First longish trip in the 78 Itasca

[Alaskan Itasca]

Last Wednesday I finally got all the pieces together for my first longish trip in the Itasca. I got the inverter wired into the bench storage which is over the battery bank under the rig. I installed a 1000 watt inverter mainly to power the TV/DVD while underway and to power the household fridge that someone swapped in likely after the propane fridge likely failed. I can run the fridge off the batteries for about three days. So going overnight with the fridge and the furnace and some TV is no problem.

I then had to fix the awning since one of the mounts had been torn out of the side of the rv. I was doing this Wednesday morning before I left. It took longer to fix than I though it would. I went went with diamond plate so it would match the other repairs done over the years on the outside...



Yea it's fixed sort of.....I need to get some different bolts since the original ones don't quite get tight enough after the repair. I also figured out how the arms on the awning work later after I saw some other awnings setup....I think mine is missing a pin to go through the holes in the main arms to keep the small arm in place.



Now I can load the car on the trailer and leave....and as usual I forgot something, like all my good shoes, all I had for the week was the crappy slip on shoes I was using while I was fixing things. I also discovered that you can't buy any shoes in Tok, Alaska.....My feet were hurting by the time I got home...

I was heading to Tanacross Alaska, 334 miles one way through the mountains with up to 11% grades, potholes and frost heaves that caan break things if you don't see them in time and most of the time cell phones don't work at all.




All this was to race cars on a WWII runway that was last maintained in WWII....The runway was one of the many built to ferry fighters from the USA to Russia in WWII, The BLM now owns it, and it is used during fire season as a tanker base to fight forest fires in that part of the state...anyway I finally left town (I did this trip solo no wife or kids)

So I'm towing a 1998 BMW M3 behind the Itasca on this trip, just to add to the fun. I made it to my first night stop which was just about 1/2 way there at the Tolsona Wilderness RV park, which I really like, The cell phone only works sometimes there, and they have power and water for hookups with a dump station on  site.

I set up "camp" which took about 5 mins at 9:00 pm or so and took a few pictures.





The first leg was fairly uneventful, any loose trim from the ceiling remodel was rattled loose and was laying on the floor when I stopped. This route is really pretty to drive the valley below, the mountains, glaciers, 35 mph turns 9-11% grades lots of fun.

The next morning (ok almost afternoon) I roll out at 11:30, It was raining...The windshield wipers don't work in this rig yet, Rain-x actually works fairly well but I hate not having working wipers.

The road along the way....


This section of the road sucks, it's full of cracks, and frost heaves, some so severe the seat belt actually had to keep me in my seat, I could about 45 or less in some of these nasty spots....

So I made it to the airport, get the car unloaded and reassembled and set up camp thursday and then get to enjoy the rest of Thursday and Friday before the racing starts on Saturday. It rained Saturday, and Sunday. I discovered my roof has lots of cool leaks in it still, but the one spot up in the front corner I actually fixed it stayed dry up there, I got to try out the dinette for sleeping since the bedroom was covered in buckets, at least I was prepared for the leaky roof potential, and didn't end up with a wet bed. I picked up Kool-seal today and will tackle that project on Saturday it's supposed to be 63....

I don't have a real race car (wheel to wheel type) so they have time trials for the non race cars in between the real races, I ended up in 6th place of the 25 or so time trail cars, which for me is good considering the 5 cars in front of me are all modified in some way and mine is stock.....

A few race photos:

my car:






My camp, I was just about ready to pull out and start heading the 334 miles back home,



I overnighted again at the same campground I stayed at on the way down. On the second day of my return trip a frost heave snuck up on me and I nailed it at 50 mph I hit it so hard the rv bottomed out, the trailer bottomed out and popped off the ball since the rv had more travel than the trailer did, I was very lucky, the safety chains did their job, the trailer stayed behind me and I was going straight down hill. I felt the car hit the back of the RV so I coasted to a stop on an uphill section so the chains were tight and the car was mostly lined up and even managed to almost get all the way on the shoulder. So then the fun began checking for damage to the car, rig, and trailer and trailer hitch. Fortunately none were damaged. Then I spent about 15 mins trying to line the rv up on the trailer so I could reattach it. Unloading the car wasn't really a good option and I could pick up the tongue without much trouble, there was no moving the trailer since I set the E brake on the car so it wouldn't roll off on it's own and left to right movement was minimal. I finally got it lined up and got the trailer back on the ball, checked to make sure it wasn't broken, reattached the chains and was super paranoid for about 50 miles.....

