This is Friday, July 25, 2014. We drove from Seward, AK back to Anchorage, AK. Short run, we are staying at the "Moose Lodge #1354" which is a nice place to camp. We will take a couple of days again here to resupply foods etc. for our tredge back down the Canadian, Coast. I dread that run as there is very little to view but trees and when you get done looking there is more trees and HUGE mosquito's. You need the strongest bug spray you can find on the market believe me.
Having trouble with inside of refer now, Is there a latch to secure the bottom of the refer door on a 13' scamp?? There is no latch on the bottom to secure the door closed better and there is a gap that allows air from the cabin into the refer making it sweat and drip water out the bottom of the door! Looking close it looks like there should be a latch to pull the bottom of the door in tight like the top to seal the entire door or else this door is warped. Let me know on this if you find time to check your Scamps.
The seal around the entrance door gets wet and absorbs rain water if there is rain for two solid days and nights and now the bottom part of my entrance door and the Rat Fur is really wet up to about 2" in height on the door. When this trip is over I plan to research for better rubber sealing around the door.
Joe, I am not sure of the integrity of my Jeep compared to yours. I just cannot pull my 13' Scamp up a 6-8 Deg. hlll that is 4-8 miles long and windy road! I am told the ECM module is supposed to be adjusting to altitude height automatically but what do I know?? I just have to live with it, they want up to $200 just to put a electronic machine to evaluate my car, that is without any parts etc!! You are lucky that your jeep performs as good as you say, mine is just tired out, 260,000 miles+ today. I still say you need a lower mileage vehicle or a newer one than mine. We have been pushing this tired old car big time in AK, Yukon and BC and the hills are all there as well as SD, Wyoming, and Montana.
OK, I give up and will work with the screws loosing up, just have to live with it. This only happens on the gravel roads now and in a few days we will be traveling on them again.
Our scamp front end is still in solid good shape, Knock on wood!! My tow vehicle, (Jeep) and Davids bus, (Prevost) when he is pulling my Scamp both have wheel mud guards and they seem to be working great so far and we have traveled a long ways.
I do have a question though to those doing this for some time. Is it possible to put on 14" trailer tires? I just hate seeing my little scamp trying to keep up with those 24" tires on the bus. I will not research that now but will at home. If they will not fit in the wheel wheel maybe I can raise the cabin 1" higher on the axel but I am just inquiring for now. No more projects while on the road.
Tomorrow we head for Valdez, then after a few days there we plan to head to Canada and home. Got a long trip ahead of us back. I will tell you this though, I was told that you can make this trip on about $10,000!!! Wrong!!! We have spent that so far from Greenville, SC, and have not wasted much money and stayed at as many "Moose Lodges" on the way we can because the cost of overnight is $5 average with Electricity only. You can't beat that. But to get gifts for family and yourself I will say you need between $15-18,000 so you can enjoy going to most of the attractions to look at. There is nothing here FREE, if it is it is not worth even that for viewing. It is beautiful here at times for sure, I still favor MONTANA best of all. WE now have bragging rights to Alaska, but that is my opinion and do not want to influence anyone not to take this trip here. It is just a long, long, long way to go and the fuel is way more than you will want to add up at the end of the trip. We are looking forward to returning to the (Lower 48) or I am after nearly two monts on the road.
We have met so many great people, and the Moose Lodge personell always make us welcome and go overboard to make our stay even if for one night as comfortable as they can. I am using their Internet Wifi right now which works better than any we have had since June 7th when we left.
OH, the invention I made on my previous post about the refer door getting broken, well today I tested the temporary door I made with cake pans and with 4 1/4 inch holes on the bottom for venting worked great on the road. The pilot never went out and it was windy and rainy all day in traveling and when we arrived here in Anchorage everything was still working fine. SOOOOOO, I will make a similar door for real with vents on the bottom of it and not in the front face of it to allow dirt, wind etc. to get inside. I will hinge it on the top with a drip edge over the top of it to keep out rain and a small seal to seal the door shut with a locking devise on the bottom to open up to turn on the gas, battery or 110 volt to the refer. I will keep you updated on this and continue to use on the road as is if it works maybe we have come up on something that will allow us to use the refer on gas going down the highway in the wind.
New fix for another problem. When my Scamp is being pulled by a prevost bus, there is a cyclonic effect with dust on all the gravel roads. The dirt swirls around the back of the bus and scamp and everything is covered with dust. When I opened up miy upper access door to the refer there was dirt galore in there. The openings in the access door allow this to happen so I have taken the liberty to close off two of the horizontal open slots with aluminum tape and leave the upper section open to allow the heat from the refer being used to excape as the heat rises and hopefully will just flow out the openings of the vent left open.
The two lower vent slots of the uper refer door closed off to minimize dirt etc. gettting inside of refer plumbing etc. What a mess, small stones, dirt you would not believe get sucked in here and I am affraid that this build up of dirt etc. will get into the plumbing of the gas controls of the refer. Hope this works, I will keep you informed after our next day on gravel.
I am still having a lot of trouble trying to sumit more than one photo at a time in my posts?? Everytime I submit one photos the program goes automatically into the "SAVE" mode and I have to go back into the program to (Edit) for each and every photos?? Any ideas what is wrong?
I am writing this again, will be shorter now but something here on this internet service is making my comments dissapear and go to heaven or wherever.
Two days ago I noticed severe wear on the outside edge of my right trailer tire, right down to the tread depth. I panicked of coarse, this trip is taking it's toll on our little scamp. I called Kent as Scamp and he told me it could be a couple of things off the top of his head, one would be a bad tire / rim, and the worst scenerio would be a BENT AXLE!!!!!! I have maintained our tire pressure each day before leaving to travel and adjusted the tire pressure to 50 lbs. They seam to lose 5 lbs over night and I just add it back again in the morning.
This morning after talking to Kent, I just have to find out what is my tire problem so I put on my new spare and we drove 300 miles today and everything looks fine, but it took several thousand miles for my new problem to show up. I will take the chance to scrafice a tire to find out if it is my Axel or tire buy using the new tire as the test. We are planning to travel to the Scamp factory on our way home to Piedmont, SC but it will be ab out two weeks before we get to that point at 300 miles per day. If my new spare tire does wear again like the first one then I know I have a BENT AXLE which will not make me a happy camper. But, I will AGAIN tell you that in no way would I come up to Alaska through Canada and the Yukon with a new scamp, new travel trailer, new 5th wheel, new anything that you do not want some kind of damage to happen to. This trip has truly cured me of my bucket list to visit Alaska no matter what luck anyone else has had. I have seen beautiful stuff up here but I seen as good if not better in Montana and in SD. And the cost was way, way, way, way less. Showers can cost up to $3.00 for 3 minues!! just as an example. A six pack of 12 oz. water is up to $7.49 per six pack!! Never, never will I again complain about the cost of fuel, food, labor on work done, or anything in the lower 48 states again!! Come up and find out for yourself, but bring about $15,000 - $20,000 if you want to see and do things. Everything, I mean everything has a cost here.
I plan to go to the Scamp factory to see the place, get a new refer access door that got destroyed on our trip, have the door seals replaced as they leak like a sive and get my rat fur all wet and dirty. If the axel is bent I have no idea what will happen there yet. BUT< you do not want to do repairs like that here in Alaska or the Yukon or Canada !$!$!$!$!$!$ and lots of it. Something else may happen on the way there from here as it will take at least 14 days to get there.
My temporary fix for enclosing the refer door openiong that is missing the mfg. refer door now is working good. I can run down the road now with the gas on for the refer and the flame does not blow out nor does the pilot lite. I have the temp. door vented on the bottom and all four sides sealed up with aluminum tape and it is working good. My new door I will make will be designed similar to this test door.
I have to get off the net now, I have almost used up my 2 hours allotted for a camper!!!
Will post more when possible. Looking forward to the lower 48, no offense but I am not highly recommending this trip if you are on a budget of some kind and wish to see a lot of stuff. Fishing trip, $350 PP for 6 hours. Jeep trip to forest, 25 miles in forest is $169PP for 4 hours. Cruise on boat to see ice bergs, $369 PP!! Museums are average $7 -$15 PP. Gas in Alaska, AVG. $4.20 - $4.69. In yukon and Canada, much, much higher. $1.69 avg. per liter. Forgot what that amounts to in us gallons. You do not want to pay this but have to.
Anyhow, I gotta go, almost going to be charged $5.00 for two more hours of internet.
Thanks for your Blog, I am enjoying your "Reports From the Road", "Warts and All" (so-to-speak). I appreciate your candid reports about how the Scamp and Jeep are holding up to the harshness of the trip.
I was wondering if you could tell us about how you and your family are doing on the trip, i.e.: Are you all comfortable in the Scamp?, Have you had any issues with keeping warm in the Scamp? Any issues with Condensation? How are your four legged companions holding up? Are you getting lots, and lots, of pictures? Is your Buddy still traveling with you? How is his Class "A" holding up to the rigors of the trip?
Just as an aside, you could write your blog on your laptop beforehand and simply cut/paste it when you get access to the Internet (this might help with the Internet access issue).
Any way, I'm looking forward to your next installment.
We arrived here in Dawson Creek, BC about 4 pm. We are changing our plans from going to Alaska to Washington to Going from Alaska to Backus, Minnosota, the Scamp Factory. Another problem arose from the bad roads I suspect but not sure if the roads caused this problem or it was a MFG. Defect from the Axle supplier of our Scamps. It is suspected I have a bent Axle as I said in earlier post. I sure hope not but going to the factory on my new spare tire will confirm if it is as it is still 1500 more miles to Backus. I am watching it every day.
