First Trip through Canada & into Alaska - Many Questions!

[Quadcab]

Wife & I are planning our Alaska Adventure starting in June of 2025. I am all gung-ho, but my wife is reluctant to commit without asking those of you with experience how we should plan & what to look out for. BTW, we have a newer 2022 F-350 7.3L Gas Lariat SRW Supercrew 7.5' bed with 4:30 Axle & a 2021 Alliance Paradigm 310RL 35' 5th wheel with a smaller Solar package. 5th Wheel will be upgraded to the MorRyde IS and Disc Brakes before we leave.
Questions:
1) Elevation - any concerns pulling with our gasser? Any mountain passes or other higher elevations we should avoid? 5ver weighs about 15,000lbs. fully loaded. Our truck handles it nicely here in the lower 48.
2) Any experience joining an RV Caravan & travelling as a group? Any thoughts about doing that verses winging it alone?
3) Should we carry extra auxiliary gas cans just in case?
4) Will (2) smaller dogs be a problem? We know about having their shots & papers with us when crossing into Canada. They usually love car trips.

All responses would be helpful & appreciated!

[c_traveler2]

Quadcab wrote:
Wife & I are planning our Alaska Adventure starting in June of 2025. I am all gung-ho, but my wife is reluctant to commit without asking those of you with experience how we should plan & what to look out for. BTW, we have a newer 2022 F-350 7.3L Gas Lariat SRW Supercrew 7.5' bed with 4:30 Axle & a 2021 Alliance Paradigm 310RL 35' 5th wheel with a smaller Solar package. 5th Wheel will be upgraded to the MorRyde IS and Disc Brakes before we leave.
Questions:
1) Elevation - any concerns pulling with our gasser? Any mountain passes or other higher elevations we should avoid? 5ver weighs about 15,000lbs. fully loaded. Our truck handles it nicely here in the lower 48.
2) Any experience joining an RV Caravan & travelling as a group? Any thoughts about doing that verses winging it alone?
3) Should we carry extra auxiliary gas cans just in case?
4) Will (2) smaller dogs be a problem? We know about having their shots & papers with us when crossing into Canada. They usually love car trips.

All responses would be helpful & appreciated!

There are plenty of posted trip reports in the TCTR 3.0 on Alaska and Canada in the Truck Camper Forum. Many of your questions can be answered there. We're doing another journey in 2024 summer to Alaska, this will be our 3rd time so much to see!

[SideHillSoup]

A quick ( close enough) temperature conversion:
25c Equation…. Double 25c add 30 = 80 f … real temp 77f
18c equation …. Double 18c add 30 = 66f real temp 64.4 f
35c equation … Double 35 add 30 = 10pf real temp 95f

[Sinterior]

Not sure if many know this, but an easy, close enough conversion from kilometers to miles is, multiply the kilometers by 6, take the last number way = miles.

Eg 50 kilometers X 6 = 300, knock the last 0 off.....30 miles.

80 kilometers X 6 = 480, knock the lst 0 off.......48. Say 50.

Close enough for speed limits and easy to do/remember.

[SideHillSoup]

StirCrazy wrote:

SideHillSoup wrote:
It’s not just the Yukon campgrounds that only take cash, a lot of the BC Parks Campgrounds also only take cash, unless you book and pay on line with reservations.

I have been paying by card for 3 years now, even in rec sites. yes, I agree, take some back up cash just in case you find one that doesn't take cards though.

I have been traveling in Northern BC for the last 3 weeks, the BCParks first come first service sites that we stayed were just about all cash only, the only place we used a credit card in a BC Parks campground was south of Terrace going towards Kitimat. Nancy Greene Lake Provincial park, cash only, Davis Creek, Lost Ledge, Rosebery, Summit Lake all BC Provincial Park Campgrounds, all in the southwest corner of BC in the West Kootenays, cash only for first come first serve.
For credit card use the campground must have either cell service or Wifi available for the Credit Card Machines to work.

[Scottiemom]

Be sure to call the credit card companies for the cards you will be using and let them know your travel plans. We mostly use Discover but found out they charged more in Canada, so we scrapped that for a different card in Canada. May be different now.

Dale

[StirCrazy]

SideHillSoup wrote:
It’s not just the Yukon campgrounds that only take cash, a lot of the BC Parks Campgrounds also only take cash, unless you book and pay on line with reservations.

I have been paying by card for 3 years now, even in rec sites. yes, I agree, take some back up cash just in case you find one that doesn't take cards though.

[valhalla360]

SideHillSoup wrote:
It’s not just the Yukon campgrounds that only take cash, a lot of the BC Parks Campgrounds also only take cash, unless you book and pay on line with reservations.

Stopped at around 20 campgrounds in Canada so far this summer...every one took card. Even the self pay ones had credit card options (we usually went online rather than put our credit card info in the envelope).

Yes, good to have some cash...biggest use is laundry. We are a few days out from Montana and burning off the cash we took out when we crossed from Montana into Canada.

