Summary of the planning for our North American tour. (by Denis)

Well, we did it. We decided to take a year off and travel the circumference of north America. We felt Canada and the US had so much to offer and see, that it required at least a year to do it; and it turned out to be the most unforgettable adventure we ever took.

I hope this write-up helps travellers thinking of undertaking such a trip, to do so. You will never regret it.

This is a rough outline of the planning that went into our trip, the equipment we used, and costs. If you want to see where we've been, Velma spent hours documenting the whole trip on our web site so as to keep friends and relatives apprised of where we were.

Planning

We started planning two to three years beforehand. We tested things out on camping trips in Ontario and adjusted as we went, with a final camp out the summer before we left.

 

We also spent a fair amount of time on the Internet, researching where to go. The Internet is a great tool for this.

After deciding that a lot of interesting places we wanted to see involved "dry camping" or what's called boondocking, we added solar panels, a 1000W generator and water procurement / disposal equipment. Boondocking means camping where there are no services... out in the boondocks with the stars and the coyotes... and if you want to really taste North America, you have to boondock.

 

We also wanted to do some canoeing and fishing, especially in BC, the Yukon and Alaska. So we took a canoe and equipment along!

Our very first decision was which type of RV to go with. Either a motorhome, a fifth wheel trailer or a travel trailer. Wanting to bring a canoe along made the decision easy, as the best combination that would allow us to carry the extra camping gear was a pickup with a lockable toper and the canoe over it. This forced us to use a travel trailer. It also made life easy, as the rear of the truck offered vast storage for items we could not stuff into the trailer, especially the camping gear. The size of the trailer made navigating tight spots simple. On the road though, we found most seasoned travellers were using a 28'+ fifth wheel.

 

The next decision was type of truck and trailer combination. The truck was my decision and the trailer was the wife's. Trust me guys, letting her pick it really makes life easy down the road!

 

After asking and discussing various options with experienced campers on the Google group, "rec.outdoors.rv-travel", I decided that it was prudent to stay within the limits of the trucks towing capacities. As a matter of fact, we aimed at not exceeding 80% of the trucks' combined towing capacity, so that we would not strain the equipment and still travel "as if the trailer was not there".

I worked the numbers backwards for a gas pickup truck and soon discovered that it would require a larger truck, a 3/4 ton with a diesel engine. Reworking the numbers backwards involves subtracting everything except the trailer weight from the truck's GCWR (gross combined weight rating). Using 16,000 lbs for the one I bought, I deducted 20% of the weight for safety margin, then the estimated weight of all equipment, canoe, motors, toper, fuel tanks, tires, propane, batteries, passengers, water, solar panels, everything I could think of. We were then left with a maximum gross trailer weight of about 7,500 lb. This I gave to my wife and she went shopping.

 

As it turns out, before we left, we weighed in at a gross combined weight of 14,580 lbs, with a 7,200 lb GWR trailer. This included two passengers, full fuel and fresh water. We ended up at 91% of capacity and on the road the truck responded very well at these weights. We also found that the majority of long distance travellers pulling trailers do use diesel equipped trucks.

 

After spending a few months on the Internet, reading other travellers' blurbs such as this one, we had planned a general outline of where we wanted to go and what we wanted to see and the "must see attractions". As it turns out, we never scheduled past a day ahead, and this ended being the best way to go for us. We only scheduled once when we booked a park in Tucson for Xmas holidays, fearing they would all be filled. We hated meeting that deadline as it caused us to travel past some sites we wanted to see, so we never made another schedule. The freedom of going where you want and staying where you want and for how long sure makes life easier. And we never got refused because of a full CG the whole trip!

 

Our general plan was to head south to Louisiana and visit with friends, move west through TX along the Mexican border and Winter somewhere in AZ, then head north inland, in early Spring for Homer, AK and back home across Canada in late summer. Everything in between these points was planned as we travelled. For example; we had planned to see the Grand Canyon on the way down, but were soon made to realize that it would be too cold due to elevation and out of the way. Elevation down south means everything in the Winter.

