woah can we get a trip report or something?
Well, OK. As I said, it was 15,000km in three weeks, so about 700km every day. I drove from Toronto via Chicago, Minneapolis, Saskatoon, Edmonton, Alaska Highway, Whitehorse, Dawson City, DEMPSTER HIGHWAY past the Arctic Circle into NWT. Back pretty much the same way, but via Skagway, Alaska, and the BC interior rather than the Alaska Highway.
The really challenging part was the 1,000km or so on the Dempster Highway through the western Canadian Arctic. It’s all gravel, some parts worse than others, the northern 200km or so shale which can be a tire killer. Also, the first 200-300km were in rain, which turns the Dempster into a pothole marked mud affair. This is what I was most concerned about.
What can I say? To start with the end, my 2016 Range Rover td6 felt, sounded, smelled, everything really, like new when we arrived back home with 79,000km on the clock (I wanted to do this with the 80,000km factory warranty in place). No rattle, nothing loose. The Range Rover drives so well on the slippery gravel road that it is really amazing. You have to make sure that you don’t go too fast because you cannot feel with the seat of your pants how bad the road is. I left it in auto mode rather than selecting GGS and it seemed to work well.
I have factory new “all season” Goodyears and they stood up well, no flat tires – that surprised me. One day we had 3 inches of snow on the Alaska Highway with cars in the ditch. You just go slow and all is well, no problem with the tires. We were hit by rocks from trucks a number of times but nothing serious developed, i.e. no spider cracks or deep impact craters in the windscreen. The front grill took a few hits but if you don’t look for it you will not see it. No damage to the front lights or the hood. Hardly any dust inside so the filters must work good.
DEF was available everywhere even in the most remote places. I had to use the “emergency misfill funnel” (hidden with the spare tire) a few times. A couple of times in Minnesota and North Dakota, where the nozzle would not open the misfill flap. Also used that once when only the big truck nozzle was available up north.
Fuel consumption was 7.5 L/100km (31 mpg).
So, this is exactly what our Range Rovers are made for (rather the nanny driving the kids to day care). There is no better vehicle around to tackle those distances and challenging road conditions.