Other new problem, wife took her second shower in the Scamp since we bought it, she normally uses camp showers but finally on one of our Dry Camping excursions she gave in and took a happy shower in the Scamp. Well as luck may have it, the switch in the shower to drain the shower did not work and pump out the shower water. Luckly we both always even at home take Navy showers to save water as we both think one day it will be one of the main things we will run out of one fine day. No 20 minute showers in our house!! Well I have a pail I use to wash the car and luckly one of those super duper drying cloths bought on TV. I dried out the shower stall and took a shower myself after and again the darn switch did not work. So AGAIN I dried out the shower floor and walls by hand. It did not take long, it was kind of funny though to us, just could not wait for what was next.
The next day my wife removed everything from the closet nearest the door where the shower on / off switch wires are so I could trace the wires and perhaps find a lose wire etc. Well no wires were disturbed and all looked good, tried the switch again and Walhaaa the pump worked fine??? WTH??? When at the factory will pick up another switch, I want to think this was the culprut as the wiring looked good. So If you haven't had problems with your switch yet, I would consider ordering a spare (Just In Case). But the shower water can be absorbed with a towel if needed if you prefer to wait to order switch.
No other problems have arrived, again these roads are terrible up to within 200 miles of alaska going and coming no matter what one of the two routes you take as went on the only two available in and out.
Now to answer Man with a van questions:
1) Wife and I are doing just fine, we have both had a temper tamtrum, both of us a couple of times but no biggey. We had a wonderful time making up after and there was 8 little eye balls watching us I am sure.
2) Traveling with the Scamp has been fun at times too when we compare all the things going wrong with big 5th wheels and class A's on the road again caused from deep pot holes and big frost heaves. Your scamp will get many curious lookers and of coars when ours was hooked up to our friends bus, the joke was (Is that for the Mother-in law)?? I would answer, (No, it is for the wife when she becomes Mrs. Google near the end of the day)!! Only kidding of coarse. Some Stick and Staple campers with slide outs are having a problem with closing their slide outs on their rigs after and us Scamp owners have minor, minor, minor problemsl. We just left a couple that had a 5th wheel in Watson Lake, BC that lost their 5th wheel brakes and the automatic break away power to them and they are forced to have it fixed in the BC which again is in no way cheap. I keep thinking I am glad it happened to them about 5 miles from the campground in Watson Lake at the end of the day as after that run the roads got real, real, real hilly with up to 10% grades up and down them. I hope they get it fixed correctly as well for safety of their selves and rig. I got 5 mpg on the jeep on some of them hills and these babies were 2-6 miles long AGAIN!!
3) Our little Chihuahua's are showing signs of fatigue of this traveling nearly every day to go one place to another for 6-8 hrs per day as we are. They are losing a little weight so we keep them filled with good treats as they won't eat much more than that and their bathroom habits are changing. They go less and less but do drink and eat sometimes out of our hands at the end of the day when we all lay on the bed at the end of each day. We try to give our animals family time just like you would kids each day, even our Guinea pigs are showing signs of being tired of being in their cages 24-7 except for the 20 minutes I hold them each day until they pee on me!! This trip was much longer and tiring on us than I expected I have to admit. To do this trip to Alaska as we did you need to travel no more than 2 days straight, take and rest the third day and then do two more days and rest again. But this takes a long time to accomplish if you do it that way, and it wears you out mentally and physically if you push too hard for too many days at a time. Stopping can become very expensive if just over night at some areas and eats into your monies real fast. That is why I was being honest to tell you that to be comfortable and see most things you want, (Museums, fishing trips, Tours) etc. you need $20,000 to see most everything possible.
4) If you do a trip for this length of time it is difficult to also pack all you need, we have used everything we brought I believe even to a small electric heater we brought as well. We used all blankets we brought and you will be cramped for food storage. But I can tell you that food up here is way, way more than you expect. Just got some ice for our little ice box we use for soda only and water. $5 for 5 lbs. of ice and it is not frozen real solid. Never wIll I complain again about getting 16 lbs. of ice for $1.50 in Piedmont, SC for instance. I will never complain again about the good ole USA prices on anything.
5) One gas stop today, in a real sparce area with maybe 3 residents within 100 miles was $1.99 PER LITER). I took the chance to go further and found gas for $1.69 Per LIter!! Figure out that in Gallons, still would not consider living here, way way to expensive and visiting here once is enough. Too much in the OLE US to see and enjoy. The bragging rights we now haveabout our trip to Alaska are OK but will never repeat in years ahead and do all I can to convince anyone to be better prepared finiancially than what I expected. There is so much to enjoy in British Columbia to be truthful. We saw more animals along side the road, and on museum we stopped at in Fort Nelson, Yukon or BC not sure. But it was only $3.00 pp and it had more old stuff than we seen in museums we paid $30 for and that is the truth. They had an ole juke box, from the 50's and had 78 rpm records and I sang with them as we selected the ones we knew, like Merle Haggard, "Branded Man". They had an old piano I played boogie woogie on and the attendent was drumming with my tempo on the desk, we had a hell of a time there and it was reasonable, and that is the kind of stuff I really wanted to see and did. I will put many more photos on my Photobucket website and indicate the ones really fun to visit and the ones not to waste you money on. But man this all take times to do, at the end of the day I am tired out and say, oh heck, I'll do it tomorrow and go to bed. So be patient with me, I will slow down more when we get state side, I am anxious now for that. BC is good to travel and not as boring to travel in as Alaska was at the top of the world. The driver will not get to see all as the roads just change so fast and you can bend an axle, go off the side on one of these darn ole gravel roads when being passed or anything I have mentioned before. That can happen anyplace but being out of the states you are limited to having AAA support in an emergency.
6) I have taken maybe 2-3000 photos so far and plan to post them all for anyone to get bored with if they do. I have 36 albums on my computer now and we are just now on our way back home. I will have Scamp factory photos as well, and anything that moves or hits my desire to share will be photographed and has been so far.
7) Condensation has happend several times when it is wet outside from rain and cold mixed and we are cozy inside. I sleep next to the back end outside wall, I have on chihuahua on the back of me and my legs and one on the front of me. Not much movement possible as I do not want to disturb their sleep!!! But they keep us warm when cold out, now that we are headed back to the US it is getting warmer again so changes will happen again for us,. We have used the air conditioner only twice or so and depend mostly on the vent fan over the bed to keep us comfortable if a little warm. We open the small window over the sink and vent outward that pulls air in and right out and makes it better for cooking too with little heat trapped inside. If you really want to vent your Scamp fast, Open the bathroom window and the bathroom door and put the fan on exhaust and hang on. The air pulls through really fast and does a good job. The entrance door knob still condensates each day no matter what. The dew at night attacks it as well I guess but no signs of rust which I did worry about a little but has not happened as yet.
8) Our friends from Washington state that traveled with us are now on their way home to Washington. We separated at Watson Lake day before yesterday. They too are tired I am sure and their 4 chihuahua's they traveled with. He had some problems with his Prevost Bus awell because of the bad roads. He did get a broken windshield from oncoming traffic, 18 wheeler going like hell when he should of slowed down but it is a challenge to some of them guys to do that. He also had alternator belts brake going up to Alaska and coming back from Alaska because of all the dirt and rocks that get sucked into his engine compartment as he drives just like a Dyson Vaccuum cleaner. It cannot be helped but he should have had a stone shield under his engine area which is mostly removed from someone earlier to access the underneath of the engine. But you do not normally travel these kind of roads and this is not a normal thing needed in US. But you better heed my advise if you own a rear pusher engine.And be sure to bring 3 spares of every belt you use. No shield in Alaska, No belts will hold up from the stones and severe dust. Oh, if the roads are dry, they are so dusty you can't believe it, and if they are we they are slippier than (snot on a door knob). Very dangerous and what a mess on your rig, your trailer or what ever you are pulling up there. And to wash your vehicle it will cost you $5 for 3 minutes!!!! NO way can you clean your vehicle for less than $25 and to have it looking like crap the first gravel road you travel on. The gravel roads are the 200 miles up and down from Alaska. After that the roads are pretty good, BUT do not get comfy, those frost heavesare everywhere. It is just so great not to be on gravel roads any longer, I HOPE!! We have a long way to go before getting out of Canada /BC.
9) I have been wanting to write in my office writing program so I could do as you mentioned and just past it later when the ;internet gets better but I just have just been so darn tired each travel day that I just want to relax when done. Getting old I guess, we are taking off two days on our next stop so Maybe I can get caught up more then. But I would rather post the photos which takes a lot of time too and if you do not have the photobucket link I think I posted earlier I will repost it here now.
There is 20 albums from earlier when we started our trip that you can view. I have 16 more albums to post and hope to do in my rest time in a coujple of days. Just watch for them if you make this photobucket a favorite.
Thanks for your inquiry. Hope I answered all your questions.
Garylee tonight from Dawson Creek, BC, August 6, 2014
Well we are back out of Yukon, Alberta Canada after 9 long gruesome days but the trip through Canada was much more scenic than we seen way up north.
We arrived here in Minot, ND about 7 pm and found a great camping site here called (Roughrider Campground) at 500 54th. st. Nw, Minot, ND Tel. 701-852-8442 which was great for us. There is normally a charge of $40 for pull throughs with all the fixings you think you need but we got a site which is back in and great near a pond etc. We have grass to enjoy and not all gravel like the past 2 months nearly.
We are paying $25.20 for Electric hook up and they have a dump station when we leave. We are taking an extra day just to decompress as we are so glad to be back in the Good Ole USA and the prices of everythng so much more reasonable. We are on our way tomorrow to Backus, Minosota to the Scamp Factory, hope to be there in two days.
