Preparing for Season Four: Alaska Bound 2022
Our time in between the seasons, during the winter months, was spent preparing for Season Four: Alaska Bound. Many of the items we worked on were special considerations for the environment up north. However, all of them could be useful in the lower 48 states as well.
First we have a few announcements to make. Instead of referring to ourselves as Right Buddy and Left Buddy in our blog posts and YouTube videos, we are going to be using our real first names, Ann and Keith. We feel this will lead to less confusion and seem a little more personable. During last season, we struggled to stay on top of all of our social media accounts. This will change. We shut down our Twitter account. Now that Keith is fully retired, he is now in charge of making timely posts to Instagram and Facebook. Those posts will be closer to “real time” compared to our blog posts and videos which can lag behind by several months. We hope you enjoy the changes!
OK, let’s get back to our preparation items. They are listed in no particular order.
Item One: Performed Espar maintenance. Heatso, the manufacturer of the Espar heater (unpaid link) recommended performing maintenance on the the previous model of the heater every 1000 hours of usage. We found out later that our model only needs maintenance every 5000 hours of usage. We’ve used the heater for two seasons, but probably had less than 1000 hours of usage. We purchased the Espar / Eberspacher Airtronic D4L D4R service kit (unpaid link) anyway. The kit contains the Heat Exchanger Gasket, the Glow Pin Screen, the Integrated Fuel Filter, and the Burner Gasket. To make it easier to see what we were doing, we removed the fuel pump and Espar heater from the van to perform the maintenance. Now that we’ve done it once, we probably could have done it leaving the heater and fuel pump in place. The fuel filter was pretty easy to replace. The Glow Pin Screen sounded easy, but we struggled a little bit taking things apart. We didn’t want to break anything, so we didn’t want to pull too hard. The condition of the parts we replaced looked like they were still in good condition, so we probably did not need to replace them. We were originally going to replace the two gaskets as well, but decided against it since everything looked like it was still in great condition.
Item Two: Replaced starter battery. The battery was still fine, but it was getting old. We’d rather replace it now than have it fail in Alaska. The starter battery on a Ford Transit is in a rather unusual place, under the driver seat. Its location makes it a little awkward to get to, but it is not too difficult to replace.
Item Three: Added a microwave. The microwave we purchased is a 700W, 0.7 cubic foot countertop model from Sharp (paid link). This is for a little more convenience. We plan on using it to reheat leftovers, make popcorn and nachos. The butane stove can be used to reheat leftovers and pop popcorn, but it is easier with a microwave and dirties less dishes. Ann loves to melt cheese on top of tortilla chips in the microwave at home and struggled with finding a way to do that on the road without a microwave. In the past, we normally eat cold lunches to avoid getting out the stove (paid link) or Instant Pot (paid link) in the middle of the day. Now, it will be easy to prepare a hot lunch when the desire arises. Keith mounted the microwave on top of the shelf where we put the printer/scanner last season (hopefully we don’t need one during Season Four). He secured it with a buckled strap, bolting it into the t-track of the shelf. Underneath the microwave is a rubber mat with holes that the feet of the microwave fit down into. This keeps the microwave from sliding. He also built a wooden tray that attaches to the top of the microwave with magnets so we can utilize that space.
In order to use the microwave we purchased new microwaveable plates (paid link) and bowls (paid link) that are made from wheat straw. They are lightweight and won’t easily break like ceramic. The plates and bowls we used in the past were plastic and old. We were not sure if they were microwaveable or not.
In order to heat up drinks in the microwave, we bought a couple of microwaveable coffee mugs (paid link) that are short enough to fit in the small microwave.
For popping corn, we bought a Salbree microwave popcorn popper. We’ve tested it out at home and love it! The popcorn is cooked with no oil or anything else. The popper is cleaned by just wiping out the “dust” from the popcorn. We’ve heard that oils and seasonings can ruin the popper, so we transfer the popped corn over to another bowl before adding butter and seasonings. Ann tries to keep down her sodium intake for health reasons, so she loves that she can add unsalted butter and sprinkle a little sugar on top for more flavor to enjoy her popcorn with no salt.
