The Husky Bus – A future resident of Alaska

[BigH2OChief]

Moving 'The Husky Bus' intro to its own string in order to get more visibility for advice and feedback. From here I’ll try and post updates and changes as they happen. This is minimum budget, purpose-built project. We are building this truck to eventually live fulltime up in Fairbanks Alaska (2022). The truck’s purpose is to support ‘dog sledding’ experiences in conjunction with a variety of Veterans outdoor programs. These experiential mushing encounters are not designed to occur in severe weather conditions… but the Arctic Circle and the Brooks Range are no joke. As a support vehicle for Mushers and Dog Teams... capability, reliability, and versatility are top of mind.

The platform is a 2013 Ford F-150 Raptor SVT. Our thought is the Raptor’s suspension coupled with the V8 will provide a balance of offroad ability, towing capacity and a little coolness factor. After an exhaustive nationwide search, we bought the truck last July in Reno Nevada. Pre purchase mechanical inspection and our Tech here in San Diego both gave it a thumbs up. Prior to starting to equip it, we beat the hell out of her in the desert and she is solid. Brakes need some CPR to fix the ‘Gen1 Raptor Squeal’. Cooling system and Trans are solid, but we will be adding a Trans Cooler along and of course an Engine Block Heater.

In a previous post I break down the trucks vitals, current storage solutions, tools onboard and communications systems. However, that is constantly developing as we come across better options and affordable deals. Unlike previous builds, this time around we are not soliciting sponsors for donations. Our last experience created too many contractual requirements and rules. This time we are building it on our own. That said, as they have in previous builds, A.R.E. was very kind to us in providing an affordable Overland Cap and Ascend Roof Basket. M.I.A. Outdoors in Vista CA. (also makers of the WaterPort) is working with us on designing a 4 season RTT design which when purchased will incorporate the Ascend Roof Basket on the Cap. We are working on reinforcing the Cap to ensure static loads do not create premature problems with the Cap. Another local small business, Tint Lab in San Diego, CA, has reconditioned the bumpers, side steps, headlights and rhinolined the hood and flares. They are currently working on design concepts for a unique wrap. Other immediate plans on paper include adding a winch/bumper, cell boost and 270-degree awning with side walls.

Where you can help us is let us know when you come across deals on affordable solutions, bargains, or ways we can stretch our budget. Keep in mind this is not an Expedition Vehicle, but more of a support truck. Thanks in advance for any advice!

 

[MarioT'sCJResto]

Living the life, I love the Rig, and the Pack. Do you have any more pics that you can share?

 

[MarioT'sCJResto]

Living the life, I love the Rig, and the Pack. Do you have any more pics that you can share?

With this as a support rig, what are you plans for the extreme cold temps?
I have been building out my Ram for my pups, with the primary focus set for winter camping on the east coast. Nothing as insane Fairbanks, but with that said I started with my Brakes, and tires and worked my way up. For Power options I'm looking into adding the dual battery kit by Painless wiring, upgrading my Alternator to a Mechman 370 Amp output, and I also have the Jackery 1000, and a back up Yamaha SC2300i from Costco.
With year 1 in the books on my Ram build I'm looking forward to year two and some DIY projects like adding HUSMAT, or Dynaliner 1/4IN synthetic foam from Eastwoods. The insulation and Eastwoods Rust Encapsulator on the undercarriage, raptor liner for the bumpers are on the top of my list.
Brakes and Tires - I went with PowerStop Z36 Full Kit and ProComp A/Ts.
Up there in Alaska what do you have for recovery points/mods?
In those temps - do you use a Canvas Hot Tent?
I tossed away the idea of an RTT for the old school white duck canvas bell tents and Kni-Co Packer Stove for wintercamping. My pups are diva's, not like huskies that love to sleep in the snow, my small pack stays with me in the tent.

Well I can't wait to see more, and your future adventures.

