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Yup, I think quite a few of us are living vicariously through you right now. I was born there in 58 when Alaska was still a territory (while my dad was in the army) but we left when I was 2. Finally went back for a 1 week cruise, 1 week land tour in 2016 and it was the trip of a lifetime.
Sorry I don't have any advice for the RV trip, but I'll be watching this thread and future ones from you to get advice and hopefully see some of your pictures. One highlight I would strongly recommend is taking a flightseeing tour of Denali out of Talkeetna. You can actually do this as a day trip out of Anchorage, or part of a stop in Talkeetna which is a cool little town in it's own right. Info here: https://www.flyk2.com/
It's hard to describe the experience of seeing Denali from a small plane, but if I had to choose one word I would say humbling.
I'm still surprised every time I hear about mosquitoes being bad that far north! We have them pretty heavy in Florida so I wonder if I'll notice them as much since I'm used to them.
I love your positive attitude about the mosquitoes....mosquitoes (and black flies) up north only get bigger and more aggressive! I recommend strong bug spray or a bug shirt/hat
Yup, I think quite a few of us are living vicariously through you right now. I was born there in 58 when Alaska was still a territory (while my dad was in the army) but we left when I was 2. Finally went back for a 1 week cruise, 1 week land tour in 2016 and it was the trip of a lifetime.
Sorry I don't have any advice for the RV trip, but I'll be watching this thread and future ones from you to get advice and hopefully see some of your pictures. One highlight I would strongly recommend is taking a flightseeing tour of Denali out of Talkeetna. You can actually do this as a day trip out of Anchorage, or part of a stop in Talkeetna which is a cool little town in it's own right. Info here: https://www.flyk2.com/
It's hard to describe the experience of seeing Denali from a small plane, but if I had to choose one word I would say humbling.
My last tour in the Navy, before I retired, was flying C-130's. Our skipper "insisted" the pilots get "qualified" to fly in and out of various places in Alaska so he had 6 of us go on a "training" trip. We flew over many spectacular glaciers and ice fields that one would never see from the ground or at least get the same perspective. And I agree with your assessment that some places the vast expanse of rugged terrain and mountains is simply jaw dropping. We did get some good training too!
I'll try to remember to post here some of the equipment additions or mods I make before we go and then a post-trip summary to see how it all worked out. Now, where did I put that round-to-it?
I love your positive attitude about the mosquitoes....mosquitoes (and black flies) up north only get bigger and more aggressive! I recommend strong bug spray or a bug shirt/hat
Been about 45 years since I drove home from Fairbanks with a friends family. The Alaskan highway was stone. This issue was the logging trucks flying down the road and you literally had to stop until the dust cleared. Also an occasional bear in the road. I would hope that the first issue is not an issue anymore.
Do you have a picture showing where the brackets mount underneath? I've downloaded the installation manual but it just says to use the Ford specific mounting points.
Have you noticed how much, if any, the Rockstar flap affects your fuel mileage?
Since they look pretty easy to install and remove, would it be worth the effort to remove them when driving through long stretches of US roads? Like going from Florida up to Canada?
Any idea how heavy they are? The wife can't lift anything so I would have to move them around myself.
This might just be personal preference but I see you have the diamond plate version. Is there any benefit to that version compared to their other aluminum version?
Thank you very much!
As far as fuel mileage difference they make, I really couldn’t tell you. I have a work van I drive daily. I drive my truck to tow our 5th wheel, so that screws up my mileage. I’ll drive my truck a couple of other times, and then tow the 5th wheel. My mpg is all over the place. I usually take mine off in between camping trips. It’s not too heavy, just awkward to do by yourself. I usually lay on the ground and use my foot to kind of guide/hold up the opposite end. I honestly don’t remember if there was an aluminum version available when I bought mine or even paid attention.
My folk made their first AlCan highway trip ~38+ years ago, in a 32' Class A - it got beat to death on the washboard gravel. The road has been improved greatly since then!
Their next trip was a 26' Class C+ 'Space Van' (bigger brother of the more popular TransVan) towing a 31' Airstream. The plan was to leave the Airstream up there in outdoor storage (round roof so snow would slide off), and the Space Van was placed in indoor storage. They used the Space Van to move the Airstream between campgrounds every two weeks (longest stay was limited to two weeks in every National Forest campground!) They 'commuted' from their winter digs in AZ to Alaska the next several summers in a little '81 Datsun/Nissan Diesel pickup, and rode the ferry from Vancouver. Less hassles. Anyway, Dad would follow the closing of the Rocky Mountain ski resorts, moving north from one resort to another as the weather warmed in the spring. Then over to Vancouver to take the ferry. Mom was not a skier, so she flew from Phoenix to Vancouver when Dad got there...
