draker3838
Member
Well, here we go for my second post on Expo. I've been lurking for entirely too long, but now that I've got a setup that is thread worthy, Ill document the work to be done on our '86 Alaskan on the back of the '94 Dodge.
First, you might ask how we ended up with the Dodge/Alaskan combo. Here's the brief rundown:
Back in 2008 I picked up a 1990 regular cab Toyota pickup with the 22re and 172,000 miles on it. It ran like a top until the day I sold it which would have been about July of 2014. It had about 230,000 miles when I sold it and I wouldnt have hesitated to drive it to Florida at any point I owned it.
I sold it to a guy from Green River, WY who happened to be driving his Corvette to pick it up. I thought I should have charged more, but I was glad it went to a good home.
While I owned the 1990, I picked up a 2008 Toyota Tundra. It sure was a nice truck and after I hit a deer, I put a nice ARB bumper on the front end. I ended up selling it because I never really drove it due to gas costs at the time and it was a lot nicer truck than I needed. Also, I had a loan on it and every month when I made the payment it made me sick that I didnt own it outright. I am going to do everything in my power not to have a car loan again. I cant find the picture right now, but I will add it when i find it.
Next on the list is the 2002 Dodge 2500 CTD I picked up sometime in mid 2014 after I sold "Little Red." It was a good running truck but the steering on it was horrendous and it was terrifying to drive down the highway. I took it deer hunting a few months after I bought it, hopped out to get a closer look at a sign and when I looked at the truck it had oil running down both sides. It ended up puking up more than 1/2 gallon of oil before I filled it up. Took it to the mechanic a week or so later and he said he had no idea where the oil came or what happened. He mentioned that it may have been lugged too low causing pressure to increase which caused it to release oil through the pressure relief valve which happens to be right by the fan. I'm not a mechanic by any means so I have no idea if it made sense, but he didnt charge me for looking at it. Anyways, after some thought, I sold it to a guy in Cheyenne. The '02:
Right when I was contemplating selling the Dodge, I discovered Expo and discussed the Pan American highway with my girlfriend who said she would love to go. I really wished I hadnt sold the 1990 Toyota, so looked for a Tacoma that was in the right price range but couldnt find anything that was priced right after looking for several months. I ended up finding a 1999 4runner in town that was a west coast vehicle with no rust, perfect body, perfect paint, rear diff lock. The only thing that could have made it better would have been if it had the 5 speed, but I settled. We had planned on using the 4runner for our Pan American trip and had a roof top tent all but purchased when the truck began having low oil pressure. Turns out the spotless truck had cancer in the engine and was sludged up. It was likely just the pickup tube that was clogged, but I wasnt going to risk needing an engine replacement along our trip. I posted it and sold it on Craigslist, losing a pretty good chunk on the vehicle, although not too bad considering what I paid for it. The Jalapeno:
About this time I realized that I had plowed through 4 vehicles in just a couple of years and was getting a little frustrated with vehicles. Anyways, after it was determined that the 4runner would be sold, I decided that we ought to take a step back before jumping into another small SUV. Did we really want to sleep in the RTT for 1.5-2 years? Did we really want to drop $2,000 on a RTT when we could potentially pick up a camper for substantially less and have a lot more room? Did we really want to be cooking outside every meal? We plan on bringing our dog on the trip so did we really want to be living in a SUV with him too? We discussed our options and decided it would be worth looking into a camper. My folks had a 2008 Alaskan on a 2005 Dodge 3500 CTD. It was a sweet set up and I happen to have a picture of it in front of their barn:
After looking at a few threads on Alaskans on Expo and WTW, I ran across Brad's thread on his trip to Alaska with a '94 Dodge and an '86 Alaskan which can be viewed here:
http://www.expeditionportal.com/forum/threads/34534-Alaska-2009
If you havent read his thread, you should take some time to do so. Its a great write up that really gives you a feel for driving through Alaska and he has some great pictures. It will certainly make you start daydreaming.... ask me how I know! Anyways, on the last page of his thread he posted the truck and camper for sale. I ran the idea of taking our trip in this rig by my fiance and she seemed really into it. Since Brad was located just 2 hours away from Casper, WY in Spearfish, SD, we decided to take a drive up there and check it out. We both really liked the truck, camper, as well as our visit with Brad. We purchased it from Brad and plan to take it on our trip down south. We wished we had a picture with Brad, us, and the camper, but he snapped this picture as we were getting coffee on our way out of town:
We hope to catch up with Brad and his wife Sherri before we leave to visit and snap a couple of pictures to add to the thread. We are planning on leaving Fall of 2016, which doesnt leave us much time to get work done on the truck and camper with the busy summer we have planned. We will be getting married in August and plan to sell most of our "stuff" as well as our house, then hit the road. It doesnt sound like much to do but just thinking about it makes me exhausted.
For the truck, we had thought about replacing a couple body panels and repainting as there are a few holes from rust, but decided that it may be more work than we are really willing to put out for the truck. The rust is cosmetic and the frame, undercarriage, and everything else just has a little surface rust so we will probably just leave it. We will do some preventative maintenance on the truck before we go, but it runs very well so we dont expect too much work on it.
For the camper, we plan on adding a fridge, fixing the bottle jack which leaks a little hydraulic oil, updating the fabric on the cushions and curtains, redoing the electrical, and a few other small issues. It would be fine to take right now as it is, but we would like to take care of a few things before we go.