 

[BigH2OChief]

With this as a support rig, what are you plans for the extreme cold temps?
I have been building out my Ram for my pups, with the primary focus set for winter camping on the east coast. Nothing as insane Fairbanks, but with that said I started with my Brakes, and tires and worked my way up. For Power options I'm looking into adding the dual battery kit by Painless wiring, upgrading my Alternator to a Mechman 370 Amp output, and I also have the Jackery 1000, and a back up Yamaha SC2300i from Costco.
With year 1 in the books on my Ram build I'm looking forward to year two and some DIY projects like adding HUSMAT, or Dynaliner 1/4IN synthetic foam from Eastwoods. The insulation and Eastwoods Rust Encapsulator on the undercarriage, raptor liner for the bumpers are on the top of my list.
Brakes and Tires - I went with PowerStop Z36 Full Kit and ProComp A/Ts.
Up there in Alaska what do you have for recovery points/mods?
In those temps - do you use a Canvas Hot Tent?
I tossed away the idea of an RTT for the old school white duck canvas bell tents and Kni-Co Packer Stove for wintercamping. My pups are diva's, not like huskies that love to sleep in the snow, my small pack stays with me in the tent.

Well I can't wait to see more, and your future adventures.

Extreme cold I guess is relative to the traveler(s), the dog(s) and what they are doing at the time. Typically, the two Kennels we are affiliated with run seasonal operations between the race season… loosely between Spring (April-May) and the Holidays (Nov-Dec). Sled Dog tours are an integral part of exercising the Dog Teams between race seasons. The average relative low temp. ranges between 15 and 73 degrees during these months. Although a few years ago I found myself wrenching on a truck on the Dalton in October in negative 10. (No fun!).

Fortunately, we are also affiliated with a large company in Fairbanks with a Class 8 maintenance facility that runs rigs 24/7 between Fairbanks and Prudhoe Bay. When it comes to weatherization I’ll be leaning in on their expertise. This is the same facility that the truck will reside at. Brakes are something I’ll have to contend with before 2022 for sure. The kit I’ve been looking at is pretty expensive though. Tires as well… but those are a total cost of ownership thing regardless of the trucks purpose. Dual batteries are on the list. I put a dual-battery system with solar on my last build and had nothing but problems with it. Since I passed that truck on to my daughter though it’s worked like a charm (Go figure). An HD Alternator is great idea and I’ve added that to the list (Thanks for the reminder). Sound deadening is already on the list. I have about half of what I need from a build I did a few years ago. I absolutely hate doing that project though, so I’ll have to bribe my sons with beer, bourbon and steaks to get it done. Mod-ing recovery points hasn’t been something we’ve considered but I’ll run it by the crew for thoughts. We no doubt will find ourselves pulling a trailer which is typically hauling base camp stuff or customized for dog team transportation. We have a variety of tents typical to extreme cold weather use and heating solutions. We are also getting a couple Shift Pods from CalFire to experiment with. To be honest, the RTT is a ‘nice to have’ and will give us another option (for fairer weather experiences).

Here in San Diego, we have three Huskys… who while they do not race anymore, they love getting out and running. In cooler weather we’ll take them out to the desert and run the hell out of them. All three think the back seat and bed of the truck are their private living quarters (Ha-ha). I always say… Huskies are a lifestyle.

 

[MarioT'sCJResto]

With this as a support rig, what are you plans for the extreme cold temps?
I have been building out my Ram for my pups, with the primary focus set for winter camping on the east coast. Nothing as insane Fairbanks, but with that said I started with my Brakes, and tires and worked my way up. For Power options I'm looking into adding the dual battery kit by Painless wiring, upgrading my Alternator to a Mechman 370 Amp output, and I also have the Jackery 1000, and a back up Yamaha SC2300i from Costco.
With year 1 in the books on my Ram build I'm looking forward to year two and some DIY projects like adding HUSMAT, or Dynaliner 1/4IN synthetic foam from Eastwoods. The insulation and Eastwoods Rust Encapsulator on the undercarriage, raptor liner for the bumpers are on the top of my list.
Brakes and Tires - I went with PowerStop Z36 Full Kit and ProComp A/Ts.
Up there in Alaska what do you have for recovery points/mods?
In those temps - do you use a Canvas Hot Tent?
I tossed away the idea of an RTT for the old school white duck canvas bell tents and Kni-Co Packer Stove for wintercamping. My pups are diva's, not like huskies that love to sleep in the snow, my small pack stays with me in the tent.

Well I can't wait to see more, and your future adventures.

