How bad are the hills on 81S

81 isn't bad at all compared to 68. Just rolling hills, nothing steep.

 

Not as steep as 68 and overall not too bad, a couple good pulls but those have truck lanes on them, 2 scales. You may want to check restrictions though going in that way, seems I remember some no goes for 53' trailers back in the woods there??? Don't have my book handy or I'd take a look for you! Depending on time of day 95 shouldn't be too bad and less miles that way. If the weather goes bad I'd rather be on 95 as the elevations are better as are the road conditions during storms, just my opinion though!!

Be safe!!

 

I've been to the east many times and traveled every inch of the interstates and never thought any of them are reasons to be alarmed.They're just hills,easy driving.

 

I will give you my non professional opinion till someone else chimes in. From Pa pike down 81 is anywhere from a 1/2 hour to an ? hour longer in time and up to 80 ish miles longer depending on where you cut East off of 81--it all depends on traffic through Philly, Baltimore and Washington.
81 runs down through a valley but you eventually have to run across the Blue ridge somewhere.
I am using Google maps terrain view - If you can get trough all 3 cities way early in the morning i guess that could be a consideration.

 

I81 is nowhere near as bad as 1 68 , from noristown pa , to danville va. is a gravy run

 

some people on the east would tell you otherwise. some even think the appalachians are comparable reason to complain to the western mountains.

 

DC you have to time right. It's all or nothing but it's congested all the way to Richmond. It's more of a night run but if you dodge DC rush hour it's doable. Remember it's backed up in bound in the morning and outbound in the evening just like any big city. I-95 can deal with it a little better than I-66 which is a nightmare.

Turnpike to I-81/I-64/US29 is 44 miles and 15 minutes longer and probably around $30 out of your pocket.

 

Ya I know.I personally never have had any issues with the main drags.But those hwys,stay away from,lol.