deepmud

ugh...computer crashed before my post got up......in the meantime, while I rebuild my long-winded post... ....some more pics - I work on the 11th floor of a office building in Anchorage, Ak - some cool views yesterday morning....if you look close you can see the Fata Morgana stretching some the mountains.....these are cropped/digitally zoomed photos 'cause it's pretty far off Fata Morgana and Mt. Foraker Mt. McKinley - or Denali View to the east - the Alaska Range - lots closer than Denali - these would be foothills around Denali. Funny - you often can't see much of Denali when you go there. Too many big mountains when you get close.

What time of year? Do you plan to fish? Are you into renting kayaks and such or taking sight seeing tours on bigger boats to see wildlife? The Denali Park could be amazing. Lots of Critters. Will the RV rentals allow you on the Denali Highway (not needed to see Denali - it used be - it's not paved, it's beautiful but has a rough reputation). Will you be headed south to from the RV rental? Or north? Our roads are limited - you might have to back-track to get to Homer then back to Fairbanks .... or you could go to Fairbanks, and back to Anchorage by a differnt route - or back with a side trip thru Denali Highway if they allow - or you can spend 2 weeks in the Homer/Kenai/Seward area - it's all beautiful country, I'll brainstorm some ideas with the wife this evening

And - how long/how often camp in cold? how cold is cold? 0C? -40C? Lots of locals just winterize every fall (drain water/heater/add ant-freeze) and "rough it" when they use the RV in winter - bottled water - just insulate/heat the poop-tank enough to be able to use it. Most the mistakes that can't be fixed are in the water and waste systems

Sorry to be tongue in cheek there - yes - I think there was a LOT of good details in one of the Turtle Expedition campers - I have the actual paper magazine but maybe I can find an article online about it. If not I'll get the paper version up for you

I always get c r a p when I post that picture, lol - it's chained to the hoist. I don't have a handy forklift so there you go. I have done one attempt at a competition ramp - I got about a 700 rti score. Not bad. Wheelbase is 104" so that would be about ....25 inches up a 20degree ramp? I'm sure I could make it go higher that that was good enough. It behaves nicely offroad. I've had it all twisted up in a steep uphill ravine and it was very well behaved.

Hmm. I disagree. Especially - compare the studded tire(tyre) at 2nd or 3rd year of use. The first season - I'm surprised you are saying "they are okay" - they are becoming the tire of choice for my friends and I, and we've gone to them on our company cars, year round. They dont' get a lot of miles and the costs of swapping every spring and fall plus tire storage make the quick-wear of the blizzaks (year round) about a wash - we get about 3 winters out of a set. I would love some real-world, back to back comparisons of exact-same model vehicle, one with blizzaks, the other with a good studded tire like a hakkapeliitta . I can only say my own experience says I'd give the edge to the studs only the first season or less. I can add one more thin----- I think the blizzaks are LESS grippy on dry pavement - I'm so much happier with them on ice/slush and snow I put up with it but I bet they give up 20% of stopping distance on pavement. Something to consider.

No one likes Blizzaks? I love them - I'm in the "6 months of ice" category - I think for 6 days I'd just chain up and go slow. I like Blizzaks better than studs. Studs work somewhat better on water-on-ice, but not drasticly so. On wet slush or fresh wet snow, I give the advantage to Blizzaks. Blizzaks perform at 100% effective until the "magic layer" wears off. Studs begin to be less effective by the 2nd year - by year 3, you don't want to toss them but you maybe should anyway. I've gotten 6 years on one set of Blizzaks on a Suzuki Sidekick. I got 3 years on my fullsize Ford Expedition - but I didn't swap them out the summber after year 2 - I maybe could have gotten 4 years if I had been careful. I tell people "Blizzaks tires mean check your 6!!!" - look behind you when braking - you may not realize how bad the conditions are for everyone behind you - you want to avoid being rear-ended. My co-worker talked his mother into a set - she's not a great driver - she did a "brake check" on a slick hill and caused several cars behind her to have to dive into the ditch. They really are a great snow/ice tire. Erik