[happycamper1942]

thomas201 wrote:
One thing Sidehillsoup said on the other thread. Bring some Canadian cash. His reason was the credit card machines were down at some Petro Canada stations. Mine is that the isolated Yukon campgrounds have a cash only box, with no host. So, a little cash is good.

I agree, bring some Canadian cash. You are in a foreign country for several days at a minimum, who knows what situation you may find yourself in where cards etc. cannot be accepted for whatever reason, and US cash is not a universal currency.
I wouldn't dream of traveling anywhere out of Canada without taking some local cash with me.

[DancinCampers]

We had a great trip in 2014, including Top Of The World Highway. Canada was really good about putting out the cones on frost heaves, Alaska not so much. We found that keeping an eye out for tire skid marks was a good indication to slow down.
Mike and Terri Church Alaska book was a great asset, along with the Milepost.

[PA12DRVR]

1976-ish, getting ready to head (on that trip) up from Helena to Los Anchorage involved: full mechanics set of tools on the 1-ton, 40 gallons of gas (in 5-gallon cans) between the 1-ton and the deuce and a half, 1 spare for the 1-ton (on rim) 2 spares for the deuce and a half (not on rims), headnets, 10 gallons of water (for drinking), a couple of shovels, bottle jack(s), hand saw, ax, 2500 in cash that was converted into Cdn as soon as we crossed the border, 1000 in reserve USD, telex code, and both Visa and MasterCharge. Lost two tires on the deuce-and-a half, fortunately not both at once, so we could limp to the nearest place to get the replacements mounted. Lost a hub gasket on the deuce-and-a-half...fixed that by wrapping kitchen string around the bolts until we could get to (IIRC) FSJ. Spent most of the 2500, missed getting dragooned into fighting fires by 1 hour....it was actually a great trip.
Fast forward to 2018....leaving from Idaho this time: check that Visa and Mastercard are paid off, check that the spare in the Sequoia is full. Drive.

In the 20+ trips in-between, the only flat I had was when I picked up a load of airplane parts from a construction site...grabbed a nail. It makes sense to carry a spare for whatever rig you have, but the road doesn't chew tires like it used to.

The scenery is still spectacular and it's a nice drive; some of the character of the old Alcan is lost in the improvements though.

[SideHillSoup]

It’s not just the Yukon campgrounds that only take cash, a lot of the BC Parks Campgrounds also only take cash, unless you book and pay on line with reservations.
In 2016 when we were up to Whitehorse on the way up power outages from fires had knocked out the internet and again you needed cash to buy fuel. So out of 5 trips up north over the years, twice we needed cash.
As for spare tires, my truck already has a full size spare so I don’t pack a second spare. And when I had my 5th Wheel it also had a spare. I do carry a small spade shovel, a 24” spud bar, a 20 ton bottle Jack and some short chucks of 2x6 for Jack blocking. I always carry a 12 volt compressor and a tire repair kit as well, as we are always off on some logging road fishing, and up in the bush, there is usually no one.
My kids also bought us an Garmen Inreach 2-way communicator GPS just because we are always out in the bush on our SXS or our snowmobiles. Saw a lot of the local guys who work in the bush around Stewart last weekend with those Gramen Inreach clipped to their belts

[thomas201]

One thing Sidehillsoup said on the other thread. Bring some Canadian cash. His reason was the credit card machines were down at some Petro Canada stations. Mine is that the isolated Yukon campgrounds have a cash only box, with no host. So, a little cash is good.

[valhalla360]

happycamper1942 wrote:
I made a 9040KM trip from my home on Vancouver Island through BC, Yukon and into Alaska in 2017. I took an extra spare for my 5th wheel and for my truck, a 20" which weighed a ton, and I carted them around with me for10 weeks and never needed them.
We were off the tarmac quite a bit, including driving the Dempster as far as the Arctic Circle sign at Eagle Plains. By the end of the trip I was cursing them, but I realize "what if....?"
If I did it again I might take an extra for the truck, If I needed one for the 5th wheel I could always unhoohkand go for help.

Just finished the dempster yesterday, all the way to the arctic ocean and back (1100miles of dirt roads).

Unless you are on a tight schedule, I don't see the point of carrying multiple spares. Yes, we have a full size spare for truck and trailer but worst case, we'll hold up for a bit while we get a new tire ordered. Maybe 40-50yrs ago it was a bigger deal but we've seen plenty of tire shops along the route to and around Alaska.

[happycamper1942]

I made a 9040KM trip from my home on Vancouver Island through BC, Yukon and into Alaska in 2017. I took an extra spare for my 5th wheel and for my truck, a 20" which weighed a ton, and I carted them around with me for10 weeks and never needed them.
We were off the tarmac quite a bit, including driving the Dempster as far as the Arctic Circle sign at Eagle Plains. By the end of the trip I was cursing them, but I realize "what if....?"
If I did it again I might take an extra for the truck, If I needed one for the 5th wheel I could always unhoohkand go for help.