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RE: Winter travel to Alaska
ak_traveler, you cursed us with that snow comment! We got DUMPED on last night, heck, it's still coming down! I round tripped it to Glennallen yesterday. Coming back in on the Glenn was treacherous. It partially thawed, then froze, then snowed. The plows or sand trucks weren't out. I would have HATED to have been towing anything more than my utility trailer!
Just sharing the love Huck! Glad to see you made the trip safe though. You are right about being prepared...in Alaska you plan for the worst that you can imagine and then double that and hope that you are wrong!
In my "Arctic Bag" (which is with me from the first snow till it's all gone)I carry enough extreme cold weather gear so I can walk anywhere I am headed. And since I work out of town that could be 78 miles or so! I have tested it too...hitchiking one day to town at a measured -72F degrees. I wasn't a bit cold either. Course it took me the better part of a half hour to get dressed, but hey, it worked!
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ak_traveler
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11/30/08 03:30pm |
RVing in Canada and Alaska
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RE: Winter travel to Alaska
Hey ak-traveller! You got any sunlight up there now??? Nice to see you still about - NH has been chilly - we have some snow, but not what I suspect you guys have! Take care! Happy holidays! ST
Hiya "rock",
Yeah we get a little sliver of it from time to time! LOL! But we are coming up on the low point for sunlight... after the 21st of Dec. we start gaining again! As for snow, it hasn't been too bad. Not our best year for it, but we have enough to keep the pipes from freezing. We usually get the majority of our snow towards the end of winter though, when the weather actually starts warming up a bit.
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ak_traveler
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11/29/08 09:06pm |
RVing in Canada and Alaska
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RE: What's in a name?
Yep QCMan, some people think WAAAAAY to highly of themselves! He puts his pants on one leg at a time just like us "other people" and he has to drive that big ostentatious MH around himself just like us "common-folk".
Makes you wonder who lied to them about being royalty!
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ak_traveler
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11/28/08 02:52pm |
General RVing Issues
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RE: Need help getting rid of these insects.Please
Simple...bring your unit to Alaska and park it here one winter. Guaranteed to kill any Florida cockroach you may have!
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ak_traveler
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11/28/08 12:15am |
General RVing Issues
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RE: What's on the floor inside of your door in the RV?
We have a large patio mat on the ground in front of our door. We have a welcome mat on top of the patio mat. We take our shoes off and leave them outside whenever we come into the fiver. And we still have dirt on the floor. Get used to it - if you don't have a dirty floor, you ain't doing it right!
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ak_traveler
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11/28/08 12:13am |
General RVing Issues
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RE: Just Curious
I call Fairbanks, Alaska home...unless I'm in my fifth wheel elsewhere, in which case that's home!:B
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ak_traveler
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11/28/08 12:10am |
General RVing Issues
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RE: What is the worst Road you drove on?
Well the answer to your question OP would depend a lot oon your definition of "road"!
There are a couple moose trails I've taken my truck down that they call "roads" but I wouldn't bring my 5'ver down them!
The term "road" up here takes on a whole new meaning at times!
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ak_traveler
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11/28/08 12:07am |
General RVing Issues
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RE: What's in a name?
My suggestion is to cut through all this terminology and just call it "quality time with your family"!
Really, if this is all these folks have to whine about, they have it pretty good!
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ak_traveler
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11/28/08 12:03am |
General RVing Issues
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RE: when is a camper to old
The way I look at it, if the RV park doesn't like my rig (no matter how old it is or what type it is) then that's not a place I want to frequent anyways!
Your '78 is not that old...my stepfather and mother have a bitty old trailer a lot older than yours! And they can go pretty much anywhere they want. Don't worry about these uppity parks that have this rule - there are a lot of other places that would welcome your unit and your business.
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ak_traveler
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11/28/08 12:00am |
Beginning RVing
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RE: Black Water Tanks
Our Cougar came with one of these built-in flushers as well and we love it! We also added the clear adapter to our sewer setup so we can monitor the nasty stuff.
When we go to dump our black tank, we dump our black tank, then our two gray tanks. We then use the flush unit for a couple minutes and dump the tank again. In addition, we use the Geo method after each trip just to make sure everything is flowing the right way.
So far we have had no problems!
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ak_traveler
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11/27/08 11:55pm |
Fifth-Wheels
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RE: Fifth wheel hitch with bedliner
We had our bed sprayed long before we got the hitch. But had I got them closer together, I still would have had the bedliner sprayed first. For all the previous reasons, plus, what happens if you have to replace or upgrade the hitch? If you sprayed them together, you would have bare spots when you took the old hitch off!
It's better to have the bed sprayed, give it plenty of time to cure (I suggest twice the time the tech tells you it needs) and then have the hitch installed.
