So a buddy and I are planning a trip from Ft. McMurray, AB, up to Tuktoyaktuk in February. We'll be encountering a lot of snow and ice, and a lot of cold weather. Its approximately 8000km's round trip. We'll be heading north from Ft. McMurray on the ice roads, up to the Northwest Territories, then west into the Yukon and hopefully up the Cambell highway (will it be passable?) and then onto the Dempster all the way north. We'll be taking my '09 JK 2dr, and clearly we need to be very well prepared to handle breakdowns, blizzards, deep snow, ice, and other emergencies. I thought I'd put this out there and see what you folks would recommend as far as gear goes. I"ll throw down some basics below as to what we're thinking so far.

Currently Mods:
33x11.5R16 ProComp Xtreme Muds
16" ProComp Rims
2" BDS lift
LoD Stubby front Bumper
Titan 12 000 lb winch, Synthetic Line
Block Heater

Needed:
Driving Lights
Roof Rack
Hi Lift & base
Synthetic fluids
Jerry Cans
Spare belts/hoses (which ones?)
Snow ladders (old snowmobile tracks cut in half)
Chains

We're trying to avoid buying winter tires as that will add a lot of cost to the trip, however I'm not totally convinced about using my Xtreme muds, anybody have any experience with these in extreme cold?

Are there any spare parts you would recommend? A spare belt, hoses? We will be keeping a log of the trip so I"ll let you know when things get a bit closer.

 

This sounds like an outstanding adventure, but a long a grueling trek like this is no place to cut corners.

Your tires are arguably the most important part of your JK on this trip.

CB?
Dual Batteries?
Pick and Shovel?
A case of Gibsons Stirling?

 

Dual batteries would be a big help, especially with running lots of auxiliary lighting.

Make sure that your aux lights will give you good coverage on the sides (mid distance for the ditches) and good throw down the road (long range/pencil beams)

I would not do this without appropriate radio communication. You'll want t obe able to use the same channels as the truckers and other industrial users on the ice roads.

Personally, I would think twice about doing this trip on mud tires unless they've been siped, studded, or otherwise modified to work well on ice.

Get yourself a Pull Pal - there are places up north where there will not be trees to anchor to.

Also, enough "arctic" grade camping gear that you can survive for a minimum of 48 hours in -50 degree conditions. Food, a stove that runs on Naptha (propane will be useless at those temps), and some serious sleeping bags.

 

Sounds like a great trip will enjoy watching this one.

 

Scary ride on MTs.

 

There was a whole series of Video stories about a few sponsored JK's that went on a similar trek to yours, I saw them on Offroad.com about six months ago , they may be of some interest to you, try searching their archives. I'll go back and look myself and post up if I can find them.

 

On the aforementioned site search the Jeep video section for Dezert Scorpion Siberia there are about 7 videos regarding a Paris to New York trek very cool although the narration is in a language I'm not familar with the videos are great, one of the videos details some of the prep work done on the JKs for the extreme cold.

 

Sounds like an awesome trip. X2 on the Pull Pal. Studded tires or chains and arctic sleeping bags. GPS and ham radio in case of no service cell or short range CB.

 

Check out equipped.com for tons of ideas about all different kinds of survival gear and ideas.

 

For something like this I would be concerned with plenty of cold weather gear. Get the nice sub zero sleeping bags, parkas, gloves, some type of heater (propane?), and possibly see if you can borrow/buy a sat phone.