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PSA: My Alaska road trip got derailed by a $400 tow in Tok because I ignored this one thing
Last month I drove the Alaska Highway from Dawson Creek up to Fairbanks and figured my all-season tires were fine for a summer trip. Big mistake. About 20 miles outside Tok, I hit a stretch of rough gravel where they were doing road work, and a sharp rock sliced right through a sidewall. No spare big enough to match, no cell signal, and the nearest tire place was 90 miles back the way I came. I sat on the shoulder for almost 4 hours waiting for a tow that cost me $400 cash, and the shop in Tok couldn't even get the right size tire until the next afternoon. I lost a whole day of my 8 day trip and missed the salmon run I drove up there for. The guy at the tire shop told me half the flats he sees in summer are from people running highway tires on construction sections. If you're planning the drive, get at least one real spare and a plug kit before you leave, or the Yukon will hand you a bill you didn't plan for. Anyone else had a breakdown on that stretch near Beaver Creek?
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clark.lily21h ago
Had almost the exact same thing happen at Destruction Bay back in 2019. Picked up a nail on a chip seal section and my little doughnut spare made it about 15 miles before it blew too. A trucker from Whitehorse stopped and gave me a plug kit and a real spare he had in his trailer, saved my whole trip. I carry a full size spare, a plug kit, and a little compressor now every time I head up there, no exceptions. That stretch between Tok and Beaver Creek eats tires for breakfast in the summer with all the road work going on.
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