No new problems!!!!!! Thank God, my right tire is not showing any signs of any wear as yet, only had them on about 800 miles now. Hopefully I do not have a bent axle and only the wheel bearing was not properly seated!! Recheck your wheel bearings to be sure they are adjusted properly, if mine was 1 1/2 notches loose this may have been the problem in the first place and a cheap price of a new tire to pay to get resolved. While you are checking your wheel bearings, grease her up again,
We are staying another night, it is so relaxing finally and out of the frost heaves which were horrible. And to finally use a flushable toilet in this campground. So tired of outhouses and the nasty ways travelers have. I could of bent down and kissed the flushable toilet seat last night when we first got here, the attendent here laughed like hell when I told her that.
I will keep you informed of any new Scamp findings, hope all my testing is done and I did good.
OH, not sure if I told you or not but my wife saved my life two night ago. CHEW YOUR FOOD REAL GOOD is my Advise to you all. I was eating Stir fry with Linda and took a piece of chicken that I did not chew well, swallowed it and it got caught in my throat big time. I could not breath and started to panic and my wife spun me around in our bed in front of our chihuahua's and guinea pigs and immediately did the hymeck (spelling) manauver on me and out poped the chicken and I was weak for a half hour after but ALIVE!! I am so grateful for her and know I would have not made it without her. Just a piece of informatin I hope you could consider, (GET SOME KIND OF CPR INFORMATION AND BE QUALIFIED IN CONTROL TO SAVE A LIFE), "It could be someone's you love very much". I got to admit, I got real scared when this happened and my breath was all gone.
I am now using Google chrome and want to see if I can edit some of my earlier post with photos. Hope that the IE brouser was the culprit. Have a safe and great day.
Well hello there, we are finally home, we arrived here last Thursday, August, 20, 2014 after one hell of a last two weeks of our trip. My Last post stated we had no problems that day but we sure did a couple of days later.
We were about 20 miles North of Rugby, ND and as we were traveling down the interstate a trucker pulled up beside us and waved us off the road!! WTH?? Well, it seems our wheel bearing on the left side of the Scamp was nearly on fire as the grease was smoking and all over the wheel and Scamp side wall!! The outer bearing on our Scamp just deteriated and the only thing she was still running on was the inside bearing and I was tooling down the road about 55 MPH. It was probably a matter of minutes before we would have had a big fire, lost our camper and perhaps worse, a real bad accident. Thank God for this alert driver and I could not hug him enough to thank him.
I had no intention to try to fix myself, we called (AAA) and they arranged to have a tow truck come and bring pull the Scamp up on the back of a tow truck and the driver took us to a great mechanic in Rugby, ND called Dennis Blessum of Automotive Services on 2811 Hwy. 2W, Rugby, ND. Dennis evaluated my problem, the wheel hub, all the bearings, washers and the outer grease cap cover were destroyed. There is no such parts for the scamp on the road. We called Scamp and to make a long story short, I am grateful to Micah Eveland who is the Purchasing Service Manager for Scamp. This all started about 2PM by the way. After talking to Micah he arranged to have the parts Dennis the mechanic needed for our scamp and had them sent to us (overnight) and we got them at 11 AM and was on the road by 11:45am!!
Dennis thought the problem was lack of lubrication on the outer bearing but the inner bearing was packed full and I believe that the bearing was not seated properly like the one on the right side that wore out my tire because it too was not adjusted correctly for bearing seating. Let this be a warning to you, check the bearings on your scamp for proper seating and lubrication with nothing but the best high temperature grease you can get. I am not an investigator so don't take my word for what happened, but you will see in the photos that it happened.
Dennis was kind enough to allow us to stay overnight in his parking lot and hooked us up with power for the night as it was quite warm that night.
I will keep getting out of this program until I am done but save it as I write, so now I am back.
Well I had to pay Dennis the mechanic $210 for labor to install the new parts for our Scamp that got destroyed and off we went to continue our trip home.
After leaving Rugby we put in the Scamp MFG> plant in Backus, MN on our GPS and went there on our way home to get a replacement door for our Refer storage compartment that got destroyed during this trip. We also had the foam gasket material replaced around the entrance door as ours was slipping out of adjustment and allowing water to get in the door!! Well, that new foam job is slipping again before we even got home, Scamp put me onto a rubber gasket to use in place of something happens to the foam gasket and it did so I will replace the foam gasket with the rubber and hope for the best.
We had the control switch in the shower replaced as it too did not work all the time and also the broken bathroom door enclosure latch replaced as I had to break that to get the bathroom door open as it locked from the inside somehow!!
I got a new spare tire cover, the original one was nearly destroyed in Alaska with the rocks and filth from the darn ole gravel roads I keep warning you all about. I sure believe the dirt got inside of the bearing area as well as it was that bad there to travel on and it may have acted like a sanding agent mixing with the grease etc. DO NOT, DO NOT, DO NOT GO TO ALASKA WITH YOUR NEW SCAMP LIKE WE DID. You have been given information I wish I had received.
Well we were given a tour of the Scamp Factory by Wayne Pitlack which we enjoyed seeing how these trailers are made. I am enclosing some photos of that too if I get this photo program to work after writing everything I can think of now.
We left Backus, MN and again truged home, getting closer to getting back home, Yeaaaaaaaaaaaa!!! Well we got 108 miles from home and the (Harmonic Balancer on my Jeep engine) come apart and rubbed on the fan and again we were down but in a real bad area. Highway #40 in North Carolina, truckers galore, we were on a bad curve only 7 miles from the Tennesee, North Carolina border. On the phone we went again, this time I had to use (Good Sam Towing Ins) as (AAA would not pay to have both vehicles towed, the jeep and the Scamp!!
Again we were towed to a garage for the jeep repairs and the owner allowed us to park over night as we were getting there just as he was closing. We had no power but we had LOVE. the next morning, Thursday, the owner/mechanic installed the new Harmonic Balancer and got us on the road at 11;30 AM. We were in our drive way at 2PM, yeaaaaaa, the dogs were happy, the guinea pigs were happy and we sure as hell were happy.
I will give you tips a little later if you truly have to make this trip and want to drive the entire distance. I will do all I can to convince you not to do that if you ask!! Fly up, rent a car or take a tour on a ship but do not, do not, do not drive. This was the most boring and horrible ride ever through Canada and much of Alaska and I will again try to keep giving you information as to why I say this. This trip of driving is not enjoyable for the driver in any way. My back hurts, my butt hurts, my legs got cramps and my wife's legs swelled up big time and I thought she may have had a blood clot and not sure if she is out of the woods yet from just sitting and not excersizing often enough. It took 9 days up and 9 days down to get through Canada only, that is 18 days at 300 miles per day of just traveling!!! Being 69 years old just does not cut it.
OK, I will try to post photos now, good luck Gary. If I cannot post more than one photo at a time I will have them all on my Photobucket website I posted for you. I have maybe 1500 more photos or more to post. You will probably get bored for sure with all this information, my intention is to educate you as to what to expect and offer you and try to convince you of another alternative to go there and not have the things go wrong that did with us.
I have to admit that you have probably convinced me to keep our travel adventures confined to the lower 48 (maybe with a quick jaunt into Canada now and then). I was thinking we might store the truck and trailer in Washington or Northern Ca and fly up to Alaska for a Cruise.
Great Travel Log, sorry for your bearing issues, this re-enforces my intentions to pack my own bearings ( a task I may soon be tackling).
I cannot agree with your more on your desire to stay in the (lower 48 States) and enjoy all there is and there is a lot to see. Everyone I have ever talked to dreams of a trip to ALASKA, I know it was my Bucket list dream but there was some bad times on it I never want to relive again and will not, ever, never, ever, never go there again drivng the entire way like we did.
Linda and I are so, so very glad to be back home, our animals are starting to eat and drink again, they were getting really stressed out, one chihuahua really had panic attacks the last 14 days every day of traveling. This trip would not been worth it at all to me if we lost one of our animals as they are really part of our immediate family every day. But again, we are so glad to be back in the (LOWER 48, GOOD OLE "USA)
Quite a lot of things went wrong on our trip to Alaska but I am truthful in telling you of all of them so that it educates you better than I feel I was before we left on our 72 day trip. I just want to make you all aware of the things no one else talks of except for the beauty of Alaska and there is beautiful spots for sure but man it is not fun for the driver of a vehicle to drive all the ways like we did.
I will try to shorten this up a little (Yea right) but I do recommend that you reach Seattle, Wa by plane, train or drive and that is enjoyable as it is more affordable and enjoyable and scenic, I promise you!!! Before going to Seattle, arrange by phone or internet for a tour you will not have to drive in to see and enjoy Alaska and the towns we got to visit. Preferable a ship cruise I would say, you will have a private cabin, nice meals and see way, way more than we did and when you dock in a place they will arrange for your transportation to go from place to place and you do not have to worry about fuel, fuel, fuel and the price of food, and anything you need which is not Free any place in Alaska, Canada, Yukon, British Columbia, Alberta, Ca.
Take a tour as way less then we spent: we allowed $15,000 for trip, we spent $14,000 in over 12,200 miles!!! We had $1,000 left when we got home,we had to replace our TV the day we got home as lightning hit our TV some time when we were gone. ("OUR WELCOME HOME GREETING") It was my job to upplug all our electronics before we left and I forgot from being excited and all about our Bucket List Trip which I will never, ever forget. I only hope I will retain the good things that we seen there, right now with all the repairs we have had to endure overshadows all the good. Looking back all my hundreds of photos will surely help me remember the good times too I am sure.
