Thanks Sly, all good advice. We have booked the RV from July 1 for 3 weeks, straight after "school" finishes. Kids haven't been to school since March and teaching from home has been tough. Everyone is itching to get going. We await to see if travel is recommended or permitted from Alberta to BC by then. If not, we have until June 15 to cancel or reschedule till August. We just have to wait and see. A lot can change pretty quickly if Alberta and BC continue to settle.
There can't be much barrier to Albertans coming into BC because those red plates are everywhere you look in the Okanagan right now.
I never did get back here to report. We flew into Vancouver on 12 Dec 19, after a night and day in Narita. That was great but Deep Cove Vancouver was good. Rain light rain, but snow on the hills. We had a Tahoe , with D & S tyres , not happy with that, spoke to locals.. Going to Sun Peaks get Winters, so we did. Dodge Durango (upgrade at lo cost) with good grip. 36 days of everything , 18 ft of snow. Sun Peaks for a week, Big White for Chrissy, Osoyroos, Back to Vancouver, Whistler for 13 days , then wandered to Seattle for a week and 2 weeks at Hawaii. Home just before the virus hit. 8 weeks all up.. So tyres.. Get Winter tyres...we baulked at cost and got the Tahoe, but the locals in Vancouver said get snowflake tyres, so we did.. Not a problem. Alamo, 125 USD for Vancouver airport to Seattle extra. $85 a day plus $10 for the snow tyres. Slipped twice. Did have a slide session in the car park at Mt Seymour , was hard to slid, but had some fun. That gave me confidence. 25 years of driving into Perisher I am yet to fit chains.But Winter tyres over there, Would not think twice. Note Vancouver had 3 ft and Seattle 1 ft , Leaving Vancouver it was -14, Yellowknife -48.5. ( way up north) Not a bad trip.
I agree that winter tyres are optimal, but not essentiual. I've driven multiple times on M&S without problems, especially our last trip where we covered 4000kms including some incredibly precarious conditions. The problem I have with snow tyres is that rental companies can and will gouge and we've been quoted $600 extra just for the tyres (when I suspect I could buy a set for about the same money). Often they will rely on an unwary, nervous renter demanding winter tyres (don't forget they earn commission on every upsell they make). Iys almost impossible to pre-book and guarantee winter tyres, they will at best "make a note on your hire agreement beforehand. My view is that if you happen to score a set on pickup, and its not too much extra, then bonus, but I honestly believe that it shouldnt ruin your holiday if you dont get a set. (*Disclaimer: don't drive like a dick, practice and explore the limits safely*
Alamo were good , $10 a day , on arrival in Vancouver, nice guy we talked, He said 40% of fleet had winter tyres, they found winter the same cost as d & s and BC were moving toward winter tyres on certain roads. No argument form me, I will just get them in future, might as well have it. I agree you don't pre-book, you just allow time in Vancouver to recover anyway.. If theyu dont have it on arrival just pop back. There are people in Oz running winters for up to 3 seasons who live within 500 mile of snow.. In Brissy, I may have to park the car in Canberra.. lol . vs renting and parking at Bullocks or Jindy. We never drove like a dick either! But when in Canada do as the locals do,. Never though trucks on snow or me on snow could easily do 100kmh , very nice. For an extra 360, included in the $85 a day, with no upgrade charged. I am happy with what we got. We will go back expecting the same.
I like the idea of popping back to see if another is available while touring Vancourver. Will keep that in mind. For me all theory going forwards though. I suspect my eyesight won't be good enough for driving any more and Nikki won't drive.
I really think Gareth you will have to hire a driver.. !!>?? Just a little video top get us interested again.
the drive up the mountain and into the village gives me a vary special b feeling. it's starting to feel like we are coming home
Yes I was thinking of you , whne I posted it.. I have a drive in Washington state on a 2 lane road on snow, I have nice footage of that and the COQ when we went over.. I also know how to pronounce that now. lol
The Coq is one seriously impressive drive,..... as is the connector from Merrit into Kelowna. Coquihalla summit is at 4086 feet which is then dwarfed by the Pennask summit on the connector at 5660 feet..... Both are a great drive all year round in good conditions,.... But those with summer slippers on their cars often fall for the trap,.... More than once I've driven through 6 inches of snow on both of those roads,..... in JULY. But the most impressive high altitude road I've driven has to be HWY 45 that skirts around Mexico City..... Average elevation over a 400klm+ stretch is around 6,000 feet and quite a few towns we drove through were at 9,000 ++ feet...... all divided dual carriageway...... now that was some serious road to drive.
