I don’t think I would worry about the bears, freakin, normal or otherwise. In my state, we had a state park that was overrun by deer. One solution was to selectively shoot the deer to reduce the herds. However, the environmentalists protested. The naturalists then brought in bears to scare off the deer. It didn’t work–the deer overpowered the bears by 3 touchdowns.
Art, too bad the owner didn’t see fit to give you and your son a heads up about the vehicle burning oil like that. OR did he buy the Tahoe sight UNseen?
Definitely a warranty job. No more dead battery? Good. Keep your fingers crossed.
I guess he would be excited about what he’s doing. Make a little bread and see the sights along the way. Once in the Yukon Territories he’ll see a big difference in the lay of the land.
It flattens out and the trees start to get smaller.
Bears, deer, elk and moose and fox too. He’ll probably wished he’d taken a camera. (or did he?)
I think he’ll do just fine and it’ll be a good experience for him.
“One of our regulars here may be willing to part with some local wisdom of that area. Am I right Cougar?”
The cat just got clued into this thread.
Sorry I can’t help too much about advice on the Al-Can highway. It has been a lot of years since I have been on it but I don’t think there will be much of a problem. The roads have been improved a lot since I have been on them. Watch out for the frost heaves on the Alaska side of the boarder. I’m sure this will be a great trip that will bring a lot of good memories in later years. Hopefully he has a camera to take some pictures while driving up.
Glad to hear the TSBs covered the issues and will be taken care of.
As promised, a final report. The Tahoe arrived in Anchorage last night. Plenty of travel adventure, but no more mechanical problems. Regarding the oil consumption, my son mentioned something about pitted valve stems. No info on the charging system issue. Recall that the dealer in Billings said there were recent TSBs on both problems, and that they would be fixed under warranty. In any case, it’s the owner’s problem now.
One interesting travel story. Crossing from Montana into Canada he was delayed for an hour for a very thorough drug search. It seems that smugglers favor the big SUVs, and my son’s not being the owner probably increased The Authorities’ suspicion. They even drilled a small hole in the “undercarriage”, assuring him that it would not harm the car. (I vaguely remember stories about dope being hidden in hollow frame members. In all, especially with the owner off in Europe during the trip, if it had been myself I would have been worried about having been set up.)
Thanks for your help, support, and encouragement.
Yeah, like your US counterparts, they’ve tightened up at the border crossings.
Glad it all came to a good end.
One more update, mostly for Roadrunner.
Son returned home today (via air). The Tahoe is at a dealer in Anchorage. They expect to have it THREE WEEKS! They are not sure what they are going to do. I did a Google search on “tahoe technical service bulletin oil consumption”. This link looks like it matches the info I have:
http://car.justanswer.com/questions/1cysr-2007-danali-xl-using-oil-every
Again, no info on the charging system.