Tag Archives: Airstream

Alaska 2019 recap

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We have been in Redding for more than a month now so it is a good time to do an Alaska recap.

The planning started last year when we were traveling with the Chens. We were staying between Jasper and Hinton. In that area, I saw a turnoff that stated ‘Scenic Route to Alaska’. Some thoughts were that we were very close to the starting point, we should just go last year. Alas, we had obligations at the end of August. In hindsight, the decision was good since my mother passed away at the end of August. So we made plans to go in 2019. It would also mark 55 years since I was there last!

The only real plan we had for Alaska was a scheduled meetup with a group from Facebook on the 4th of July. We reserved a spot and it gave us a target for at least that date.

We made that date and pretty much winged it for the entire trip. Often I would make reservations for our next stop only, not any further ahead. The one exception was Denali NP. I actually made two reservations and canceled one of them once we knew our location better (it was only $6 to cancel).

For this recap, I consider the start of our trip when we entered Alberta north of Glacier NP on June 10, 2019. Then the end will be when we came back to the US at Sumas WA on Sept 3, 2019.

Here are the numbers:

Total mileage: 8673
Fuel Cost: $2303.57
Gallons: 696.15
MPG: 12.07
Avg price per gal: $3.33
High price per gal: $4.292
Min price per gal: $2.559

Trailer miles: 5783
Average miles per travel day: 199
Min travel day: 40 (Palmer to Eklutna Lake)
Max travel day: 291 (Liard Hot Springs to Teslin YT)
Travel days: 29

RV park expenses
Total: $3088.99
Overnights: 85
Avg per night: $36.34
Min: 0 (Walmart in Chilliwick)
Max: $62.11 (Seward KOA)

There were also numerous locations for pulling off the road, dry camping but we were never at a point where we had to rely upon it. One negative that we have found is that virtually every turnout in the Yukon was signed to NOT allow overnight parking. If there was an area off the highway, it didn’t appear to have a sign. There were many areas in BC that would not allow it also.

Alaska is huge, but the easily driveable area is not. My estimation is that you have about 500 miles north to south and east to west that you can drive. Most other areas are only accessible via sketchy roads, water or air. It is all pretty civilized also. There are some stretches of not much but not at all like you might expect. We thought it would be much more barren.

The stretch that seemed more like what we thought Alaska would be like was Northern Alberta and Yukon Territory. Long segments between towns. The biggest town in, and capital of, the Yukon was Whitehorse. Whitehorse’s population is 26K, the rest of the territory is another 10K.

Anchorage is a metropolis (300K) with 2 Costcos! It is a stark difference to other locales but helpful if you need to get something done. Roxie had to have a medical procedure and we were able to get it done there.

We tried to take day trips to some of the other smaller, well-known towns (Skagway, Whittier, Valdez). Fairbanks was a smaller version of Anchorage but much more palatable. Denali was both very rural and touristy. Homer was, by far, our favorite! We will spend about a month there the next time.

We also did not do everything while we were there. This gives us some more to do when we get back there again. We will go back, but it won’t be for another 5-10 years. We have more to see in the Northern Hemisphere.

If you decide to head to Alaska, you can not fret too much about the planning ahead but there is one thing you must do. Join the RVing to Alaska group on Facebook. Every year a new one is started so pick the right one. There is a huge amount of information available there, you can learn a lot from others and you can save it right in FB and get to it later. Here is the 2019 version: https://www.facebook.com/groups/rvingtoalaska2019/

A few projects

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Since our trailer was a 50amp model it came with two Air Conditioners.  This meant no Fantastic Fan above the bed.  This also meant there was no direct source for airflow to us, like no ceiling fan (in household terms).  When it gets hot it is nice to have a fan blowing on you.  I found a Vornado fan at Target that would work and we put it on the floor, blowing up to the bed.  This was adequate, but I wanted more.  I wondered how I could mount the fan on the wall but didn’t want it adding weight to the wall as we were driving down the road.  I put a hook in the wall where we can hang the fan when needed:

We have been having some issues with our walls in the trailer sliding inward as we travel.  Some of the movement is close to 1 inch.

These walls were very cheaply made in Airstream and no require reinforcement, Airstream just stapled the corners together and covered them with trim.  The first wall is the hallway wall for the bathroom that attaches to the wall in the bedroom (behind the bathroom).  I took a 1×2 and mounted it vertically and screwed the walls together:

Inner structure

Hall wall with structure screws covered by trim

Bedroom wall with structure screws covered by trim

Another location of poor wall construction is next to the refrigerator.  There is a small 45-degree wall there but all Airstream did was put screws through a panel and into the next.  These panels are really thin and don’t have anywhere to bite:

I shored these walls up with some better anchor points and re-attached them with screws:

The part of the wall that is most concerning to me is the wall between the bedroom and bathroom.  The first picture shows the gap.  I put some brackets in the floor and secured the base of the wall (we will see if that works):

One problem we have been having is with our Dometic thermostat.  It consistently shows a different temperature (hotter) that just a few inches away.  I attributed this to having a large hole in the wall where the thermostat attaches to the wall.  Behind this wall is the side of the refrigerator and a lot of hot space during the summer temperatures.  We found a few bamboo flooring samples from a local home store and moved the thermostat up (so we could see it behind the TV) and to cover up that large hole.  Also filling in behind the new bracket with some foam has solved the issue.

Another upgrade was the TV in the bedroom.  The old setup was a 22″ that came from the factory:

This was the only place for one in the bedroom since there was a sliding door on the other wall to close off the bedroom.  I removed that door almost a year ago as we did not use it.  The gave us the option to put a 32″ TV on that wall:

A huge upgrade was accomplished in changing our sliding doors in the hallway wardrobe.  One of the selling points, for me, was the large wardrobe that this floor plan offered (twice the size of the 30′ Classic).  However, the doors would continually jump off the tracks.  Some on Airforums found the same problem and posed some solutions.  None of them worked very well.  Airstream themselves moved away from the sliding doors in the next two model years and created hinge-attached swinging doors but they were almost $1400 for the parts!

Enter Willard Amtower.  He saw a post about the doors and contacted me.  He had full plans for creating new sliding doors with appropriate hardware to not jump the track.  I did it.  I did not use as nice wood that Uncle Bill did but it sure works great!  Heavy mirrors, heavy hardware and tracks to keep it in place.  We have done about 1600 miles on the new setup with no issues.  Here are some pics:

I was able to find a good handle match also (original and additional):

Uncle Bill also showed me one more trick.  Our water pump can be turned on/off in two locations, the kitchen and the bathroom.  This requires a 3-way switch so you really cannot tell if the pump is operational by switch location.  I was replacing the water pump because the backflow valve was faulty and I wanted a more efficient one.  Bill showed me that he simply added an LED indicator that was tied to the water pump.  When the pump was energized the LED was on:

I like it but I used an LED for a truck trailer side marker so it might be a bit bright.

So far, I am very happy with all these modifications.  Am I done?  I will never be done.