4x4 vehicle for interior - suggestions on what to buy?

[ShipOfFools42]

4Seasons, I totally see your point about diesel being tough in the winter. My friend lives somewhere between Fairbanks and Healy about 15 miles off of the Parks highway. He doesn't have any internet or phone or anything. He is sorta "off-the-grid", except for the fact that he has electricity and running water. I believe he just plugs his truck into his house, so he has no problem at all. I don't know what the thing is that he has to put over the grill.

One great thing about diesels, though, is that you can leave them idling FOREVER without burning much gas at all. They just sit there and make that cool noise and are good to go when you need them. My friend who worked on a oilfield down in south Texas drove an F-250 and he left it running all day, everyday when he was at work because that way he could get in it every once in awhile and cool off from the A/C. He wouldn't have done it if it was costing him lots of money. I tend to really like diesel, just for the way it drives and the incredible torque. But again, if you're off-grid, yeah, that could be a major problem with the fuel freezing up.

NomadicBear there tends to prefer Dodge, whereas I tend to prefer Ford, but they're both great makes. They both have advantages and disadvantages, but they will both get the job done when it comes right down to it. You just have to choose based on your personal preference and what you can afford. I prefer manual transmissions in general, and large work trucks are no exception; you have much more control over what the engine is doing. So yeah, whether you need a 3/4 ton or a 1 ton is up to your workload, but I would certainly go with diesel (if you have a place to plug it in) and definitely a manual transmission.

[RayinAK]

The high cost of fuel is making a lot of people sell gas guzzlers, and I imagine that there will be quite a lot more used vehicles for sale by summer. Diesel in North Pole costs $4.37 per gallon, and unleaded regular gasoline $4.27 on its way up. In Fairbanks it's from fifteen to twenty five cents cheaper, however.

Used pickup trucks:
http://alaskaslist.com/1/posts/10_Tr...on/33_Pickups/

[MissingAll4Seasons]

Ah, so the only grid he's off of is the communications grid He's got power, water and roads... makes a HUGE difference! But it still isn't a walk in the park in the winter. We're a mile off the highway (if you can call a gravel road a highway), no power, no water, no phone available, and the only reason we have internet is because we have satellite hooked up at the tent running off the battery bank -- gotta have your priorities

The thing on the grill is an air dam, it blocks the cold air from entering the engine compartment so that the radiator/engine stays warm and combustion can keep occurring. Even gasoline engines have them in the winter up here, because once you get below -40 gas has problems igniting too. And if you don't have an air dam keeping your engine compartment warmer, you can pretty much forget about your cab heater working, you usually only get just enough heat to keep the windshield defrosted.

There have been times when I've crested a hill and the temperature drop coming down the other side into the hollow had frost marching right up my hood and windshield... while my engine was running and with the air dam over the grill! One time, right as I got to the bottom, she started coughing and chugging wanting to cut out on me, so I floored it back up the next hill really quick to get to warmer air. Found out later that it was about -65 in that hollow that day, no wonder she wanted to die. I would have been poop on toast if she'll stalled out down there cuz there's no way I would have gotten started again and I would have had to hike it up the hill... to nowhere, since I was about 40 miles from the nearest village and hadn't seen another vehicle all morning. Yikes!

Maintenance is a little unique here as well... fall you drain the fluids and put the -60 antifreeze and synthetic oil in and maybe a higher temp thermostat, spring you can drain the fluids and put the manufacturer recommendations back in or just top it all off and pray it doesn't hit around 100 too long or often. No simple oil & filter changes at Jiffy Lube Whatever truck you get has to be able to deal with a 150 degree annual temperature swing.... not just the engine but the chassis, transmission/drive train, and all the other major parts. It was so cold this winter, we snapped a shock... didn't hit anything, just a normal little bump and the neck sheared right through. Crazy!

