oloolo

Just bought Milepost from Amazon. This rally event will have about 43--45 cars, 38 of them are in competition while the rest are regulators and sweepers. For gas treatment, do u mean gas additive or some lubrication as what I understood from your text?

Alcan Rally also has a summer event (alternating between Winter event and Summer event every 2 years), so I guess I can do top down before the Global Warming takes down glaciers.

Liveoutside

Wow, fantastic journey. I assume if you're going to the Arctic Circle, you're taking the haul road from Fairbanks up to Cold Foot. I did that in an F350 at 45 below in February. Not an uncommon temp at all for that time of year. -20 is the critical point where you can't get comfortable and crap starts breaking. Looks like you've made sound decisions on your equipment. I'd recommend some form of liner for your cab. Jeep tops, hard or soft are less than optimal. You can make your own liner with Uhaul blankets, foam, even old quilts, but you need to find a way to secure them. Tape will freeze and lose adhesion. I'd also recommend a Satphone for emergency calls. I rented one to cross the Yukon (different trip) for a reasonable price. You can order it online and they will ship it directly to your door. you can usually place a test call free of charge, then it's about $3/min (2006 prices). There was no cell service in 06 beyond Fox, or between Yellow Knife and Tok, or Tok to Fairbanks.

Any electronics left in the vehicle overnight will freeze (cameras, phones, watches, everything). Smartphones do not function well at all. If your laptop freezes, you must thaw it prior to turning it on or it will crack the screen. Tires at -30 or colder freeze and the flat spot thumps as you drive. Take it real slow until the tires soften up or they will explode. The haul road is much better in winter since it is snowpack. I had a set of KO's, 37.12.50 and rolled about 65 mph most of the way. Recommend a camp stove of some sort. I use the Whisperlite International. Butane won't work below -20. You can get Vapor Barrier boots from eBay. They're clumsy, but a requirement at -20 or colder if you have to do repairs, etc. Keep the CB on 19 and pay attention on the crests of hills. Many truck drivers will warn you before they crest, but its very easy to knock you off the road. I only passed about 20 of them over the 600 mile trip up and back. I just pulled over and stopped so they could pass.

Not sure what your route is through BC, but if you have the option, consider the Cassiar Hwy. I think I just convinced myself to go in the future!

DunnyBunny

Looked into the sealed 7 kit from theretrofitsource.com. It's an HID projector kit and you can choose the bulb temp to get the proper color that will reduce reflection in the snow. Probably the 4300k bulbs as they have a yellow tint to them like the normal headlights.

bob987909

Subscribed. Interesting thread and want to see all the suggestions

Bkeeper

Something to consider is that steel and rubber components become far more brittle at -40. Look at having sleeve and gussets added to your front axel along with upgraded ball joints and stronger tie rod. Also do not forget replace your front diff cover and drive shafts with something more rugged. Best to plan that at some point that you will hit your front end components, be it sliding into a snow bank, ditch or animal. With the extreme cold these parts will be weaker so it would be prudent to strengthen them prior.

Expect your front windshield to crack if the hot air from your heater directly hits it and the temp outside is below 20.

Although DT are good tires their sidewalls are not as strong as you might need in sub zero -40 temps. Maybe consider a look at switching to something with stronger sidewalls that can handle the abuse of tire chains for longer periods of time in sub zero conditions.

Just my .02

oloolo

good point, just remind that if NATO jerry can will perform in the extreme cold weather, or should I change to Rotopax?

Change all these things will surely over my budget, and I will focus on more critical points. For the tire, I may run studs instead of chains, what do u think?

oloolo

here is the route


Thanks for the tip on liner, never thought about it.

Bkeeper

Ture NATO cans are tested down to -40. Rotopax? I am a big fan of Rotopax but would forgo them on something like you are endeavoring on.

Yes the upgrades i put forth are expensive, totally understand that. If I had to limit it down to the most important I would do just the front axel sleeve and gussets. The Dana front axel tubes and inner "C"s on both the D30 and D44 are the same parts, they are the weakest link in the suspension system. Majority of folks would agree they are unacceptably weak for routine moderate to heavy off road use.

One other thing I forgot to include was to look a upgrading your stock rubber brake lines to braided stainless ones. This is a relatively inexpensive upgrade. It would be equal in importance to the front axel items in my book. -40 + additional wind chill coupled with snow/ice build up on the lines while driving could be asking a lot of the factory rubber lines.

I have grown to like studs over chains. If they are legal in AK and Canada go for studs. I ran chains back when I did an arctic circle run in my LR Discover II some years back. If you do go studs, still make sure you have a set of quality chains along too. Where and when you are going they are one of those better to have and not need items.

oloolo

so I asked around many custom shops. Some said the brake line upgrade is not necessary because the semi-truck running on Alcan also use rubber brake lines.
What do u think?

I also look into upgrading the axles, looks like there are 2 options. One is using Trusst, the other is inner sleeve. Again, the options from shops contradict each other. Some said Trusst is stronger while the others say inner sleeve is better.

Besides all that, lighting is another issue. LED is almost out of game until I found TruckLite makes a heated version of their Gen2 LED headlight.

Bkeeper

The brake lines on semi tucks are not the same as the OEM lines on your JKUR. Yes both are DOT approved, but for different classes of vehicles, passenger car vs. commercial truck. Semi truck brake lines are relatively short when compared with those on your JKUR, reasonably well tucked out of the way and commercial grade (thicker and rated for higher pressures).

SS lines are far stronger than the OEM lines on your JKUR and have the benefit of helping maintaining a steady pressure curve under extreme use. Considering how much LONGER and EXPOSED the rubber lines are on the JK, SS lines are "cheap" insurance.

On axels tube up grades, the trusses ARE stronger. I run sleeves and gussets and would not think twice about running my JKU with them on that rally. Either way you go make sure you do the gussets on the outer "C"s.

Lighting is subjective. To many lumens and you end up blinding yourself with "rebound light". I see this happen to folks all the time on night runs. Their 50" LED light bars and such look cool no debate, but put out so much light it washes out the terrain and blinds not only the driver but others in front and around them. On the other hand not enough lumens and well its not enough. Just make sure your main driving lights can get hot enough to melt snow and ice at -40.