Any one interested in a few pics re our 17000k trip across Canada and the Us?

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As in the title, we will be back in Oz after being over here since early June.
We bought a 24 ft motorhome a 2008 Ford E450 with a 2010 Coachman Freelander body.
Storing it in my bro in laws shed for the winter and plan to do a few more K down the West coast next year.
We drove across Canada to the Maritimes, got to PEI and Nova Scotia but not Newfoundland.
Came home thru the US.
Im into cars so here's a few pics of them plus the road trip and critters along the way.
Will post more if there's any interest when I get back to Oz later this week.
Thats me at the Henry Ford Museum putting the gas tank in a model T.
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Yes that is a Tas front plate on the camper.
Really had the US customs guys guessing.
You only need a rear in Alberta.
H.

[RoyG]

I've toyed with the idea of doing a similar trip to yours, but focusing mainly on Canada, Alaska, and maybe some of the way down the West Coast of the USA if time and funds permit. So, I'm very interested in learning more about your trip.

I'm also interested in learning about the practicalities of a foreigner (an Aussie) with no Canadian residential address, buying, registering, insuring, and eventually selling a motorhome in Canada. And, did you need to get a Canadian Driver's License, or were eyou able to use your Aus license ?

Anyway - looking forward to seeing lots more phots etc of your trip when you get home.

Regards,

Roy

[nrb]

Like the pics,have visited Canada twice now on the west side ,loved the place.people with similar values as ours.
We will visit again to see the some of the east,but not not in the winter.
I'll look at your pics ,thanks:2tsup::2tsup:

[dai sensei]

Definitely

[BobL]

Definitely

:2tsup:

[crowie]

Absolutely please, more photos.....thank you...cheers, crowie

[Pat]

Henry, keep them coming!

[george mavridis]

yes please, keep them coming

[Sawdust Maker]

Nah

oh ok but we get to criticise if they are blurry :p

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I'm also interested in learning about the practicalities of a foreigner (an Aussie) with no Canadian residential address, buying, registering, insuring, and eventually selling a motorhome in Canada. And, did you need to get a Canadian Driver's License, or were eyou able to use your Aus license ?

Anyway - looking forward to seeing lots more phots etc of your trip when you get home.

Regards,

Roy[/QUOTE]

Hi Roy,
I'm nearly up to speed with the grass and paperwork. We bought and licenced in Alberta.
We had no probs buying the motorhome, my bro in law Bill is good mates with a local dealer and it had only 8660 ks up. We did use the farms rural address which is RR3.
Im not sure how critical this is, I did buy an old Mercury wagon (with imitation wood panelling) back in the 90s and did similar I guess. We did get international drivers licences because my son had had a hassle when registering a spare family vehicle and had to get a work reference from a mate of Bills. I think your Oz licence is good for up to 6 months?
We met an Oz couple in the 'States and they had bought an RV in LA and driven coast to coast but didn't have any where to leave it on returning to Oz.
The registering of the vehicle is a bit different to here, very cheap but the catch is it's dated to your surname? Ours starting with B made it March you have to be aware of this.My son forgot and copped a few hundred dollar fine for driving an unregistered car. He was insured but had forgotten that the rego ran out just before he was flying home.
Anyway a few pics from a shakedown trip to Wetaskawin car museum and flooring detail a young family friend had done on his folks lake house. The baby skunks were in driveway.
H.

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Thanks for the feedback Pat and Crowie, let's a bloke know someone is out there.
We finally got on the road and did a short hop to Drumheller where we stayed at an RV resort? Really expensive with lots of entertainment for kids which of course we didn't need.
We used a major secondary road which was ok and I felt ok driving the camper.
My wife said when she was a kid they came over the same car ferry and instead of going to the dinosaur museum all the kids just wanted to go back and forth on the ferry. Which of course her dad did. Fuzzy shot of some gophers right at the side of the road going off the ferry. This a classic bit of badlands with a huge trove of dinosaur remains, we'd been to the museum with the kids about 15 years ago so just hit the road for Saskatoon the next day.
H.

