Travelling with a large RV

[Jim.Allison]

My navigator had me travel to a destination via a scenic shortcut about 10 miles in distance. Turn were an issue in that there was no option to turn around, once on this trail I was committed. Then the dips all had to be negotiated. This is before we left the pavement onto the dirt. Then there was the water crossing on the dirt road that had 12 inches of water in it, after 30 minutes of probing with a stick, I determined it was safe to proceed. Then ultimately there was the 1/2 mile james river crossing that we came to. We had to survey local drivers that came through every 30 minutes or so about the river crossing as I could not turn around. My choice was to build a turn around or go across. Finally an old timer came through, I trusted him and his analysis. I proceeded through the river. My rig never got wet and the RAM never slipped in the river. I was lucky that day.

The moral of the story, is that exploring should only be done with the TV not the rig. What we thought was a shortcut was an all day ordeal. I could have explored that 10 mile scenic shortcut twice then hooked up and stayed on the main road to the next destination.

Live and learn.......Im not sure that if I would have had a map that I would have listened to the information.

 

[JanAndBill]

Does the atlas show details of bridges clearances and widths on 2 lane blacktops as well as interstate? I used the good sam planner for a trip from Chattanooga to dahlonega and came around a turn on a mountain two lane to see a warning sign of low clearance ahead. There was no notations of this on the route information from good sam and It definitely made my heart jump. We cleared by about an inch but I would like some source of planning material so I can make the choice if that is something I want to face, (at the point I knew about the low bridge there was nowhere to turn around, we would have had to back up on mountain roads for over a mile), not leave it up to some computer program that won't let me adjust height restrictions.

Being a Motor Carrier Atlas, it shows clearances on roads which are in the National Network (Truck travel), can't remember on the others. One thing you need to remember on all clearances is that just because it says 13'-6" clearance doesn't mean it ACTUALLY IS 13'-6". If they just repaved for example, you may have less. Same thing on overhead wires. Telephone companies are notorious for failing to obey clearance restrictions. Over the years our trucks found many of them.