Extreme cold I guess is relative to the traveler(s), the dog(s) and what they are doing at the time. Typically, the two Kennels we are affiliated with run seasonal operations between the race season… loosely between Spring (April-May) and the Holidays (Nov-Dec). Sled Dog tours are an integral part of exercising the Dog Teams between race seasons. The average relative low temp. ranges between 15 and 73 degrees during these months. Although a few years ago I found myself wrenching on a truck on the Dalton in October in negative 10. (No fun!).

Fortunately, we are also affiliated with a large company in Fairbanks with a Class 8 maintenance facility that runs rigs 24/7 between Fairbanks and Prudhoe Bay. When it comes to weatherization I’ll be leaning in on their expertise. This is the same facility that the truck will reside at. Brakes are something I’ll have to contend with before 2022 for sure. The kit I’ve been looking at is pretty expensive though. Tires as well… but those are a total cost of ownership thing regardless of the trucks purpose. Dual batteries are on the list. I put a dual-battery system with solar on my last build and had nothing but problems with it. Since I passed that truck on to my daughter though it’s worked like a charm (Go figure). An HD Alternator is great idea and I’ve added that to the list (Thanks for the reminder). Sound deadening is already on the list. I have about half of what I need from a build I did a few years ago. I absolutely hate doing that project though, so I’ll have to bribe my sons with beer, bourbon and steaks to get it done. Mod-ing recovery points hasn’t been something we’ve considered but I’ll run it by the crew for thoughts. We no doubt will find ourselves pulling a trailer which is typically hauling base camp stuff or customized for dog team transportation. We have a variety of tents typical to extreme cold weather use and heating solutions. We are also getting a couple Shift Pods from CalFire to experiment with. To be honest, the RTT is a ‘nice to have’ and will give us another option (for fairer weather experiences).

Here in San Diego, we have three Huskys… who while they do not race anymore, they love getting out and running. In cooler weather we’ll take them out to the desert and run the hell out of them. All three think the back seat and bed of the truck are their private living quarters (Ha-ha). I always say… Huskies are a lifestyle.

View attachment 196706

Right on, wishing you and the crew the best. SD dog beach was one of my favorite summer destinations when I lived in AZ.

 

[Billiebob]

you are on the wrong forum. There is tons of information on dog sledding and those guys definitely live the life. We lived in Yellowknife for 10 years, our neighbour was a full time racer breeder. Those guys are who you need to talk to. The rigs they run are freaking primatiive to anything on here.

Yellowknife has a week in the spring of dog sled racing. Day one, to get all the teams into town early. At noon they close main street and run a truck pull. Two brand new F150 Quad Cabs fully loaded. The dog teams hook up and race the clock just like a drag race. Some teams get in after 300km on the highway from the ferry. The dogs are freaking wired, cooped up for 5 hours, crowds, main street, the buzz is incredible and the racing is on...... why??? cuz the winner keeps that new $70K reuck.

The North is still the wildest west. You will love it but it is incredibly expensive.

Great looking dogs.

ps, where do the dogs ride ?

This is pretty much the standard.


race dogs are the purest athletes ever.

 

[MarioT'sCJResto]

you are on the wrong forum. There is tons of information on dog sledding and those guys definitely live the life. We lived in Yellowknife for 10 years, our neighbour was a full time racer breeder. Those guys are who you need to talk to. The rigs they run are freaking primatiive to anything on here.

Yellowknife has a week in the spring of dog sled racing. Day one, to get all the teams into town early. At noon they close main street and run a truck pull. Two brand new F150 Quad Cabs fully loaded. The dog teams hook up and race the clock just like a drag race. Some teams get in after 300km on the highway from the ferry. The dogs are freaking wired, cooped up for 5 hours, crowds, main street, the buzz is incredible and the racing is on...... why??? cuz the winner keeps that new $70K reuck.

The North is still the wildest west. You will love it but it is incredibly expensive.

Great looking dogs.

I lived in Idaho for work, spent weekends from Redfish Lake to Quake Lake MT.
Put that aside I started to talk about rigs, and the really sweet raptor build. Got a little side tracked on the pups. My pups have traveled over 35k miles from as far east as NH to CA.
Put all that aside I can't wait to see the finished build on this rig.

 

[Billiebob]

This is my all time favourite Yellowknife video, you got to be happy with 5 hours of daylight and highs of 30 below zero.

 

[BigH2OChief]

you are on the wrong forum. There is tons of information on dog sledding and those guys definitely live the life. We lived in Yellowknife for 10 years, our neighbour was a full time racer breeder. Those guys are who you need to talk to. The rigs they run are freaking primatiive to anything on here.