I have to stop a moment and save, I lost my fist post again. be right back.
OK, I am back:
In planning for a TOUR of Alaska, I do recommend, Valdez, Homer, Seward, Fairbanks, Denalli and Anchorage Alaska and no others. These are the main places to see and enjoy to me what we did. Especially Valdez. The mountain scenes are majestic but not worth $14,000!!! I love Montana and SD more as they were as beautiful, and populated and way more to see and enjoy. In British Columbia, Yukon and many, many parts of Alaska there is nothing but Tundra, Tundra, Tundra and more of it. I got so sick of seeing 6-8 foot trees nearly falling over it was not funny, nealy fell asleep I have no idea how many times and that ain't good. We had to pay up to $1.99 per liter for fuel in the middle of Yukon, that is nearly $8.00 per gallon which was the highest we seen.
Here is a few things I will never, ever complain about in the lower us 48 states again:
1) Price of fuel
2) Price of food in grocery store
3) Price of food in restaurant
4) Campgrounds that have grass and not just gravel parking and dusty situations and no WIFI even if the campground advertises they have FREE wifi, Hell Too, You have to go their office to use it in most places and there you are with about 8 people typing away and not able to do it in your rigs. If you can, you will wait a long long time to get to where you want to go. I could not contact anyone hardly at all the entire trip out of the US.
5) The roads in the US, not nearly as bad anyplace as yet we seen as we did in Canada and Alaska!! If you have a nice vechicle and want to keep it clean, forget this trip. I guarantee something to get broken or worse.
6) I will never complain about the amount of gas stations in lower US. In canada, & Alaska, never, never let your tank get below 1/2, no matter what kind of vehicle you have, class A, Class C, Trailer and tow vehicle, Bus or what ever.
I do not recommend that if you do insist in driving up there to do not include the ("over the Top Of The World Highway"), it is bad, bad, bad. Roads all blue shale, when dry they are so dusty you cannot see more than 70 ft. ahead of you, they are not flat but just dumped from a truck it seems and wait for vehicle traffic to flatten out. Well, well if you want to be a good guy and take this route be prepared to possibly have a tire sliced from the sharp shale on side of road when you pull over to let others pass from either direction. If you do this trip, just stop, and let them go. STOP, do not be a good guy and pull over to the right as the shoulder will give out quickly and has to someone just days before we got there. They rolled over their rig and we seen where this happened and it was an embankment maybe 30 foot down. Not far but had to been a wild ride as their class "A" rig was totally destroyed. No one was hurt but their desire to have a good time and that all went down the toilet as well as their rig.
None of the above info is BS, I promise you. It took us 9 days just to drive through Canada and 9 days back out from Alaska!! That is a total of 18 days of traveling at 300 miles per day. You will endure bad back pains, leg cramps and possible blood clots from sitting all that time every day!! No Freaking way will I ever, ever go there again, my physical health is still not right and neither is my Wife's who I am really worried about having a blood clot in her left leg but seems to be clearing up, I pray.
My wife, bless her heart, saved my life by administering the Hymeck, (spelling) maneuver on me after I ate a large piece of chicken I did not chew properly. This was almost the end of my Bucket List for sure had it not been for her helping me do something she was not trained for in any way but instinctively did what was needed for me to throw up that darn ole chicken. I Have not had chicken since yet. WARNING:LEARN "CPR' IS WHAT I REALLY RECOMMEND. YOU NEVER KNOW WHEN YOU MAY SAVE SOMEONE'S LIFE OR ONE YOU LOVE!! Life is good no matter what else happens to us now, I just will take one day at a time and enjoy it to the max. I will pass on any information I feel could ever help othes have better times and be more prepared in anything you all wish to do if it is worth it to me to write. If I convince one person to consider all I mention in my post before taking this long (Amazing, Beautiful Trip to Alaska) as is everyones dream I ever talked to I hope they will be better prepared. Well, now you have the truth what to expect and what we traveled with and my recommendations so you can have a more enjoyable time and at a price much cheaper than what we experienced.
In all our problems, the serious ones', we had a lot of support and help from all those that were involved with us and we are totally grateful for them and their help in all they did. Everyone was very respectful, helpful and made our problem as light on our hearts at the time as they could. This is the good that will never be forgotten by us.
Our scamp come through with flying colors after the (Left Wheel Bearing) repairs. Here is what I recommend for all Scamp owners to do ASAP:NOTE: we are having a problem getting funds we spent to have the new bearing replacement cost we paid for ($210 total) from (Dexter Axel) under warranty as of this morning. Problem: They will not warranty any parts etc. unless they have the (Dexter Serial Number) off the actual axel from you. Well here is that problem. Dexter puts on two labels, one paper which is no good but used only for shipping they say to their outside vendor. OK, so they also have a serial number (stamped on the back of the Axel which starts with (LNXXXXXXXXX). Dexter will do nothing without this number that is supposed to be (stamped) on the axel!! Well as luck has it, this number is not stamped on my axel, the only thing stamped on it is (CAP. 2200 LBS, EXCLUDING RIMS, WHEELS & TIRES AND UNDER THIS IS STAMPED MOD-09R). That is all on this axel only, well I am not believed so I have a problem here too. Even Scamp tried to find this number as well when I was at their factory but no soap. So I have no idea where this will end up, Crapper as usual. NOTE: If you have a new scamper, and may have this problem as I have had, get under your camper, find this serial number and record it on your scamper paperwork. These guys just will not deal with you without major proof and I have none, can't invent the numbers!! Pretty stressing for sure, it just never ends it seems. Scamp unable to matchmark the axel that is assembled to each trailer??? Don't understand this also, anyhow take this information and use it to your advantage ahead of time. Your Axel is guaranteed only for 2 years!!
Now for things to do to your Scamp Camper ASAP to divert from having a problem:
1) Remove wheels, bearings etc. and clean all very good to remove all old grease and you have a chance to inspect the bearings and races for damage. Be sure to remove all old grease, clean over and over just to be sure it is all removed.
2) Repack all wheel bearings with the very best and most heat resistant bearing grease available before reassemble of the bearings, then adjust the tension on the bearings to be sure that you have virtually no play in the wheel. My right one that wore the outside of my tire had loosened up 1/1/2 turns on the adjustment nut!! enough to let the wheel woggle as it rolled down the road, 10,000 or more miles.
3) Be sure to use grease gun to install more grease in bearings before assembly of Grease protection cap. Do not use just any ole grease, or wheel bearing grease, get the best you can find.
Well I am getting burned out, Oh, here is something more for you to have a laugh about:
We were passing through Tennesse on our way home in the Good Ole USA, and I had my wife order a 10X20 canopy to have to protect our Scamp soon after we got home. Well it come 2 days later, I starte to assemble it and it turned out to be a 15" canopy in a box labeled 20"!!!!! Now I am trying to get that resolved, having trouble there too proving I do not need a metal frame stretcher to get to 20". Good Grief, so I had to take photos of all, using a tape measure as they said it was impossible for this to happen, Really!!! Not after what we been through!!!
I spent four years in Anchorage and drove most of the way myself. I have heard every story of success and failure from a variety of people. One friend said the had 4 spare tires for truck and trailer and had 6 flats in 225 mile stretch of road. Another drove a BMW all the way through without a scratch. I saw on my return trip back to the lower 48 a family wipe out and total their Brand new 2012 F350 loaded with dogs/kids and 25 ft enclosed trailer while it was -25 and we had no problems on the same patch of road a day later. I agree that any one traveling to Alaska via the ALCON should have a spare 10000 to 15000 as a back up; not just because of accidents and mechanical failure, but becasue of fluctuating prices with food and gas through out Canada and just the unknown. I am glad to hear you are back home safe. Will you be camping any more with your Scamp in the future?
Glad to be home is not the words that can completely express how great it feels after a couple of days rest. Well, I have been fighting with that new Scamp Canopy garage I bought on line to protect our Scamper but it will be done tomorrow. As usual, anything I buy that is in kit form I have to either reinforce or reinvent it and I did on this Scamp garage as well but it is nearly done now.
We will be going camping soon at a place near us, Palmetto Cove, in Cleveleand, SC.http://www.palmettocove.com Beautiful place to camp, grassy, quiet and quite reasonable for sure in price for full hookups, $22 if you are not a member of the origanization. ( This is the campground I mentined in another post on SOL about arranging a SCAMP gathering at but got very little feed back on it so I guess it was not worth arranging at this time but maybe more on the East Coast will be interested in a gathering at Palmetto Cove, SC in the future) But we will be planning a longer campout near xmas time to Panama Beach Florida, (no hills, no mountains and no 10 deg. climbs up or down) and even if the gas is a little higher in FL, it will be no where as high as Canada / Alaska for anything!!!!!! Myrtle Beach will be in the works as well, no more Tundra for me, oh no.
Again, as Tanfam4 has mentioned, educate yourself in the pitfalls of the Alaska DRIVE, do not do it if you do not need to. Take a tour and enjoy this trip, don't be Macho, it will be expensive in one way or other and you will get real tired of driving. Oh well I feel like I am boring you more with this warning. Have a good night.
Hello Everyone,
This is Friday, July 25, 2014. We drove from Seward, AK back to Anchorage, AK. Short run, we are staying at the "Moose Lodge #1354" which is a nice place to camp. We will take a couple of days again here to resupply foods etc. for our tredge back down the Canadian, Coast. I dread that run as there is very little to view but trees and when you get done looking there is more trees and HUGE mosquito's. You need the strongest bug spray you can find on the market believe me.