So we moved it to the Spring time on the way up to AK. And that worked out very well as it created for us another great leg of our trip. Starting at Death Valley we travelled east through Lake Mead, saw Hoover Dam, Las Vegas, the Valley of Fire, Route 66, Death Valley, Navajo Country, Canyon de Chelly, the Hopi mesa and unforgettable Monument Valley, to name some. It's a travel corridor no-one should miss. We also made sure to take the Blue Ridge and the Naches-Trace Parkways on our way south. What great drives they turned out to be.

 

The truck...

After discussions with people in the know about diesels, as I knew nothing about them, I decided to buy a used Dodge diesel truck. It was rumoured that the Cummins engine was bullet-proof. After 5 years and 500,000 kms on it, I have to say there's some truth to it. Make sure to verify the owners service records before buying.

I also joined an Internet group called the TDR - Turbo Diesel Register. A place where thousands of Dodge diesel owners discuss and help other Dodge diesel owners. I'm sure Chevy and Ford have their clubs also. It was worth every penny to join. After learning all I could about the Dodge Cummins diesel over the next 2-3 years, I did a few modifications to the truck and engine.

First thing I did was install a PullRight trailer hitch. Read about them, trusted what was reported to me and I will say this; that trailer never swayed an inch throughout the whole trip plus it helped keep the truck straight down the road.

The weak point in the second generation Dodge diesel is the automatic transmission, so I had the transmission rebuilt in Iowa at a specialist by the name of Goerend Bros. It did have over 300,000 kms when new to me, and as it turns out, Dave Goerend has a great warranty and I'm here to prove it. Rebuilding the tranny also did two things. It allowed me to up the power of the stock engine from 180hp to about 215hp with the installation of a TST fuel plate, and it made the extra strain on the tranny a non-issue! With more power to pull, the truck climbed mountains in overdrive, and the fuel mileage never changed one bit!

Other small mods and preventive items were a larger air filter, new radiator, fixed the KDP and engine gauges were added.  I installed an inverter in the cab for the laptop and battery charger. We used Microsoft Street & Trips plus a GPS on the laptop for mapping and it worked well.

I also added a 50 gal fuel tank in the truck bed for a total of 84 gals and a range of over 1,300 miles. That was a very worthwhile addition. Lastly, I installed new Michelins and fresh liquids all around. The importance of good tires cannot be stressed for a long trip.

Then the trailer...

 

My wife had found a beautiful 24' Golden Falcon travel trailer. It had tons of storage and cabinets. But the sleeping quarters turned out to be constrained so we switched to 25' Citation from McPhails of Harriston trailer sales. They made the drive well worth the deal. In order to prepare this unit for our needs, we did the following mods...

Installed aluminium chequered plate to the front to prevent stonechip. Thank God we did this! Built and installed a 6' custom storage box across the rear bumper for fuel and motors. I did not want to travel with the smell of fuel in the back of the truck. Seeing as we had a small outboard for the canoe, a chainsaw and a generator, plus fuel, oil, and parts, I needed separate storage.

Glued rubber matting to all the stone exposed trailer frame to prevent stone chip rusting. Added 2 - 6 volt golf cart batteries and a 3,500lb electric tongue jack... sure saves a ton of cranking. Added 150 watts of solar panels to the roof along with a BlueSky charge controller. Also brought along a 12v TV / VHS combo and a StarChoice dish with 12v receiver! Installed another inverter for laptop use and changed many interior lights to quartz halogen. Oh ya, changed the radio to 12v as the 120v factory one just doesn't cut it in the boonies! We also packed along collapsible containers to haul fresh water and a waste water transfer container. Not to mention tools and spare parts, wires, connectors, grease and whatever else my a-z box could hold.

 

Then Velma went to town and packed her kitchen! Wow, were we packed or what? But we ate great. Lucky for us this trailer has a CCC (cargo carrying capacity) of 1.5 tons! I can't emphasise this important fact enough. If you're planning a long trip, and you haven't picked a unit yet, make this an important criteria, you'll need it and it says something about its strength! That little unit went through a lot of bad roads and never broke once!

 

Because of the costs, all of the mods for the truck and the trailer were done over a few years. But generally speaking, we felt prepared before we left, and as it turns out, we were. The extra fuel tank allowed us to travel to places without the worry of needing or having to fret about fuel at the end of that line. The solar panels allowed us to boondock in the desert for 30 straight days without hardly running the generator, plus we got our Canadian content on TV most nights.