Ill try to snap a few pictures this weekend and as we make progress on preparing for our departure. Thanks for checking out my thread!
Ryan
First, you might ask how we ended up with the Dodge/Alaskan combo. Here's the brief rundown:
Back in 2008 I picked up a 1990 regular cab Toyota pickup with the 22re and 172,000 miles on it. It ran like a top until the day I sold it which would have been about July of 2014. It had about 230,000 miles when I sold it and I wouldnt have hesitated to drive it to Florida at any point I owned it.
I sold it to a guy from Green River, WY who happened to be driving his Corvette to pick it up. I thought I should have charged more, but I was glad it went to a good home.
While I owned the 1990, I picked up a 2008 Toyota Tundra. It sure was a nice truck and after I hit a deer, I put a nice ARB bumper on the front end. I ended up selling it because I never really drove it due to gas costs at the time and it was a lot nicer truck than I needed. Also, I had a loan on it and every month when I made the payment it made me sick that I didnt own it outright. I am going to do everything in my power not to have a car loan again. I cant find the picture right now, but I will add it when i find it.
Next on the list is the 2002 Dodge 2500 CTD I picked up sometime in mid 2014 after I sold "Little Red." It was a good running truck but the steering on it was horrendous and it was terrifying to drive down the highway. I took it deer hunting a few months after I bought it, hopped out to get a closer look at a sign and when I looked at the truck it had oil running down both sides. It ended up puking up more than 1/2 gallon of oil before I filled it up. Took it to the mechanic a week or so later and he said he had no idea where the oil came or what happened. He mentioned that it may have been lugged too low causing pressure to increase which caused it to release oil through the pressure relief valve which happens to be right by the fan. I'm not a mechanic by any means so I have no idea if it made sense, but he didnt charge me for looking at it. Anyways, after some thought, I sold it to a guy in Cheyenne. The '02:
Right when I was contemplating selling the Dodge, I discovered Expo and discussed the Pan American highway with my girlfriend who said she would love to go. I really wished I hadnt sold the 1990 Toyota, so looked for a Tacoma that was in the right price range but couldnt find anything that was priced right after looking for several months. I ended up finding a 1999 4runner in town that was a west coast vehicle with no rust, perfect body, perfect paint, rear diff lock. The only thing that could have made it better would have been if it had the 5 speed, but I settled. We had planned on using the 4runner for our Pan American trip and had a roof top tent all but purchased when the truck began having low oil pressure. Turns out the spotless truck had cancer in the engine and was sludged up. It was likely just the pickup tube that was clogged, but I wasnt going to risk needing an engine replacement along our trip. I posted it and sold it on Craigslist, losing a pretty good chunk on the vehicle, although not too bad considering what I paid for it. The Jalapeno:
About this time I realized that I had plowed through 4 vehicles in just a couple of years and was getting a little frustrated with vehicles. Anyways, after it was determined that the 4runner would be sold, I decided that we ought to take a step back before jumping into another small SUV. Did we really want to sleep in the RTT for 1.5-2 years? Did we really want to drop $2,000 on a RTT when we could potentially pick up a camper for substantially less and have a lot more room? Did we really want to be cooking outside every meal? We plan on bringing our dog on the trip so did we really want to be living in a SUV with him too? We discussed our options and decided it would be worth looking into a camper. My folks had a 2008 Alaskan on a 2005 Dodge 3500 CTD. It was a sweet set up and I happen to have a picture of it in front of their barn:
After looking at a few threads on Alaskans on Expo and WTW, I ran across Brad's thread on his trip to Alaska with a '94 Dodge and an '86 Alaskan which can be viewed here:
http://www.expeditionportal.com/forum/threads/34534-Alaska-2009
If you havent read his thread, you should take some time to do so. Its a great write up that really gives you a feel for driving through Alaska and he has some great pictures. It will certainly make you start daydreaming.... ask me how I know! Anyways, on the last page of his thread he posted the truck and camper for sale. I ran the idea of taking our trip in this rig by my fiance and she seemed really into it. Since Brad was located just 2 hours away from Casper, WY in Spearfish, SD, we decided to take a drive up there and check it out. We both really liked the truck, camper, as well as our visit with Brad. We purchased it from Brad and plan to take it on our trip down south. We wished we had a picture with Brad, us, and the camper, but he snapped this picture as we were getting coffee on our way out of town:
We hope to catch up with Brad and his wife Sherri before we leave to visit and snap a couple of pictures to add to the thread. We are planning on leaving Fall of 2016, which doesnt leave us much time to get work done on the truck and camper with the busy summer we have planned. We will be getting married in August and plan to sell most of our "stuff" as well as our house, then hit the road. It doesnt sound like much to do but just thinking about it makes me exhausted.
For the truck, we had thought about replacing a couple body panels and repainting as there are a few holes from rust, but decided that it may be more work than we are really willing to put out for the truck. The rust is cosmetic and the frame, undercarriage, and everything else just has a little surface rust so we will probably just leave it. We will do some preventative maintenance on the truck before we go, but it runs very well so we dont expect too much work on it.
For the camper, we plan on adding a fridge, fixing the bottle jack which leaks a little hydraulic oil, updating the fabric on the cushions and curtains, redoing the electrical, and a few other small issues. It would be fine to take right now as it is, but we would like to take care of a few things before we go.
Ill try to snap a few pictures this weekend and as we make progress on preparing for our departure. Thanks for checking out my thread!
Ryan
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