Having trouble with inside of refer now, Is there a latch to secure the bottom of the refer door on a 13' scamp?? There is no latch on the bottom to secure the door closed better and there is a gap that allows air from the cabin into the refer making it sweat and drip water out the bottom of the door! Looking close it looks like there should be a latch to pull the bottom of the door in tight like the top to seal the entire door or else this door is warped. Let me know on this if you find time to check your Scamps.
The seal around the entrance door gets wet and absorbs rain water if there is rain for two solid days and nights and now the bottom part of my entrance door and the Rat Fur is really wet up to about 2" in height on the door. When this trip is over I plan to research for better rubber sealing around the door.
Joe, I am not sure of the integrity of my Jeep compared to yours. I just cannot pull my 13' Scamp up a 6-8 Deg. hlll that is 4-8 miles long and windy road! I am told the ECM module is supposed to be adjusting to altitude height automatically but what do I know?? I just have to live with it, they want up to $200 just to put a electronic machine to evaluate my car, that is without any parts etc!! You are lucky that your jeep performs as good as you say, mine is just tired out, 260,000 miles+ today. I still say you need a lower mileage vehicle or a newer one than mine. We have been pushing this tired old car big time in AK, Yukon and BC and the hills are all there as well as SD, Wyoming, and Montana.
OK, I give up and will work with the screws loosing up, just have to live with it. This only happens on the gravel roads now and in a few days we will be traveling on them again.
Our scamp front end is still in solid good shape, Knock on wood!! My tow vehicle, (Jeep) and Davids bus, (Prevost) when he is pulling my Scamp both have wheel mud guards and they seem to be working great so far and we have traveled a long ways.
I do have a question though to those doing this for some time. Is it possible to put on 14" trailer tires? I just hate seeing my little scamp trying to keep up with those 24" tires on the bus. I will not research that now but will at home. If they will not fit in the wheel wheel maybe I can raise the cabin 1" higher on the axel but I am just inquiring for now. No more projects while on the road.
Tomorrow we head for Valdez, then after a few days there we plan to head to Canada and home. Got a long trip ahead of us back. I will tell you this though, I was told that you can make this trip on about $10,000!!! Wrong!!! We have spent that so far from Greenville, SC, and have not wasted much money and stayed at as many "Moose Lodges" on the way we can because the cost of overnight is $5 average with Electricity only. You can't beat that. But to get gifts for family and yourself I will say you need between $15-18,000 so you can enjoy going to most of the attractions to look at. There is nothing here FREE, if it is it is not worth even that for viewing. It is beautiful here at times for sure, I still favor MONTANA best of all. WE now have bragging rights to Alaska, but that is my opinion and do not want to influence anyone not to take this trip here. It is just a long, long, long way to go and the fuel is way more than you will want to add up at the end of the trip. We are looking forward to returning to the (Lower 48) or I am after nearly two monts on the road.
We have met so many great people, and the Moose Lodge personell always make us welcome and go overboard to make our stay even if for one night as comfortable as they can. I am using their Internet Wifi right now which works better than any we have had since June 7th when we left.
OH, the invention I made on my previous post about the refer door getting broken, well today I tested the temporary door I made with cake pans and with 4 1/4 inch holes on the bottom for venting worked great on the road. The pilot never went out and it was windy and rainy all day in traveling and when we arrived here in Anchorage everything was still working fine. SOOOOOO, I will make a similar door for real with vents on the bottom of it and not in the front face of it to allow dirt, wind etc. to get inside. I will hinge it on the top with a drip edge over the top of it to keep out rain and a small seal to seal the door shut with a locking devise on the bottom to open up to turn on the gas, battery or 110 volt to the refer. I will keep you updated on this and continue to use on the road as is if it works maybe we have come up on something that will allow us to use the refer on gas going down the highway in the wind.
New fix for another problem. When my Scamp is being pulled by a prevost bus, there is a cyclonic effect with dust on all the gravel roads. The dirt swirls around the back of the bus and scamp and everything is covered with dust. When I opened up miy upper access door to the refer there was dirt galore in there. The openings in the access door allow this to happen so I have taken the liberty to close off two of the horizontal open slots with aluminum tape and leave the upper section open to allow the heat from the refer being used to excape as the heat rises and hopefully will just flow out the openings of the vent left open.
The two lower vent slots of the uper refer door closed off to minimize dirt etc. gettting inside of refer plumbing etc. What a mess, small stones, dirt you would not believe get sucked in here and I am affraid that this build up of dirt etc. will get into the plumbing of the gas controls of the refer. Hope this works, I will keep you informed after our next day on gravel.
I am still having a lot of trouble trying to sumit more than one photo at a time in my posts?? Everytime I submit one photos the program goes automatically into the "SAVE" mode and I have to go back into the program to (Edit) for each and every photos?? Any ideas what is wrong?
Garylee
Garylee
Hello Everyone,
I am writing this again, will be shorter now but something here on this internet service is making my comments dissapear and go to heaven or wherever.
Two days ago I noticed severe wear on the outside edge of my right trailer tire, right down to the tread depth. I panicked of coarse, this trip is taking it's toll on our little scamp. I called Kent as Scamp and he told me it could be a couple of things off the top of his head, one would be a bad tire / rim, and the worst scenerio would be a BENT AXLE!!!!!! I have maintained our tire pressure each day before leaving to travel and adjusted the tire pressure to 50 lbs. They seam to lose 5 lbs over night and I just add it back again in the morning.
This morning after talking to Kent, I just have to find out what is my tire problem so I put on my new spare and we drove 300 miles today and everything looks fine, but it took several thousand miles for my new problem to show up. I will take the chance to scrafice a tire to find out if it is my Axel or tire buy using the new tire as the test. We are planning to travel to the Scamp factory on our way home to Piedmont, SC but it will be ab out two weeks before we get to that point at 300 miles per day. If my new spare tire does wear again like the first one then I know I have a BENT AXLE which will not make me a happy camper. But, I will AGAIN tell you that in no way would I come up to Alaska through Canada and the Yukon with a new scamp, new travel trailer, new 5th wheel, new anything that you do not want some kind of damage to happen to. This trip has truly cured me of my bucket list to visit Alaska no matter what luck anyone else has had. I have seen beautiful stuff up here but I seen as good if not better in Montana and in SD. And the cost was way, way, way, way less. Showers can cost up to $3.00 for 3 minues!! just as an example. A six pack of 12 oz. water is up to $7.49 per six pack!! Never, never will I again complain about the cost of fuel, food, labor on work done, or anything in the lower 48 states again!! Come up and find out for yourself, but bring about $15,000 - $20,000 if you want to see and do things. Everything, I mean everything has a cost here.
I plan to go to the Scamp factory to see the place, get a new refer access door that got destroyed on our trip, have the door seals replaced as they leak like a sive and get my rat fur all wet and dirty. If the axel is bent I have no idea what will happen there yet. BUT< you do not want to do repairs like that here in Alaska or the Yukon or Canada !$!$!$!$!$!$ and lots of it. Something else may happen on the way there from here as it will take at least 14 days to get there.
My temporary fix for enclosing the refer door openiong that is missing the mfg. refer door now is working good. I can run down the road now with the gas on for the refer and the flame does not blow out nor does the pilot lite. I have the temp. door vented on the bottom and all four sides sealed up with aluminum tape and it is working good. My new door I will make will be designed similar to this test door.
I have to get off the net now, I have almost used up my 2 hours allotted for a camper!!!
Will post more when possible. Looking forward to the lower 48, no offense but I am not highly recommending this trip if you are on a budget of some kind and wish to see a lot of stuff. Fishing trip, $350 PP for 6 hours. Jeep trip to forest, 25 miles in forest is $169PP for 4 hours. Cruise on boat to see ice bergs, $369 PP!! Museums are average $7 -$15 PP. Gas in Alaska, AVG. $4.20 - $4.69. In yukon and Canada, much, much higher. $1.69 avg. per liter. Forgot what that amounts to in us gallons. You do not want to pay this but have to.
Anyhow, I gotta go, almost going to be charged $5.00 for two more hours of internet.
Good Night,
Garylee
Garylee
Gary Lee,
Thanks for your Blog, I am enjoying your "Reports From the Road", "Warts and All" (so-to-speak). I appreciate your candid reports about how the Scamp and Jeep are holding up to the harshness of the trip.
I was wondering if you could tell us about how you and your family are doing on the trip, i.e.: Are you all comfortable in the Scamp?, Have you had any issues with keeping warm in the Scamp? Any issues with Condensation? How are your four legged companions holding up? Are you getting lots, and lots, of pictures? Is your Buddy still traveling with you? How is his Class "A" holding up to the rigors of the trip?
Just as an aside, you could write your blog on your laptop beforehand and simply cut/paste it when you get access to the Internet (this might help with the Internet access issue).
Any way, I'm looking forward to your next installment.
Thanks again,
Happy Scamping !!!
As Always,
Happy Scamping !!!
Hello to you all<
We arrived here in Dawson Creek, BC about 4 pm. We are changing our plans from going to Alaska to Washington to Going from Alaska to Backus, Minnosota, the Scamp Factory. Another problem arose from the bad roads I suspect but not sure if the roads caused this problem or it was a MFG. Defect from the Axle supplier of our Scamps. It is suspected I have a bent Axle as I said in earlier post. I sure hope not but going to the factory on my new spare tire will confirm if it is as it is still 1500 more miles to Backus. I am watching it every day.
