Prepping for winter Alcan drive

This is a really really good point. I was snowboarding last year when it was pretty nasty out one night and the floodlighting was a mix between yellow and white bulbs. With the white it was just a whitewash I couldn't see shit through the falling snow or the snow surface ahead of me.

The areas with the yellow lighting were sooooooo much better.



OP I'm super jealous of your job man. That seems like one of the coolest things you can do on earth to make a living

 

Thanks man : ) it's hard work some days, but most days it's a dream come true.

 

I just did this drive coming up to AK. I am a pro pilot as well. Suspension and tires!! It's the workhorse of this drive. Make sure your suspension/drive-line is in good order. I had a bad wheel bearing and lower ball joints that contributed to binding issues with 4 wheel drive. Not good when you need to use 4wd on snow/ice packed rds. Maybe have suspension shop check your drive line. Some of those roads are terrible you can't go very fast. They also have construction zones in some places but most were only about 5 mile stretches.

Bring some snow chains. I left mine in my garage in Texas thinking there would be no snow in Oct. I got stuck in a snow storm with no season tires before they got a chance to plow the roads. So get good snow tires or replace if worn. I got new set studded Duratracs as soon as I got here. Good news for you is they were plowing South bound lanes first. You should be fine they keep roads nice and clear unless you drive in a major storm.

Semi drivers are nuts they will pass you at 120km on snow packed roads so watch out for them. Try not to drive at night almost hit two elk on the road there is no lights at all and very narrow. And bring 15-20 gallons of gas cans in back. I was super careful and filled up at every gas station I saw if I had half or less of a tank and only needed 1 gas tank but if you miss one there might not be another one for 150 miles.

Sounds dumb but bring toilet paper and pepto bismol with you I got bad stomach bug something I ate while traveling. Your digestive system gets all weird when you dont walk for 2 weeks stuff get's backed up could also get constipation.

All in all I had a blast on the trip. Stop by Banff national park if you can awesome views.

 

I'm not sure if you all saw my nightmare with my rear brakes, but suffice it to say I got them sorted out. As for my front brakes, after changing my pads, I've decided to replace my calipers before making this drive. I've attached a picture of the left caliper because it's the worst. None of the pistons are sticking....yet, but as you can see there is a significant amount of rust. Please holler if this looks normal/acceptable, and I'll put this job off, but otherwise I'm going to replace both sides just to be safe.

 

If seems to be normal that the left caliper seizes up on theses trucks.. I went through a few left calipers , the right was always fine. Good call on changing these.

 

Installed brand new calipers on both sides today. That pretty much wraps it up for my pre-alcan project list. Little stuff here and there left to do, but pretty much ready. I hit the road the 27th of this month. I'll be sure to post lots of pictures afterwards.

 

So today I finally finished the last of my planned projects before hitting the Alcan in 11 days. Off the top of my head here's a list of the stuff I did:

Replaced brake pads
Replaced calipers / bled brakes
Inspected rear brakes
Changed all diff/transaxle fluids (New fill and drain plug for front diff)
Changed engine oil and filter
Lubed drive train
Inspected all steering and suspension
Installed engine block heater
Installed battery heater
Installed higher power headlights
Rotated tires
Fixed leak in brake light on bed cap
Installed upgraded throw out bearing and new URD stage 2 clutch

I think that's it....

I took her off road this week and tested 4H/4L functionality and everything works great. I stocked up my bin full of various essential items with everything I (and everyone else here) could possibly think of short of a full set of spare parts for the truck.

I'm super excited for the drive, and I'll be sure to update everyone as to how it goes and I'll take lots of pictures. Any last minute ideas, let me know as I still have 11 more days to tweak/tune things. Thanks everybody for all the help and support. See you in the lower 48!

 

A final thought. Are you carrying something for communications aside from a cell phone? An EPIRB might not be a bad idea for a really bad situation.

How long do you plan to take for the trip and where is your ultimate destination?

 

Say hello to Jerry Gleim for me.

