marathon

My family and I are planning on going to Alaska next summer pulling a 21 ft travel trailer. We'd really like to go to Deadhorse/Prudhoe Bay.

Has anyone ever done it? Any advice or warnings would really help.

FiverBob

PM this guy - - - ofcmarc - - - he is a police officer living in North Pole. He can give you the best advice of any of us. He is on this forum. I considered it when I was up there, but everyone advised me to forget it - - that I could tear something up, especially that early in the year when we were there. Look over in the DTR Breakroom threads to find a quick link to him - - he just posted there in this same "Other" section.

Bob

HUNTINNUT

Did It In 1999 Fairbanks To Deadhorse. Then Back To Fairbanks And Down To Valdez.

gandrews

Last summer we drove from Calif to Alaska.
A couple of things:
If you don’t take anything else away from this post get yourself a Milepost Travel Guide – It has detail information on the roads and services through Canada and Alaska and includes a section on the Dalton Highway.
Make sure you have good tires and all of your preventive maintenance is done. For the trip through Canada and most of Alaska we found quite a few services – fuel, food, campgrounds etc but I wouldn’t want to have to find tires or have a major repair. Services are few and far between on the Dalton Highway.
Traveling through Canada and into Alaska there is a lot of road construction – lots of mud or dust. The roads seem to be constantly being built or repaired as within a few years the frost heave has ruined them. Many of the roads through Canada would have flags to warn you about rough road and you could slow down. Although that would lull you into complacency and the next thing you would see a pot hole directly in front and no room to slow down or go around.
We did not drive the entire Dalton Highway but stayed at an RV park in Fairbanks. We left our RV at the site and got up early in the morning and traveled as far as Coldfoot on the Dalton Highway returning about 1am the next day. Coldfoot is near the halfway point between Fairbanks (about 250 miles) and Prudhoe. At Coldfoot you will find the BLM’s Arctic Interagency Visitor Center, fuel, and a restaurant that had a very good buffet. There is also an Inn that looks like several 1970’s mobile homes interconnected.
The first 20 or so miles on the Dalton was rough gravel, then some surprisingly good paved road followed by paved road that needed to be repaired then better maintained gravel. It was mostly gravel or road due for major repair the whole distance. Unless you are prepared to go fairly slow I would not take my RV over that road. Additionally the truckers ”own the road” and it is obvious many are not driving their own equipment. When they pass you are likely to get sprayed with gravel.
Bottom line in spite of the fact that the trip is tough on equipment, I would like to do it again.

Check out this link to the BLM there is also a pdf you can down load

http://www.blm.gov/ak/st/en/prog/rec...alton_hwy.html

marathon

You are all great!

I'm more fired up than ever!

GAmes

www.rv.net/forums has a forum dedicated to traveling to Alaska and Canada.
We just made the trip last summer. If we do it again we will plan for more than 8 weeks and pull a smaller 5er. Our 32 ft triple slide was a bit too large for some campgrounds and at 13,000 pounds a strain on climbing mountains (and the majority of the trip is mountain driving).

PJveetwin

I did Prudhoe Bay on my motorcycle back in May of 03. I saw all kinds of different vehicles making the trip, including a few bicycles......I think the best advice I could give you is to be more than prepared. Fuel is limited and a tow truck would cost you your first born. The road is mostly hard clay with the north slope becoming very rocky and is hard on tires so more than one spare would be a good idea. Take a close look at the weather as it can snow on the Antigun pass at any time, with rain turning the road into the worst snot you have ever encountered. I would personally look for a window of clear skies before I did the ride again. I personally found the trip very rewarding and will go back some day.

Midnite

If you don't already have one, a CB radio would be a very good thing to have.

ridofpwrstroke

Tires. Good tires and more than 1 spare. Did I mention tires? I have driven it and I air down to 25 psi in the front and 20 in the rears. The tires conform to the road. Also, leave the camper in fairbanks.