Other new problem, wife took her second shower in the Scamp since we bought it, she normally uses camp showers but finally on one of our Dry Camping excursions she gave in and took a happy shower in the Scamp. Well as luck may have it, the switch in the shower to drain the shower did not work and pump out the shower water. Luckly we both always even at home take Navy showers to save water as we both think one day it will be one of the main things we will run out of one fine day. No 20 minute showers in our house!! Well I have a pail I use to wash the car and luckly one of those super duper drying cloths bought on TV. I dried out the shower stall and took a shower myself after and again the darn switch did not work. So AGAIN I dried out the shower floor and walls by hand. It did not take long, it was kind of funny though to us, just could not wait for what was next.
The next day my wife removed everything from the closet nearest the door where the shower on / off switch wires are so I could trace the wires and perhaps find a lose wire etc. Well no wires were disturbed and all looked good, tried the switch again and Walhaaa the pump worked fine??? WTH??? When at the factory will pick up another switch, I want to think this was the culprut as the wiring looked good. So If you haven't had problems with your switch yet, I would consider ordering a spare (Just In Case). But the shower water can be absorbed with a towel if needed if you prefer to wait to order switch.
No other problems have arrived, again these roads are terrible up to within 200 miles of alaska going and coming no matter what one of the two routes you take as went on the only two available in and out.
Now to answer Man with a van questions:
1) Wife and I are doing just fine, we have both had a temper tamtrum, both of us a couple of times but no biggey. We had a wonderful time making up after and there was 8 little eye balls watching us I am sure.
2) Traveling with the Scamp has been fun at times too when we compare all the things going wrong with big 5th wheels and class A's on the road again caused from deep pot holes and big frost heaves. Your scamp will get many curious lookers and of coars when ours was hooked up to our friends bus, the joke was (Is that for the Mother-in law)?? I would answer, (No, it is for the wife when she becomes Mrs. Google near the end of the day)!! Only kidding of coarse. Some Stick and Staple campers with slide outs are having a problem with closing their slide outs on their rigs after and us Scamp owners have minor, minor, minor problemsl. We just left a couple that had a 5th wheel in Watson Lake, BC that lost their 5th wheel brakes and the automatic break away power to them and they are forced to have it fixed in the BC which again is in no way cheap. I keep thinking I am glad it happened to them about 5 miles from the campground in Watson Lake at the end of the day as after that run the roads got real, real, real hilly with up to 10% grades up and down them. I hope they get it fixed correctly as well for safety of their selves and rig. I got 5 mpg on the jeep on some of them hills and these babies were 2-6 miles long AGAIN!!
3) Our little Chihuahua's are showing signs of fatigue of this traveling nearly every day to go one place to another for 6-8 hrs per day as we are. They are losing a little weight so we keep them filled with good treats as they won't eat much more than that and their bathroom habits are changing. They go less and less but do drink and eat sometimes out of our hands at the end of the day when we all lay on the bed at the end of each day. We try to give our animals family time just like you would kids each day, even our Guinea pigs are showing signs of being tired of being in their cages 24-7 except for the 20 minutes I hold them each day until they pee on me!! This trip was much longer and tiring on us than I expected I have to admit. To do this trip to Alaska as we did you need to travel no more than 2 days straight, take and rest the third day and then do two more days and rest again. But this takes a long time to accomplish if you do it that way, and it wears you out mentally and physically if you push too hard for too many days at a time. Stopping can become very expensive if just over night at some areas and eats into your monies real fast. That is why I was being honest to tell you that to be comfortable and see most things you want, (Museums, fishing trips, Tours) etc. you need $20,000 to see most everything possible.
4) If you do a trip for this length of time it is difficult to also pack all you need, we have used everything we brought I believe even to a small electric heater we brought as well. We used all blankets we brought and you will be cramped for food storage. But I can tell you that food up here is way, way more than you expect. Just got some ice for our little ice box we use for soda only and water. $5 for 5 lbs. of ice and it is not frozen real solid. Never wIll I complain again about getting 16 lbs. of ice for $1.50 in Piedmont, SC for instance. I will never complain again about the good ole USA prices on anything.
5) One gas stop today, in a real sparce area with maybe 3 residents within 100 miles was $1.99 PER LITER). I took the chance to go further and found gas for $1.69 Per LIter!! Figure out that in Gallons, still would not consider living here, way way to expensive and visiting here once is enough. Too much in the OLE US to see and enjoy. The bragging rights we now haveabout our trip to Alaska are OK but will never repeat in years ahead and do all I can to convince anyone to be better prepared finiancially than what I expected. There is so much to enjoy in British Columbia to be truthful. We saw more animals along side the road, and on museum we stopped at in Fort Nelson, Yukon or BC not sure. But it was only $3.00 pp and it had more old stuff than we seen in museums we paid $30 for and that is the truth. They had an ole juke box, from the 50's and had 78 rpm records and I sang with them as we selected the ones we knew, like Merle Haggard, "Branded Man". They had an old piano I played boogie woogie on and the attendent was drumming with my tempo on the desk, we had a hell of a time there and it was reasonable, and that is the kind of stuff I really wanted to see and did. I will put many more photos on my Photobucket website and indicate the ones really fun to visit and the ones not to waste you money on. But man this all take times to do, at the end of the day I am tired out and say, oh heck, I'll do it tomorrow and go to bed. So be patient with me, I will slow down more when we get state side, I am anxious now for that. BC is good to travel and not as boring to travel in as Alaska was at the top of the world. The driver will not get to see all as the roads just change so fast and you can bend an axle, go off the side on one of these darn ole gravel roads when being passed or anything I have mentioned before. That can happen anyplace but being out of the states you are limited to having AAA support in an emergency.
6) I have taken maybe 2-3000 photos so far and plan to post them all for anyone to get bored with if they do. I have 36 albums on my computer now and we are just now on our way back home. I will have Scamp factory photos as well, and anything that moves or hits my desire to share will be photographed and has been so far.
7) Condensation has happend several times when it is wet outside from rain and cold mixed and we are cozy inside. I sleep next to the back end outside wall, I have on chihuahua on the back of me and my legs and one on the front of me. Not much movement possible as I do not want to disturb their sleep!!! But they keep us warm when cold out, now that we are headed back to the US it is getting warmer again so changes will happen again for us,. We have used the air conditioner only twice or so and depend mostly on the vent fan over the bed to keep us comfortable if a little warm. We open the small window over the sink and vent outward that pulls air in and right out and makes it better for cooking too with little heat trapped inside. If you really want to vent your Scamp fast, Open the bathroom window and the bathroom door and put the fan on exhaust and hang on. The air pulls through really fast and does a good job. The entrance door knob still condensates each day no matter what. The dew at night attacks it as well I guess but no signs of rust which I did worry about a little but has not happened as yet.
8) Our friends from Washington state that traveled with us are now on their way home to Washington. We separated at Watson Lake day before yesterday. They too are tired I am sure and their 4 chihuahua's they traveled with. He had some problems with his Prevost Bus awell because of the bad roads. He did get a broken windshield from oncoming traffic, 18 wheeler going like hell when he should of slowed down but it is a challenge to some of them guys to do that. He also had alternator belts brake going up to Alaska and coming back from Alaska because of all the dirt and rocks that get sucked into his engine compartment as he drives just like a Dyson Vaccuum cleaner. It cannot be helped but he should have had a stone shield under his engine area which is mostly removed from someone earlier to access the underneath of the engine. But you do not normally travel these kind of roads and this is not a normal thing needed in US. But you better heed my advise if you own a rear pusher engine. And be sure to bring 3 spares of every belt you use. No shield in Alaska, No belts will hold up from the stones and severe dust. Oh, if the roads are dry, they are so dusty you can't believe it, and if they are we they are slippier than (snot on a door knob). Very dangerous and what a mess on your rig, your trailer or what ever you are pulling up there. And to wash your vehicle it will cost you $5 for 3 minutes!!!! NO way can you clean your vehicle for less than $25 and to have it looking like crap the first gravel road you travel on. The gravel roads are the 200 miles up and down from Alaska. After that the roads are pretty good, BUT do not get comfy, those frost heavesare everywhere. It is just so great not to be on gravel roads any longer, I HOPE!! We have a long way to go before getting out of Canada /BC.
9) I have been wanting to write in my office writing program so I could do as you mentioned and just past it later when the ;internet gets better but I just have just been so darn tired each travel day that I just want to relax when done. Getting old I guess, we are taking off two days on our next stop so Maybe I can get caught up more then. But I would rather post the photos which takes a lot of time too and if you do not have the photobucket link I think I posted earlier I will repost it here now.
http://s629.photobucket.com/user/busconverter101/library/#/user/busconverter101/library/Our%20Trip%20to%20Alaska%202014?sort=6&page=1&_suid=14073786391090006505346558278502
There is 20 albums from earlier when we started our trip that you can view. I have 16 more albums to post and hope to do in my rest time in a coujple of days. Just watch for them if you make this photobucket a favorite.
Thanks for your inquiry. Hope I answered all your questions.
Garylee tonight from Dawson Creek, BC, August 6, 2014
Garylee
Hello Everyone,
Well we are back out of Yukon, Alberta Canada after 9 long gruesome days but the trip through Canada was much more scenic than we seen way up north.
We arrived here in Minot, ND about 7 pm and found a great camping site here called (Roughrider Campground) at 500 54th. st. Nw, Minot, ND Tel. 701-852-8442 which was great for us. There is normally a charge of $40 for pull throughs with all the fixings you think you need but we got a site which is back in and great near a pond etc. We have grass to enjoy and not all gravel like the past 2 months nearly.
