Quote:
Originally Posted by pgandw
Having made the trip from Kodiak to San Francisco, you will probably be OK if you minimize the amount of driving on gravel roads. The gravel used, especially in Kodiak and up towards Fairbanks and north of Tok, slices tire tread pretty quickly.
The other issue is making sure the bearings are in good shape and well-lubed with decent dust caps. In Juneau and other SE towns, glacier silt is used for snow treatment. That stuff is really nasty and corrosive - we had to "wash" our vehicles with WD-40 to clean the stuff off the paint. It can tear up your brake cylinders, shoes, and rotors, as well as your wheel bearings. Ask me how I know.
Enjoy the drive - we did. We did have to replace a boat trailer tire in Northern BC when the tread peeled off. The TV - Ford Explorer - already had 8 ply tires due to living in Kodiak. One of the boat trailer bearing dust caps fell off in middle BC - I covered the hub with Saran wrap until we could find a replacement.
Fred W
former resident of Juneau and Kodiak
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Thanks a lot for the comment.
The bearing have all been repacked, The seals are all in place. I think that they are bearing buddies, so I may pump some more grease in them along the way.
I expect to have at least 1 flat.
I will have tire pressure monitors on all of the tires, including the trailer. at least I can see if one is overheating or going flat.
I have 2 new spares and a third one that is pretty worn, but would let me limp to the next town.
I have 6 new tires on the RV and 1 good mounted spare. I am taking 2 unmounted tires that have plenty of tread, but they are getting old so I did not trust them. They would do in a pinch as a spare.
I also have both patch and plug kits
I have a 3hp compressor mounted in one of the storage compartments that runs off of the generator. So I could air up a low tire after putting a plug into it.
I do not have a big tire sledge, so I do not think that I could mount a new tire on the road, but if I have to use a spare, I will stop at the next town and get the flat fixed, or mount a replacement.
At least with the RV I can stop for the night and even wait for a day or two if places are not open on the weekend.
I have a flexible schedule, so the trip will take as long as it takes.
My daughter has the entire Harry Potter set of books either on tape or CD. So I have until I have heard all of them for the rip.
I did get a satellite radio module for the new radio I put in, but I do not want to start the subscription unless I have to.