Yellowknife has a week in the spring of dog sled racing. Day one, to get all the teams into town early. At noon they close main street and run a truck pull. Two brand new F150 Quad Cabs fully loaded. The dog teams hook up and race the clock just like a drag race. Some teams get in after 300km on the highway from the ferry. The dogs are freaking wired, cooped up for 5 hours, crowds, main street, the buzz is incredible and the racing is on...... why??? cuz the winner keeps that new $70K reuck.

The North is still the wildest west. You will love it but it is incredibly expensive.

Great looking dogs.

ps, where do the dogs ride ?

This is pretty much the standard.
View attachment 196722

race dogs are the purest athletes ever.

View attachment 196723

Oh trust me... I'm all over the mushing network. But I wont bother my guys. As I'm sure you know, managing a Race Kennel is expensive and year-round hard work without any days off. Those guys live to race and don't have time for distractions. Because this project's design is for Veteran's outdoor experiences, we are leaning into that community for development and our local businesses and the U of A - Fairbanks for logistics. Once we have our part together we will work with the Kennels to set up the mushing experiences along with trips up to the Artic Circle and possibly Deadhorse. At least that's the plan.

Make that blue F150 a black 2013 SCREW and its a twin to a truck I used to have. Kennel Cap and all. Pretty sure its still running around up in Anchorage.

I try to take each dog out for solo attention at least once a month. But they do love to travel and run together. These dogs are spoiled in retirement and the back seat has a platform. That said, if I don't have a sidekick with me then Wild Irish Rose (10yr/Red/Fem/45lb) prefers to ride shotgun. King Dozer (10yr/Wht/Mal/70lbs) rides right rear and Prince Ragnar (7yr/Gry/Mal/40lbs) rides left rear. They love Bikejoring and I have custom triple lead for them. I get peculiar looks from campers in the remote desert when I fly by them on a mountain bike with the dogs. Rose runs lead. Dozer does the work. And the skitzo (Ragnar) runs wherever he want to until Rose puts him in check. Ha-ha! I totally agree though... Race Dogs are indeed the purest athletes and the best companions I have ever had.

That video is wicked! Years ago my team was in Norway for Winter Warfare school. It was unseasonably cold and one of the cadre did that. It iced - didn't vaporize. That's friggen' wicked cold!

 

[BigH2OChief]

Slow rainy day down her in SAN so spending it with the pups and hanging with my girls. “Happy wife – Happy life” so they say.

Time to do some research & planning for this project. I was going through notes and sponsor contract agreements from our last big purpose build... looking for a relationship we can recycle for this build. Rolled a doughnut. Unfortunately, its ‘Apples & Oranges’ (or Overland Truck & Street Car). This last big project was 10 years ago but feels like yesterday. It was a 'Team Car' built to support the San Diego County Firefighters Endurance Sports Team. We bought the car and built and used it to support extreme sports trainings, races, wellness and teen safe driving events. In its lifetime it was all over the U.S. and featured in the media, the San Diego and LA Auto Shows, a variety of Conferences, and more endurance sports race events than I can remember. The Car was fully tricked out by Toyota TRD and had a bunch of sponsor support based on its mission.

When we managed the Team Car, I’d say the most memorable event was the ‘Tour of Duty Ride’. 2,600 cycling miles in 29 days. The Team Car provided chase for an international team of cyclists from the U.S. & Australia. Riders were comprised of active duty and retired Military, Fire and Police from the two countries. It was a stage ride from the flight deck of the USS Midway in San Diego across the country to the USS Intrepid in New York. It was one of the most memorable experiences of my life and I met some Brothers & Sisters whom I'm still very close to today.

There are so many memories… like riding through a thunderstorm in Sedona, cycling down the strip in Vegas and seeing our faces & bios in lights on Fremont Street, bombing to the bottom of the Hoover Dam at 40 mph, a private tour with the Thunderbirds, cycling with the BMC Pro Team on the Tour of Colorado, touring the White House, and arriving at Ground Zero at the World Trade Center on the anniversary of 9-11.

Tour Of Duty Ride

If this build can touch a fraction of Veterans like we did with the Team Car… We’ll be on the X. You all have a great Sunday!