First Mountain Drive - Advice??

Good points GH. When using your brakes on the way down, the steady pressure thing is to bring your speed down below what you want to be doing by about 5 mph, and then let off the brake. Once your speed comes back up, repeat. Never ride the brakes.

 

I still remember the words of my trainer about mountains every time I find myself on one.

"Don't be stupid!"

Sounds insensitive and demeaning, but he was right then and is still right today. It's sort of an all-inclusive statement if you think about it.

Basically he was saying to keep my head and think rationally about every move I made.

Don't get on the brakes too much, as already mentioned. If I had to guess, I'd say you don't wanna be much higher than 9th gear in that truck coming down a 6% with the weight you stated you'd have. The nice thing about a 13 speed is that you can shift the splitter and have a lot less likely chance to get stuck in neutral.

Another bit of advice my dad gave me that also comes into the fore front of my mind on mountains is to not be afraid of the grade, but you dang well better respect it!

Another thing, make sure you are going BELOW the posted speed limit for any and all curves. This video will show ya what happens if a driver is going too fast around a curve. This was on Donner Pass on I-80. Sadly, this driver didn't survive, which just proves Lilbit's point about the endless number of times you can go down a hill too slow.

Well for some reason the video isn't playing on the post, but if you go to You Tube and search for "truck roll over donner pass" it will come right up.

 

Dan, you are gonna have some pretty good grades whichever way you go here. If you go south on I25 to I40, you will have Raton Pass, which is not too bad, but will give you a good taste of mountain driving. Then on I40 between Williams and Ash Fork, you will have a long stretch of downhill.

From Kingman, you will take US 93 north for a few miles until you come to AZ 68. Do not try to take US 93 on north from here, as you won't be able to go over the dam in a big truck, and the new construction around the #### is not finished yet.

AZ 68 takes you down toward Bullhead City AZ/Laughlin NV. You have a bit of a hairy grade going down here as well. Then you cross the bridge to Laughlin and follow NV 163 up to US 95. That is another long steep uphill pull.

Once you hit US 95, just stay on it to Las Vegas. No sweat, although the last time I was over that, there was construction going on there. About 985 miles for the trip.

Another alternative, would be to go North on I25 to Cheyenne and catch I80 over to Salt Lake, then down I70 to Vegas. But this is waaaay out of your way, and you have some pretty good grades on this route as well.

Should you decide to go I70, be aware that if you are running a high cube, or if you are hauling hazmat, you cannot go through the tunnel, and this means you go over old Loveland Pass. While I personally love this drive, (if it is good weather) there will be a lot of "pucker factor" on it.

Oh one other thing, I used to haul potato chips out of Colo Springs. We could not go over the top on I70 because the vacuumed potato chip bags would burst with the change in air pressure at high altitude, giving you a rather worthless load.

WELCOME TO MOUNTAIN DRIVING!

Take it slow and easy, don't drive "over your head" and you will be fine.

 

Good point here on I40 through Needles. It's a bit further, (About 50 miles or so IIR) but might be worth it.

 

I just learned something new here! I did not know that about potato chip bags!

One other thing that I just remember, if there are lanes that are posted for you to stay out of, stay out of them. There are also usually extra lanes for going up and coming down for the trucks.

 

Unless you're in Oregon. They want you to run on the shoulders there.

 

On the 13 speed I was driving last week 5th gear high would put me right around 30 mph if that helps you at all. Most mountain grades that are steep enough and long enough have a 35 mph speed limit.

 

The ground speed to engine speed (aka mph's to rpm's or gear to mph) ratio will vary from truck to truck. It depends on the rearend gear ratio.

Also, a lot of the Appalacian hills are 25. Monteagle, TN is a perfect example of this. If I'm not mistaken the fastest you're advised to go is 30mph, but over 75k lbs. has an advisory speed of 20.

 

Rember you can never go too slow down a mountain but you can only go down it once too fast.

 

In the words of a wise MGASSEL ...

You can go too slow a 100 times, but too fast only once...

First time I went to BC, i was told this : "If you go up the hill in seventh gear, you are going down in sixth...."

Don't worry about other truck passing you, you have a better chance for survival.

Cheers