I10 to i5 terrain

The biggest hills going to Tracy are castaic to tejon pass to lebec and there is construction work on the i-210 so expect some delays during the day time

 

If you have the option, May want to consider CA99 rather than I5. 99 is dang near an interstate in that area and is down in the flat parts of the valley. I5 runs along the west foothills with lots of rolling hills.

I personally would roll North on US93 to I40 to CA58 to 99 and bypass LA entirely, less stress.

Alternate would be: north out of the basin on I15 and catch CA58 over Tehachapi to 99. Less stress on driver and truck than across the basin and over grapevine.

 

Lots of ruts and pot holes.

 

I run I-10 from Phoenix into SoCal and I-5 from SoCal to Washington fairly regularly. Typically California roads suck. I just can't understand why a State that is so automotive centric has such poor quality roads.
Anyway, expect traffic from around Coachella to Lebec. Also, Tejon pass, aka. the grapevine, is one of the more challenging grades. I think it is about the same as cabbage in Oregon. I run them often, usually 78k to 79k gross and they get pretty routine. But, when I started they were a bit daunting. There are ways around that whole Inland Empire, but they add miles. Taking US95 at Blythe up to Needles and then I-40 and US58 over to Bakersfield is one detour around the mess. Unsure how many miles that adds.
Personally, I don't like US99. I almost always divert myself over to I-5 if at all possible. I just think I-5 is a better road to run on than US99.
Lastly, California requires trailer skirts, has a 40' max for tandem length and is 55 in the whole State for trucks. However, NO ONE drives 55. I have seen cops pull over trucks. But, I run anywhere between 59 and 63 and have cops pass me and never had one pay any attention to me. I think at some point they might bother, but they pretty much don't care unless you're seriously speeding. I simply try to blend in to existing traffic speed so I don't make a nuisance of myself for others.

 

Grift. Any time there is a reasonable and necessary government expense the swamp creatures line up for a place at the trough until there's only a tiny trickle of the funds left that actually get spent on the the road and schools. Similar to what's going on in DC right now. There's a $1B bipartisan infrastructure bill that covers roads, bridges, airports and other infrastructure being held up because there's a $3.7B "infrastructure" bill that covers day care, free high speed internet, free community college and other things that have nothing to do with infrastructure. CalPERS (California Public Employees' Retirement System) doles out $26 B/yr. MGD spent $100 B on high-speed rail. That's where the road money went.

 

You know CA has a 55nmph speed limit for trucks. Good luck doing 550 miles.

 

Unless you must go into LA avoid it. From Barstow go over Tehachapi pass to Bakersfield then either 99 or I-5 up to Tracy. I live in CA and NEVER go into the LA basin.

Yes the speed limit is 55 in CA but you can safely run at 61-62 without any problems from the CHP. Just make sure you're going 55 in construction zones.