Height restrictions once off the Interstate and main HWYs

BigIron

Member
For those experienced RVers: Has anybody come across height restrictions off the main highways/Interstates? I had a second AC installed in my 33CK and after measuring...puts me about 13'-2". The main routes are not a concern since those are marked but going through some towns did worry me. If I see a semi, I feel ok but some of those power lines in town makes you second guess about going through.

There are probably signs before heading into town but that takes habit in looking for it and when/where prior to heading in.

John
 

danemayer

Well-known member
John, there certainly are many places where overhead clearances are less than 14'. There are even a few interstate locations that are less than 14'. For example, I-70 west of Denver, the Eisenhour Tunnel. I think there's an interstate ramp in San Antonio that's 13'6". I'm not sure how many of these exist.

We frequently take the main road through Dalhart, TX in the panhandle, which is a U.S. Route that has a clearance of 13'7".

I use a Garmin Dezl GPS which is setup to route me around any clearance of 13'3" or less. Our measured height on level concrete is 13'1" (vs. 12'11" factory spec). I allow another 2 inches in the profile, to account for resurfacing of the road. I also look for the clearance signs because I don't want to find out the hard way that the GPS was wrong.

Another way to do this with a standard car GPS is to import custom POIs that include low clearance info. But I'm not sure exactly how you get routed or warned if you do this.

Another way is to purchase a Rand McNally Trucker's Atlas that lists all low clearances by state, by route. You look up the low clearances on your planned route and adjust as required.

Backing up and turning around is a lot harder than checking in advance.
 

MTPockets

Well-known member
I use the Rand MacNally Truckers Atlas and the Rand McNally GPS RVND7710 which is suppose to take you only on routes with proper clearance. So far - 6 months of travel = no problems. If an 18 wheeler can go there, so can I.... You do have to get a feel for low hanging tree limbs in campgrounds - Some State & Nat'l Forrest roads & other locations need some trimming, but we've not had a problem to date.
 

TandT

Founding Utah Chapter Leaders-Retired
I am 13'/2" to the highest point on my front A/C. I make it a point not to try going under anything that says it's less than 13'/6".
I leave a little margin for someone's measuring miscue. Plus there could be an odd angle, or a little bounce.

Dan, you have bigger you know whats than me, if you cut it within 2" of your measured height. :)

I also use the Rand MacNally truckers atlas, which shows low clearance points in all states. Trace
 

Hastey

Oklahoma Chapter Leaders
I've ran into this pulling a dozer. The clearance says one thing but after a couple of asphalt redos it might different. I went under a bridge and left paint on the bridge rivets and lost an exhaust stack on a D8. The clearance said 14 and some change, more like around 13-6 (I'm glad Uncle Same owns it) Back roads is where you find this. So after 23 years hauling Army equipment the "rule of thumb" is..if the road looks like it is taken care of and the sign on the Rail Road trestle is weathered and rusty - Check it!
 

TravelTiger

Founding Texas-West Chapter Leaders-Retired
One of the State Highways that leads to Texas Motor Speedway has a low train trestle it goes under, I think 13'. A truck carrying a large cement pipe section hit it, the Monday before the NASCAR race that coming weekend. They were really scrambling to get it fixed!!!
 

back2nature

Well-known member
A close call last month on our way to the Gillette Rally, we were going through Casper, WY trying to find a gas station. My GPS routed us through an older part of town. On the road just up ahead was a bridge with the road dipping steeply down under it. When we were about 100 ft. from the bridge, I noticed a yellow sign on the right that said "Bridge Clearance 13'0". I yelled it to my husband driving and we noticed at the very last second there was about an 8 ft. opening in the concrete wall on the right and we squeezed the truck and BigHorn through it to a very small parking lot in the back of some buildings. It all happened so fast, but we were safe. Now the get out of that tiny parking lot. If we didn't see that sign on the side, we would have certainly done some major damage, especially with that narrow steep dip. Certainly one needs a lot of caution if you ever get caught in an older part of town.

