ALCAN in January Driving a Bus Towing a Vehicle (Anchorage: school, camper)

[biscuitsjam]

I'm leaving Alaska in January. I'll be driving my skoolie (36ft school bus) and bringing my 4wd pickup. I'll tow the pickup when it makes sense and have a co-driver drive the pickup ahead to scout other times. I am willing to take my time to do this as safely as possible.


Precautions:
1. Blizzak tires, chains and a spare for the 4wd pickup and weight in the bed
2. New tires and chains for the skoolie, with two mounted spares
3. Ability to run electric, propane, and diesel heat on the skoolie
4. Generator is modified with a breather-heater kit for operation in cold weather and can run backup electric heat or engine block heater
5. 100 gallon fuel tank on the skoolie (and extra fuel cans)
6. Walkie talkies to communicate between vehicles
7. Garmin in-reach explorer
8. Appropriate clothing and other personal gear for extreme cold
9. Tools and spare fluids/filters/parts


Part of my "go" criteria is the weather. Weather forecasts are notoriously inaccurate more than a few days out in that part of the world, but I have some flexibility.

[riceme]

Seems like you have a pretty good list. Is the school bus diesel? Only asking to make sure that you have extra fuel for both vehicles. Do you have an appropriate jack/s for the school bus? High lift, toe jack, or whatever?

Have you driven the road before?

[Arktikos]

Sounds like you will be very well prepared.
My questions are: Are you sharing this info for suggestions and how far are you driving?
If looking for advice my only thought is to take your time and enjoy.

[AKStafford]

Get a copy of www.TheMilepost.com .
My father-in-law drives for Carlile and did the Anchorage to Tacoma run for a few years, driving back and forth every week. So the drive in the winter in a skoolie is doable. You sound pretty well prepared.

[biscuitsjam]

I drove Haines to Fairbanks a few years back in July, but I haven't driven any of the rest of the road and not in winter.


My only major concern is the bus slipping on ice. My existing tires don't get very good traction - I will replace with new tires and am trying to take other precautions also (scout vehicle and chains).

[6.7traveler]

I'd want the Skoolies brakes gone over and thoroughly checked out and given the okay to make the trip. There's some steep hills where it wouldn't be fun to find out your brakes are sub par.

I don't know anything about your skoolie and possibly it's mechanically sound, but a lot of times these retired buses turned RV's are in fairly old shape mechanical wise by the time they are taken out of fleet service. For this reason, I'd leave the skoolie here until summer and come back up and get it when I could enjoy the drive as the likelihood of a winter roadside breakdown or worse would be too high for my liking. Or I'd sell the bus up here at a hopeful profit.

Of course, you'll most likely be fine and complete the trip successfully, especially if you take it nice and slow, but there is a definite risk factor driving an older bus down the Alaska highway in winter.

Good luck.

[WyoNewk]

It's been a long time since I drove down the AlCan in a late December. I laid my pickup on its side with an OTC camper. Ruined the whole day! I thought I was fine, pulling over for an oncoming truck, but there was nothing under that snow on the right side of the road but more snow. It wouldn't have been too bad if not for a couple big rocks that left their mark.