Item Four: Made new fairing. During Season Three, we developed two cracks in our Colorado Fairing. Keith used the old fairing to trace out a new one on a piece of quarter inch thick ABS plastic. Our original fairing was a little thinner than that. The new fairing is just plain black, so it doesn’t look as nice as the Colorado Fairing with the nice design of the mountains on it. After we replaced the fairing, we learned that Colorado Fairing would have replaced our fairing for free and they are now using the thicker ABS plastic as well.
Item Five: Improved our leveling blocks. We added stuff sacks to store our Beech Lane levelers (paid link) to prevent tracking dirt and moisture into the van when we put them away. In addition, we carry some 2x6’s in case we need some extra leveling. This season we added a few more 2x6’s to our collection, just in case.
Item Six: Added metric wrenches to our tools that we travel with. If we need to perform any repairs on the Ford Transit, metric tools are needed. Even if we cannot figure out how to fix an issue, someone else stopping to help us might, but may not have the necessary tools. So now we have them.
Item Seven: Redid the DC wiring for the fridge. During Season Three, we converted the fridge (unpaid link) from AC to DC power. However, the wire we bought was too short and we ended up splicing in another wire to complete the conversion. When we got back home, we reran the wiring, without a splice, and added a plug near the fridge. The plug makes it easier to remove the fridge from the van during the off-season.
Item Eight: Added a lip to the back of the kitchen pod. Last year, we managed to drop our cheese slicer behind the kitchen pod. We were unable to retrieve it without removing the kitchen pod. That seemed like too much work while we were traveling, so we bought another cheese slicer instead. To try to avoid that scenario in the future, Keith attached a strip of aluminum on the rear edge of the kitchen counter to keep items from sliding off the back edge.
Item Nine: Replaced the van floor. The flooring that we installed at the beginning of Season Two did not hold up well. We intended to replace it for Season Three, but the flooring we purchased was too thick and would not work with our setup. This time we found something that would work. The foam floor tiles (paid link) have a fake wood flooring design on it. Hopefully they will last longer than the previous flooring.
Item Ten: Improved the design of the rear bug screen. We customized a screen across the rear door opening of our van before Season Three (Preparing Our Camper Van for Season Three 2021). However, the center top corners need to be folded down out of the way of the latches when the rear doors are closed. When the corners were folded down, the center magnets would not hold the screen together. To improve on the original design, we added a velcro tab in the center of the screen near the top to keep the two halves of the screen together. Hopefully, this will keep the screen in place for the most part and only require folding down the corners when closing the doors and folding them back up when we want the back doors open.
Item Eleven: Patch the screens. The rear door and side door screens did not hold up as well as we hoped. Over the course of Season Three, the screens developed small holes, rips and tears. Keith bought a screen repair kit and patched all the holes. Hopefully they will last us another season.
Item Twelve: Replace the spare seat. For a couple of seasons, we have been using a Brawntide Wide Stadium seat (paid link) mounted on a plywood bench as our second seat in the “living area” (the first being the Ford passenger seat). It was working fine, but, after two seasons, the cushioning was compressing and it was not as comfortable as it first was. We decided to try something different for Season Four. Sport-a-Seat is popular in the sailing community, so we ordered one. It does not have a way to attach it to the plywood bench, but we’re thinking that is a plus. It will be easier to move out of the way when we want to reach something in the cargo area or move the seat to use outside. It seems comfortable so far. We’ll let you know if we still like it by the end of the season.
Item Thirteen: Replaced parts on the fresh water containers. The bulk head adapter used to hook it up to the water pump was getting hard to use. Pulling the hose in and out of the adapter was becoming difficult. So we replaced it.
Item Fourteen: Added more DC ports. Many times we were plugging USB devices into AC circuits, such as the power strip we have on the front of the kitchen pod and the power strip inside the electrical cabinet. Since we no longer need to have the inverter on all the time because the fridge is now running on DC, having more DC ports (paid link) available will allow us to keep the inverter off for longer periods of time and be a more efficient use of our batteries.
