Driving the Alcan Dec 28th to early January?

[ASpilot2be]

Uh,this thread is from last year

[i4tas]

Originally Posted by warptman

Another thing to keep in mind is that most or all of the fuel pumps in Canada have no credit car machines on them. For some reason they all have gas runners that go and fill your car/truck up. Its always nice to tip them, I worked at a gas station before here and it sucked.

how often will I need cash to pay for gas in canada? I would prefer to use credit card the entire time

[Tressa]

Most of the time you can use a credit card,I don't recall using cash at all when we drove it in April

[RAMFEB31]

Hey Swanson, are you going to tell us about your trip or should we look for you along the road when the snow thaws? No insults or wishing you bad luck intended.

[drzsteve]

My wife and I are supposed to be in supposed to be in Homer,AK by Jan. 05 2009. She's from Michigan and I'm from S.E. Alabama. We are leaving from Dothan,Al. We're only 14 mi from the Florida state line. I've never been in any cold weather below -02 F. Being from the Gulf coast where it seems to be 90 F almost all the time now, -02 was cold to me. I would like any info that would help me with this trip. I have driven on snow once in 1973. Plenty of slick as glass red clay mud. I don't even know the best route or which border crossing I should use. I would much rather have input from those that have done it than just a map. Any help at all would be great. If I left on Dec. 26 that would give me 11 days. Is that enough time or should I leave a week sooner,which I can. I do have a copy of the latest milepost.

[ruffcutt]

Oh wow, I thought I was in for it. Anyway Warptman put some great links up one page one. As far as border crossing I think I'd use google maps, but I don't know I don't leave S.E. AK much. I know that Banff is beutifull that time of year.

[starlite9]

If you are going "Outside" to bring a car back, you will need to take either a block heater or tank heater with you at the least. Trying to find them at auto shops down south is pretty hard, the directions to install them are on the box and "Most" mechanics can install them (the freeze plug heaters are the easiest to install for someone that normallly doesn't do it). That way if you run into -50 weather and need to spend the night at a motel, you can plug in the car to keep it warm instead of idling all night. Oh, change the oil and use 5W-30 Mobil One Synthetic oil, it will help the car start in the extreme cold.

After about eight at night until about that time in the morning, the Al-Can is going to be a pretty lonely road at sub zero temps, so make sure you take Arctic gear in the event that there is a problem and you have to wait. Carry road flares too as part of your supplies, they are great for starting fires if you need to.