Extra Tires to the Yukon?

[brulaz]

A friend who went the Alaskan highway up to the Yukon as far as Dawson City says I should carry more than one spare tire each for my truck and trailer when we go this July/August.

But his experience was over 10 years ago. And AFAIK the only non-paved road we may attempt is the Dempster Highway, maybe up to Inuvik, maybe further.

Are the roads that bad? All my tires are new.

[sue_t]

It was better in the old days (I grew up in Beaver Creek) when the AK Hwy was gravel through that section (DBay to Beaver Creek) because it could be graded to smooth it out whenever that was needed. But now it is paved and takes a lot more to improve it when it heaves due to winter freezing of the wetland areas under the highway. But it was the US government that wanted it paved since the majority of users of that section are American (tourists, semi trucks, residents).

[soren]

AK silvereagle, the incident of the poor guy on the motorcycle, following us, was in 2010. I have a fraction of your experience, having spent four summers traveling in Alaska and the Yukon, but that was the worst patch of road I had ever suffered through, anywhere ,including traveling in rural areas of a few third world countries, while working for an NGO. It had many places where the road had splits that ran from a few feet to a few hundred feet long. These cracks ran with the direction of travel, and were often a foot or two wide, and who knows how deep. Other times I actually followed a well worn path that left the roadway and traveled down the shoulder, to get around areas that were impassible. I did notice that the same route in 2015 was a lot better, but the whole concept of a road there kind of reminds me of trying to pee on a wildfire. You may get a few points for the effort, but in the end, success is unlikely.

[AKsilvereagle]

The White River to Destruction Bay portion is actually in pretty good shape right now due to the major reconditioning of the Alaska Border to Destruction Bay portions the Yukon Government is committed to since 2013....

What normally takes me an average of 3 hours and 45 minutes (sometimes over 4 hours) or so to drive non stop from Destruction Bay to White River (83 miles) as I take my time and not ruin my old rigs...

As of last year in 2017 it only taken me 1 hour 54 minutes and 1 hour 56 minutes to drive in both directions - quite a record shattering time hauling my camper thru that kidney beating stretch that was the norm...With that said, construction will still continue somewhere well south of Donjek River although I noticed some improvement in portions south of the river already.

In 2010, the Destruction Bay thru the Border stretch was thee worst condition I have ever seen it to this day...way worse than my very first drive in 1985.

Needless to say, the stretches of Alaska Highway from Destruction Bay thru 3 miles (past) west of Northway Junction never holds up on a long term basis...

It didn't even take a year before the Koidern area of roadway already buckled up, and I seen total resurfacing 4 times since 1989 between Northway Junction and the border at Port Alcan on the Alaska side...

The stretch between Mirror Creek and the border on the Yukon side since the 2013 and 2014 reconstruction period has already tarnished back to it's old ways in a lot of spots too...

I still have pictures thru this notorious Destruction Bay thru the Border stretch taken in 1994 when it was still narrow in most places, while in 1998 on my next trip in Canada I seen the widening and substantial improvement of the Destruction Bay thru the Border stretch but had mixed feelings about it because all the old ruggedness of the Alaska Highway was totally gone, like it lost it's true identity...

Fast forward to a 10 year gap on my next trip in Canada on the Alaska Highway portion of the Yukon in 2008 as I couldn't believe how the entire Destruction Bay thru the Border stretch was back to it's normal frost heaved buckled condition that I witnessed, like they didn't do anything to the roadway other than widening some shoulder space with a couple short bypass routes away from the Kluane River....so the Spirit of the Yukon remains alive and well thru this famous frost heaved stretch of the Alaska Highway.

[AlaskaShooter]

That section of road is always BAD north of Destruction Bay. After living in Alaska for 25 years and traveling the Hwy many times there is always construction on it. Soon as they fix one section Mother Nature reclaims another section requiring it be rebuilt.

[soren]

daveB110 wrote:
This is completely out of date, as well as off topic. Our only trip into the north in 1982, ran into some rain the night before we started south from Dawson City. We traveled slowly as the rain, now stopped, had turned the road surface into a slipery quagmire. This had gone on for hours as we drove, when we saw a lone motorcycle heading north, but creating wiggly corrections constantly. I didn't have the heart to stop and tell him he would be doing this for another hundred miles!

Late one summer we spent six or seven hours heading 180 miles south from Beaver Creek to Destruction bay. The road was the worst I had ever seen it. The entire time we were crawling around, and dodged craters with our truck and trailer, a big guy on an old, 1940's style Harley was always a bit behind us, carefully picking his line, and trying not to crash. Around two in the morning, I had enough and pulled into a parking area, to get some sleep. The guy on the bike pulled in behind us, parked in the grass shoulder, laid down, and fell asleep. No bag, no tent, just took his helmet off and passed out. I bet he felt like he had just rode a rodeo bull for a few hours.

