Roadtrippers.com

PawPaw_n_Gram wrote:
I tried to tweak a lot of programs for somewhat accurate drive times, and pretty much gave up.

My formula is 50 mph average towing.

Easy and simple.

300 miles - 6 hours
400 miles - 8 hours

And ignore the drive times given by other programs.

Sometimes I do a little better, some times, I do a little worse, but with fuel stops and rest breaks - 50 mph average works very well.

Exactly right. 45 mph for my family.

I tried to tweak a lot of programs for somewhat accurate drive times, and pretty much gave up.

My formula is 50 mph average towing.

Easy and simple.

300 miles - 6 hours
400 miles - 8 hours

And ignore the drive times given by other programs.

Sometimes I do a little better, some times, I do a little worse, but with fuel stops and rest breaks - 50 mph average works very well.

I've been working on a 1-year, 50+ stop trip (essentially a stop per week). For planning purposes, I actually like the trip planner provided by rvparky.com. The biggest downside is that it isn't mobile-friendly. AND- it isn't the guy's primary web site purpose, but it's a great little tool for trip planning.

I found roadtripper.com to be fancy, but klunky to use.

Checkout my comments on it here:
Route Planning Tools

I use http://trips.goodsamclub.com/ to compare to a trips I create using Delorme Topo North America v9.0. For my trip north from TX to MN this spring, the difference in mileage is 7 miles. The time difference, however, is 12 hours. The difference is because in Topo I can specify what my average driving speed is on the different types of roads I am taking, e.g., Interstate highways, US Highways, State roads, and major connector roads. The Good Sam trip planner gives you a lot of information about campgrounds along the way and I use that to plan my stops. It also shows Pilot/FlyingJ Travel Centers and a ton of other categories under the "Things to Do" selector. Hope this helps.

If you check the numbers given by Google you will typically find it figures an average speed in excess of 60 mph. So basically they are calculating actual time spent on road, not allowing stops for fuel, food, rest stops, etc. Might be valid for short distances with no stops. Might even be valid for longer distances with some stops if you drive in excess of posted speed limits. But generally speaking for longer drives with typical stops I have found it takes longer than google estimates. I generally use google and account for the above.

The other site must use a different calculation technique.