Mike Darlington has spent years rebuilding rigs, from soft-sided pop-tops to a Class C motorhome. The Alaskan finally split the difference.
Long before Mike Darlington ordered an Alaskan, he spent years rebuilding old campers around the way he wanted to travel. A longtime bike-industry veteran who still races mountain bikes, Mike extends the same curiosity to his rigs. Consider his Chevy Blazer with a vintage Four Wheel Camper replacing its removable rear roof. After a five-year search, he found the matched pair on Craigslist and began restoring it himself.
He drove the Blazer to his first date with Sarah. She took one look and said she wasn’t getting anywhere near “that creepy thing.” Within the week, needing cash to help buy a home, Mike sold it anyway. Two years passed. Then a stranger browsing an old off-road forum recognized the truck for sale on a small dealer lot in Ohio, tracked Mike down, and started asking questions. The two talked for a month before the stranger reached an unexpected conclusion: “I think you should have it back.” The Blazer arrived in Phoenix the day before Mike and Sarah’s wedding, in March 2022 — just in time for their wedding photos.
The Blazer’s return is one chapter in a much longer history — restoring campers, converting a former rental RV to four-wheel drive, swapping engines, remodeling interiors, fabricating parts by hand. Most of his rigs needed substantial work before they could travel the way he wanted. The Alaskan is the only one that didn’t, though he still found ways to make it his own.
Meet Mike & Sarah
Mike lives in Flagstaff with his wife, Sarah, and their one-year-old son, Otto. He has spent most of his career in the bike industry and still races mountain bikes, often building family trips around races, trails, and new places to ride.
Sarah rides, too, and puts in her own miles running. Mike describes the two of them as “constantly on the move,” a description that predates Otto by years — when they set out to cross the country in a converted rental RV, she was the one who built the spreadsheet that became their route.
These days, Mike is a stay-at-home dad, and Otto keeps the pace up without much help: by Mike’s account, he hasn’t sat still since before he was born. His arrival changed the practical requirements of travel, not the family’s appetite for it — they still wanted the bikes, the rough roads, and the freedom to change plans, just in a safer setup to do it in.
Six Months, 48 States
Before Otto and the Alaskan, there was the GNARV: a 19-foot Thor Majestic that Mike and Sarah bought in January 2023 after its previous life as a Cruise America rental. Using a four-wheel-drive conversion kit from his friend’s company, Ujoint Offroad, Mike converted the Ford Econoline-based RV himself and remodeled the interior around how they wanted to travel. Sarah shifted into a remote consulting role at her company, allowing her to keep working from the road.
At 19 feet, the GNARV gave two people and a dog everything they needed while still fitting in a standard parking space. They could pull into towns, trailheads, and crowded lots without planning every stop around the RV.
Their route was just as flexible. Sarah filled a spreadsheet with every town, trail, brewery, winery, and mountain-bike route they had heard about or wanted to visit. Beyond reaching all 48 contiguous states, they decided where to go as the trip unfolded.
They left Arizona in June 2023 and spent the next 163 days covering roughly 19,000 miles. Their first night was in New Mexico’s Gila National Forest, followed by a route through the southern states, up the East Coast to Maine, across the northern half of the country, and down through California before returning to Arizona that November.
Finding the Middle Ground
Six months in the GNARV showed Mike and Sarah what they valued in a camper and what they could leave behind on the shorter trips ahead. With Otto on the way, they began looking for something more nimble for mountain-bike races, weekends away, and family getaways.
Mike had first stepped inside an Alaskan years earlier at Overland Expo West in Flagstaff. The real wood gave it the warmth of a small cabin, without the fiberglass odor he associated with molded RV interiors. Looking for something more substantial than his lightweight Four Wheel Campers but more compact than the Class C, he returned to Alaskan. The 650SI on a 2024 Ram 2500 Power Wagon offered what he called “the perfect middle ground.”
Before taking delivery, Mike prepared the Power Wagon with Thuren suspension, Fox 2.5 DSC shocks tuned to Thuren specifications, Carli and Synergy MFG components, hydro-assist steering, and 40-inch Mickey Thompson Baja Boss tires on Method Race Wheels. Alaskan completed the camper in roughly 10 weeks, well ahead of its four-month estimate. In November 2025, Truck Camper Garage installed the 650SI, and Mike began tailoring the setup from there.
Life With Alaskan
For Mike, the Alaskan hits the middle ground he was looking for: a truck camper capable of reaching rough campsites, with many of the comforts they appreciated in their Class C.
It’s nimble enough to move quickly and go almost anywhere, but has enough creature comforts that it’s almost like having a Class C motorhome.
That balance shows up in the daily stuff. Stopping for lunch at a restaurant on a hot day, the dog waits it out in a cooled camper while the family eats. After a mountain bike race, Mike runs the AC ahead of time, rinses off with the exterior shower, and climbs into a camper that’s already cool. The toilet means fewer stops hunting for a bathroom with a toddler in tow, and the hard sides give the whole rig a more solid, enclosed feel than Mike’s soft-sided pop-ups.
Mike’s work did not stop with the heavily upgraded Power Wagon. Although the Alaskan arrived ready to camp, he still adapted the setup around the family’s gear and routines. He built a custom roof rack, mounted a rear storage box to move bulky items outside, and replaced a row of trim screws around the cabover opening with eyelets. Using carabiners, he clips a soccer-goal net across the opening to create an enclosed play loft for Otto. They call it “pillow mountain,” and it gives Otto room to crawl among the pillows while Mike and Sarah make dinner below. None of it was necessary. All of it makes the camper work exactly the way he wants.
I want something to be capable of the way I want to use it.
Whatever’s Next
This Labor Day, the Darlingtons are headed to Grand Lake, Colorado, where Mike’s family keeps a cabin too small to sleep everyone under one roof — so he, Sarah, and Otto will camp in the driveway, in the Alaskan. Moab is next — one of Mike’s favorite places, and a stop they make on nearly every trip that way.
The instinct to rebuild hasn’t gone anywhere — it just isn’t a prerequisite anymore. Out of everything he’s ever owned, the Alaskan is the only rig that arrived ready to go, which meant Mike could skip straight to the part he’s always liked best: making it his. This time, the modifications aren’t about getting somewhere. They’re about who’s coming along.
Have a Story to Share?
Huge thanks to Mike for walking us through the Blazer, the RV, and everything that led him to the Alaskan he’s got now. Stories like his are what the Alaskan community is built on: people who put these campers to real use and make them their own along the way. Thanks again, man.
If you’re out putting your Alaskan to work somewhere interesting, we’d love to hear your story too — just reach out to [email protected] and let’s chat.
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