Sounds like a great summer plan!
Skeeter,
Hearing about your plans takes me back to '74 when Susan and I spent two weeks in a Jeepster Commando towing a utility trailer made from a '53 Chev truck front end tenting to Alaska from Washington (Lordy...I am starting to sound like a geezer..."I 'member back in 74"...I guess if the shoe fits...
)
On that trip we met a couple at Kluane Lake campground who were pulling a small camp trailer (not an ultralight) with a Ranger (I don't know what engine). I ran into him again a year or so later on the Russian River and he was living in Seldovia. They had finished out the trip in good shape and were still using that Ranger/trailer combination for trips in Alaska. I'd guess that pvstoy hit it just right, gears and patience will work.
We’ve spent a couple weeks in our camper now so we can offer a few thoughts on that. It is comfortable for us. Ours has furnace, pressure hot water and refrigerator…what luxury!…but not necessary (and sometimes not desirable). The pop-up works great. Having the fabric right at your head when you're in the cab-over is a lot like being in a tent. I keep ear plugs handy and use them if we're near roads or the wind picks up. Much nicer than worrying about a tent collapsing on you in the wind though!
In cooler weather I get concerned about the water system, especially the hot water tank, freezing on long drives. We may get a small 12V heater (like some vans and SUV’s use in the back) for those times. If I were to head out in any serious cold I wouldn’t use the water system at all, just drain it and carry water in 5 gallon containers and heat water on a stove.
The propane froze at low to mid 20’s but it came back after I pulled the tank and heated it in the cab for a bit. After the furnace was running in the camper the propane seemed to do OK. That might not be the case in serious cold though and using some other type of heat (or a North Face Dark Star bag!) might be needed. There have been some threads on this forum about using a combination stove/heater that is made by Wallace (I think Toyo makes one too). They run on diesel and a lot of smaller cabin boats here in Alaska use them. They should work at reasonably cold temperatures if set up correctly (though annual maintenance is mandatory to keep them running smoothly and they are fairly expensive). I don't know when you plan to head up The Highway but we've hit heavy snow and cold (but not minus temps, if I remember correctly) weather in both late May and early September, both times just north of Whitehorse. That isn't normal for that time of year though.
If you haven't already, you might want to ask the owner of the FWC in Colorado to do a few measurements for you and check to see that it will fit your rig before you commit. I'd think height would be pretty easy to deal with but some of the older campers are too wide for the newer pickups (usually at the tailgate (?) but I'd check wheelwells too) and it could take a lot of work to modify (I'm sure there are folks on this forum who would be able to tell you exactly how much).
If the FWC in Colorado doesn't work out, you might consider an ultralight trailer. The older ones are usually a "rounded unibody" type fiberglass skin, but there are all kinds of newer designs too. There are some advantages to not having canvas on the sides of your rig when you are asleep in brown bear country, one being that reaction (reloading) time is longer.
I understand that some campgrounds don't allow tents or fabric pop-ups because of bear problems (Llaird (sp?) River is one that sticks in my mind), but you might be allowed if you kept the top down for sleeping. Downside for me with trailers is I hate towing on ice/snow and generally don't like towing at all (and, living in Juneau now, we'd have to refinance the house every time we got on the ferry to go someplace because the charge for the length is so high! Build The Road!)
There's a site called the expedition portal at:
http://www.expeditionportal.com/ . You might want to look it over if you haven't already. If you sort through the chaff you may find some kernels of wisdom and some ideas for other types of campers/trailers that would work.
I'm guessing Alaska uses more commercial pilots than anyplace else in the world. If you decide to stay you might even get to fly a plane with a round engine that sounds like a real plane and that has the tailwheel on the proper end!
Sorry about the length of this monster...hope you find something you can use in all these words.
Duane and Susan