California I-5

Speed traps on I-5 in Ca. All the radar on I-5 is radar in the "bears cars" and "bear in sky" airplanes combined with CHP cars.

I passed through at least 2 speed enforcement officers in CA on this trip. Both were on 101 from LA north. Both were a single officer with radar. Others may have had radar, don't know. And don't most use laser these days?

Years ago I asked a San Jose officer at Starbucks about the radar trap that I went through every day. He politely informed me that they don't have radar traps but rather "speed enforcement". :B But of course the same ticket and they always had customers every day.

Most truckers in CA stay under 63 MPH. At 65 they are pushing their luck and they with their commercial license don't want a ticket. Sure some go faster but not many in my experience.

paulj wrote:
Many miles of Interstate were built with concrete slabs which have tended to shift with use. Often one end tips down a bit, the other up. When a heavily loaded truck tire crosses from the up end of one slab to the next, it drops and puts further downward pressure on the next. The result is a sawtooth surface. If the period of that surface coincides with the RV suspension tuning the ride can be very rough.

I've read that the cause is due to the harmonic frequency of semi-truck suspensions coinciding with the spacing of the gaps between slab sections. Sounds plausible - dunno. Whatever the cause, concrete slab roads in this condition are a disaster. In the past, we had the cords break in a tire on a near new pickup truck in NorCal on I-5. The tire had large bubbles all over it. All 4 tires got replaced under warranty when we got home. On another trip on same I-5, same thing happened twice on the same trip. When it happened the 2nd time, we were extremely lucky to find a wrecking yard nearby that we limped to. They had the same wheel/tire size available and we were able to get back on the road quickly.

The sharp thump, thump, thump is really hard on tires. If I ever encounter a road with concrete slabs like that again, I'm gonna slow waaay down and take a detour if possible, esp. if towing the TT.

The worst road I've seen anywhere on the planet has to be I-680, a highway from hell around the east side of SF. Six lanes of high speed driving with crazy drivers on a non-stop super-rough surface. Our truck & TT were shaking so badly I thought they were going to explode. Not possible to slow down. Wouldn't ever do that again!!

So how can Oregon have no sales tax yet have some pretty decent roads?

Have towed our TT lots in CA and have never seen a radar trap anywhere. On the interstates I hang with the truck traffic at up to 65 mph (due to ST tires). On secondary hwys I drive up to 65 depending on what other traffic is doing. Driving at 55 feels like you're standing still. It gets fun when the semi trucks slow up the hills while I'm able to hold the speed and they disappear out of view in the mirror. Then down other side they catch up and fly past while I hold at max 65. Can be back 'n forth for many miles sometimes... :)

This is all just a scheme to get you all to trade in your RVs for Teslas. :)


https://wsdotblog.blogspot.com/2018/06/new-drone-video-highlights-challenges.html

This is an article about the need to repave another stretch of I5 - a major bridge in Seattle. They anticipate having the money to do a full repaving in 6-8 years. In the meantime they have to settle with patching.

You folks have to look on the bright side -- the roads are so bad that you can't go faster than 55 anyway, so the low speed limit is not a problem at all! ;)

Seriously, I often travel at 62 or 63 while towing and have never gotten a ticket. I wave to the CHP as they pass me.

hotpepperkid wrote:

TANDDANDBIGE wrote:
Add to the RVer's problem is that if you tow anything you are supposed to stay at 55. That means right lane most of the time...…. which sucks. We are going to snowbird for the first time this year and I am looking at any route besides Ca.. It will depend on the weather at first of Oct., altitudes etc.. We just returned from 2 months down to Yosemite etc. and got beat up both on 99 and I5. Not as bad North of Sac though. TB

I dont vacation in CA not even when I lived there for several reason and the speed limit is one of them

I have been driving calif. highways for years with my 5th. wheel. 1st., I use a Valentine Radar Dector $300) all the time. 1 speeding ticket can cost you $300. It will detect radar in all directions 1/4 mile away. Invaluable at night:) 2nd. I drive 63-64 miles per hour all the time and the CHP "bears" have never pulled me over. Most of the big trucks drive 61-62 MPH. I try not to pass 3 or 4 trucks in one move.

In Eureka and just enjoyed Santa Barbara, Bodega Bay and the Redwoods so avoided 5. But with family in Sac 5 will be on the return list.

It's not 5/99 as much as the sticker shock pretty much every time we visit CA.

TANDDANDBIGE wrote:
Add to the RVer's problem is that if you tow anything you are supposed to stay at 55. That means right lane most of the time...…. which sucks. We are going to snowbird for the first time this year and I am looking at any route besides Ca.. It will depend on the weather at first of Oct., altitudes etc.. We just returned from 2 months down to Yosemite etc. and got beat up both on 99 and I5. Not as bad North of Sac though. TB

I dont vacation in CA not even when I lived there for several reason and the speed limit is one of them

Add to the RVer's problem is that if you tow anything you are supposed to stay at 55. That means right lane most of the time...…. which sucks. We are going to snowbird for the first time this year and I am looking at any route besides Ca.. It will depend on the weather at first of Oct., altitudes etc.. We just returned from 2 months down to Yosemite etc. and got beat up both on 99 and I5. Not as bad North of Sac though. TB

profdant139 wrote:
How is it that other states with heavy truck traffic are able to design roads that stand up to abuse? I assume that some truckers are over-weight, despite the scales. That is foreseeable. And I assume that it is possible to pave a road to withstand that extra pounding. But in all my travels throughout the West, there is nothing like the Calif highway system, where the right lane is just trashed.

This is not a political issue -- it has to be an engineering issue, at least in part.

The cost of this mess is not only in terms of ruined tires and suspensions. It has to result in more accidents per mile. A blowout on a big rig or an RV is dangerous to everyone.

I suppose the cause of the right lane being trashed is because that is were the truck are required to run in CA. Other states dont have that requirement as well as they dont have split speed limits either