Item Fifteen: Installed a keypad for keyless entry into the van. Our Red Tail Lodge (our camper van) is our shelter. If something happened to our van keys, we not only lose the ability to drive our transportation, but we also lose our shelter. For a little extra safety while traveling in remote areas of Canada and Alaska, we installed a keypad. So at least we’ll have shelter until we can get help. Plus it will be more convenient to get enter and leave the van without requiring digging in our pockets for a key. We bought the keypad on eBay, but then struggled to get the Ford van into programming mode to set it up. Even after browsing all the Ford forums, we still couldn’t figure it out. We gave up and took it to the local Ford dealer. It turned out that we had the wrong model of the keypad for the model year of our van and had to purchase another one. However, that had nothing to do with getting the van into programming mode. The Ford dealer was able to program the keypad and all of our key fobs for us, but did not tell us what we were doing wrong or how they did it.
Item Sixteen: Added another collapsible water container to use as a spare gray container. We normally travel with two six gallon jerry cans for fresh water and two six gallon jerry cans for gray water along with one collapsible five gallon container for extra fresh water. Generally the gray water usage pretty much matches the fresh water usage, so we added another collapsible container (paid link) for gray. There may be times during Season Four that we’ll need the extra capacity. As a backup, we also carry a Sawyer Micro Squeeze Water Filter (paid link), so we can filter water from a natural fresh water source if needed.
Item Seventeen: Added good heavy tire chocks (paid link). This is another “just in case” purchase. They will come in handy if we need to park the van on a slope and we want to make sure we don’t roll downhill.
Item Eighteen: Added a tire patch kit (paid link). The Alaskan Highway and Top of the World Highway in Canada are known for eating tires. We want to make sure we are prepared. Calling roadside assistance in some remote areas may take a while to get to us, if they’ll service us at all. Being more self-sufficient gives us a little more peace of mind. Being able to repair a hole in a tire, even if just temporarily, may help us get out of a jam. After repairing a tire, you will more than likely need to re-inflate it. We have been carrying an air compressor (paid link) with us for a while now, so that is not an issue for us.
Item Nineteen: Bought a Luci light. Luci lights (paid link) run on solar power. It is also inflatable, so it doesn’t take much space. to store away. Just another backup in case we are without power or we want to conserve on our power usage.
Item Twenty: Bring a third DC fan. We have two DC fans mounted at the foot of our bed. These work great for when we are in bed and improve the circulation throughout the van. However, it doesn’t do much for airflow under the bed, which is where our second seat is located. Having a third DC van that we can place on the kitchen pod and direct flow under the bed will help. We just packed one of the spare DC fans we had at home. The two spare ones at home are the original ones we had mounted at the foot of our bed, but had replaced them with newer ones that have a better mounting system.
Item Twenty One: Replaced our butane stove with a dual fuel stove. The new stove (unpaid link) is pretty much the same as the old stove (paid link) but the new one has the ability to run off of propane canisters in addition to the butane. We prefer to cook with butane as it burns cleaner than propane. However, the butane canisters are harder to find than the propane canisters. Having a stove that can use either one will give us the best of both worlds. If we run out of butane and can’t find butane, we should be able to find propane canisters, as they are in most campground stores. In addition, Keith made a wooden platform, coated with a heavy layer of poly, to set the stove on when cooking. The platform should protect whatever table we set the stove on from the heat. A happy accident was that the poly dripped in multiple places on the underside of the platform while it was drying. Now these “bubbles” of extra poly help protect the table even more, so we did not remove them.
Item Twenty Two: Replaced our camping table. The camping table we had been using is an old, but nice one. The table top rolls out and the four legs screw into the table top. It works fine, but is not very stable and is a little bit of a hassle to set up. We replaced it with a folding table (paid link) which seems more stable and heavier.
Item Twenty Three: Added a foldable step stool. The main reason for the step stool (paid link) is to reach the awning to pull the awning legs in and out. We are tall, both six foot, which allows us to reach the awning when we are on flat ground, but, if the ground slopes away from the van, it can be difficult to reach. A small step stool is all we really need. A foldable one allows it to not take up much space inside our van.
