*** You all need to see This ***

Oh wait. It's not restricted on the NC side. It IS on the TN side.

 

its an awesome road!!!

We have a Dakota club in Atlanta that has members in the southeast. We all mostly have beefed up suspensions and handled it great, but yes there are some scary curves in there! But, if your into road courses and handling, that stretch of road with all its curves will satisfy your wants!!!

They have a website that used to post up all the accidents that happen there. They have a special police patrol that watches it and makes a killing giving out tickets for people having accidents, turning over cars, ETC for reckless driving

I could not imagine taking a Rig though there though...

 

oh my not a good road for big trucks

 

I would never take that road....

 

Having lived in Knoxville in the past, I've been across the Dragon a few times in a 4 wheeler. Never have met a big truck on it, but I can see where it would happen. It's an alternate to I-40 across the Smoky's into North Carolina. There's also some towns back in there, Fontana and Boone that would have to be supplied, and there's not a good alternative to get to them. Knoxville to Fontana is about 40 miles through the dragon, the round about way going 40 over to North Carolina is probably 200 to 250 miles. Back when I lived there, nobody had thought of running crotch rockets at 100 mph across it although a buddy of mine who came from a Western NC moonshine running family and I had some fun coming across it in pickups once. Since it became a crotch rocket mecca, they've been killing several people a week on that road for some time. It wouldn't surprise me if Tennessee has cracked down on it.

I can see why Tennessee would close it to truck traffic. There's no Tennessee towns to deliver to. The North Carolina side is where the towns are.

Honestly, other than the length of it, it's not much different than some of the roads in Eastern Kentucky. The biggest problem is brakes coming off the mountain because it's so long. Regular Eastern KY Coal Buckets wouldn't have much of a problem with it, but then they are used to starting out at 5 mph going down hill and hanging on. I'd say the biggest problem there (the Dragon) now that it's a tourist attraction is the preppies in sports cars and the kids on cycles that don't have any respect for the trucks and are running too fast to handle what they are driving. I remember once I took a new kid in town across a mountain here in Kentucky to my farm. He'd moved here from Texas. His eyes got big as coffee cup saucers when I hit the ditch coming into a curve to avoid a big tandem with a box on it. He asked why I let him have all the road. I said, "See that on the bed that says "Austin Powder"". That's an explosives truck, he can have all the road he needs and then some. We see wrecks all the time between town and the farm. Hwy 92 between Williamsburg, KY and Pine Knot (I-75 over to US 27). They'll get to the top and accelerate up to 50 mph in the flat section near the crest and find out they've screwed the pooch when they see that 20 mph Right turn just as it drops back down. Some of the trucks don't even have Jakes on them and by the time they get to the bottom, there's nothing left of the brakes.

There ought to be a truck escort on the Dragon if they are going to try to cross it with a rig. Not that it can't be done, it can, and probably is every day, it's just they are going to need all the road available and then some going through the turns.

Skip

 

I've been on that road also. glad i never met a 18 wheeler!!!!!!!!

 

I took my motorcycle down there. Rode it twice. I had about enough of it the second go round. I really couldn't imagine driving it in a truck. I was talking to a driver and two engineers at work and they said that they took a trip with a Kenworth T600 and a 48 foot box trailer down that way and saw it on the map as a short cut. Took them 3 hours to make it through that area. They said that they would never go that way again. The Tennessee side has a sign posted, switch backs ahead consider alternate route. About a mile after that sign you know that your in for trouble when you start going up a hill and you see a 90 degree turn to your left then back to your right.

 

I remember a year or two back, one of the national news stations had a story on this road. I'm glad I've never seen it and I'm glad I never will see it because if I get routed through there, I'll be ######! i'll tell my FM to kiss my ### right on Hollywood and Vine before I ever go through there. That look's like a complete trucking nightmare.

 

I was on a road like that in WA state once. About 5 miles of stuff like in a Roadrunner cartoon, winding your way up to a mesa with apple orchards and a loading facility on top. Very steep uphill, but I was empty. On those curves in which I had to use both lanes, I had my high-beams on and when I would see an oncoming car I'd flash them. I met another truck who was descending, but we were on a short straight-away so I just stopped to let him around the curve. Going back down when I was loaded with apples, I didn't encounter any oncoming traffic at all.