Planning a Dalton Highway Trip

I am planning a trip for June of 2019 to drive from San Fransisco, Bay Area to Deadhorse, Alaska following the Dalton Highway. I was looking for help in planning this trip in terms of gear, what to do/not to do and any advice you have for planning a trip like this especially in areas as remote as the Dalton Highway.

Right now I have a 1996 Single Cab Tacoma, 4wd, manual with an ARE camper shell. it is mostly stock, I put Bilstein 5100 ride height adjustable set to 1.5" in the front with 1" add a leaf and bilstein 5100 in the rear. I plan on getting Destination STT Pro 33x12.50R15 with either SCS f5 15x8 or pro comp 52 series 15x8. I am installing new sway bar bushings and end links as well as new proforged upper and lower ball joints all around. Any other suggestions for gear, maintenance or planning I should be dong? I am very new to overlanding and want to do it right.

 

A new full sized spare, plug kit, tire repair tools, Viar 450 compressor, a sizeable screen tent.
The haul road is long and very remote, good tires are a must, as well as stuff to fix your tires.

The mozzies will be out in serious numbers, a screen tent for cooking in and just hanging out will make life a lot better, and it can be a decent shelter for a rainy day or three as well. Lots s of mosquito coils as well.
Of course extra fuel containers- you can pick up good Specter cans at Canadian Tire- they don’t have the retarded CARB spouts, just regular vent caps and spouts. Plenty of stove fuel, and at least a 5 gallon water jug, maybe even 2.

 

It's just a dirt and gravel road, nothing really special or remote. Normal camping gear, some food, water and a gas can will get you there and back. If you don't want to camp or cook food you can get a room and food at the Yukon, Coldfoot or Deadhorse. Driving the Dempster highway would be a beter choice if you want a remote experience that actually ends in a cool spot.

 

I'd be more worried about the drive up to Fairbanks from SF. It's a super fun drive, but don't drive super fast at night and really watch out for wildlife along the way. Also get the newest edition of milepost and get gas whenever you're at half a tank and see a gas station

 

When you travel through British Columbia order yourself a backroads map book it will have every pay/free camping site, hot spring, mine, points of interest and some trails. Also check out Bctoyota4wd on Facebook for places to stay and check out on your way to Alaska. Be grizzly aware in the summer and keep your camp clean. Also watch for wolves

 

Wolves will never be a problem 99.99% of the time. a

 

Unless they are

 

Been eyeballing this trip, but on my R1200GSA. Tacoma would be fun as well. Extra food, water, fuel. It is remote but traveled enough that you shouldn’t be stranded for to long if something happens.

 

Ryan,

A friend and I are going up to Inuvik and Tuk via the Dempster June 8 to 26/30 (depends on schedule). When I did the research, a lot of the AK locals sort of turned me off from the Dalton since it is just a long road. If you wanted to tag along with us, PM me and maybe we could figure something out.

 

Definitely spare tire and tools to plug/inflate. Haven’t done it personally but a few friends have on motorcycles. Tire punctures are common.

 

I was thinking of doming same trip, would a E rated tire help? Dempster highway is there anything further you can share about it, never heard of it up until now, and looks more interesting indeed.

 

I was more referring to inside BC, I've had issues before in northern BC. Just being aware is half the battle. The other half is a 45/70

This

 

Starts at whitehorse and goes north. By all accounts its a little more scenic, but the same general concept: semi-industrial gravel and shale road.

I'm running E rated tires for the trip, since they seem to generally be more beefy, but I was gonna get them anyways, so it's macht nichts.

 

If the whole bringing guns across borderlines thing wasn't such a hassle, I'd consider my 30-30. But it's a major PITA esp if you had to shoot something.

Thankfully I can run much faster than my out of shape travel buddy. I watched "The Grey". That ain't gonna happen to me.

 

Yaaaa there's a lot of papper work inspection etc. You'd have to transport them according to Canadian standards then there's the whole licensing issue. It's really just a mess.

I've got about 6 trucks mine included headed for Tuk in 2020 were starting at the Pacific and hope to find a boat launch or something to do the tire dip in the arctic. Lots of research going into this trip as we have 3 weeks to do it. Our plan is to cannonball run through most of BC and spend more time in the Yukon and on the Tuk road and then hit up select areas of northern BC on the way home

 

That's my plan as well for this June starting in SLC.

 

SLC is on my list too.. I crossed Rubicon off the list last summer. Hoping to get my engine and goodies rebuilt by summer so I have some break in time before heading off to Tuk. This whole getting married and honeymoon thing is really getting in the way of my truck time

 

Send me a message before you come to UT and I'll try to free up some time.

 

Sweet ya.. I'm always down to meet people I'll try and remember in a year lol

 

Definitely E rated tires. If you haven’t already done the drive, if so you might expect to replace a windshield when you get back home, lots of gravel and the big rigs don’t go slow.

Interesting drive, nothing overly spectacular but worthy of a trip, maybe go south via Chicken and Dawson