T Thanks! These are all my own images - I've been in some cool places in the last 30 years or so (geeze I'm getting old ) and luckily I've been using a digital camera since about the time they became "affordable" - my first 2.1 megapixel Olympus was over 700 dollars in 1990. My UZ 2100 was only about 500, and still only 2.1 megapixel, but it has an awesome image stabilization and a 10x optical zoom - It's been a great "Alaska" camera - pictures of eagles are not "white dots in trees". Then it was a $1200 E-10 - 4 megapixels, 4 optical zoom - my first "pro-sumer" camera - really, I bought it for the wife but she let me use it, lol. Then I got her a Canon 10D and a 28-135 IS lens ($2000!!!) - that camera is 12 years old now - we have a 3 of that vintage because the used market for them is terrible - the 2nd and 3rd were only 200 bucks, used. Still a great camera - 6.3 megapixels are hard to tell apart from decent film images. My newest toy is a Sony rx100 - 21 megapixels! And fantastic low light function - and it fits in my pocket. I've gotten some nice aurora with it - and it's great to have a GOOD camera that is easy to pack along. Aurora with the Sony - I was working at 2am in Whittier, Alaska . The Aurora were gone again in 15 minutes. Denali last week - I was working on fiber on the road system - this is Trapper Creek, Alaska the old Canon 10D last year (Denali from the north side) Tuckers: They have been a common snow rig for Alyeska Pipeline, who operate the Alaska Pipeline for the oil companies (like BP). They aren't the BEST snow cat (they can get stuck in relatively shallow snow - requiring rescue via Caterpiller tractors) , but are transportable on public roads with a slide-back flatbed truck(big lorry ) - they weigh about 10k pounds, and are less than 8 feet wide. In Alaska, past 8 foot 6 inches and it needs a special permit, special driver license, and a chase truck. My company bought a $200k Bombardier Snow Cat - but at about 10 and half feet wide, it was hugely expensive to transport up and down the highway. I think the chief advantage for a Tucker in a "corporate environment" is they steer like a truck - they don't need a decent driver - about any idiot can drive one (hence the getting stuck lol). I think Alyeska could learn a lot from Icelandic 4x4's - but they won't. Instead, they use suuuuper narrow, hard tires on heavy diesel trucks (like 8 or 9000 pounds of truck) that make for some not so good 4x4's when the snow pack is soft - or the ground is soft - in the spring.

Do it like this guy lol -

yeah - the ptarmigan in winter are usually not seen until they explode out of snow under your feet - gives you quite a start when you aren't expecting it One more for fun - Grizzly at Brooks River, Katmai Lake. I was able to spend three days at Agulawak Lodge about 7 years back - talk about WOW! what a place.

I made my one links panhards mount the same front and rear. Captain Slow is right. It has to match the front tie rod or it would jack the front up and down when steering. Hyrdaulic steering means it doesnt matter but ram-assist still needs to match :-)

Are beadlocks legal in the UK? Another option is bead sealant on the rim - I've run much lower than 10, a lot, without beadlocks or bead sealant. Poor man's beadlock is putting in screws - either right into the rubber like drag racers do - no my favorite - or running through the rim just inside the bead, to keep it in place. There's a long thread on this on Pirate4x4 somewhere.........I might still have a link.... bead sealant thread http://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/general-4x4-discussion/583584-tech-bead-sealer-****.html ah! found the "diy beadlock" thread - screws http://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/general-4x4-discussion/340906-diy-beadlocks.html

in 2002 I got to work on a project on a fiber optic system that is along the Alaska Pipeline - a 4 foot diameter steel pipe that goes from the top of Alaska in Prudhoe Bay. It was a long bit of work - our crew put 10,000 miles on each of 6 Ford Excursions over a 3 month period - 7 days a week - 12 to sometimes 20-plus hours a day. I had purchased an Olympus UZ-2100 digital camera as I was heading out - I took over 2000 pictures - with a modern camera I would have taken a lot more - memory cards were pretty limited back then. (Mile 0, at Pump Station 1) - The Pipeline is about 800 miles of "Middle of Nowhere" - you haven't been "Nowhere" till you've been this spot: ( about halfway from Atigun Pass to Prudhoe Bay - about a 100 miles of fllllaaaaaat flaaaaatt flat flaaaattt land............. Somewhere in the middle of the state...................... Pump Station 4 - north of Atigun Pass Lynx....I forget where Steeep hill to access a Remote Gate Valve - where we have fiber optic nodes. Ptarmigan (the state bird, and tasty ) Remote Gate Valve mechanism The RGV hut where the huge battery rack and the Fiber Optics (and old radio gear, etc) are located: Somewhere in Atigun Pass, Brooks Range Mountains near Valdez (mis-spoken by local Alaskans as "Val-Deeeez" and we like it that way, lol ) Helicopter view, just north of Valdez Valdez harbor - it snows a LOT there. That enough for now ? I have more lol

the UK is high up on MY list of return trips! The wife is now in love with Italy as of this past summer however, lol . It's been about 15 years since I took my camping/motorcycle trip that included England/Wales and bit of Scotland - I want to go again. I think it would be worth the risk at 200 quid or so to get a good TDI-engineered manually operated injection pump that "should" work for me. It would at least be a good rebuildable core - which I don't have now anyway. Keep in mind that it won't be running in a daily commuter so a hundred hours might last me a couple years or more. More teasers: Short video - Floating on Wasilla Lake, with Pioneer Peak (6398ft) visible over the trees. The water is so smooth it looks "fake" . http://s85.photobucket.com/user/deepmud/media/random%20junk/20141014_185241.mp4.html I sold these old tracks off last week - seems the musher who bought them will be training his dogs from the comfort of his Jeep More from hunting - my friend Stephen scoping for caribou. Bear print Deep interior Alaska, deep in winter.

hunting Caribou, Denali Highway, fall 2014 Cheers!