Best tire for driving Alaskan Highway

[Millerk1966]

I have a 2015 F-150 with a Northstar Vista camper (1,500 loaded) and would like to know what your opinions are for the best tire to have for driving from Texas to Alaska. Your input will be appreciated!

[MORSNOW]

Our roads are the same as everyone else's, any good quality tire and proper inflation will do. Heck, our highways are better than many in the lower 48 from what I've heard on here, no concrete expansion joints to thump/thump you to death either.

[soren]

Grit dog wrote:
Soren, while I don't doubt your past experience, Cherry picking responses to provide an argument or entertainment is kinda, well, very rvnet ish. No one was talking about brodozers, but nice comparison.
I also believe you can make it to AK and back without a side arm and some nice un-macho looking baloney skins on the truck, but, umm, I don't know, being prepared for some crappy roads or having a bit tougher tires for when you accidentally tag a sharp rock from one of the countless rock slides ON the highway doesn't seem like a big stretch in feasibility to me.

I don't like changing tires anywhere but in my shop.

Sounds logical, but in 20K+ miles of actually driving in the Yukon, and AK, I really have had zero tire problems. I always assumed the low grade ST rated, imported, junk trailer tires would get me, but it just didn't happen. Not like the roads were wonderful, I bent two axles on fairly light trailers (24' 4600lb UVW) and did other damage from extreme stone chipping, to broken welds, wiring torn off an axle, etc... Another thing to consider is that the road system generally gets better, straighter, and less like it was "back in the day" with every passing year. Our first trip was nearing two decades ago, and it was far worse than the latest adventure.

[c_traveler2]

For our 2015 Alaskan trip I installed on my F 250 with B.F.Goodrich KO2 tires. Put over 16,000 miles on that journey, had only one tiny leak due to a small sharp rock on the Haul Road.



ALCAN 1 just north of Whitehorse,Canada

[Grit_dog]

Soren, while I don't doubt your past experience, Cherry picking responses to provide an argument or entertainment is kinda, well, very rvnet ish. No one was talking about brodozers, but nice comparison.
I also believe you can make it to AK and back without a side arm and some nice un-macho looking baloney skins on the truck, but, umm, I don't know, being prepared for some crappy roads or having a bit tougher tires for when you accidentally tag a sharp rock from one of the countless rock slides ON the highway doesn't seem like a big stretch in feasibility to me.

I don't like changing tires anywhere but in my shop.

[jimh406]

As far as bears go, consider bear spray. Legal and also very effective against big meat eaters. NP where Grizzlies roam says better than a gun as a deterrent.

As far as who's tire experience is the best, I'll leave that one mostly alone although Moab isn't representative of everything offroad. But, I guess you know that, right? 🙂 My guess is the people who've been to Alaska are going to provide better info for tires for those roads.

[Millerk1966]

Thank you for all of the information, Very much appreciated!

[soren]

SidecarFlip wrote:
Soren.... Going to Alaska I would not be without a firearm on my person anytime I was in the bush. Too many meat eaters running around up there to be unarmed and I don't want to be a bear's snack.

I have a couple pictures of bear attack victims that are way too graphic for this site. Believe me, Bears are not neat and fussy eaters.

Tire wise, I'm sure my Michelin's would do just fine.

Spent plenty of time in bear country, wouldn't think of bothering with a gun. Reality is, you need to have a hand canon, a typical light to medium caliber hand gun is just going to piss them off. Second you would need to be a really calm, talented and well practiced shooter, and evidence shows that most guys who think they are great at the art of shooting do pretty poorly when it all goes wrong. Ever see the stats. on exactly what happens when a typical cop draws and fires in a high pressure situation? Usually a lot of lead flying, and very little, often zero, hitting the target. If you are really scared, get bear spray and learn how to use it, it's proven to be a lot more effective. Since you can't take a gun through Canada, most folks end up going the bear spray route if they think it's a need.

As for tires, just about anything that's black, round and full of air will be fine 99.999% of the time. I spent four summers driving around AK, and the Yukon without a single thought of "are these tires good enough" and had zero issues.