Item Twenty Four: Fixed the awning legs. The legs on our awning each have a plastic latch that locks the telescoping leg into place and allows adjusting the length of the leg to fit the slope of the ground. Both of these latches had snapped down to stubbles that required us to use pliers to lock and unlock. We ordered new parts from Carefree and installed them ourselves.
Item Twenty Five: Bought Walkie Talkies (paid link). We imagine that cell phone coverage will be worse in some areas of Canada and Alaska. Having another way to communicate, especially in the case when we might need to separate from each other, may be useful.
Item Twenty Six: Upgraded our photography equipment. We want to make sure we are able to capture Season Four: Alaska Bound in a great way. Ann upgraded her iPhone from an iPhone 10 to an iPhone 13 so she could have the same wide-angle shots that Keith can get on his iPhone 11 Pro. We upgraded our GoPros to one GoPro HERO 10 (paid link) for its image stabilization abilities. Ann really loves the super telephoto ability she has with her Canon Powershot SX70 (1365mm equivalent focal length - paid link) to be able to capture wildlife at a distance. She likes it so much that she decided to buy a second one as a backup, just in case something happens to her first one. She doesn’t want to be up north with all that wildlife and be without one. There are a few times we plan to be on boats on the water. In order to protect our equipment, we bought two waterproof floating cases (paid link)for our iPhones and a floating handle (paid link) for our GoPro.
Item Twenty Seven: Made a campsite sign. When traveling in a motorized RV or camper van, when you leave your campsite during the day, it is hard to make it look like the camp site is still occupied. This is especially important when boondocking if you want to save your spot. We’ve even been in a National Forest campground before that requires you to make your campsite appear to be occupied or you may lose your site to someone else. We’ve tried leaving camp chairs or a table cloth on the picnic table before, but we’ve had both of those items stolen. We like to think that those people thought we accidentally left those items behind. Some people set up a small tent on the camp site, not that they are sleeping in the tent, but just to make it look occupied. That seems like a lot of extra work to us. Our solution? Make a sign.
We took two pieces of scrap plywood and painted it with acrylic paint. We printed off our logo and made a template from plastic poster board. Using the template and some stencils, we traced out our Backroad Buddies logo with the words “Will Return” underneath. On the wood piece we used the stencils to paint our names and our hometown. The two pieces of wood are attached at the top with two hinges. The bottom of the wooden pieces are cut to create two stubby legs. This should allow the sign to be a little more stable on uneven ground. A synthetic strap across the bottom allows the two pieces to stand up like an A-frame and allows the two pieces to collapse together for easy storage. While we at the campsite, we’ll display our names. When we leave the site during the day, we’ll turn the sign around to display the “Will Return”. Hopefully, no one will steal the sign. It took us quite a bit of time to make it.
Item Twenty Eight: Made a sign for the Sign Post Forest. In Watson Lake, along the Alaska Highway, is the Sign Post Forest. It contains over 80,000 signs and is being added to all the time. Visitors are encouraged to add their own signs. So, of course, we have to make one to hang in the Sign Post Forest. This sign is a little simpler and smaller than the campsite sign. Again, we made a smaller template of our logo using plastic poster board. We traced it out on a smaller piece of plywood and painted it using acrylic paint. Our names and the year were added with a Sharpie. Then we drilled two holes for mounting. If you visit the Sign Post Forest and see our sign, please let us know!
Item Twenty Nine: Bought lots of insect protection. We’ve heard stories of how bad the mosquitos can be in Alaska, so we wanted to be prepared. Last season, we bought a Clam Quick-Set screen shelter (paid link) and only used it once. But we figured it would come in handy for Season Four.
We also bought a couple of bug head nets (paid link) to protect our faces. They may look silly, but, if the bugs are really bad, what is more important? Comfort or looks? For protecting our campsite, we got the Thermacell Patio Shield (paid link). For treating our clothing, we have the Picaridin Insect Repellent (paid link). Last but not least, we have 100% DEET (paid link). We’ll let you know if we use any or all of these products and how effective they were.