[crowie]

Canada is a place I'd like to visit and driving in the camper-van seeing what you're sharing makes the longing more so...

THANK YOU for all the photos... cheers, crowie

[Christos]

I just saw this thread and yes please keep the photos coming when time permits.

[RoyG]

We bought a 24 ft motorhome a 2008 Ford E450 with a 2010 Coachman Freelander body.
H.

Just wondering - the Ford E450 that you bought - is it diesel or petrol, auto or manual, and what sort of fuel consumption do you get out of it.

We are currently planning a one month trial motorhome trip in British Columbia & Alberta in 2015, prior to maybe lashing out and buying a motorhome for a long stay trip in 2016. Most of the rental motorhomes that I've looked at on the web in Canada seem to be based on Ford E450s fitted with the huge Ford v10 petrol engine and an auto transmission - I hate to think how many bucket loads of fuel those things would drink every kilometer/mile. Interested to hear your thoughts...

Thanks,

Roy

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Just wondering - the Ford E450 that you bought - is it diesel or petrol, auto or manual, and what sort of fuel consumption do you get out of it.

Thanks,

Roy

Hi Roy,
It is an auto on gas (gasoline).
Terrible fuel consumption tween 7 and 12 mpg depending on how lead footed you are.
Gas was $1.10 or so in Alberta when we came home most we paid in Canada in the boonys was about $1.40. The Canadian dollar is basically on a par with ours.
In the States we were paying a bit over $3 per gallon. The US $ was about 10% more than ours and the US gallon is smaller than an imperial gallon, about 3.8 litres I think.
It is a C class able to sleep 6. Two in a very comfy queen bed at the rear, two above the drivers cabin and two on the dining table after converting it. There was only Joyce and myself so we had heaps of room. I was keen on a B class without the over cab bed and a more streamlined shape but the bed was the dining table conversion and was obviously not comparable to what we had for comfort. It was fully fitted out with a just big enough shower, basin and loo. Fridge and freezer,cooktop and oven plus microwave and rangehood.
It had air con which we only used a few times and a gasoline fuelled furnace which my wife liked to take the chill off before getting out of bed. We bought a fan to stir the air up and dry the towels which we hung on a line back of the driving cabin. It also had a built in gas generator which we only used a few times but I had to dismantle and clean the elec contacts a few times to get it to start when we needed it. The stove was propane as was the fridge (3way?) we only refilled this twice. Had to shut the tank off when on ferrys.

On the drive across to Saskatoon we saw a major storm but were lucky and it didn't come our way. It was the only dangerous looking weather event on the trip.
We stayed at a nice city run RV park in Saskatoon for a few nights and I rang a mate who was busy the upcoming Emma event but once he cleared the decks we stayed on his acreage just out of town. He has an old farmhouse and workshop/studio plus a large quonset ? his son Mark does makes the turning tools and other metal stuff. Whilst Mike was busy we spend a morning at an Indian site where the rivers had carved a hidden valley in the plains, very well done and the were doing an dig whilst we were there and had the various layers sectioned down a metre or so.
We visited the Mendel gallery and the Saskatchewan crafts council gallery downtown where they had a great hand made book exhibition. I went back to the Mendel with Mike and he scored a heap of ply they were chucking out, it was all going well until we left about 30 sheets of it across an intersection on the way home. Everyone was pretty laid back a young
guy even brought out some traffic cones from a servo whilst we reloaded Mikes pick up.
I used Mikes bandsaw to cut a piece of ply to raise the floor in the camper as the seat was too high so my right heel had been off the deck whilst using the accelerator. I was using the cruise control in the country but around town that was not on.
H.

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329614329613329615329612Pic of Mike using his Oneway lathe.
We visited Jamie who was recovering a to home after a very bad ironpress.
He did an article recently for Canadian Woodworker.
I first met Jamie in '84 at GKB's workshop in Oakland.
We also visited the workshop/studio of Clint Neufeld who makes fine porcelain sculptures.
Look him up on the web, his stuff is amazing and shows what a bit of support can do.
H.