SHOP Profile: TrailToyz Off-Road Is Your One-Stop-Shop for Alaskan Adventure
For as long as he can remember, Harry Kevin Cilk (Harry to family, Kevin to everybody else) has been trying to race. Bikes or stock cars, desert or dirt—if it involves guts and dust, he’s in. Even today, as the busy owner of Alaska’s largest off-road shop, TrailToyz Off-Road, he fuels that passion by attending countless automotive events all across the country. From the Indy 500 and King of The Hammers, to dirt drags at the local Alaska Raceway Park, Cilk is there—soaking up the white-knuckled excitement that can only be found around roaring engines, cheering spectators, and split-second finishes.
A perk of turning your greatest passion into a lifelong career, Cilk’s hobby fortuitously doubles as business R&D. “This is why TrailToyz is so successful,” he says. “Because I’m involved in all these things across the country and I bring everything I learn back with me.”
Inspiration for Motivation
Most recently, Cilk wrapped up a weekend at the Off-Road Expo in Southern California and only a few days later was in Hurricane, Utah for Trail Hero 2019—a week-long event full of 4×4 rallies, trail runs, rock crawling challenges, vendor shows, and more.
If you’re wondering how an off-road event amid the rocks and desert of the American Southwest can serve as inspiration for an off-road accessories shop tucked away in subarctic Wasilla, Alaska, Cilk assures us they’re more alike than meets the eye.
“It’s really the same brands, just done differently,” he explains. “It’s all about the Jeep now. They’re the most accessorized vehicle in the history of man, so that’s a big deal—it’s our main item at TrailToyz. I have a lot of military customers who love to work on their vehicles but they don’t have big shops and garages, so they love their new Jeeps because they can hike it up, bolt it on, and really make it cool.”
From A-Z
From simple add-ons to comprehensive upgrades, Cilk finds that the Jeep—and the off-road mischief it can get into—also hold appeal for more than just the Average Joe. “Actually, a huge part of my customer base is women,” he says. “In Alaska, they’re off-roading and they love fixing up and accessorizing a new Jeep.” And as the largest aftermarket accessory store in Alaska that carries actual inventory, TrailToyz ensures they have their pick of the crop.
“For the extreme folks, we do the axle swaps, gears, lockers, giant tires—we stock and carry lots of 40-inch tires for the extreme off-roading because, up here, it’s all about mud. We also sell a lot of snorkels—we drive in so much water that we really need them.”
An authorized dealer for big names like Bushwacker, BDS Suspension, GenRight Off Road, MagnaFlow, Skyjacker, ARB, Off Road Evolution, WARN, Smittybilt—and many, many more—Cilk keeps his customers abundantly well-stocked. In fact, he carries half a million dollars’ worth of inventory and, despite the remote locale, boasts a relatively short turnaround (7-10 days) for out-of-stock items.
Jeep’n Alaska
Even though the brand names and popular mods may be similar to what he sees when visiting the Lower 48, Cilk agrees that Alaska does present its own unique challenges. Off-roading in The Last Frontier has—how shall we say it—higher stakes? With over 663,000 square miles, and nearly half of the state’s population residing in the Anchorage metro area, that leaves a whole lotta sprawling terrain that is as untamed as it is breathtaking.
Even amid the U.S.’s ever-tightening reins on public land access, Alaska remains incredibly open. “If you fly over Alaska, you’ll see a trail here and there, but there’s so much room—you just can’t believe it,” says Cilk, himself an Oregon native, raised in Northern California, and transplanted to Alaska 25 years ago when he began work as an ice road trucker.
That geography opens TrailToyz to some different business opportunities than your average mainland off-road shop. “I do wholesale truck and accessories, industrial upfits and parts, oil field equipment. We’re also a warehouse distributor for Vision X lights, which are the best lights in the world, and I actually sell them to Kenworth, Peterbilt, ConocoPhillips, and all of those folks,” says Cilk. (When winter hits, and daylight shrinks to less than six hours, we can really see where high-end, NASA-tested lighting upgrades would come in handy.)
A Reflection of the Community
Such an environment also opens TrailToyz to a certain type of customer. Not just anyone can rough it in Alaska as a citizen, let alone as an avid off-roader. Hell, when summer drops in and Fourth-of-July-celebrating Alaskans can’t see any fireworks, on account of the two months of daylight they must endure, these resourceful people developed a new way to celebrate national freedom—by launching cars 300 feet off a cliff.
In 2018, TrailToyz took the honor of launching the furthest vehicle—a 2000 Jeep Cherokee wearing a big hand with a spring on top. Check out the video below to watch the old XJ do the “Jeep Wave” on its way to the bottom…
“My customers are the real deal,” says Cilk proudly. (And not just in regards to their adventurous, freedom-loving spirits.) “I have a lot of really faithful, committed customers. They call me day or night to come down and get a part or to go out into the woods and fix somebody or recover somebody. They’re a bunch of good friends—they wheel and they go out and recover people who get broke down or stuck where they shouldn’t be. We really support and are supported by all those folks.”
You Get What You Give
Part of that support comes in the form of a nearly 5,000-member strong Facebook group called Jeep’n Alaska. Run by TrailToyz, the page serves as an online meeting place where Jeep lovers can share mods, plan trail runs, ask for mechanical advice, swap parts, or just post funny memes.
But true to Cilk’s passion for racing, TrailToyz is serious about sponsorship. The Alaska Raceway Park we mentioned earlier? Well, that’s Cilk’s local racetrack—and one he’s quite fond of. “I sponsor that track and I work that track a lot; they’re great people. We also hold meet-and-greets at my shop. We’ll get 75-80 Jeeps on a Saturday and bring in my friend who has a food truck—we have a blast doing that. There’s also a big meet-and-greet in Alaska every year around Father’s Day, and we’re a big sponsor of that.”
Add in local off-road, track, and snowmobile racers, a huge annual trail clean-up, and countless giveaways, and it’s safe to say that over 14 years of successful business, Cilk has found a tangible way to pay it forward. And while he clearly enjoys all levels of go-fast entertainment, it’s obvious that grassroots racing has a special place in his heart. “I was always tryin’—my whole life—to race. Every day,” he says, thoughtfully. “I guess that’s why I’m a sponsor of everybody,” he adds, chuckling.
So, if you find yourself looking for a new off-road itch to scratch, consider trying your hand at a little Alaskan adventure. And be sure to stop by TrailToyz Off-Road for some quality parts, useful advice, and a friendly rescue if you get stuck on the trail.