[SidecarFlip]

Soren.... Going to Alaska I would not be without a firearm on my person anytime I was in the bush. Too many meat eaters running around up there to be unarmed and I don't want to be a bear's snack.

I have a couple pictures of bear attack victims that are way too graphic for this site. Believe me, Bears are not neat and fussy eaters.

Tire wise, I'm sure my Michelin's would do just fine.

[soren]

Grit dog wrote:
^Well if you can't imagine the noise and general horror "mudders" would cause then you're right, they're probably not for you. However some people actually use their trucks off pavement and in snow and......mud! BTW, I'm not talking swampers or Thornbirds, more like Duratracs or Toyo RT/MT.
No they're not the most efficient tires, neither is a big RV drinking gas like it's free.
But, the most useful, do everything tire is a stout mud tire, siped for rain n snow traction.

Fortunately for all of us there are tire designs for everyone.

Cute comments. Since were all adults here, and well past buying our first set of tires, you know exactly what I was talking about. And, like most adults of a certain age, macho stupidity doesn't really impress me. So, buying macho, aggressive mud tires for a nice trip on paved roads doesn't really do much. Some guys feel they need a truck with an 8" lift and ten grand worth of bolt on **** to look cool, while on parade in town, others need to walk around with a gun tucked in their shirt. Then there are the rest of us that wonder what exactly they are compensating for?

Probably don't need any explaining about what leaving the pavement is , from you. I've done things at Moab that would leave a lot of people crying for mom, or at least jumping out, and walking back to town. Using nothing but a nearly stock rig, with a 2" terraflex, and some 33" ATs. No drama, no looking cool for the parade in town. Started offroading forty+ years back, when we would segment bending pipe, used to build our homemade sand rails, with a forked tree and a little Oliver bulldozer to get the job done. My first rodeo was so long ago, I forgot what color the horse was.

[SidecarFlip]

soren wrote:

SidecarFlip wrote:

bb_94401 wrote:
If you plan on taking the Dempster Highway to Inuvik on your trip, you might consider a tire with a cut /chip resistant tire compound.

Approximately 460 miles of gravel, one way from the Yukon Territory Hwy 5 junction east of Dawson, then Hwy 8 once you cross into the Northwest Territories to Inuvik.

An example would be the Toyo M-55 LT265/70R17 tires I run as summer tires. Cooper Tires also have cut and chip resistant compound tires as well.

I used to run All Terrain TA/KO/KD's on my 350 4x4 TC camper hauler and I found that they are not stone / cut / chip resistant. I didn't wear them out per se, the tread got so chewed up (I live and farm on gravel / dirt roads, that I had to replace them. Never again. The Michelins wear much better. Better tread design. Not as 'Macho' looking but in my case I don't give a hoot about macho, I want a long wearing tire.

Yep, I have done the trip many times and cringed when somebody mentioned "mudders". 99% of a ten thousand mile+ trip is pavement, I can't imagine the noise, and wear those things would have. It's always amusing to pull up to a brodozer truck in this area, and be guaranteed to see one thing. Mudders who's only function on the street is to look cool, and make the cab sound like the inside of a tank. Unless they are a new set, they are also typically heavily damaged with scalloping on the edges and flat spots. Nothing like a noisy, expensive, poor wearing tire to degrade the quality of a great trip. I did the trip in several big SUVs and pickups. Always ran Firestone Transforce HTs. Zero issues. The motorhome also did fine, with nearly grip free, Goodyear Motorhome tires with about 1/3rd of the tread left. The travel trailers all had typical ST rated stuff, even Chinese junk. Never had a tire issue in upper CA. or AK.

Actually, the TA/KO/KD's are quiet. Not as quiet as normal street tires but quiet compared to 'mudders'. My issue of course was how bad the tread chunked out. After 20K miles, they looked bad.

I run Firestone Winterforce on my wife's van year around. Work excellent in snow, rain and dirt roads and wear very well too. I may put a set on my F350 when the Michelin's get worn.

Normally, I don't ever get more than about 30K on a set of tires anyway. Diesels make a gob of torque so going around a corner on dry pavement, your inside back tire is slipping a bit and that attributes to accelerated wear. Probably more so on my truck with a Detroit Tru-trak in the back differential. An open spool would probably yield better tire life but I need lockers in the front and rear for what I do with the truck. Hauling fuel in a farm field requires traction and all wheel drive sometimes.

