Planning stage: 3 months in the T@g-then a whole year

rich67 · July 2021

I am retiring this month, and the wife and I are taking an entire year off to travel around the country and see the sights from here to Alaska in the T@g. I was seriously disappointed to see the lack of information on sites like Youtube where people (except Mandy) have pulled this off. Since the wife and I have some health concerns and elderly parents still in our area in Florida, we are breaking our trip up into several different parts, the first segment being about 3 months in length. We are hitting spots in Florida, Georgia, Tennessee and North Carolina from October to January, ending with a stay in a cabin I have booked in N. Carolina for the holidays. We plan on doing a mix of boondocking along with stays in State Parks and other campgrounds in the areas. We have done a lot of work on the camper and the tow vehicle to make sure we have reliable transportation. I have solar panels, generator and lithium set up for boondocking. We also have a small cartridge toilet and solar shower for out-of-the-way sites. The next segment, which we will start in mid-January 2022, will encompass a trip our west, to the coast of California. We will have stops in Alabama, Arkansas, Texas, Colorado, Utah,California, then on the way back we will hit Nevada, Arizona, and southern Texas, Mississippi, and back home. The mac daddy leg will take place starting around May 2022, and this will take us north through South Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia, Kentucky, Missouri, S. Dakota, N. Dakota, Montana, Idaho, into Canada, then eventually onto the Alcan and into Anchorage, Homer, and Seward. This should bring us headed back to the states around late September, and back home by October again.
The logistics of all this are a bit overwhelming. If anyone has any links or help with planning for a trip of this magnitude, please let us know. Since we are pretty squared away with gear, I think our main concerns are with road safety (towing, vehicle service, etc), firearm concerns when traveling into Canada (we are bringing revolvers and a hunting rifle with us that we will be declaring), and what kinds of pitfalls people traveling in teardrops have encountered when traveling long distances. A lot of the off-grid places we will be visiting will generally be on improved dirt roads, which the Jeep and the T@g can easily handle. We are not wandering through the Maze in Utah with the camper in tow. We will be staying in a lot of places and use the Jeep alone to access more remote locations while the T@g is our base camp. Camp security issues are also a concern for us, if anyone has tips. We will have mountain bikes and a generator we are securing with Krypto NY chains and locks to help deter thieves, and have hitch locks and locking wheel chocks for our T@g. I'll be posting some pictures of our security setups on this thread as time goes on, so hopefully I can keep this thread alive with good info for others who may be planning a large scale long term trip.

beaky · July 2021

https://freeroam.app/

zgfiredude · July 2021

Awesome, you will have a blast!

For your Colorado and Eastern Utah leg, let me know your approximate timing and route thoughts. I can offer suggestions, our house for a pit stop, my garage for any maintenance concerns with the Jeep or the T@G, and perhaps even join you for a day or two if you'd like some company. Hollar if I can assist in any way....I've traveled Colorado and Eastern quite a bit (mostly by motorcycle) mostly off pavement.

I'll follow this thread!

LuckyJ · July 2021

Woow, that is a nice journe6 you are planing, the dream of many of us. 😊

Since I am Canadian, the beat way to prepare to bring firearms in canada is to get in touch with canada custom. You will be limited with the type you can bring in. Revelovers are strickly limited in how you can own them. Even as visitors. They can only be posses with strict mesure, you need a special permit to own, a special permit to transport them to and from a registerd shoothing range. Even if you are just planning to cross directly to alaska w/o stopping. I do tgink that semi auto weapons also have more limitation now.

And finaly, firearms are strickly prohibited in canada's national parks.

So, give them a call so you do not get any bad surprised.

Have a nice trip. 😊

beaky · July 2021

my guess is at least half the trailers and RVs you see on the road have firearms on board

LuckyJ · July 2021

@beaky said:
my guess is at least half the trailers and RVs you see on the road have firearms on board

Firemamrs you can. Hand guns (revolvers /pistol) are an otyer story. As of do they have any fire arms in them, I know that we don't and most of my friends will not travel with them unless it is hunting season. But this is eastern canada. 😉

rich67 · July 2021

Beaky, thanks for that link. That's an awesome app. Started my planning with it.

beaky · July 2021

where I camp, firearms are standard, not for security but for big critters

stevemilligan42 · July 2021

When you get to NW Arkansas, drop me a message. I'll send ya some links/cords to some amazing spots.

Madison County. Buffalo River Wilderness. Incredible places.

WilliamA · July 2021

Advice: ask any two T@G owners and you'll get three opinions...

I've not spent a whole year in my trailer but I have been out for a couple of months straight in some pretty mixed on/off-road driving. A couple of things I wish I'd known are:

Spend a day on your back under the trailer... Pay attention to the umbilical (7 way) connector box. Tighten the connections and WATERPROOF the box! I used cheapo caulk and haven't had any more issues. Make sure water can't get in there. Weird things happen when it's got half a cup of water in it. Replace the cheesy butt connectors for the electric brake wiring with waterproof (crimp-on, then heat shrink) connectors. On my 2017 XL, there were two butt connectors in the wiring harness between the axle and the front connector box that gave me no end of problems until I found and replaced them. The wire loom clamps inside the frame are pretty good at keeping things snug but I added zip ties too. The harness would bounce out of the clamps and get all dangly....

I carry two extra brake magnets. I've replaced one on the road. I don't think the magnets fail so much as vibration breaks the wiring going into the magnets. It's nearly impossible to fix. I tried. Just have spare magnets and waterproof connectors "in stock".

I carry a spare set of bearings and seals. Having a small 3 corner jeweler's file to massage the spindle threads is a good idea. As many here know, I think (opinion) that, for extended rough roads, the Dexter axle is by far the weak link in a T@G trailer. I know there are folks here who have done the Alkan highway with one, but this kid thinks they are too spindly and over-sprung.

The "Offroading with a TAG" subject has been beaten into submission here before and I'll not resurrect it now, save to say if you're doing a lot of off-road or rough roads and want more peace of mind, get a better axle, softly sprung, with more travel. I'm personally a huge fan of Timbren axles and, besides, they're MADE in Canada.

Tires....tires....tires....nuff said there.

Have fun...

WilliamA

rich67 · July 2021

thanks for the tips, William. The off roading we are planning on doing won't be anything like "Canyonlands The Maze" crazy...some gravel roads and maybe a few small potholes and things, but nothing extreme. I have already mentally prepared myself that things are gonna break as the year goes on, and I am definitely going to be bringing some spare bearings, seals, et.al along for the journey. I know my Jeep has got 98k miles on it, which is low by Jeep standards, but I think I worry more about that than I do the trailer. That may be misplaced, but I am taking it in for a complete once-over at my mechanic's before we head out.

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Planning stage: 3 months in the T@g-then a whole year

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