Jp3792

All this talk about -40.. lol i deal with that on a regulary basis in winter here in alberta. Its also been up to -53 a few times. LED lights in the winter are garbage, the white light makes it extremely hard to see black ice. If you do plan on using them and have led lights like ridgids. I would suggest getting some amber covers. Having spare tools, emergency kits. Even hand warmers/feet warmers ( the ones you shake and they last a few hrs is a good idea ). They are right for about 3/4 journey to yellowknife. Is zero cell service. If you can afford it. A cell phone booster is a great addition. Thats what we use in all our work trucks. As far as the cold goes, its hard on things yes. But it doesnt make them brittle. Having your vehicle plugged in, and letting it warm up. Is a good idea. Like others have mentioned is block heaters. As far as us canadians go, we were always taught to carry warm/ spare clothes.

Have a good trip and be safe!

oloolo

Thanks, man. I can see that from your avatar :-P

Yes, I will be well prepared, the organizer will also do safety inspection and they have some general rules to "survive" the brutal cold up north. I heard I need to take a can of Dog food as well : you don't want to touch it when you are ok, but in extreme cases the dog food can save u

For headlights, I also did some research based on the feedback here. Looks like I should go with SMS's halogen upgrade with their relay directly from battery, but also considering the heated TruckLite LED headlight with a yellow film cover, just don't know if the heated cover will pill up the film or not.

after talking with Ray in Rallylights.com, the only concern I have for the SMS halogen kit is the bulb lifetime. Ray told me that I should only expect 1 year life span for the bulb, and since it is not easy to change the bulb in a JK, I would be worried.

Jp3792

You can do leds. But i would get some led driving lights with amber covers. Point them down if needed and use as fogs.

oloolo

Did a lot of research, finally end up with the Sealed7 kit from Retrofit Source, also grabbed their Morimoto LED fog light
I went 50W version of Sealed7, as I will eliminate outside aux lights as much as possible for simplicity and clean look.

I think I have enough light output from this combo. I will see how they perform in dark cold Northwestern territory.

oloolo

Thinking about taking this opportunity to upgrade my JK to a PreRunner with Synergy 4" LA and 37" tires. Air bump and large shocks.

Interesting that not many choice on winter rated tires at this size, the only one I can find is the new BFG TA/KO 2 which bears the snowflake symbol. Some other options at this size include Hankook DynaPro MT studded (maybe add in more sipe), General Grabber A/TS, but that's it.

There are friends say such a PreRunner set up is not good for this trip, your thoughts? I think as long as the tire is good, I should be good.

Liveoutside

I'm a big fan of the BFG/KO. I ran a set of 37's on my F350 up to Cold Foot, out to Central to see the Yukon Quest and all around Fairbanks. I found them to be very pliable down to -45. They also didn't chunk too bad when I had to chain up. I now have a set of 35's on my Jeep in Phoenix. With 120 degree summers, those tires have over 75k miles on them (should've swapped them at 65k tho). They air down nicely for the rocks and behave GREAT on the road and trail. No, I don't get a commission on them, they have just impressed me for several years now. Will be replacing mine with KO2's as soon as I get out of the Middle East. Oh, I also just ordered a full set of six for my work ride here in the desert.

oloolo

So I will not do sleeve or truss but directly upgrade the whole front axle housing to Tera44 housing, claimed to be much stronger than sleeved and trussed OEM housing.

For wheels, just got a set of Method Race Beadlock 105, very well packaged.

oloolo

I set up a blog to post JK modification and expedition experience about my Alcan Winter rally
rallydragon.wordpress.com

For battery, I decided to get a trickle charger / battery extender instead of a battery warmer (blanket or plate). Did some research and found a lot of ppl in fairbanks use trickle chargers and are totally fine.

oloolo

I decided to use TeraFlex LCG PreRunner kit and their Tera44 HD front axle for upgrading. Here is my first impression as comparing to stock Rubicon and RE 2.5 with Fox 2.0 shocks (call it RE.Kit) that I ran before:

1. Ride quality:
a. One road, this kit filters out small roughness on road very well. Both the OEM and RE.Kit response sentitively to even small bumps on road, for example, even the road markers will bring in a lot of vibrations to the cabin. The LCG kit performs extremely well on this aspect. Some forum posts say on road this kit drives like OEM, I would say much better.
b. Off road, this kit is no fear of potholes. Actually haven’t tried any off-roading yet but intentionally did fast passing some potholes in my neighborhood area, like nothing happened, this kit really is built for this kind of job.
c. On curves, body roll is more significant than RE.Kit but still better than OEM. I think the Fox2.0 is tuned stiffer. But I use adjustable Fox shocks with LCG, will see how to make it better
2. LCG kit levels out the front sagging, and opens up a lot of up travel space. It is said that this kit has 8 inches of up travel. From outside and inside, the car rides noticeably higher than on the RE.Kit, not to mention comparing to OEM. In the picture below, on the same tires, and with heavier rear bumper/tire carrier / winch, etc, the LCG kit still increases the height by 1”, so even if TeraFlex says this is a 3” kit, it is actually 3.5—4.0” depending on how heavy your car is.
3. The built quality of this kit is superb, and by looking I feel it is strong. I heard the joint TeraFlex uses have some long term reliability issue, I will see how it goes.
4. I don’t feel much difference from the Fox ATS steering dumper comparing to OEM one, don’t know if it is a worthy upgrade. Also, the rod is exposed, not sure if it can survive my Alcan trip.

arjeeper

Just found this thread. Look forward to hearing/seeing the experience!