All of my siblings visited the folks in Alaska at least once, but I was never able to make it up there. Beautiful country though! Alaska being one of five states I have not been to. CT, RI, MA and KS being the others... Our family tent-camped in all of the others in '65-73 Tented in the Canadian Rockies as well... $1/night camp fees in National Forest campgrounds with the Golden Eagle pass... Those were the days!!!!
Little late here, but I forgot that S&B also makes some flaps. They come in 2, 2.5 & 3” receiver sizes.
I'll have to check those out. Thanks
Edit - Oddly enough the S&B flaps are not listed on the S&B website, so thanks for the link to Thoroughbred Diesel. While the S&B flaps are competitively priced, what I'm finding with all hitch mounted rock guards is they leave a HUGE area in the center of the truck with zero protection. Once a rock is thrown from any of the four tires or just rearranged by the tires going over them, it is a loose cannon back there and can still easily be deflected just a bit towards the centerline and miss the rock guard entirely. Two other things I'm seeing is some of the hitch mounted guards tend to interfere with the rear sensors and some have more up and down play at the outer ends than I'm comfortable with. So far the RockStar is leading in my comparison.
Last edited by Lariat Driver; Nov 25, 2025 at 03:09 PM.
When we did Alaska I added rubber extensions to my mud flats, I know mine is a DRW but you can buy the same style for a SRW. I set them up so when our 5th wheel is on the truck they are just short of hitting the ground. They stopped all the rocks from hitting the area behind the tires and the trailer.
When we did the trip whenever we got to a area where there was gravel we just slowed down and enjoyed the trip and never chipped the paint or had any window damage. Be aware that about half way up the paved roads are chip seal not normal black top and the gravel they use is ground up rocks that are sharp and you will get heavy tire wear so be sure to have good rubber on the truck and trailer. We never had any tire issues on the whole 10K mile trip.
We crossed at Shelby Montana and crossed back in Washington State. We did Banff and Jasper NP in Canada on the way up and came back down the western route to through BC that was a great and wouldn't miss it. We dry camped most of the trip (4.5 months) and learned that whenever we had a chance to fill water tank and dump the holding tanks we did.
When you cross into Canada be sure you are full of fuel and well stocked with food because both are very expensive in Canada. We used Fairbanks as a major restocking stop and when we crossed into Washington we were out of food and fuel (and beer) so a Fred Meyers was out first stop . The worst of the flying vampires was in the Yukon .
Unless you can sleep in the daylight bring something to blackout your windows and plan your driving hours by time not daylight.
It was a great trip and worth the money spent. Right now you will have a good money exchange rate so it's a good time to go.
After that trip we we finished camping in 49 States, 6 Providences and Mexico twice for a month at a time. Now we are just spending 5 months at our home base and 5 months in Yuma with a month of travel in-between the two.
Denny
I have those same mud flaps on my rig. I would be interested in seeing how you attached the extensions.
That's a great idea. Do you have a link or source where you got the DRW version?
Our last trip to California was a bit over 10K and during that time I picked up a screw two different times in the trailer tires. The second one I caught before it punctured and was able to remove it from the tread with no damage. The moral of that story is I cannot tell when I'm going to have a flat! The Ford trailer TPMS system is great though, I'm glad to have it for the pressure and temperature. The tires on the TT are only 6 months old now and I'm putting new tires on the truck this winter or spring before we leave.
Wow, that's impressive. I don't think we will be that remote but I'm sure going to prepare like it will be.
I'm still surprised every time I hear about mosquitoes being bad that far north! We have them pretty heavy in Florida so I wonder if I'll notice them as much since I'm used to them.
The wife made blackout curtains for the bedroom a couple of years ago and they've been working really well even when there is a streetlight hanging over the trailer! Plus we have sunshield visors to keep the heat out because we went across the desert last summer heading to a wedding in California (mid August is not the best time of year to cross Texas and New Mexico). Those also help with the light.
Did you have any issues getting diesel or DEF?
