With nearly two months of vacation time to burn, ex-Class 7 racer-Darren Ballein takes to the famous Alaskan-Canadian Highway for a 10,000 mile road trip. He will soon embark on this trip relying upon the powerful Dodge 4WD V-10 truck set up specifically for this trip! He and his dad, 80 year-old Bill Ballein, are set to hunt for moose in the great American frontier.

August 2002- Here it is the first week of August and some kids are dreading their return to school in only four weeks. But this big guy, Darren Ballein, an ex-Class 7 desert racer and retired BFGoodrich Communications Team member is preparing for a trip of a lifetime.

"The last time I went to Alaska, I had just graduated from high school in 1977 and then again in the following summer in 1978. I'm ready to go back," Darren said. His passion for adventure is obviously led by his dad, Bill Ballein, who is an avid Alaskan adventurer, having traveled there 20 times or more in the past 50 years. Bill is 80 years-old, Both are heading northeast to hunt big game.

Leading this adventure enters the powerful Dodge V-10 4WD truck. With BFGoodrich 315-75R16 All-Terrain KO tires on the pavement and many other goodies, Darren and Bill are ready to go. A couple years ago, Darren decided it was time to give up his Chevy K-5 Blazer sporting many off-road aftermarket performance features, basically a full pre-runner, in order to tow a travel trailer. With 20K in cash in his pocket, he visited Chevrolet and Ford, neither of which could show him a truck that he was looking for.

Oh yeah, he could plop down his wad of cash and order the specific truck, but no one had something even close in stock. That is until he rambled across a local San Diego Dodge Dealer. And the next thing he knew, he was test driving a Dodge V10 4WD.

From that moment on, he knew that truck was his. Soon afterwards, he replaced the stock skateboard tires with huge BFG 315's KO's and the rest is history. This truck is outfitted with aftermarket front coil and rear leaf springs from Rob at National Spring Inc. in El Cajon, California and Bilstein 7100 Performance Shocks. With this set-up, Darren finds cruising in the dirt, a walk in the park. Of course, sometimes he pulls the big travel trailer and other times a small utility trailer. For this Alaskan adventure, he opted for the smaller utility trailer. From experience, I know those hills in Canada and Alaska, and they are real hills with seriously steep grades.

This 1999 Dodge V-10 4WD truck will lead the way from San Diego, California to Fairbanks, Alaska for a father/son hunting trip. Darren and his 80 year-old dad, Bill, will put this Dodge 4WD through the paces. Darren anticipates to guzzle nearly $1500 dollars of fuel during his complete trip. Can you say, "Think Diesel, next time."

Darren's Dodge V10 4WD is clean inside and out. This bad ass ride certainly would have hailed salutations from The Captain at any Show n' Shine contest. That will soon come to an end as the Al-Can highway dust settles in the air vents and places we can't imagine. That purty-while-shiny truck will be a dirty mess come mid-August as those summer rain storms pound against this Dodge. Darren has pre-loaded the utility trailer and is set for take off soon after the beginning of the month.

He constructed two bunks beneath the rear of the camper shell to protect them from the elements of the great white North. Mounted just inside the rear door is PT-10 Power Shot tank from www.PowerTank.com. The compressed Co2 will come in handy when running air-tools or airing up your tires after coming out of the dirt, sand or mud. And there will be plenty of that in Alaska.

It's about 4000 miles, give or take a few hundred, from San Diego, California to Fairbanks, Alaska one way. Fuel consumption is estimated to be A LOT OF DAMN GASOLINE. This Dodge V-10 guzzles about 10 miles per gallon at cruising speed, so the major cost of the trip is obviously the gasoline to roll them to Alaska and back. But the real question is, "Do these adventurers have to come back?" Well, of course, because reality rears it's head. Without the never-ending support of his woman, Diana, he'd be hard pressed to make an extended trip like this happen. Women, you can't live with them, you can't live without them, and well you know the rest boyz! Kudo's to his woman for giving him the green light on a major trip like this. Off-Road.Com staffers can attest that Darren is a graduate of the ORC WAM Academy and he has been practicing this art for many years!

Providing protection from the elements on this adventure is a new very light weight Gem-Top cab-high camper shell. Darren built custom bunks inside the camper shell to catch some well-deserved shut eye after a bazillion hours of driving.

As Darren tells it, back in the day, he was a BFG Communications Team Member also known as, "BFG4," on the radio airwaves. After ending his racing career, he stayed involved in the race scene and regularly headed out to the desert to provide race support. BFG Communications is a vital link to the safety and recovery of many stranded desert racers.

In the early 1990's as desert racing began to peak, racers demanded race promoters to provide a safety link in the case of emergencies on and off the course. In talking with Darren for a few hours, it's obvious this guy cares about people. He was regularly taking off many days from work in order to fulfill his race support obligations, and to this day, he still has the deep interest in racing. As an avid Dale Earnhardt fan, his house was covered with the legendary driver's memorabilia. The walls in his race-office were adorned with years of the desert racing photographs dating way back. Darren has many stories to tell.

With twenty years in the racing scene, Darren is no stranger to a well stocked tool box. In preparing for this trip, he's been through his truck too many times to count. While visiting his garage, this ORC staffer noticed the old Off-Road.Com sticker on his toolbox and it was well worn. Appropriately, it was parked next to the "EAT ME" sticker!

The 1999 Dodge V-10 4WD is loaded and ready to go. Darren will be accompanied by the infamous Fridge/Freeze refrigerator freezer on his trip to Alaska. The Fridge/Freeze will be put to the ultimate time test as these two hunters head for the frontier. With the ability to make ice in the field or on the road, or just to keep that food and beverage cold, Darren and Bill will test the rugged features of the Fridge/Freeze in the Alaskan wilds. The ability to keep food and beverages cold is important and we will see how the Fridge/Freeze holds up to any encounters with a grizzly or two.

Darren plans on running the Fridge/Freeze during the entire trip off a deep cycle battery that will be recharged every so often. In recent testing, we were able to soak five days out of an Optima Red Top battery before we had to recharge it.

Darren's eyes lit up when we showed him the Fridge/Freeze on the tailgate of the Deserttank. It's rugged features of diamond plate aluminum and the indestructible lid are quite a scene when you first lay your eyes on it.

Our plan is to test the Fridge/Freeze from Alaska to the tip of Baja in less than 6 months. At the conclusion of this trip we will have succeeded and so far it's passed every test with flying colors to say the least. Fridge/Freeze Rocks!

Stay tuned for updates about this reader's adventures in Alaska!

Desert Bull