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ak_traveler
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11/27/08 11:46pm |
Fifth-Wheels
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RE: Winter travel to Alaska
Hi Nita,
My first thought upon reading your post is how much experience do you have driving in winter conditions? I'm not talking about the "it snowed last night but it's gone now" winter - I mean the REAL winter.
The highway system in Alaska during the winter is nothing to be casual about. People can and do die driving in the winter up here. I have been doing it for many years and even I have a well-founded respect for the road system up here.
If you still are planning to come up here, you can PM me and I will do what I can to help. But please take this to heart - the trip you are contemplating requires preparation...lots of preparation. Both in your vehicle and in yourself.
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ak_traveler
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11/27/08 11:41pm |
RVing in Canada and Alaska
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RE: Pic of new 5er
(Make sure you remember to drop the sucker when hooking up or unhooking!)
Sorry - what am I supposed to drop? This sounds important
Kimbearly,
Drop your tailgate when you are hooking up/unhooking...hate to see you wrinkle a brand new truck (speaking from experience unfortunately!). Best thing to do is find or create your own hooking up checklist. Then follow it and don't let anyone interrupt you or distract you.
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ak_traveler
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11/24/08 08:26pm |
Fifth-Wheels
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RE: Replacing J-couch with recliner
reg1948,
When we got our fiver, it had a hide-a-bed in the front room that when made out, didn't allow the kids in the back to access the bathroom (poor design!). So when we made the purchase, it was on the condition that the dealer replace the hide-a-bed with a regular J-sofa. It was a pain in the (back-end) I understand to get the hide-a-bed out but the dealer got it done and we are happy with the result.
Just do whatever you need to in order to make your unit work for you. After all, you are the one that has to use it!
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ak_traveler
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11/24/08 07:01pm |
General RVing Issues
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RE: Pic of new 5er
Congrats on the new fiver! You are going to love it once you get used to the size and all.
Only piece of advice I can give you is...
TAILGATE!!!
TAILGATE!!!
TAILGATE!!!
(Make sure you remember to drop the sucker when hooking up or unhooking!)
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ak_traveler
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11/24/08 06:35pm |
Fifth-Wheels
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RE: new f/w need help
I doubt there would be a water pressure regulator "built-in" to your unit. Typically, the pressure regulator is at the spigot end of the hose and it is user supplied. In fact, even if there happens to be one, I would still use my own just to make sure. They are not expensive and they are good insurance.
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ak_traveler
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11/24/08 06:29pm |
Fifth-Wheels
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RE: Handy Hints, Gadgets, Products & Gizmos
Gee, for measuring slide clearance (and pin height, and ground clearance, and...) I just use one of those cheesy, $2.00 12' tape measures! They are small enough to go on your keychain, but we toss one in the glove compartment and that way it's handy.
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ak_traveler
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11/24/08 12:33am |
General RVing Issues
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RE: Electronics and the far north
I use a Garmin as well and have had no problems. It takes a couple seconds to acquire the satellites, but after that it works great. Haven't found a situation yet that it doesn't pick-up (I understand though that in the Lower 48 if you are under an overpass or in a tunnel they don't work so well - no such problmes up here!)
That being said, I don't use my GPS all that much - there are only a few roads and on any of them you are going one of two directions...kinda tough to get lost! LOL!
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ak_traveler
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11/23/08 11:08pm |
RVing in Canada and Alaska
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RE: Handy Hints, Gadgets, Products & Gizmos
Ok here's a "tried and true"...
One of our "must have" items is a roll of blue painter's tape. We use it to keep the foam pad up in the shower skylight at night so we can sleep (anyone who's been to Alaska knows how hard it is to get the unit dark enough to sleep in!), we use it to hold down stuff in the cabinets, and several other uses. Best thing about this tape is it leaves no residue, doesn't take off paint or wallpaper, and is cheap to use.
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ak_traveler
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11/23/08 11:00pm |
General RVing Issues
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RE: Do you remove toiletries for winterizing?
Well I can honestly say I live further north (and with tougher winters) than anyone else on this thread so far so here's what we do...
After our last trip of the season - typically mid-August since most parks start closing the first part of Sept - we take the RV in to get winterized (I could do it myself but our dealer/repair shop uses air to blow the lines dry). Once winterized, we take out anything and everything that we suspect may not survive severe cold weather. It can get -50 below or colder during a winter and it almost always reaches -30 so we take out anything liquid, anything in bottles and jars (plastic or otherwise), all foodstuffs, and our removeable electronics. Then we remove all batteries and the fire extinguisher.
We start at the front and we go through every cabinet, cupboard, drawer and closet to make sure we have everything that might not survive the winter. Then we do the outside compartments and we finish up by removing the house battery.
It usually takes us a day to get everything done but we know when we leave the fiver that we won't have any unnecessary spills or leaks when spring comes. And we have gotten it down to a science now so it's not a big chore. It's just depressing knowing spring is such a looooong way off!
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ak_traveler
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11/16/08 02:38am |
Fifth-Wheels
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