Grand Rapids MI to Las Vegas

[argyll1st]

I'm heading of on a road trip from Grand Rapids MI to Vegas next Monday, I was going to punch in the satnav but I'm aware that sometimes what your satnav says and what you "Should have done" are different, is there anything I should be trying to avoid with a 38ft 5e (10,000 ponds ) and a 2500 gasser ? happy to travel the mountains, unless it gets crazy steep or I'm 6ft in snow, trying to do the trip in 3 or 4 days if possible ( two drivers )
any advice much appreciated

 

[danemayer]

Gas engines develop max horsepower at high rpm, so towing in the mountains will really exercise your engine. It'll be screaming. Also, I seem to recall that gas engines lose quite a bit of power as altitude increases - maybe 30% at 10,000 feet. So the climb up I-70 west of Denver could be quite challenging. I-40 through New Mexico might be a better choice. I don't remember the I-40 terrain all that well, but I don't recall anything like the climb up to Eisenhower Tunnel on I-70, or the descent to Silverthorne.

 

[argyll1st]

Thanks for the info, I thought I was happy enough with the gas engine because when we were running up and down the west coast in 2012 we just couldn't find a ford dealer who had a "Diesel specialist" all we needed was heater plugs fitted for cold starting but they all took one look under the bonnet & said sorry maybe the next dealer could help !!!
when we stayed over in LA it was worse, diesel was almost unseen in most gas stations, I take it there's been a change in fuel opinions recently

 

[JohnD]

Gas engines develop max horsepower at high rpm, so towing in the mountains will really exercise your engine. It'll be screaming. Also, I seem to recall that gas engines lose quite a bit of power as altitude increases - maybe 30% at 10,000 feet. So the climb up I-70 west of Denver could be quite challenging. I-40 through New Mexico might be a better choice. I don't remember the I-40 terrain all that well, but I don't recall anything like the climb up to Eisenhower Tunnel on I-70, or the descent to Silverthorne.

I just made the I-70 drive twice last week (over there and back) with my new 2015 Chevy Silverado 2500HD with the Vortec 6.0L V8 gasser and the 4.10 rear end pulling our 8000 pound 2013 Heartland Trail Runner.

While we didn't set any speed records, my truck easily kept 50MPH most of the way up the big three passes without screaming out the motor.

Of course, I had to take it easy (which is the key to this drive) coming down the other side of the passes.

I wonder what the I-80 drive west of Cheyenne, WY is like as we are thinking of going out to Lake Tahoe next summer to visit my brother with our trailer in tow and was thinking of taking that route?

We've only been as far west as Laramie, WY on I-80 . . .

 

[TandT]

John (OP),
I would recommend going I-80 west to I-15 south. There are fewer climbs and aside from a little possible traffic in SLC, it should be easy wide open driving. SLC to Vegas on I-15 is normally a breeze. Maybe just a slight slowdown below St George due to construction. Trace

 

[argyll1st]

I have driven this road once before 20 years ago so apart from Utah I have very little recollection of the road, my buddy has never been to the US so I'm keen to show him all the sights, after the first post about the gas v diesel I sent an email to the dealer to see how much extra they would need to upgrade me to the cummins diesel motor but they are closed on a Sunday , I find this rather odd because here in the UK 40 of all cars are purchased on a Sunday, salesmen never want to take it off , it's to valuable to them

 

[Bob&Patty]

2X on I 80 rather than I 70. It's better drive and not as steap over the Rockies. You could take I 95 west to I 90 and go through N. Dakota and Montana and hit the I 15 then go south. Now thats a nice drive.

 

[argyll1st]

So I managed to cross from MI to CA without any problems, one if the guys on the trip had asked if we could travel some of Route 66 on our journey as it was on his bucket list, so we headed down towards Oklahoma and in to amirillo TX before I lost the will to live , decided to head north up to Colorado Springs and on to grand junction , the hemi gasser did just fine heading over the mountains , certainly pulled fine and having done the trip in a diesel in the past I'm no longer worried about having bought the petrol rather than diesel.

 

[JohnD]

So I managed to cross from MI to CA without any problems, one if the guys on the trip had asked if we could travel some of Route 66 on our journey as it was on his bucket list, so we headed down towards Oklahoma and in to amirillo TX before I lost the will to live , decided to head north up to Colorado Springs and on to grand junction , the hemi gasser did just fine heading over the mountains , certainly pulled fine and having done the trip in a diesel in the past I'm no longer worried about having bought the petrol rather than diesel.

Welcome to the wild wild west!

Should have given us a shout . . . would have liked to meet up for a cup of coffee!

Our previous trailer was a 1978 Coachman Cadet 24 . . .



We bought it used . . . it was pretty beat up . . . had probably 1000 hail dings on it . . . hardly anything in it worked . . . had lots of leaks from the roof . . . but we had loads of fun with it from 2001 until 2012, when we traded it in for our current 2013 Heartland Trail Runner!

In many ways I miss it, although I would never go back to it after having our Trail Runner!



And everything in it works!

 

[etcmss]

we did I-80 last year going to Utah and met up with snow and big wind in Wyoming. Forced to get off I-80 because of wind and spent the next 2 hours in the back country. The roads were pleasant.. Good luck
Gary