trip. I just don't know what platform I'll be using yet.

[akeagle]

Originally Posted by Edd505

Hope you will keep us informed on the trip. I was going to take my5W but heard stories of "expect" to have damage to your RV. I opted for a cruise June2022 to see Alaska, only state I have no been to.

Thousands of people visit Alaska every year and the vast majority of them travel up and back via the Alaska Highway in their RVs. While I would agree that the trip can be hard on RVs, preplanning and careful driving will pretty much eliminate most if not all potential for damage.

FWIW, the Keep Your Daydreams folks on Facebook documented their extensive trip to Alaska a couple years ago. Might be worth looking at.

As for cruising to Alaska, I've heard nothing but rave reviews. The only thing I might shy away from it taking a flight seeing tour from any of the ports of call in the Panhandle. Sorry to say that quite a few tourists have been killed in weather-related plane crashes with cruise ship passengers on board.

[Captain Morgan]

Originally Posted by akeagle

Thousands of people visit Alaska every year and the vast majority of them travel up and back via the Alaska Highway in their RVs. While I would agree that the trip can be hard on RVs, preplanning and careful driving will pretty much eliminate most if not all potential for damage.

FWIW, the Keep Your Daydreams folks on Facebook documented their extensive trip to Alaska a couple years ago. Might be worth looking at.

As for cruising to Alaska, I've heard nothing but rave reviews. The only thing I might shy away from it taking a flight seeing tour from any of the ports of call in the Panhandle. Sorry to say that quite a few tourists have been killed in weather-related plane crashes with cruise ship passengers on board.

Thanks! I'll take a look a the Daydreams on FB as I haven't heard of them.

[Edd505]

Originally Posted by akeagle

Thousands of people visit Alaska every year and the vast majority of them travel up and back via the Alaska Highway in their RVs. While I would agree that the trip can be hard on RVs, preplanning and careful driving will pretty much eliminate most if not all potential for damage.

FWIW, the Keep Your Daydreams folks on Facebook documented their extensive trip to Alaska a couple years ago. Might be worth looking at.

As for cruising to Alaska, I've heard nothing but rave reviews. The only thing I might shy away from it taking a flight seeing tour from any of the ports of call in the Panhandle. Sorry to say that quite a few tourists have been killed in weather-related plane crashes with cruise ship passengers on board.

I'll know more about the cruise in June and we did signup for a dog sled ride with some Iditarod mushers. I'll stay in the lower 48 with the RV plenty down this way to see.

[BigBillSD]

Originally Posted by Captain Morgan

Back to RVTW... I think, at least for me, the problem would be solved if there was a way to set a custom icon for a stop and/or filter the type of stops on the route.

We did our Alaska trip in 2019. I guess there are TA fuel stations on the way, but I don't remember seeing even one of them up there. Gas Buddy is your friend in canada and alaska, especially if you have at least a 150 gallon fuel tank. Grand Prairie and White horse were the two reasonable priced fuel towns in Canada. If you have to stop anywhere else the prices can be double or triple, at least that was the case in 2019. We did strategically fuel up in Ft Nelson (50 gallons) about 400 miles from GP so we had enough to make Whitehorse as I didn't want to be on fumes when getting there as the fuel stations are few and far between on the ALCAN. We were not impressed by the 2019 milepost, lots of old information. If we go again, I would just use the old one. Also, the top of the world highway was over rated, but it did save a lot of fuel getting from Dawson City to Tok. But a LOT of abuse for the motorhome. The road from Glenallen to Valdez was pretty awful too, not dirt, sand or gravel like the TOTW is, but zillions of potholes to dodge. I was surprised by the frost heaves, I expected big bumps in the roads, but that was not what we experienced, they were dips in the roads. Yes, clothes fly off the bar in the closet if you don't see them in time. Canada marks them with orange flags and cones. Very few are marked on the Alaska side. Lower your windshield deductible prior to going there, motorhome windshields are true rock magnets in Canada and Alaska. The trucks coming at you throw lots of rocks that sound like machine gun fire when they hit.

Also, Anchorage had very reasonable fuel prices, we filled up twice at Costco there. -Bill