We are paying $25.20 for Electric hook up and they have a dump station when we leave. We are taking an extra day just to decompress as we are so glad to be back in the Good Ole USA and the prices of everythng so much more reasonable. We are on our way tomorrow to Backus, Minosota to the Scamp Factory, hope to be there in two days.
No new problems!!!!!! Thank God, my right tire is not showing any signs of any wear as yet, only had them on about 800 miles now. Hopefully I do not have a bent axle and only the wheel bearing was not properly seated!! Recheck your wheel bearings to be sure they are adjusted properly, if mine was 1 1/2 notches loose this may have been the problem in the first place and a cheap price of a new tire to pay to get resolved. While you are checking your wheel bearings, grease her up again,
We are staying another night, it is so relaxing finally and out of the frost heaves which were horrible. And to finally use a flushable toilet in this campground. So tired of outhouses and the nasty ways travelers have. I could of bent down and kissed the flushable toilet seat last night when we first got here, the attendent here laughed like hell when I told her that.
I will keep you informed of any new Scamp findings, hope all my testing is done and I did good.
OH, not sure if I told you or not but my wife saved my life two night ago. CHEW YOUR FOOD REAL GOOD is my Advise to you all. I was eating Stir fry with Linda and took a piece of chicken that I did not chew well, swallowed it and it got caught in my throat big time. I could not breath and started to panic and my wife spun me around in our bed in front of our chihuahua's and guinea pigs and immediately did the hymeck (spelling) manauver on me and out poped the chicken and I was weak for a half hour after but ALIVE!! I am so grateful for her and know I would have not made it without her. Just a piece of informatin I hope you could consider, (GET SOME KIND OF CPR INFORMATION AND BE QUALIFIED IN CONTROL TO SAVE A LIFE), "It could be someone's you love very much". I got to admit, I got real scared when this happened and my breath was all gone.
I am now using Google chrome and want to see if I can edit some of my earlier post with photos. Hope that the IE brouser was the culprit. Have a safe and great day.
Until later,
Garylee
Garylee
Well hello there, we are finally home, we arrived here last Thursday, August, 20, 2014 after one hell of a last two weeks of our trip. My Last post stated we had no problems that day but we sure did a couple of days later.
We were about 20 miles North of Rugby, ND and as we were traveling down the interstate a trucker pulled up beside us and waved us off the road!! WTH?? Well, it seems our wheel bearing on the left side of the Scamp was nearly on fire as the grease was smoking and all over the wheel and Scamp side wall!! The outer bearing on our Scamp just deteriated and the only thing she was still running on was the inside bearing and I was tooling down the road about 55 MPH. It was probably a matter of minutes before we would have had a big fire, lost our camper and perhaps worse, a real bad accident. Thank God for this alert driver and I could not hug him enough to thank him.
I had no intention to try to fix myself, we called (AAA) and they arranged to have a tow truck come and bring pull the Scamp up on the back of a tow truck and the driver took us to a great mechanic in Rugby, ND called Dennis Blessum of Automotive Services on 2811 Hwy. 2W, Rugby, ND. Dennis evaluated my problem, the wheel hub, all the bearings, washers and the outer grease cap cover were destroyed. There is no such parts for the scamp on the road. We called Scamp and to make a long story short, I am grateful to Micah Eveland who is the Purchasing Service Manager for Scamp. This all started about 2PM by the way. After talking to Micah he arranged to have the parts Dennis the mechanic needed for our scamp and had them sent to us (overnight) and we got them at 11 AM and was on the road by 11:45am!!
Dennis thought the problem was lack of lubrication on the outer bearing but the inner bearing was packed full and I believe that the bearing was not seated properly like the one on the right side that wore out my tire because it too was not adjusted correctly for bearing seating. Let this be a warning to you, check the bearings on your scamp for proper seating and lubrication with nothing but the best high temperature grease you can get. I am not an investigator so don't take my word for what happened, but you will see in the photos that it happened.
Dennis was kind enough to allow us to stay overnight in his parking lot and hooked us up with power for the night as it was quite warm that night.
I will keep getting out of this program until I am done but save it as I write, so now I am back.
Well I had to pay Dennis the mechanic $210 for labor to install the new parts for our Scamp that got destroyed and off we went to continue our trip home.
After leaving Rugby we put in the Scamp MFG> plant in Backus, MN on our GPS and went there on our way home to get a replacement door for our Refer storage compartment that got destroyed during this trip. We also had the foam gasket material replaced around the entrance door as ours was slipping out of adjustment and allowing water to get in the door!! Well, that new foam job is slipping again before we even got home, Scamp put me onto a rubber gasket to use in place of something happens to the foam gasket and it did so I will replace the foam gasket with the rubber and hope for the best.
We had the control switch in the shower replaced as it too did not work all the time and also the broken bathroom door enclosure latch replaced as I had to break that to get the bathroom door open as it locked from the inside somehow!!
I got a new spare tire cover, the original one was nearly destroyed in Alaska with the rocks and filth from the darn ole gravel roads I keep warning you all about. I sure believe the dirt got inside of the bearing area as well as it was that bad there to travel on and it may have acted like a sanding agent mixing with the grease etc. DO NOT, DO NOT, DO NOT GO TO ALASKA WITH YOUR NEW SCAMP LIKE WE DID. You have been given information I wish I had received.
Well we were given a tour of the Scamp Factory by Wayne Pitlack which we enjoyed seeing how these trailers are made. I am enclosing some photos of that too if I get this photo program to work after writing everything I can think of now.
We left Backus, MN and again truged home, getting closer to getting back home, Yeaaaaaaaaaaaa!!! Well we got 108 miles from home and the (Harmonic Balancer on my Jeep engine) come apart and rubbed on the fan and again we were down but in a real bad area. Highway #40 in North Carolina, truckers galore, we were on a bad curve only 7 miles from the Tennesee, North Carolina border. On the phone we went again, this time I had to use (Good Sam Towing Ins) as (AAA would not pay to have both vehicles towed, the jeep and the Scamp!!
Again we were towed to a garage for the jeep repairs and the owner allowed us to park over night as we were getting there just as he was closing. We had no power but we had LOVE. the next morning, Thursday, the owner/mechanic installed the new Harmonic Balancer and got us on the road at 11;30 AM. We were in our drive way at 2PM, yeaaaaaa, the dogs were happy, the guinea pigs were happy and we sure as hell were happy.
I will give you tips a little later if you truly have to make this trip and want to drive the entire distance. I will do all I can to convince you not to do that if you ask!! Fly up, rent a car or take a tour on a ship but do not, do not, do not drive. This was the most boring and horrible ride ever through Canada and much of Alaska and I will again try to keep giving you information as to why I say this. This trip of driving is not enjoyable for the driver in any way. My back hurts, my butt hurts, my legs got cramps and my wife's legs swelled up big time and I thought she may have had a blood clot and not sure if she is out of the woods yet from just sitting and not excersizing often enough. It took 9 days up and 9 days down to get through Canada only, that is 18 days at 300 miles per day of just traveling!!! Being 69 years old just does not cut it.
OK, I will try to post photos now, good luck Gary. If I cannot post more than one photo at a time I will have them all on my Photobucket website I posted for you. I have maybe 1500 more photos or more to post. You will probably get bored for sure with all this information, my intention is to educate you as to what to expect and offer you and try to convince you of another alternative to go there and not have the things go wrong that did with us.
Garylee
Garylee
Welcome Home !!!!!!!!!
I have to admit that you have probably convinced me to keep our travel adventures confined to the lower 48 (maybe with a quick jaunt into Canada now and then). I was thinking we might store the truck and trailer in Washington or Northern Ca and fly up to Alaska for a Cruise.
Great Travel Log, sorry for your bearing issues, this re-enforces my intentions to pack my own bearings ( a task I may soon be tackling).
Happy (Glad-To-Be-Home) Scamping !!!
As Always,
Happy Scamping !!!
Well every one and especially (Man With A Van).
I cannot agree with your more on your desire to stay in the (lower 48 States) and enjoy all there is and there is a lot to see. Everyone I have ever talked to dreams of a trip to ALASKA, I know it was my Bucket list dream but there was some bad times on it I never want to relive again and will not, ever, never, ever, never go there again drivng the entire way like we did.
Linda and I are so, so very glad to be back home, our animals are starting to eat and drink again, they were getting really stressed out, one chihuahua really had panic attacks the last 14 days every day of traveling. This trip would not been worth it at all to me if we lost one of our animals as they are really part of our immediate family every day. But again, we are so glad to be back in the (LOWER 48, GOOD OLE "USA)
Quite a lot of things went wrong on our trip to Alaska but I am truthful in telling you of all of them so that it educates you better than I feel I was before we left on our 72 day trip. I just want to make you all aware of the things no one else talks of except for the beauty of Alaska and there is beautiful spots for sure but man it is not fun for the driver of a vehicle to drive all the ways like we did.
I will try to shorten this up a little (Yea right) but I do recommend that you reach Seattle, Wa by plane, train or drive and that is enjoyable as it is more affordable and enjoyable and scenic, I promise you!!! Before going to Seattle, arrange by phone or internet for a tour you will not have to drive in to see and enjoy Alaska and the towns we got to visit. Preferable a ship cruise I would say, you will have a private cabin, nice meals and see way, way more than we did and when you dock in a place they will arrange for your transportation to go from place to place and you do not have to worry about fuel, fuel, fuel and the price of food, and anything you need which is not Free any place in Alaska, Canada, Yukon, British Columbia, Alberta, Ca.