There was minimal damage to the car since I have to remove the plastic bumper to load it on the trailer, I have a nice scratch on the metal bumper that matches the scratch on the hitch receiver. It could have turned out much worse.....Alaska is a fun place to drive and you always have to be on your tows for those heaves, they can break an RV without too much trouble if they sneak up on you.




I made it home fine and hopefully next time I can convince my wife she wants to come too. I always take my son (he's 5 now) to the fall races, but with no wife there means I get to watch the races instead of participate.

[ClydesdaleKevin]

Sounds like you had a great adventure! 

By the way, if you don't want to lose your awning in a big wind, the arms that come from the top need to be slid all the way up the main arms so that they lock near the roller tube axles.  I see you have them set half way, which is bad juju.  They need to be slid ALL the way to the top, where they should lock in with tabs or clips to the knuckle where the main awning roller tube attaches.  There is a whole bunch of info on awnings in the search area, and maybe even owners manuals.  If you aren't sure, check out the awning section on Camping World and look at the pictures...you'll see how the upper arms are supposed to lock in place all the way to the top.

Glad you didn't have any real damage when the car came loose!  Gotta love safety chains!

Kev

[gadgetman]

Looks like you had a nice trip !!! I am curious as to how many amps your 110 fridge is rated at. I have one in mine also and was thinking about adding a 12v compressor system to it rather than a inverter because I figured the inverter would run the batteries down in no time. Mine is rated at 2.1 amps 110v, which would be about 230w so at 12v that would be about 23 amp draw. I have solar and a lot of it so maybe the inverter is a better option. For sure its an easier one than adding the 12v compressor/chill plat system to this fridge. The solar I have put out almost 30 amps and I will soon add another panel to bring it up to 36 amps or so. I only have 2 batteries for the coach but they are a total of 320 ah but not real deep cycle batteries as they wont fit in my battery box. I can add another battery bank but that a lot of trouble as the only place they would fit now would be on my rear bumper carrier which was made for a motor cycle which I don't use and could convert it over.

Thanks for any info you could offer ! 
David

[Alaskan Itasca]

On the awning i had figured out how it goes once i saw other awnings set up. Its missing some pins i think to lock it in the top.

On the fridge mine pulls 200 watts when it operates, I don't know how many amps. This trip is the longest I really ever go without hookups. I can run the fridge and the heat all night with no problems on the 2 six volts in the coach. My only problem is my converter is ancient and towarrs the end of the trip I was having trouble putting enough back in the batteries during the day. I don't have solar, and I'm not sure how well it would work up here anyway. My plan is to replace the converter with a modern one that charges faster. I mainly plan to usethe inverter to run the frige while driving, and to keep it going overnight sice we tend to camp on a highwwy pullout the first night on the way to the campground.

[DaveVA78Chieftain]

Your awning looks simular to the old one on my Chieftain.  Even the color and stripping.  The upper arm that goes from the roof to the lower arm is called a rafter.  Mine connects out at the "tube" end (rather than mid way up lower support arm) in order to ensure their is enough tension to keep the roller unfurlled.  There are "pin connector" holes out there.  This also allows the awning to be set up in a "patio" mode where the lower arms are disconnected from the sidewall at the bottom (your diamond repair plate) then moved out into a verticle position like the support legs are in a home style patio.   The "pins" are standard items avaialble at a RV supply house.

Dave

[Alaskan Itasca]

I think I have fixed the roof. I so far have 3 coats of kool seal on it and yesterday we had a raging downpour all day forAnchorage (1/10 of an inch) and it did not leak inside.
Now I can try to fix the windshield wipers before our first famiy trip on July 3rd.