[ShipOfFools42]

Originally Posted by MissingAll4Seasons

Ah, so the only grid he's off of is the communications grid He's got power, water and roads... makes a HUGE difference! But it still isn't a walk in the park in the winter. We're a mile off the highway (if you can call a gravel road a highway), no power, no water, no phone available, and the only reason we have internet is because we have satellite hooked up at the tent running off the battery bank -- gotta have your priorities

Haha, yeah, that's why I only said he's "sorta off-the-grid". I would absolutely have to have road access just because I would not be interested in subsistence living, and village life is such a foreign concept to me that I couldn't imagine doing it right off the bat. But the dirt trail from his place to the highway is pretty gnarly, and there are certain times when making it to the road is a very long, drawn-out, tedious process because there is some off-roading skill required. And also, I wouldn't want to have to haul water. I like the wilderness, but living like that is so far beyond the scope of my experience, and jumping into it with no prior experience would be a bad idea for me. I would rather live in town, where there are pharmacies, stores, and the like. Maybe one day I will want to live in the bush, but certainly not right away.

Originally Posted by MissingAll4Seasons

The thing on the grill is an air dam, it blocks the cold air from entering the engine compartment so that the radiator/engine stays warm and combustion can keep occurring. Even gasoline engines have them in the winter up here, because once you get below -40 gas has problems igniting too. And if you don't have an air dam keeping your engine compartment warmer, you can pretty much forget about your cab heater working, you usually only get just enough heat to keep the windshield defrosted.

There have been times when I've crested a hill and the temperature drop coming down the other side into the hollow had frost marching right up my hood and windshield... while my engine was running and with the air dam over the grill! One time, right as I got to the bottom, she started coughing and chugging wanting to cut out on me, so I floored it back up the next hill really quick to get to warmer air. Found out later that it was about -65 in that hollow that day, no wonder she wanted to die. I would have been poop on toast if she'll stalled out down there cuz there's no way I would have gotten started again and I would have had to hike it up the hill... to nowhere, since I was about 40 miles from the nearest village and hadn't seen another vehicle all morning. Yikes!

Maintenance is a little unique here as well... fall you drain the fluids and put the -60 antifreeze and synthetic oil in and maybe a higher temp thermostat, spring you can drain the fluids and put the manufacturer recommendations back in or just top it all off and pray it doesn't hit around 100 too long or often. No simple oil & filter changes at Jiffy Lube Whatever truck you get has to be able to deal with a 150 degree annual temperature swing.... not just the engine but the chassis, transmission/drive train, and all the other major parts. It was so cold this winter, we snapped a shock... didn't hit anything, just a normal little bump and the neck sheared right through. Crazy!

Most of this is good info that I read awhile back in some thread about how cars deal with the extreme cold, but it is such an awesome story, too! I would be more than a little nervous if the truck started to go out on me in a place like that. I have heard that people get very cold feet while driving long distances in winter in the interior, and I guess the air dam thing explains that to a degree. Then again, the good part is that it isn't always -40˚F and lower every day. Still often enough to have cold feet sometimes, though! Oh well, comes with the territory I suppose.

Here's a great thread about how cars deal with extreme cold. It's not very long, but it's just chock full of good information for people who aren't aware of just how much work it takes to maintain a car in conditions that harsh. Before I read it, I knew nothing of plug-ins or anything like that.

[Frostnip]

Originally Posted by ShipOfFools42

My friend lives somewhere between Fairbanks and Healy about 15 miles off of the Parks highway. He doesn't have any internet or phone or anything. He is sorta "off-the-grid", except for the fact that he has electricity and running water.

I am sort of an Olympic runner, except that I have asthma and a bad leg.

[ShipOfFools42]

Heheh, maybe I should have said, "A tiny bit off-the-grid". You gotta understand, down here in the lower 48, especially in the populated East Coast area, having nothing but electricity and plumbing is considered very off-the-grid. That is, among the general population it is. Most people I know don't know anything of people living in dry cabins with no power in places that get down to -55˚F, with no road access and all that. You tell someone down here that people live that way, I can go ahead and guarantee you that 9 out of 10 of them will say, right off the bat, without thinking, "Why do they do that?" Trying to explain it is futile...

[Dakster]

I love the diesel trucks too... If you want a manual tranny you can't get a 2011 or newer Ford.

Newer diesels will start in -40 without the block heater. Although even the Ford manual says it recommends plugging in when the temp drops below zero. Gotta have around 1kw of 110v available to plug in. I plugged mine into a watt meter and in 75 degree weather it was pulling 800 watts. I imagine in extreme cold it will pull more.

Road access and indoor plumbing doesn't sound much like off grid. Sounds like living in a very remote location. That would be more my style. EXCEPT I want my internet and wouldn't mine being off the electric grid, but still have electricity (wind, hydro, solar, generator)