 

Containers allowed us to run for water and dispose of wastes without moving the trailer, though sometimes it was easier to just hook up and go do a dump and come back. The one regret I had was not replacing the tires that came with the trailer. Even new, they are second rate! I wore the rear two tires to the cord by the time we reached Whitehorse. Even got a flat once with a small rounded stone pushed through the threads! Get good heavy plied tires if you're doing a long trip.

 

Costs

We planned a year and spent 11 months 7 days on the road. We travelled over 40,600 kms in total and of that 26,303 kms were from campsite to campsite. That leaves 14,300 kms of side trips! We had estimated the cost at $30,000, and we were expecting to add more. As it turned out, it cost us less! This is the breakdown in US dollars since most of it was spent there.

                                    Estimate                       Actual

Campgrounds               $4,500.00                    $2,371.00

Food                            $5,500.00                    $4,320.00

Attractions                    $3,000.00                    $2,035.00

Miscellaneous               $5,000.00                    $5,600.00

Insurance                      $2,000.00                    $2,000.00

Fuel                              $5,000.00                    $4,870.00

Totals                           $25,000.00 US            $21,196.00 US

 

What we set aside minus what we came back with, leaves an exact cost of $550.00 / week Cdn. We probably averaged closer to $600.00 up in AK and perhaps $500.00 / week in the southwest because we did park for about a total of 2 months in the Winter. We traveled a total of 40,639 kms, St Catharines to Sudbury, the long way around! We poured 6,851 litres of fuel through the engine for an overall 16.73 mpg. On the 1st of October we left, fuel prices went through the roof. They settled back the Fall we ended the trip!

 

We really feel we saved a lot by boondocking and that our trip was that much better because of it. US National Parks offer no hook-ups but have water on the way in and a dump on the way out. Solar panels will extend your stay for many days and most parks deserve it. We also ended up at places you can only dream of because of boondocking. Places like a front row campsite in Monument Valley (see Utah), or an extended stay along the banks of the famous Copper River in AK while wheel fishing for sockeye! The experience of boondocking in the desert at Quartzite, or at Imperial dam, or even Borrego Springs, CA, are places you'll never forget. Another helpful tool is the laptop and Internet. With software like WebCopier you can save whole WEB sites to your laptop and search out parks on the road. With a mapping software, you can download pushpin maps of all the NA locations for Wall Mart, Flying-J, campground clubs, etc. and save time.

 

Thanks to Velma's tireless efforts and great cooking, we did restaurants on average once a week. Again, I feel we saved a lot this way, and we ate well too! Used up a lot of paper plates.

We did not miss too many attractions along the way. From National parks to caves, to helicopter rides over the Grand Canyon. The one card you cannot leave without, is the yearly pass for the US National parks. It's well worth the cost. Another money saver... BLM and boondocking! What a great experience camping out in the desert. And if you like hiking, desert trips are an experience.

 

Most travelers we met, especially in the south, had larger RVs. Most in AK has small ones. We feel that overall, using a smaller trailer paid off. We ended up being able to go places and down roads that a larger unit might shy away from. Because fuel cost was not something we considered, it made going "the extra mile" an easy decision. A lot of folks we met restrained their traveling due to fuel costs/distance and it's unfortunate because it's those little far away places that make traveling such a rewarding adventure. Many also frowned entering some National Parks as there are some with size restrictions and there are some that are quite "tight" manoeuvring around in. But we did meet "eight times" along our tour, another great couple from Montreal doing the same trip with a 28.5' single slide fifth wheel. Judy and Pierre left with bare necessities, and along the way, bought everything they needed. They did say they left ill prepared and that it costing them, but you know what...every time we met them, they were having a great time and we last met them in the Rainy lakes area of Ontario and they were heading home with a successful journey behind them.

 

North America is a great place to travel, and the year we took to see it, I'm afraid, was just the beginning.

 

I hope this little rant helps some of you in your plans. If you have questions, try me at uppercdn@vaxxine.com.

 

Happy trails.

 

Velma and Denis

 

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