GMCforum
For enthusiast of the Classic GMC Motorhome built from 1973 to 1978. A web-based mirror of the GMCnet mailing list.

Home » Public Forums » GMCnet » [GMCnet] Alaska trip report - in Fairbanks, AK, for the solstice celebration
[GMCnet] Alaska trip report - in Fairbanks, AK, for the solstice celebration [message #302291] Sat, 18 June 2016 22:05 Go to next message
glwgmc is currently offline  glwgmc   United States
Messages: 1014
Registered: June 2004
Karma: 10
Senior Member
This is our northern most point on this unplanned Alaskan adventure. The coach is doing really well save for an electrical gremlin. We have a small phantom electrical draw on the chassis battery that causes it to run down over a night of dry camping. I have tested all the usual suspects but so far have not found the offender. It just started on this trip. I altered the negative post on that battery so I can quickly disconnect it when we dry camp on the rest of the trip. House battery, combiner, converter, inverter are all fine so I am a bit mystified by what could just pop up on this trip. It is small enough as to not make a spark when the ground cable is reattached to the negative post. I will chase it down when we get home.

Weather all over Alaska has been fantastic for is. Denali was crystal clear with bright sun, blue skies and the mountain so close it looked like you could reach out and touch it. Same with everywhere a road went to the ocean - all were breath taking. Roads have been much better than we expected. Abut the same as driving two lane blue line roads anywhere in the country.

Fairbanks is downright hot. Was in the high 80s yesterday and the low 80s today. There is an extensive bike path system that we are enjoying exploring. Our folding Brompton bikes ride in purpose built bags on the back of the 78 Royale so we just unfold them and go off exploring everything we can reach. We are staying at the Fairbanks Elks Lodge which is right on the river in downtown and right on the bike path. Great folks here. A very active restaurant where they did a donation picnic today with burgers, hot dogs, chicken, corn on the cob, various salads, beer, wine, pop all on the club. Tomorrow is a Father's Day breakfast where the breakfast is free for the guys. Following that is a downtown solstice celebration. Sunset is at 12:47 am and sunrise is just a couple of hours later at 2:47 am. It never does get dark. There will be a semi pro baseball game tomorrow night with no lights on the field. Starts at 10:30 pm.

All fun stuff. I can't say enough about how easy it is to do Alaska without planning ahead and doing it on your own. No better vehicle than your GMC for this trip! I didn't check, but am guessing we have exceeded 4500 miles at this point so likely will be over 9000 by the time we get home. Life is good on the road so crank up your coach and go somewhere fun..........like heading for the five club rally at Coos Bay, OR, in October. Registration and details at GMCWS.org or the web sites for four other co-sponsor western clubs, Cascaders, 49ers, Pacific Cruisers and Mountaineers. Should be a bang up event you don't want to miss!

Jerry
Jerry Work
The Dovetail Joint
Fine furniture designed & hand crafted
in the 1907 former Masonic Temple building
in historic Kerby, OR
http://jerrywork.com


_______________________________________________
GMCnet mailing list
Unsubscribe or Change List Options:
http://list.gmcnet.org/mailman/listinfo/gmclist_list.gmcnet.org



Jerry & Sharon Work
78 Royale
Kerby, OR
Re: [GMCnet] Alaska trip report - in Fairbanks, AK, for the solstice celebration [message #302298 is a reply to message #302291] Sun, 19 June 2016 07:22 Go to previous messageGo to next message
jhbridges is currently offline  jhbridges   United States
Messages: 8412
Registered: May 2011
Location: Braselton ga
Karma: -74
Senior Member
Isn't the solstice when we build a big bonfire and take nekkid and dance around it? Oh nevermind, that's the Wiccans...

A drain which doesn't produce a spark shouldn't kill a battery overnight unless the battery is in bad shape to begin with. If it's a reasonably new battery, look instead for something which turns on and off, with the on drain fairly large.

