Moving to Alaska in 2 weeks, need advice!

[Alaskan Mutt]

Be sure to give your Jeep a good lookover to see if anything needs fixing. It will be a lot cheaper in CA than AK.

You have a lot of choices as far as tires go. Most of them bad. All season tires will have you hating life every time you get in a left hand turn lane. All weather tires are a little better, but with only RWD you will still have all sorts of problems with intersections. I have never used a true winter tire such as Blizzaks so I do not know how well they perform. Last, there are studded tires. There are some really crappy studded tires and there are some pretty good studded tires. The better studded tires have 4 or 5 rows of studs on each edge of the tire. The crappy ones only have 1 or 2 rows of studs on each edge.

This is just my opinion but I think we are in for slick roads this winter. Since we have not had much snow for insulation the freezing level of the ground is going to be deep. In past winters when this has happened, everytime the temp got near or above 32 and it snowed or rained, it turned to ice when it hit the road. Perhaps someone that uses Blizzaks can give some insight as to how well they perform vs good studded tires.

Once you get to Anchorage and start looking for a place to settle down be sure to take into consideration things like roads and driveways leading into where you want to stay. Picture them with snow and or ice then decided if it is somewhere you can get in and out of with your vehicle. Many years ago I moved into a really neat place during the summer. Come that winter I found myself having to park 2 blocks away and walking up a slippery street all winter long.

Looks like I will be in town for the next couple of weeks so feel free to DM me with any questions you might have regarding Anchorage.

[dcbrewmeister]

Originally Posted by warptman

How to Drive to Alaska in the Winter - ExploreNorth

The first one - Assess your skills honestly - Most people can't / won't do this... And most people don't realize the "getting" going is usually NOT the issue, it's the STOPPING.

And once your doing 50 - 60 on ice, it's too late to figure it out...

[JaxxsjRoxx]

Thanks for the input Alaskan Mutt. I am definitely gong to make an appointment to have my car checked over. I didn't know that about studded tires! If I end up getting those I'll make sure I'll get the ones with 4 or 5 rows. That sounds like a rough winter having to walk home on 2 blocks of slippery sidewalk. I definitely don't want to end up having to do that so I'll keep in mind the roads around where I'm looking to move. Thank you for the offer I may shoot you a message if I come up with some questions.
I'll keep that in mind for sure DCbrewmeister, I will be making sure to take my time with driving and not speed through the winter roads.

[JasonAndJulie]

Jaxx I sure hope you keep us updated on your trip. I am especially excited to hear about the ferry and how the dog does. I will say a prayer for safe travels for you and the pup.

[LiquidFluoride]

Originally Posted by JaxxsjRoxx

Thanks for the input Alaskan Mutt. I am definitely gong to make an appointment to have my car checked over. I didn't know that about studded tires! If I end up getting those I'll make sure I'll get the ones with 4 or 5 rows. That sounds like a rough winter having to walk home on 2 blocks of slippery sidewalk. I definitely don't want to end up having to do that so I'll keep in mind the roads around where I'm looking to move. Thank you for the offer I may shoot you a message if I come up with some questions.
I'll keep that in mind for sure DCbrewmeister, I will be making sure to take my time with driving and not speed through the winter roads.

I'd say get Blizzaks or another advanced winter-rubber tire.. handling is the same as studds (better when you hit the dry spots or ice on pavement, locking up tires with studs is terrible, you slide far)

I've run studded and studdless (blizzacks and the like) for years now and prefer the studdless quite a bit.