Traveling the Haul Road and the Dempster Highways (Part 1)

Please welcome guest commentator, David Staat...

A trip up either Alaska's Dalton (Haul Road) or Canada's Dempster Highway is not a trivial event. Both roads are over 400 miles long, much of which is gravel and, in some places, very rough. A reasonable amount of preparation is recommended for a successful trip.  The next several posts are intended to document some of the things we did in preparation and what we learned after traveling both the Haul Road and Dempster.

For your initial preparation, I suggest reading “The Dalton Highway,” by the Bureau of Land Management.  You can download a copy at the following site: http://www.blm.gov/ak/st/en/prog/recreation/dalton_hwy.html.

The second invaluable tool for your preparation is the Alaskan Travel Planner, Milepost. This book is a mile-by-mile reference for those who are traveling in North/West Canada and Alaska.  It contains an in-depth section on both the Dalton and Dempster highways.   For more information, visit http://www.themilepost.com/

Below are some additional insights and suggestions.  I am not suggesting deviating from the advice from the BLM or Milepost.  We, however, did a few things differently, so I am including my thinking in this piece for further consideration.

Transportation Preparation

During my career, I spent a long time as a reliability professional in manufacturing and did a lot of statistical work on probability of failure.  For me, investing in quality equipment and operating it within the design parameters reduced failures and resulted in needing fewer spare parts and lower maintenance cost.  A good maintenance and repair plan is also important.

I took this same approach prior to traveling the Dalton and Dempster.  Both highways have limited resources to deal with transportation problems, so it is important that your vehicle is in good mechanical condition prior to your trip.

We travelled in a 2007 Xterra, Off Road model.  The vehicle was 3-½ years old at the time and had about 45,000 miles on it, so it was relatively new and in good shape.  Since we were driving from Houston, Texas, to Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, I knew that we would be putting a lot of miles on our vehicle. Also we tend to get off the beaten path where help isn’t normally available, so I wanted to do a thorough inspection of my vehicle before we left.

I did my own visual inspection under the hood and under carriage of the vehicle, looking for damaged hoses, belts, and electrical harnesses. I was also looking for fluid leaks, especially from the cooling, lubrication, and power steering systems.  I also checked all the lights to make sure they worked and the fuse box to make sure there were extra fuses if needed.  I also took the vehicle to a service center that I trusted and asked them to do a thorough inspection.  This cost me a little extra money, but I wanted another set of trained eyes looking for potential problems.

All of the information I read about traveling the Haul Road recommended having good tires.  I agree… having good tires is a must. Since our Alaska trip would take us mostly on paved roads, I wanted a tire that would have minimal road noise but be tough enough for those eventual unpaved forest, mining, and logging roads. There are many fine tires on the market. If you are interested in tire details drop me a comment.

Several articles I read suggested taking two spare tires fully mounted on rims up the Haul Road. I had one already but struggled with buying a second tire and rim. It wasn’t just the cost, but where would I put it for our extended Alaska trip? An additional consideration was the added weight. We were trying to travel light to save gas. 

While in Fairbanks we stayed at a lovely cottage.  One of the owners had a lot of experience traveling the rough roads of Alaska and dealing with transportation problems in remote areas.  Jerry suggested that I carry a can of Fix-a-Flat. It is a product for temporary flat repair (see http://www.fixaflat.com/).

I already had a tire repair kit with me but not a pump, however, I was able to borrow one from Jerry.  So I had my plan together for the tires.  I had brand new off-road tires, a brand new off-road fully mounted spare, two cans of Fix-a-Flat, a tire plug kit, and a hand pump.

We eventually traveled over 19,000 miles on our trip, and 2,100 of those were on gravel and unpaved roads.  We only had one flat, and that was in Homer, where I picked up a screw in the tread, causing a slow leak. We had it repaired at a local tire place.

In addition to the tire repair materials, I included the following in my auto maintenance and repair kit: a roll of duct tape, some electrical wire and tape, some structural wire (like that used to hang picture frames), rope, and a tool kit.  In the tool kit I included a hammer, regular and long nose pliers, phillips and flat screwdrivers, two sizes of vice grips, a socket wrench with sockets that fit most of the common nuts on the vehicle. I also included two pairs of leather gloves to protect my hands and safety glasses for eye protection.

I didn’t take any spare belts and hoses, which was recommended by some articles. The quality and reliability of these items has improved substantially over the years.  Since my vehicle was fairly new, and the inspections indicated no problems, I didn’t deem it necessary. If my vehicle were older, then I might have considered taking some replacements. Also, I had skid plates that protected vital parts of the undercarriage and engine compartment, so I felt that the probability of damage from below would be low.

Some articles also suggested taking replacement head and tail light bulbs.  I also didn’t follow that advice but, in retrospect, feel that I should have.  All the driving we did was during the day, and the days were long, especially above the Arctic Circle. However, for safety reasons, it was advised to drive at all times with your lights on, which we did.  Thankfully, I didn’t have any problems, but I will take some replacement bulbs along for my next trip.

Another thing to note relative to lights is that both roads can be extremely muddy. In this situation the lights, especially the rear, will cake with mud to the point that the lights are ineffective. We took a couple of rolls of paper towels and a bottle of glass cleaner to clean the lights and windows as needed.  We also carried a three-gallon plastic container of drinking water along, which also came in handy for cleaning off the heavy mud on the lights.  Oh yes, be sure to have a good set of windshield wipers before you make the trip and make certain that your windshield washer fluid tank is full. You will need them.

From a safety perspective, here are a few things to consider. Take some flares or an emergency flashing light in case you need to stop for repairs along the road. I have one of those red safety triangles to place behind the vehicle, but it isn’t enough for these two roads. 

Bring along some gloves and safety glasses to protect you hands and eyes. I suggest a hefty pair of boots that will resist rain. We have high-top sturdy hiking boots for mountain hiking.  During our trip up both roads, we experienced a lot of rain and our hiking boots provided foot protection from the elements as well as potential injury from rugged ground.

Our Xterra came with additional rubber mats for the floor.  We replaced our carpet mats with the rubber ones before our trip, and it helped keep the inside of the vehicle clean. The mats could also be used to lie on in the event that I needed to crawl under the vehicle.

We didn’t take our camper, Oz, up the Dalton but we did the Dempster.  I wouldn’t recommend taking just any trailer up either road, especially past the Arctic Circle.  In fact, we saw several wrecked RV remains along the ditches on the Haul Road. 

Our camper is a small, ultra-light pop-up that is built specifically for off-road, including high clearance and heavy-duty tires.  The Dempster had places to camp all the way to the northern-most town of Inuvik, so we took Oz.  The Haul Road has no camping facilities past Coldfoot.  In addition to the tools I had for the Xterra, I also took a lug wrench for the wheels, as the camper lug size is different from the Xterra.

After this trip, I have added to my maintenance kit tools and parts to repack or replace the camper bearings. I have added two sets of bearings and seals, some cotter pins, bearing grease, and a socket that fits the castle nut on the trailer axel.  With these parts, I can do maintenance on the camper bearings myself, or I will have the parts for one of the few service stops along any of the highways in Western Canada or Alaska.

In our next post, David continues his analysis of driving the Haul Road and Dempster.