Again an argument for ammeters, one per battery. Since the new used coach has the house bank in back, I'm probably going to have to use a shunt on it. The option would be many feet of 00 welding cable and finding a route for it, or rear mounting the ammeter.

--johnny


Foolish Carriage, 76 26' Eleganza(?) with beaucoup mods and add - ons. Braselton, Ga. I forgive them all, save those who hurt the dogs. They must answer to me in hell
Re: [GMCnet] Alaska trip report - in Fairbanks, AK, for the solstice celebration [message #302300 is a reply to message #302291] Sun, 19 June 2016 07:46 Go to previous message
Jeanette is currently offline  Jeanette   United States
Messages: 118
Registered: May 2013
Karma: 0
Senior Member
U r honored to get to see Denali clear. We were fortunate to see that too. Doesn't happen that often I guess. Enjoy the rest of ur trip.

Sent from my iPhone

> On Jun 18, 2016, at 10:05 PM, Gerald Work wrote:
>
> This is our northern most point on this unplanned Alaskan adventure. The coach is doing really well save for an electrical gremlin. We have a small phantom electrical draw on the chassis battery that causes it to run down over a night of dry camping. I have tested all the usual suspects but so far have not found the offender. It just started on this trip. I altered the negative post on that battery so I can quickly disconnect it when we dry camp on the rest of the trip. House battery, combiner, converter, inverter are all fine so I am a bit mystified by what could just pop up on this trip. It is small enough as to not make a spark when the ground cable is reattached to the negative post. I will chase it down when we get home.
>
> Weather all over Alaska has been fantastic for is. Denali was crystal clear with bright sun, blue skies and the mountain so close it looked like you could reach out and touch it. Same with everywhere a road went to the ocean - all were breath taking. Roads have been much better than we expected. Abut the same as driving two lane blue line roads anywhere in the country.
>
> Fairbanks is downright hot. Was in the high 80s yesterday and the low 80s today. There is an extensive bike path system that we are enjoying exploring. Our folding Brompton bikes ride in purpose built bags on the back of the 78 Royale so we just unfold them and go off exploring everything we can reach. We are staying at the Fairbanks Elks Lodge which is right on the river in downtown and right on the bike path. Great folks here. A very active restaurant where they did a donation picnic today with burgers, hot dogs, chicken, corn on the cob, various salads, beer, wine, pop all on the club. Tomorrow is a Father's Day breakfast where the breakfast is free for the guys. Following that is a downtown solstice celebration. Sunset is at 12:47 am and sunrise is just a couple of hours later at 2:47 am. It never does get dark. There will be a semi pro baseball game tomorrow night with no lights on the field. Starts at 10:30 pm.
>
> All fun stuff. I can't say enough about how easy it is to do Alaska without planning ahead and doing it on your own. No better vehicle than your GMC for this trip! I didn't check, but am guessing we have exceeded 4500 miles at this point so likely will be over 9000 by the time we get home. Life is good on the road so crank up your coach and go somewhere fun..........like heading for the five club rally at Coos Bay, OR, in October. Registration and details at GMCWS.org or the web sites for four other co-sponsor western clubs, Cascaders, 49ers, Pacific Cruisers and Mountaineers. Should be a bang up event you don't want to miss!
>
> Jerry
> Jerry Work
> The Dovetail Joint
> Fine furniture designed & hand crafted
> in the 1907 former Masonic Temple building
> in historic Kerby, OR
> http://jerrywork.com
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> GMCnet mailing list
> Unsubscribe or Change List Options:
> http://list.gmcnet.org/mailman/listinfo/gmclist_list.gmcnet.org

_______________________________________________
GMCnet mailing list
Unsubscribe or Change List Options:
http://list.gmcnet.org/mailman/listinfo/gmclist_list.gmcnet.org

Previous Topic: Got One
Next Topic: Happy Father's Day
Goto Forum:
  


Current Time: Fri Oct 11 20:26:34 CDT 2024

Total time taken to generate the page: 0.01055 seconds