Item Thirty: Bought insulated and water proof boots. These are winter boots (paid link), and yes, we will be in Alaska in the summer. However, we plan on doing some glacier hikes. The boots (unpaid link) should also come in handy when the ground sloppy with mud. Ann has had mild frostbite on her toes in the past and wants to make sure her feet stay warm as they are more susceptible to the cold. We also have a few chemical foot and toe warmers in our backpacks, just in case.
Item Thirty One: Replaced our large backpacks with medium-sized packs (paid link). When we went on day hikes in the past, we only had two options. The first was using our large 45 liter backpacks. The same ones we use to go overnight backpacking. The other option was our really small packs. The large backpacks were usually overkill for most of our day hikes, while the really small packs were too small and were a pain to get a water bottle out of since they had no outside pouches. So now we have 24 liter backpacks (paid link) which should work out better. We plan on also bringing our really small packs because they are nice to use when walking around town.
Item Thirty Two: Replaced all our towels with Norwex towels. The towels we were using before was an eclectic collection of old towels that were falling apart in some cases. We replaced all of them, with Norwex towels. They include kitchen towels, dish cloths, hand towels, face cloths, and body towels. Norwex is a type of microfiber towel, but they are softer than most and very absorbent. They are a little pricy, so we first just bought a couple of them to try out at home. We liked them so much, that, not only did we buy a whole set for the van, but we bought a set of kitchen towels and dish cloths for our house. You can find some of the Norwex towels (paid link) on Amazon, but we’ve found that they are cheaper on the Norwex website (https://shopus.norwex.biz/en_US/ - unpaid link)
Item Thirty Three: Bought a portable lithium jump starter. This goes along with the other items in making us more self-reliant. If we have trouble getting the van started due to a dead starter batter, we can jump ourselves. The jump starter (paid link) will hold a charge for up to one year according to the manufacturer, but they recommend recharging it every four to six months after the initial charge. Hopefully we won’t need it, but it may get us out of trouble if we do.
Item Thirty Four: Bought an emergency radio (paid link). It can run on lithium batteries that can be recharged via plugging it in, the small solar panel, or the hand crank or it can run from a set of AAA batteries. It is the Running Snail Emergency Radio. In addition to receiving AM and FM radio, it also includes a NOAA weather radio along with a flashlight and reading light. OK, we think Keith got a little carried away with this one.
Item Thirty Five: Replaced the hanging shoe organizer with a trunk organizer. The hanging shoe organizer (paid link) we used for the past two seasons was falling apart. Where we had it hanging also made it harder to easily access our tool bag that we had on the shelf behind it. We used it to hold items we used often and didn’t want stored away inside a tote which would be less convenient to access. We switched to a trunk organizer (paid link) like the one we purchased the year before to hold our leveling blocks and electrical cords. The trunk organizer holds everything that the shoe organizer held, plus more. It contains our slippers (paid link), sandals, surf shoes, shower flip flops, toilet paper, poo powder (paid link), bags for our camping toilet, our new stove, and stove platform. We even managed to fit our file organizer and the Milepost (paid link) in the pouches on the ends. The new trunk organizer sits on top of a tote, just behind our plywood bench seat for easy access.
Item Thirty Six: Leave our kayak and bikes at home. We didn’t use our kayak (paid link) during Season Three as much as we thought we would. Even though it is inflatable, the kayak takes up a good amount of space inside the van. Space that could be used for extra blankets and warm clothing in case we run into cold wether and our Espar heater decides not to work for some reason.
We did use our bicycles quite a bit during the previous season, but they add a couple of feet to the length of our van. Keeping our van shorter gives us more options on where we can take and park our van. It fits easier in a regular parking spot without the bikes. It should also be cheaper to ride the ferries since they charge by the length of the vehicle. Not bringing them does not mean that we won’t ride bikes during Season Four. It just means when we want to ride, we’ll rent.
Well, that’s the complete list. We hope you found at least one item useful for you as you prepare for your own travels, whether they are to Alaska or not.
Check out our related video: Preparing for Season Four: Alaska Bound 2022
(Ann)