Love the drive on the Coq but after last time we will never drive in on the day or day before we fly out, man we dodged a bullet! between hope and vancouver there is a flat straight section, we counted around forty cars off the road! This is after a major accident at the pass which had closed the road for hours in the middle of the night; luckily we left silver star at 6am and got to the pass just after they had cleared the road block, so traffic was moving again. next time we will leave a day or so in Vancouver and just catch the weather window. like @gareth_oau we did some km’s on the m and a tyres and were amazed, in fact so impressed I’m trying to get the Pirelli versions on the new car
I always allow a day or 3 in my departure city before my flight home. I have had too many flight delays and crap roads to have any confidence in connections. It's why god invented Disneyland.
Nothing like ripping into the airport in your ski gear and a quick change and hand basin bath before boarding. Done it a few times.
the most difficult drive Ive had on the Coq was returning to Vancouver in early spring. The sun was out but still low in the horizon, the roads were awash with snowmelt and looked like a mirror, and the trucks were throwing up huge plumes of spray.
^ Those are the days when you can go through a 4L jug of wiper fluid faster than a tank of fuel. Sun reflecting off the road, slush/melt water pooling for aquaplaning fun. All round bad times. As I've said before, beware the temp at +1 or +2, much easier when it's cold.
Funny we actually left the 3/4 full wiper fluid in the boot , Glad it was cheap. After 38 days , I think I added once.
I probably use the Coq about two trips out of ten. It's about 20 minutes faster but I still prefer the more varied scenery and twisty roads of the highway 3/3A route. The time saved is offset by the additional fuel used on the long steep climbs, especially the 30 km/1400 m beast as you leave the Okanagan. Different story if you're in Kelowna or Vernon as hwy 3 adds over an hour to travel time.
What Gore Mutual advises about winter tires Canadian Underwriter https://www.canadianunderwriter.ca/claims/what-gore-mutual-advises-about-winter-tires-1004198144/
This is going to be all very real for me this winter, @main street and @sly_karma. I'll be calling on your local knowledge and expertise!!!
We are expecting you two to trek the Coq and come visit !! Happy to help with anything you need or want to know.
Oh yes,..... There are always those "very clever" people that push their summer tire use way past the edge of the envelope..... Stupidity at its finest as they put all other road users at risk as well as themselves. There needs to be another meme that shows all AWD SUV's from Vancouver piled up in a ditch that thought the term "AWD SUV" means that it's "summer" all year round,... Especially on the Coq.
Village is 1700 m ASL. Snow will melt at village level but upper mountain (1900-2100 m) probably won't be green again until May or June.
It clearly says either full winter (snowflake in Mountain symbol) OR M+S (Mud + Snow) tires from Oct 1 to April 30 in the first graphic. D&S is not a recognized classification in Canada that I'm aware of & I've lived here for 12 years..........
There's actually no such classification as "D&S" anywhere in Nth America.... JustSayin. We run Nokian EnTyre All season (M+S) on our Infiniti QX60 and they do a great job. https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.nokiantires.com/amp/tires/all-season-tires/nokian-entyre/ We don't run full winters because we usually drive down to Mexico right about now and so there's no point...... But we may encounter cooler weather and snow on the passes (like we did at Denver last March), so the all seasons are a great option for us. Plus,..... they are fine if you know what you are doing...... I've seen plenty of people on winter tires think they are invincible and have themselves an adventure in spite of the better shoes on their car.
My Silverado came with Goodyear Wrangler SRA standard, they have M+S on the aidewall which we know doesn't mean anything much but keeps me legal in the Oct 1- April 30 official winter conditions period. I bought it in mid winter and liked the tyres, they were good and grabby on the steep climb/descent to Apex every weekend. I like the smooth quiet ride, full winters are always rougher and noisier. So I just keep them on all year and my 2WD/4WD selector is almost always set on Auto 4WD. I carry a logging chain and pull at least one vehicle out of the ditch each winter. The one and only time I've been stuck so far with this setup was a steep narrow driveway at Apex after a week of melt/freeze conditions in late spring. Best of all, the SRAs are cheap to replace. So many people take them off so they can fit big fancy expensive dirt monkey tyres and rims. Typically I can pick up a set of four lightly used SRA for about $250. New rubber in my size would cost that much per corner.
