Road trip camping with a large family

[ABMax24]

Canadian Tire is likely the easiest place to get oil in Canada, they're an abundant retail store here, if you're okay with 5w-30 most stores have lots of stock of Mobil 1 ESP that is 229.52 rated. Current world events and lubricant shortages notwithstanding, finding Dexos-D 0w-20 for my truck is currently proving difficult.

Carrying a spare wheel bearing, grease and tools to change is not a bad idea, most towns will have standard trailer wheels bearings. Fort Nelson to Whitehorse, and then Whitehorse to Faribanks/Anchorage are pretty bare bones for services though.

If you don't have them, mudflaps are recommended on the tow vehicle to protect the trailer, to this day parts of the Alaska highway are little more than hard surfaced gravel roads. Good brakes are a must, there's a couple really big grades up here. The Steamboat hill between Fort Nelson and Muncho Lake is 8-10% for 7 miles.

Fuel will require a little fore thought, you should never be more than 200km between stations, but some places, like the Muncho Lake lodge, charge nothing short of a ridiculous amount for fuel. Northeastern BC is the worst, Fuel in Alberta and Yukon are both cheaper.

Solar is nice, but are the benefits worth the extra aerodynamic drag? Particularly if the tow vehicles wiring is setup correctly and charges the trailer battery. LFP is a nice upgrade, particularly if it comes with a weight savings.

 

[EbS-P]

Are you going to shorten the longevity of the vehicle towing that trailer around so much?

I just picked up 2 ford Maverick hybrids for my business. They say the payload is 3/4 ton. I’m not sure how long they’d last if I moved that in the bed every day. I suspect the unibody would be flexing an awful lot going over bumps before too long. Just because it says you can doesn’t mean you should!

Just the difference in engine displacement between a vehicle made to tow and your van raises eyebrows. You may want to really shorten oil change intervals while towing.

Frames aren’t the weak point. Expedited delivery driver have accumulated 400k+ on this engine and chassis. They don’t run light. They don’t even need a CDL or a DOT number. Yes will wear faster towing. I’m not exceeding any rated limits. The same engine and transmission on the 1 ton HD chassis is rated to 7500 pounds. So that gives us an idea that the weak point in the frame. Same 2500 chassis but long wheel base has same 5000 tow rating. MB specs 20k oil change interval with 10.5 qts. I’m not comfortable with that. Used oil analysis showed 14k was the limit using mobile 1. 10k with no trailer on Valvoline was perfectly fine. I’d really like to have a couple thousand towing miles and and another UOA before AK but it might not happen. In thinking about an oil change in AK.

The point of the vehicle was to get us to places like AK. So the extra wear is just fine with me because that’s what I bought it for.

 

[EbS-P]

Canadian Tire is likely the easiest place to get oil in Canada, they're an abundant retail store here, if you're okay with 5w-30 most stores have lots of stock of Mobil 1 ESP that is 229.52 rated. Current world events and lubricant shortages notwithstanding, finding Dexos-D 0w-20 for my truck is currently proving difficult.

Carrying a spare wheel bearing, grease and tools to change is not a bad idea, most towns will have standard trailer wheels bearings. Fort Nelson to Whitehorse, and then Whitehorse to Faribanks/Anchorage are pretty bare bones for services though.

If you don't have them, mudflaps are recommended on the tow vehicle to protect the trailer, to this day parts of the Alaska highway are little more than hard surfaced gravel roads. Good brakes are a must, there's a couple really big grades up here. The Steamboat hill between Fort Nelson and Muncho Lake is 8-10% for 7 miles.

Fuel will require a little fore thought, you should never be more than 200km between stations, but some places, like the Muncho Lake lodge, charge nothing short of a ridiculous amount for fuel. Northeastern BC is the worst, Fuel in Alberta and Yukon are both cheaper.

Solar is nice, but are the benefits worth the extra aerodynamic drag? Particularly if the tow vehicles wiring is setup correctly and charges the trailer battery. LFP is a nice upgrade, particularly if it comes with a weight savings.

The mobile one ESP was nearly out of grade and I burned 2qts in 14k. Not my first choice but better than not changing oil. I’m not at all convinced that 20 weight oil should be used. I’m considering switching from 5w-30 to 0w-40. But the 229.52 choices get slim.

For an extra $1500 I can buy a 48 gallon tank. But I’m not sure I need that range. Currently 450 kms is what I’m planning. With 4 gallon reserve. Since the trailer still has the original tires I assume the break shoes have plenty of meat left. But we will find out. I do like that the axles are are oversized for the weight. Today many campers are putting a single 5500 pound axel for a 3700 pound dry trailer. Break controller worked fine. The Tucson anti sway splits the left and right breaks and will automatically break the appropriate side to stop the yaw. That will wear breaks faster. It something I’m willing accept. Van breaks are good engine breaking is hardly adequate without a trailer. It’s going to be a slow rig up and down. I’ve accepted that.

I have no clue what the 12v boondocking consumption will be. I need a good shakedown trip. LFP probably won’t save weight as I’d go for a bigger battery. But I could save some if I knew exactly what I needed.