29 May – Heading south Into Canada
We’ll take a different route going home. Jodie wants to swing through Washington State, so we’ll stay on the western side of Canada.
We entered Canada this morning. The First 50 miles of the Alaska Highway going into Canada (southbound) are horrible. Frost up-hieves make the paved road seem like your driving through a bolder field. Not as bad as the Dalton Highway, but real close.
Most of the Alaska Highway has been rebuilt, improved, and modernized over the last 20 – 30 years, At times, you can see the old highway. We passed one bridge that is older than the Alaska Highway. This bridge was built in the late 1890’s to serve gold miners heading north out of White Horse (about 80 miles north). The bridge was used during the construction of the original Alaska highway, but never carried any Alaska Highway traffic. It was rebuilt to preserve its historic nature in 2006 and now only carries the occasional tourist foot traffic.
We got into Whitehorse and Jodie ran into Walmart as I fueled up the Toyhouse. We then had diner at a Chinese Buffet in downtown Whitehorse. Not bad, but I think Buckleys (Milpitas CA) is still number one.
We stopped for the night at Wolf Creek Yukon Park (a state park). We lucked out and got the last empty spot (nice spot also). Not bad for $12 a night. its quite and clean.
Odometer > 6,596
I really enjoyed your trip blog!
I have a toyhouse (93 Dolphan – v6), and plan to start traveling in it. I’m still working full-time and can only travel on “vacation time”, but hope to retire soon, and do some real, cross-country, traveling. Short trips have been good.
How did the toyhouse work on the road?
Can you give us any pointers on what to expect?
We live in Gilbert, AZ, so we do a lot of driving in the mountains (Flagstaff area, Cal. etc.). The toyhouse seems to handle the mountain roads quite well, as long as you arn’t in a hurry!
I plan to add a tachometer and a vacuume gauge, maybe a transmission temp. gauge.(to try to optimize gas millage and prevent burning up the small power plant).
What kind of gas milage did you get (actual averages)? I’m hoping for 12 to 15 mpg. Is that realistic (with v6)?
Any info. on how to equip?
Did you add extra fuel tank? Mine only has the OEM 16 gal. tank. …good for abuot a 150 miles.
Thanks
Duane,
Thanks for the comments. I posted our gas mileage on each of the entries, we averaged about 14.8 mpg for the entire 11,000 mile trip.
My 88 has a 17 gallon tank, not enough for several of the legs. So we carried 2 extra 5 gallon cans, PLUS – I always carry a 2 1/2 gallon can.
The extra fuel was used a couple times (Coldfoot to Deadhorse = 250 miles with no services) On one occasion, we used all the extra 12 1/2 gallons to get to the next gas station (one station was not yet open for the season and the next station was out of fuel)
As for the Vac or Tranny temps, I don’t think they are required. Theres not a lot you can do to increase fuel economy other than slow down. 55-60 mph seems like a good compromise between speed and economy. The gas pedal spends a lot of time on the floor. 🙁
Tranny cooler really isn’t needed as long as you have an extra transmission cooler. I would say the extra cooler is mandatory.
JOhn Mc
I would like to go to Prudhoe Bay end of july leaving Camarillo CA July ^, 2013. I have a 91 toyota V6. How much extra gas do i need to cary. Any pointers would be appriciated.
Bill, July is the peak of tourist season. I carried 12 1/2 gallons extra gas, two 5 gallon cans and one 2 1/2 gallon can. You will need these on the run between Fairbanks and Prudhoe Bay, (about 500 miles), where there is only one gas station in between (Coldfoot). If Coldfoot is out of gas, do not proceed, find a nice spot and spend a night or two and wait for them to get their gas Same when you get to Deadhorse (Prudhoe Bay)
IMPORTANT – Carry a long funnel, You’ll need it when you get fed up with those nice EPA approved filler neck on those EPA approved gas cans.
Make sure you have good tires, i.e. New tires (less than three years old). I suspect the majority of tire blowouts are from older tires that have cracked sidewalls and have lost their flexibility. The Dlton Hiway is mainly gravel dirt, potholes, etc. New tires are a must.
Make sure all your maintenance is up to date, filters, belts, hoses.
Look at your road side insurance. consider Good Sam – or something that has unlimited towing. i.e. if you break down in Deadhorse, its a 500 mile tow back to Fairbanks.
A CB Radio is nice to have. Thats how they communicate on the Dalton. (No cell phone coverage)
When passing oncoming trucks, slow down to a crawl, or even a stop. Rocks and stones kicked up will crack your windshield and break headlights. (We didn’t have any cracks in windshield, but got one headlight stoned.
When passing thru Canada. Check your Cell phone coverage. Roaming and Data charges in Canada will be very expensive. We turned our cell phones OFF and used wifi hot spots to check e-mail and update the blog.
Read thru the entire blog, get the Milespost book.
John Mc