Take a tour as way less then we spent: we allowed $15,000 for trip, we spent $14,000 in over 12,200 miles!!! We had $1,000 left when we got home,we had to replace our TV the day we got home as lightning hit our TV some time when we were gone. ("OUR WELCOME HOME GREETING") It was my job to upplug all our electronics before we left and I forgot from being excited and all about our Bucket List Trip which I will never, ever forget. I only hope I will retain the good things that we seen there, right now with all the repairs we have had to endure overshadows all the good. Looking back all my hundreds of photos will surely help me remember the good times too I am sure.
I have to stop a moment and save, I lost my fist post again. be right back.
OK, I am back:
In planning for a TOUR of Alaska, I do recommend, Valdez, Homer, Seward, Fairbanks, Denalli and Anchorage Alaska and no others. These are the main places to see and enjoy to me what we did. Especially Valdez. The mountain scenes are majestic but not worth $14,000!!! I love Montana and SD more as they were as beautiful, and populated and way more to see and enjoy. In British Columbia, Yukon and many, many parts of Alaska there is nothing but Tundra, Tundra, Tundra and more of it. I got so sick of seeing 6-8 foot trees nearly falling over it was not funny, nealy fell asleep I have no idea how many times and that ain't good. We had to pay up to $1.99 per liter for fuel in the middle of Yukon, that is nearly $8.00 per gallon which was the highest we seen.
Here is a few things I will never, ever complain about in the lower us 48 states again:
1) Price of fuel
2) Price of food in grocery store
3) Price of food in restaurant
4) Campgrounds that have grass and not just gravel parking and dusty situations and no WIFI even if the campground advertises they have FREE wifi, Hell Too, You have to go their office to use it in most places and there you are with about 8 people typing away and not able to do it in your rigs. If you can, you will wait a long long time to get to where you want to go. I could not contact anyone hardly at all the entire trip out of the US.
5) The roads in the US, not nearly as bad anyplace as yet we seen as we did in Canada and Alaska!! If you have a nice vechicle and want to keep it clean, forget this trip. I guarantee something to get broken or worse.
6) I will never complain about the amount of gas stations in lower US. In canada, & Alaska, never, never let your tank get below 1/2, no matter what kind of vehicle you have, class A, Class C, Trailer and tow vehicle, Bus or what ever.
I do not recommend that if you do insist in driving up there to do not include the ("over the Top Of The World Highway"), it is bad, bad, bad. Roads all blue shale, when dry they are so dusty you cannot see more than 70 ft. ahead of you, they are not flat but just dumped from a truck it seems and wait for vehicle traffic to flatten out. Well, well if you want to be a good guy and take this route be prepared to possibly have a tire sliced from the sharp shale on side of road when you pull over to let others pass from either direction. If you do this trip, just stop, and let them go. STOP, do not be a good guy and pull over to the right as the shoulder will give out quickly and has to someone just days before we got there. They rolled over their rig and we seen where this happened and it was an embankment maybe 30 foot down. Not far but had to been a wild ride as their class "A" rig was totally destroyed. No one was hurt but their desire to have a good time and that all went down the toilet as well as their rig.
None of the above info is BS, I promise you. It took us 9 days just to drive through Canada and 9 days back out from Alaska!! That is a total of 18 days of traveling at 300 miles per day. You will endure bad back pains, leg cramps and possible blood clots from sitting all that time every day!! No Freaking way will I ever, ever go there again, my physical health is still not right and neither is my Wife's who I am really worried about having a blood clot in her left leg but seems to be clearing up, I pray.
My wife, bless her heart, saved my life by administering the Hymeck, (spelling) maneuver on me after I ate a large piece of chicken I did not chew properly. This was almost the end of my Bucket List for sure had it not been for her helping me do something she was not trained for in any way but instinctively did what was needed for me to throw up that darn ole chicken. I Have not had chicken since yet. WARNING: LEARN "CPR' IS WHAT I REALLY RECOMMEND. YOU NEVER KNOW WHEN YOU MAY SAVE SOMEONE'S LIFE OR ONE YOU LOVE!! Life is good no matter what else happens to us now, I just will take one day at a time and enjoy it to the max. I will pass on any information I feel could ever help othes have better times and be more prepared in anything you all wish to do if it is worth it to me to write. If I convince one person to consider all I mention in my post before taking this long (Amazing, Beautiful Trip to Alaska) as is everyones dream I ever talked to I hope they will be better prepared. Well, now you have the truth what to expect and what we traveled with and my recommendations so you can have a more enjoyable time and at a price much cheaper than what we experienced.
In all our problems, the serious ones', we had a lot of support and help from all those that were involved with us and we are totally grateful for them and their help in all they did. Everyone was very respectful, helpful and made our problem as light on our hearts at the time as they could. This is the good that will never be forgotten by us.
Our scamp come through with flying colors after the (Left Wheel Bearing) repairs. Here is what I recommend for all Scamp owners to do ASAP:NOTE: we are having a problem getting funds we spent to have the new bearing replacement cost we paid for ($210 total) from (Dexter Axel) under warranty as of this morning. Problem: They will not warranty any parts etc. unless they have the (Dexter Serial Number) off the actual axel from you. Well here is that problem. Dexter puts on two labels, one paper which is no good but used only for shipping they say to their outside vendor. OK, so they also have a serial number (stamped on the back of the Axel which starts with (LNXXXXXXXXX). Dexter will do nothing without this number that is supposed to be (stamped) on the axel!! Well as luck has it, this number is not stamped on my axel, the only thing stamped on it is (CAP. 2200 LBS, EXCLUDING RIMS, WHEELS & TIRES AND UNDER THIS IS STAMPED MOD-09R). That is all on this axel only, well I am not believed so I have a problem here too. Even Scamp tried to find this number as well when I was at their factory but no soap. So I have no idea where this will end up, Crapper as usual. NOTE: If you have a new scamper, and may have this problem as I have had, get under your camper, find this serial number and record it on your scamper paperwork. These guys just will not deal with you without major proof and I have none, can't invent the numbers!! Pretty stressing for sure, it just never ends it seems. Scamp unable to matchmark the axel that is assembled to each trailer??? Don't understand this also, anyhow take this information and use it to your advantage ahead of time. Your Axel is guaranteed only for 2 years!!
Now for things to do to your Scamp Camper ASAP to divert from having a problem:
1) Remove wheels, bearings etc. and clean all very good to remove all old grease and you have a chance to inspect the bearings and races for damage. Be sure to remove all old grease, clean over and over just to be sure it is all removed.
2) Repack all wheel bearings with the very best and most heat resistant bearing grease available before reassemble of the bearings, then adjust the tension on the bearings to be sure that you have virtually no play in the wheel. My right one that wore the outside of my tire had loosened up 1/1/2 turns on the adjustment nut!! enough to let the wheel woggle as it rolled down the road, 10,000 or more miles.
3) Be sure to use grease gun to install more grease in bearings before assembly of Grease protection cap. Do not use just any ole grease, or wheel bearing grease, get the best you can find.
Well I am getting burned out, Oh, here is something more for you to have a laugh about:
We were passing through Tennesse on our way home in the Good Ole USA, and I had my wife order a 10X20 canopy to have to protect our Scamp soon after we got home. Well it come 2 days later, I starte to assemble it and it turned out to be a 15" canopy in a box labeled 20"!!!!! Now I am trying to get that resolved, having trouble there too proving I do not need a metal frame stretcher to get to 20". Good Grief, so I had to take photos of all, using a tape measure as they said it was impossible for this to happen, Really!!! Not after what we been through!!!
Garylee
Garylee
I spent four years in Anchorage and drove most of the way myself. I have heard every story of success and failure from a variety of people. One friend said the had 4 spare tires for truck and trailer and had 6 flats in 225 mile stretch of road. Another drove a BMW all the way through without a scratch. I saw on my return trip back to the lower 48 a family wipe out and total their Brand new 2012 F350 loaded with dogs/kids and 25 ft enclosed trailer while it was -25 and we had no problems on the same patch of road a day later. I agree that any one traveling to Alaska via the ALCON should have a spare 10000 to 15000 as a back up; not just because of accidents and mechanical failure, but becasue of fluctuating prices with food and gas through out Canada and just the unknown. I am glad to hear you are back home safe. Will you be camping any more with your Scamp in the future?
2012 Subaru Forester
Scamp 13 front Bunk
Glad to be home is not the words that can completely express how great it feels after a couple of days rest. Well, I have been fighting with that new Scamp Canopy garage I bought on line to protect our Scamper but it will be done tomorrow. As usual, anything I buy that is in kit form I have to either reinforce or reinvent it and I did on this Scamp garage as well but it is nearly done now.
We will be going camping soon at a place near us, Palmetto Cove, in Cleveleand, SC. http://www.palmettocove.com Beautiful place to camp, grassy, quiet and quite reasonable for sure in price for full hookups, $22 if you are not a member of the origanization. ( This is the campground I mentined in another post on SOL about arranging a SCAMP gathering at but got very little feed back on it so I guess it was not worth arranging at this time but maybe more on the East Coast will be interested in a gathering at Palmetto Cove, SC in the future) But we will be planning a longer campout near xmas time to Panama Beach Florida, (no hills, no mountains and no 10 deg. climbs up or down) and even if the gas is a little higher in FL, it will be no where as high as Canada / Alaska for anything!!!!!! Myrtle Beach will be in the works as well, no more Tundra for me, oh no.
Again, as Tanfam4 has mentioned, educate yourself in the pitfalls of the Alaska DRIVE, do not do it if you do not need to. Take a tour and enjoy this trip, don't be Macho, it will be expensive in one way or other and you will get real tired of driving. Oh well I feel like I am boring you more with this warning. Have a good night.
Garylee
Garylee
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