[soren]

Yeti plus wrote:
Brulaz, make sure you have a small vacuum cleaner along for the Dempster. When we did it in 2016 it was rainy/wet most of the way north. I power washed the back of the camper to allow us to get in at Eagle Plains, and again in Inuvik because of the mud on the camper and truck.
It was beautiful sunny days driving south. The dust is like flour, and it sucked in the door of the camper, being on the back. We spent an hour with the little dustbuster vac before we went to bed. The hardware store in Dawson City didn't have the baby Shop Vac in stock , but I got one in Whitehorse when we got there and vacuumed the whole camper.
Wet=mud
Dry=dust
Enjoy the north.
Brian

The first time we encountered the "dust flour" it really had me baffled. It infiltrated our travel trailer, when we crossed the top of the world highway. It was a really dry, and one of the worst fire seasons on record. The dirt flour on the road was at least an inch deep. The first time we saw it inside the trailer, the vibrations had collected it into weirdly artistic lines and squiggles on the floor. Took me a moment of kneeling and poking at it, until I figured out what the heck it was. That year we bought a small vac. in Valdez, since we just couldn't take the dirt anymore.

[daveB110]

This is completely out of date, as well as off topic. Our only trip into the north in 1982, ran into some rain the night before we started south from Dawson City. We traveled slowly as the rain, now stopped, had turned the road surface into a slipery quagmire. This had gone on for hours as we drove, when we saw a lone motorcycle heading north, but creating wiggly corrections constantly. I didn't have the heart to stop and tell him he would be doing this for another hundred miles!

[Veebyes]

If you have an extra spare no harm in taking it. Just replaced all tires, & way old spare, for the trailer. Saved the best old tire unmounted & it fits just fine behind the 5th wheel. The truck got new shoes last summer. They are the same as the trailer tires making all interchangeable. Nice to have the spare spare.

[Yeti_plus]

Brulaz, make sure you have a small vacuum cleaner along for the Dempster. When we did it in 2016 it was rainy/wet most of the way north. I power washed the back of the camper to allow us to get in at Eagle Plains, and again in Inuvik because of the mud on the camper and truck.
It was beautiful sunny days driving south. The dust is like flour, and it sucked in the door of the camper, being on the back. We spent an hour with the little dustbuster vac before we went to bed. The hardware store in Dawson City didn't have the baby Shop Vac in stock , but I got one in Whitehorse when we got there and vacuumed the whole camper.
Wet=mud
Dry=dust
Enjoy the north.
Brian

[brulaz]

Perhaps we'll see you on the Dempster to Inuvik (and even on to Tuk). We prolly won't get there till August though.

We now have new tires on the truck (trailer ST-E's are only 1 year old), and two spares for the trailer and two for the truck. And have figured out where best to secure them (the 8' bed helps). Really do hope the new truck tires don't go flat as they are heavy, and I'm getting old.

Am now going around the truck bed and trailer trying to fill/cover any holes. A couple thousand kms of gravel might just throw up some dust.

Hmmmm, and maybe it's time to add a cabin filter to the RAM 2500.

[c_traveler2]

We're headed back up in July ourselves, on our last trip up there we only took one spare tire for the truck (no trailer that time). Maybe we were just lucky but had only had one very small leak that was easy to plug. We had travel all the way to Deadhorse/Prudhoe Bay in Alaska as part of our trip in 2015. This time we're pulling a small utility trailer and will have a spare for the truck and a spare for the trailer and going all the way up to Tuktoyaktuk, Canada.

[soren]

ppine wrote:
Soren,
I have worked in bush Alaska and made more than ten trips there. I drove from Haines to the Kenai in the 1980s when it was gravel. I made a living driving on dirt roads for 30 years.

Interesting. I hope you get a chance to drive some of those roads again. They literally are not the same roads. We are averaging a road trip from PA. to AK. about every 4-5 years, since 2000. The interesting thing to observe is that the road system gets better every time, and the difference from our first trip to today, is staggering. Everything from total rerouting to new sections built to modern standards, to continual rebuilding of existing sections. Twenty years ago, sketchy bridges, wooden culvert pipes, and steep curvy stretches, were still in use. Most of that has been removed and upgraded. OTOH, as Sue and Murray can confirm, at least half of the businesses that were operating twenty years ago, on the remote sections of the AK. highway are gone. Unfortunately, as the roads are improving, the traffic counts (particularly summer tourists) have dropped like a rock. It's a great trip, but except for things like the road to Tuk, the highway system has little to do with what was there, "back in the day".

[ppine]

Soren,
I have worked in bush Alaska and made more than ten trips there. I drove from Haines to the Kenai in the 1980s when it was gravel. I made a living driving on dirt roads for 30 years.

[brulaz]

Another long, remote gravel road we were considering on our way up to Dawson City and Inuvik was the Campbell Hwy, Yukon #4 from Watson Lake to Carmack Yukon.

But from the pictures and compared to the Dempster, it seems narrower with more trees reducing the visibility. Great place to hit a moose I imagine.

So We'll prolly go up thru Whitehorse to Carmacks instead.