Absolute positively the worst road ever
What is the worst road you've ever traveled and why? A couple of years ago we were leaving Las Vegas, NEW MEXICO trying to get south to I-40. Our GPS put us on Hwy 104. Trusting our GPS (never agai...
Forum Discussion
Worst Road, or Most Towing Unfriendly?
The absolute worst road I've ever seen was I-10 in Texas.
About 7 1/2 miles from Orange to the Louisiana state line. In April 2018. The cracks in the asphalt were so bad that a 5er got a wheel stuck. Took 3 1/2 hours with the interstate shutdown for a crane to come in and pick it up to put on a lowboy. Trying to pull the wheel out of the crack detached the axle from the frame mount.
But by Oct 2018, it was passable as the construction had moved to the other side of the freeway.
Permanently bad road - In northwest New Mexico, the entrance road to Chaco Culture National Historical Park from US Hwy 550 to the park entrance is 21 miles. About 1/2 of that is badly washboarded, barely maintained dirt roads across what is posted as BIA land. The remaining 10 or so miles is just a bit of the dirt scraped off the rock by a grader. At least an hour for that part of the trip. Down and through the dry wash is scary because you cannot see around the stuff pushed off the road by the grader after flash flooding. Of course absolutely no cell service is you have a flat or other problem.
I've driven Hwy 104 from Las Vegas, NM, but wasn't towing. Didn't seem especially bad to me. However a person's comfort level varies from person to person and road to road.
I was raised towing 25' ski boats frequently along the tightest, curviest stretches of Arkansas Highway 7 before I got my driver's license at age 16.
The most RV Unfriendly Road I've towed since going full-time in 2014 was CA-36 out of Red Bluff, CA west to US-101 in Fortuna (rock slides had blocked US-101 completely north of Garberville, five on 298 were making it a 9-10 hour one way trip). Much like you described NM-104. Many CA residents on this forum have told me that is impossible to tow my 62' total length truck and trailer across that road. I didn't find it exceptionally challenging. But it was the only place where I've had to stop twice for 30-45 minutes each time to let my brakes cool down.
But there was very little traffic. When someone came up behind me. I would stop on a fairly straight section and wave the past. Had to get out a couple times and tell the folks it was okay to go around me. No shoulders so no way to pull over.
I know my right is big and slow. Frustrating for anyone driving a living, or just wanting to get some place. I got much more time than money, and always do the best I can to let them pass me.
However, I NEVER, EVER, trust a GPS to plan a route for me. I tell the GPS the waypoints I want to use, the route I want to take. If I had planned the normal route out of Las Vegas, I would have taken US-84, unless I wanted to stop at Conchas Lake. Then I would have taken NM-104, expecting a long slow drive.
The absolute worst road I've ever seen was I-10 in Texas.
About 7 1/2 miles from Orange to the Louisiana state line. In April 2018. The cracks in the asphalt were so bad that a 5er got a wheel stuck. Took 3 1/2 hours with the interstate shutdown for a crane to come in and pick it up to put on a lowboy. Trying to pull the wheel out of the crack detached the axle from the frame mount.
But by Oct 2018, it was passable as the construction had moved to the other side of the freeway.
Permanently bad road - In northwest New Mexico, the entrance road to Chaco Culture National Historical Park from US Hwy 550 to the park entrance is 21 miles. About 1/2 of that is badly washboarded, barely maintained dirt roads across what is posted as BIA land. The remaining 10 or so miles is just a bit of the dirt scraped off the rock by a grader. At least an hour for that part of the trip. Down and through the dry wash is scary because you cannot see around the stuff pushed off the road by the grader after flash flooding. Of course absolutely no cell service is you have a flat or other problem.
I've driven Hwy 104 from Las Vegas, NM, but wasn't towing. Didn't seem especially bad to me. However a person's comfort level varies from person to person and road to road.
I was raised towing 25' ski boats frequently along the tightest, curviest stretches of Arkansas Highway 7 before I got my driver's license at age 16.
The most RV Unfriendly Road I've towed since going full-time in 2014 was CA-36 out of Red Bluff, CA west to US-101 in Fortuna (rock slides had blocked US-101 completely north of Garberville, five on 298 were making it a 9-10 hour one way trip). Much like you described NM-104. Many CA residents on this forum have told me that is impossible to tow my 62' total length truck and trailer across that road. I didn't find it exceptionally challenging. But it was the only place where I've had to stop twice for 30-45 minutes each time to let my brakes cool down.
But there was very little traffic. When someone came up behind me. I would stop on a fairly straight section and wave the past. Had to get out a couple times and tell the folks it was okay to go around me. No shoulders so no way to pull over.
I know my right is big and slow. Frustrating for anyone driving a living, or just wanting to get some place. I got much more time than money, and always do the best I can to let them pass me.
However, I NEVER, EVER, trust a GPS to plan a route for me. I tell the GPS the waypoints I want to use, the route I want to take. If I had planned the normal route out of Las Vegas, I would have taken US-84, unless I wanted to stop at Conchas Lake. Then I would have taken NM-104, expecting a long slow drive.