Derek V

 

I will if I see him. I flew with Jerry : ) He's a good guy.

 

Other than a VHF aviation radio that I could maybe pick up an airliner with I do have a spot GPS but no account and haven't activated it. I guess I don't feel like the trip is THAT extreme where I'm going to be stranded off-road for days on end. I have everything I need to survive for a week or more, so I think I can weather out a slide-off or breakdown until someone passes by.

I plan on taking about a week at the most to get from Homer to Denver. I'll be staying in Denver for a week and then heading to Salt Lake. I'm hoping it will be more like 5 days to Denver, but I have no time limit and we'll see.

 

Salt lake sucks, my advice would be try to get through there at night, I always try to shoot for midnight if I'm headed that direction because I can just sail through without any interruptions. If you go through there midday or around 5p, it will take you 3 to 4 hours to get through there and believe me, it isn't fun! Utah has some of the worst drivers I've ever seen too.

 

Salt Lake is my final destination, and where I'm from. I'd agree about the drivers being terrible. As for taking forever to get through, with a little local knowledge you can sail through rather quickly

 

Here she is, all ready to go. I"ll post pics of the inside/shell when she's all loaded to go.

 

Here we go......

 

Get a good night sleep. make sure ya have a leathermen, duct tape, hammer, and a bottle of good whiskey.....if you have that your good to go!! lol
good luck, stay safe, & have fun !!

 

^^ I had a gas can lose about a gallon through a pinhole leak once I got on rough roads on my travels this summer, made a real mess, spent a full day with the truck stripped and my rubber bed matt being washed with all the Cleaning products I had, it still stunk like gas so when I got into Watson lk Yukon I stripped things out again and pressure washed it, $20 later it still had a bit of a smell.. Really put me in a foul mood!

 

Why didn't you ever make your presence know in the Ak bs thread?!?!?!!!? I'm on Kodiak too

 

Sorry for not getting to this sooner, but I've been busy every since returning to the lower 48. I wish I would have done it sooner while details were still fresh in my mind. Long story short, the drive went without a hitch. Weather, road conditions, and Tacoma all came together nicely for a problem free drive. I made it from Homer to Denver in 4.5 days solo, so lots of driving and lots of driving at night. Temperatures were too low for all nights but one for me to camp in my shell, but I did spend the night back there in Bozeman and it was great as usual. I saw tons of wildlife, stopped at the hot springs in Liard River for a midnight soak alone with a full moon and a couple brews : ) There's really not too much else to say. All the pre-drive work I did on the Tacoma seems to have paid off. The only problem I had was that when it was REALLY cold, the heater blower motor under the glove box started squealing. I was going to deal with it, but after a couple days by the time I got to somewhere that had one it had warmed up and it stopped squeaking. I'm going to buy a new motor to have on hand in case I get it again in March when I drive back up. Here's some photos. I'm happy to answer any questions or comments if I forgot anything. I'll do a better write up on the drive back up there in March. Thanks for all your help in the preparation for this.


Loaded up and ready to go.


Either St. Augustine or Iliamna, can't remember. Shot an hour out of Homer

First morning, enroute Homer-Anchorage

Morning fog and frost made the drive beautiful



Turnigan (spelling) Arm. Almost to Anchorage where I had to spend the night because it was Thanksgiving and I had handguns I needed to ship from FEDEX. Enjoyed a solo turkey dinner in town and went to the movies.

Driving through the Chugach range outside of Anchorage

Ice road truckin'. This stuff was a dream to drive on compared to pothole filled slush like in spring. 4HI and 70 mph without a care in the world.



Night ice road truckin'. Only had like 5 hours of daylight to work with and was driving 12-15 hours/day. = night driving.

Another beautiful morning!

Yeah, I'm getting a motel. No bed camping in that shit.

Yet another great morning.

Montana skies

Made it safe to my friend's beautiful cabin in the mountains outside Denver.
And a few days later, made it to Salt Lake. I think the total mileage was just over 5,000.