My husband asked what would we have done if we didn't see the sign in time? I said we would have to stop and everyone else would have to just back up. We are not skinning off our roof for a small bit of traffic.
 

recumbent615

Founding MA Chapter Leader-retired
I just learned the hard way that structures are not the only thing you need to worry about when towing. Low Limbs can do some damage to the Rig. I was lucky and it only hit my AC unit.
 

TeJay

Well-known member
Here's a funny story that happened to a friend of mine back about 1975. He even thought it was funny later. He was traveling in upper MI in his Winnebago. They went down a side road to a camp ground and checked clearances before they entered. Everything was fine. So why check on the way out??? Well on the way out they caught some wires with the AC unit. It had snowed and the plow pushed the snow off the main road onto the side road and raised his exit attempt. That story has stuck with me.

TeJay
 

porthole

Retired
I feel ok but some of those power lines in town makes you second guess about going through.

If the "overhead" is not marked it "should" be 14'+

Power lines over the roadway "should" be 18' NEC (http://www.naffainc.com/x/cb2/elect/overheadserviceconductors.htm)
Cable and phone will be lower, but still should be at least 14'

100 degree plus days, you better be careful with the wires, they can sag below the minimum, especially older stuff where poles and supports could have moved.

And if you snag a power line on a roadway, don't let anyone BS you about having to pay for it - it shouldn't be that low.

I have found now with about 20K miles of towing, most unmarked structures are high enough.
Most marked structures are correctly marked.
Most structures that look too low, no matter how they are marked, probably are. Especially older train bridges that have had multiple re-pavings before the milling become popular.

And some are just wrong. We have a train trestle in our town that is marked 10'2". Our ladder truck is 11'5". We have used that road for 30 years - until. One day while returning from an alarm we hit the bridge. Mind you, we went through the same bridge 20 minutes prior.

What had happened was the bridge had been hit by a truck and the "web" was bent down a bit. We actually managed to hit that bent portion, that had a rivet sticking even lower (was an old bridge). The rivet hit the 1" wide portion of the ladder beam. Just a minor dent in the ladder.

Turns out the bridge had always been marked wrong and never corrected with years of re-paving, because at 10'2" it should have kept the trucks at bay.
It is still marked incorrectly, but is now off limits to ariel apparatus.



And you can't fix stupid :cool:
http://11foot8.com/

If you look close at some of the shots you can see where a steel I-beam has now been built in front of the bridge to protect the bridge itself.
 

Bigburd

Member
Found this out the hard way coming home. Got to meet a few neighbors after I tore cable out of their homes. Cable is 2 foot lower than the electric.
 

porthole

Retired
Cable should be high enough as long as you stay out of their driveways.

Something we have found with numerous "wires down" calls. When it is really hot the first lines to sag from the heat are the cable TV lines, followed by the phone lines.
There is a reason why utilities use a wire reinforced CATV line.
Something we have seen with Cable is the support wire starting to separate from the cable, allowing it to sag more then normal.
 

BigIron

Member
ALL,

Wow, very interesting remarks. Especially the National Electrical Code (NEC) and height requirements.
 

Westwind

Well-known member
Had a friend bring home his brand new motorhome, once he entered the side street next to his house his "Jack Antenna" snagged the cable wire for the street. His 3 year old motor home with the old style antenna managed fine. Needless to say the cable company was there that afternoon and the motorhome went back to the dealer for repairs. I was checking the wires on my daughter's street and they look like they are low to me, if they are 14' they are just at it.
 

Hastey

Oklahoma Chapter Leaders
DW and I like to travel the secondary roads and stay off the interstate as much as possible. I recently purchased a atlas at Flying J that has the height restrictions on the highways. The map itself is hard to navigate with because of all the highlighted routes but it does show you what roads are restricted.

Here it is on Amazon for about 4 bucks cheaper than Flying J
 

rick_debbie_gallant

Well-known member
In my sailing days the guy with the deepest draft would be the "point man". We would call him "thumper"!!

We are traveling with "THE BUXTONS and girls". He leads with his "Rushmore", yup they are our "thumper"!! : )
 

hogan

Past Mississippi Chapter Leader (Founding)
You guys were tough compadre's. We use the shoal draft boat as the sounder (with depth finder). Less pulling and tugging that way.
 
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