[Grit_dog]

^Well if you can't imagine the noise and general horror "mudders" would cause then you're right, they're probably not for you. However some people actually use their trucks off pavement and in snow and......mud! BTW, I'm not talking swampers or Thornbirds, more like Duratracs or Toyo RT/MT.
No they're not the most efficient tires, neither is a big RV drinking gas like it's free.
But, the most useful, do everything tire is a stout mud tire, siped for rain n snow traction.

Fortunately for all of us there are tire designs for everyone.

[soren]

SidecarFlip wrote:

bb_94401 wrote:
If you plan on taking the Dempster Highway to Inuvik on your trip, you might consider a tire with a cut /chip resistant tire compound.

Approximately 460 miles of gravel, one way from the Yukon Territory Hwy 5 junction east of Dawson, then Hwy 8 once you cross into the Northwest Territories to Inuvik.

An example would be the Toyo M-55 LT265/70R17 tires I run as summer tires. Cooper Tires also have cut and chip resistant compound tires as well.

I used to run All Terrain TA/KO/KD's on my 350 4x4 TC camper hauler and I found that they are not stone / cut / chip resistant. I didn't wear them out per se, the tread got so chewed up (I live and farm on gravel / dirt roads, that I had to replace them. Never again. The Michelins wear much better. Better tread design. Not as 'Macho' looking but in my case I don't give a hoot about macho, I want a long wearing tire.

Yep, I have done the trip many times and cringed when somebody mentioned "mudders". 99% of a ten thousand mile+ trip is pavement, I can't imagine the noise, and wear those things would have. It's always amusing to pull up to a brodozer truck in this area, and be guaranteed to see one thing. Mudders who's only function on the street is to look cool, and make the cab sound like the inside of a tank. Unless they are a new set, they are also typically heavily damaged with scalloping on the edges and flat spots. Nothing like a noisy, expensive, poor wearing tire to degrade the quality of a great trip. I did the trip in several big SUVs and pickups. Always ran Firestone Transforce HTs. Zero issues. The motorhome also did fine, with nearly grip free, Goodyear Motorhome tires with about 1/3rd of the tread left. The travel trailers all had typical ST rated stuff, even Chinese junk. Never had a tire issue in upper CA. or AK.

[SidecarFlip]

bb_94401 wrote:
If you plan on taking the Dempster Highway to Inuvik on your trip, you might consider a tire with a cut /chip resistant tire compound.

Approximately 460 miles of gravel, one way from the Yukon Territory Hwy 5 junction east of Dawson, then Hwy 8 once you cross into the Northwest Territories to Inuvik.

An example would be the Toyo M-55 LT265/70R17 tires I run as summer tires. Cooper Tires also have cut and chip resistant compound tires as well.

I used to run All Terrain TA/KO/KD's on my 350 4x4 TC camper hauler and I found that they are not stone / cut / chip resistant. I didn't wear them out per se, the tread got so chewed up (I live and farm on gravel / dirt roads, that I had to replace them. Never again. The Michelins wear much better. Better tread design. Not as 'Macho' looking but in my case I don't give a hoot about macho, I want a long wearing tire.

[Tom_Barb]

Grit dog wrote:

Tom/Barb wrote:
It is all well maintained hard top road all the way from the US border to Fairbanks, except 13Km between Watson Lake and Whitehorse and that was very smooth,

So any good street tread should work fine.

^This. If you're just taking the Alcan straight to AK. Road isn't bad (frost heaves are). Only risk is distance between services, not likelihood of puncturing a tire.
You want to gear up for what you do that is NOT on the highway. The Denali, Dalton, Mc Carthy Rd etc.
If funds allow, I'd shoe that 150 with some good E load ATs or Mudders, pick your favorite brand.

We just got back, 90% of the highways are paved. the unpaved are no worse than the dirt roads of Texas.

Biggest problem going up this time of year are the fires of northern BC

anyone running the dirt roads of Alaska this time of year deserve all the dust they can eat 🙂