Mountain grades

I watched a man in a red madza convertable westbound approaching the mountain pass me in the rain at high speed.

halfway up he was contemplating his crushed beer can car on the inside median against the mountain. The sloped pavement piled water under him, hydroplaned at high speed right off the pavement and into the rock walls. Crump.

Such a hurry, and now have all the time in the world to go no where. The mountain won that round.

 

I've spent alot of time in the mountains, driving, hunting and skiing. You never beat the mt. It lets you pass with due respect.

 

I have a video playlist of some steep grades I filmed. You're welcome to peruse my library.--

Steep Downhill Grades - YouTube

 

I’m doing my first solo run tomorrow (just finished training, first job) taking I-40 from NC into TN. Anything in particular I need to know? We drive auto Volvos.

 

It absolutely boggles my mind that people burn their brakes on Monteagle, but I have to put up with smelling it every time. I understand it was worse back in the day, but there's no excuse now.

I drive a cascadia with a dt12, and it holds at 45mph (the speed limit no one follows) and it holds 80k steady. I've never touched my brakes on that hill. The same goes for cabbage...same steady grade with some curves thrown in.

 

Here's a section of it, 50 miles per hour, trucks right lane only. Hold your lane and speed, be careful in the curves when the supertruckers try to pass you.

 

The Gorge is a nice fairly smooth ride. Keep the engine brake on and stay with the flow of truck traffic as much as you can. Two rules 1. You have to honk in the tunnel. 2. If any trucks fall out in the left lane, jump out there with em. They can only write one ticket at a time.

 

You'd never smell my brakes. I don't know why you say that back in the day it was worse. There were more professional drivers on the road back in the day then there is now. We had less escape ramps and equipment you had to fight to get down the hills. Still most of us did not smoke the brakes because we took the grades slow with the understanding that we may have to stop anytime. I've been down a lot of grades at 25mph with no engine brakes and still have not had to use the brakes up. Today"s truck is much better and if you smoke the brakes it only shows how in-experience the driver is.

 

Yep that's my take. Interstates are no more than a 7% grade. Off the big road when you get those 8-12% grades with hard switchbacks and stuff is what you really need to worry about. Some can take you by surprise even, come around a blind corner and bam steep drop off with incoming traffic

 

Idaho Transportation Department - Low Bandwidth Web - Mountain Pass - Lookout Pass

6%.

It's no steeper than any other standard pass on the interstate.