Thank you for your time and tips.
Originally Posted by scottz99
I have those same mud flaps on my rig. I would be interested in seeing how you attached the extensions.
The SS piece on ours is bolted on so I just sandwich the extensions between the SS and flap. The rubber I found was a 4x4 mate I found at Lowes
Denny
The countdown is getting shorter.... Only 42 days left.
I've just about gotten the truck and trailer ready with a few little things left to do.
I replaced both batteries in the truck with Wally AGM's group 65. I also adjusted FORScan so it knows the FLA batteries are gone and to use the AGM charge profile. This was just preemptive since the FLA batteries were the original Motorcraft and had been outgassing for awhile. I didn't want to take 4+ year old batteries on that long of a trip.
I replaced the truck tires with Michelin Defender LTX MS2 and got the alignment done at the local Ford dealer. What a chore the alignment turned into. SEVEN hours I was at the dealer just for the alignment and that was with an appointment. Apparently, the Super Duty is a bit unusual to align and if the tech isn't familiar with how to do it correctly, it can go sideways in a hurry. The way the story was told to me, the tech wasn't very experienced, I always love it when I get to be the training experiment, he ran into an issue getting the steering wheel straight after he got the tires aligned, so he asked a different inexperienced tech for help. Between the two of them they about had the steering wheel adjusted into the back seat. After a couple more attempts to get it fixed and three more test drives to confirm it was stilled screwed up, they got the shop foreman involved. Two hours after that, and four more test drives, with me riding along on two and me actually driving one, it seemed to be fine. I never did get the before and after printout that I asked for so I could see what they started with and where they said was good enough. I'm still contemplating taking it to an independent shop that has a great reputation for SD alignments just to be sure they didn't get enough settings to offset each other to make it seem fine but at the expense of wearing my new tires out in a week.
I just installed the RockStar tow flap today with the extra heat shield. In hind-sight, I'm not sure I really need the heat shield but I'll wait until we've made the trip to decide if it's a needed item or not. When I was shopping the rock guards, I thought the portion of the tow flap being protected was not metal so the heat shield would be useful for the diesel exhaust. Turns out the portion where the heat shield mounts is a thicker aluminum than the heat shield itself. So not really protecting much unless I would spend a lot of time idling and doing static regens.
I upgraded the trailer battery system so it would be much more capable of sustaining multiple days of boondocking. I took out the two group 24 FLA batteries and put in three SOK 100AH lithium with BMS and heaters. The bonus to that is I even shaved 25 pounds off the tongue weight! Those lithium batteries are pretty nice. The trailer is basically in storage at this point so no battery usage but the lithium batteries are still at 13.3V (just checked this morning) from the initial charge I put on them when I installed them in February. I reset the solar controller so it knows LifePo4 is installed and added a separate solar shutoff switch so the solar panel isn't constantly trickle charging the battery bank while it's in storage.
I also swapped out the WFCO converter to one that is LifePo4 capable and bought a Dual Fuel Champion 4500W inverter generator for an extra charging source if my solar doesn't keep up. I'm not counting on every day being sunny in Alaska or the Yukon Territory. Even if the days are sunny, the sun angle isn't as favorable that far north for maximum charging efficiency. With my two 30 lb. propane bottles, I can run the generator almost 20 hours on one bottle (tested while breaking in the generator) and still have the second bottle for cooking, hot water and heat if needed. I won't need to carry a 5 gallon container of gasoline.
I also beefed up the fresh water tank supports so I can comfortably carry more fresh water without worrying about the notorious Flagstaff water tank support failure. Now I'll just be limited by the trailer's GVWR to determine how much water can go with us.
I did replace the trailer windshield because it already had a rock strike that caused it to crack from side-to-side. Next week I'm getting the new windshield covered with a 7 mil clear film to give it an extra layer of protection in case something gets past the Rock Star tow flap.
And while the truck was getting new tires, I had the tire shop install a new Goodyear Endurance tire on the trailer spare tire rim to get rid of the China made Castle Rock spare that came from the factory and make it 100% Goodyear Endurance on the trailer.
I'll take lots of pictures of these things in action (except hopefully not using the spare tires!) as we go. And I'll update this if something else gets done before we leave.
Last edited by Lariat Driver; Apr 5, 2026 at 03:45 PM.
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. The worst of the flying vampires was in the Yukon 
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