How far can you comfortably tow in a day?

If I did not want to loiter/camp enroute, I would knock that out in two days.

When I am by myself....600-700...I stop only for fuel then.

When I have the family with me, it is a lot less. We moved across country in June, kept the mileage between 280 and 350 on the days we drove. It was great for the kids and great for my sanity. We hooked up fairly early in the morning and was usually off the road sometime between 1400-1600 each day. This allowed for me to have a couple beers after a day in the car with the kids and a chance for them to run their energy out.

Cale

LarryJM wrote:
On really long trips (more than 1500mi) we will try and have a down day for about every 4 days of straight driving, but usually that is not necessary cause we stop for more than a day to do something over that distance.
Larry

This also...we took about 30 days on our cross country. We never went more than three days in a row and we stopped for two days when lingered. I just planned the route accordingly (for fuel and camping). My itinerary was pretty detailed, my wife chuckled and said it was like some military operation. However, we were at every stop on each night on time and every fuel stop (minus one, it went out of business)...I planned the trip six months out...I especially enjoyed it, like a big puzzle game.

Cale

From Northern NY, I make two long runs a year, one to Myrtle Beach and one to Florida. Myrtle Beach is 2 days and Florida is 3. My first day stop is Petersburg, Va, about 500 plus miles for a fairly long run. For Myrtle, the second day without pushing, I'm in the park by 2 o'clock and set up for the cocktail hour. For Florida, Second day has me in Townsend Ga. and the 3rd day, in the park near Tampa by 3, again without pushing hard. The Florida thing got me into the long first day as I don't leave here till January and need to get down the road to find a park open. All works out to about a 450 mile a day average.

Bill

I like towing. If the weather and road conditions are good I might roll 6-700 miles the first day out. Other days 300. I get there when I get there...I try to average maybe 400 miles a day so I feel like I've been somewhere.

B.O.

Wow, you all drive lots of miles in a day. Sometimes we do not even drive a hundred miles. With all the horrible drivers on the road, we find the actual drive towing to be very stressful and try not to drive more than 250 miles per day. We prefer a more relaxed approach.

We just got back from a week long 1400 mile trip. 4 different RV parks. What we found was it really depends on the road you're traveling. The 1st leg was all freeway running 65mph, the 2nd was part freeway and part hwy with lots of sharp curves. The 15-25 mph type. It was only 300 miles but the end of that leg had a nasty 40 mile section where the speeds were real slow. Yahoo Maps says 5:22 for the 298 miles. It took us 7 hrs. 3rd leg was better with some slow curves to start out, then the last 2/3rds freeway. And the 4th leg was all freeway running 62 mph (CA) and Oregon hwys. Almost the same 300 mile distance as the 2nd leg but took 5.5 hrs. I find that 6 hrs is about my max butt time towing the 5'er. In a car it's about 15 hrs. Part of it is I don't like setting up late at the end of the day. Setting up about 3:00 pm seems about right. Gives us time to wind down and eat and relax a bit. We will hit the road around 8:00 am. We like to stay a day where we stop.

If I'm just trying to get from point A to B and have to make stops to get there then I would run those times out longer. I could go 8 hrs on the freeway no problem. Hwy towing isn't the way to make time because too many variables come into play.

IMO age has much to do with distance towing.
When I was younger years ago I towed with one ton DRWs and 15k-18k GVWR equipment trailers (28k-30k GCW) for a living off and on and full time. Racked up over 800k miles and many times ran 750-800 miles before daylight to after dark.
I'm on the plus side of 70 now and simply cannot do that anymore. I find 350-400 miles now and I'm really done.

If you’re talking comfortable I’d say 400 to 500 miles a day. That’s a common trip for me to southern CO or UT. If you figure averaging 50mph you probably won’t be too far off. Of course if it’s mostly freeway driving you can do a little better if you minimize the stops. I find I average about 10mpg less than my common driving speed solo, 15mph if the granddaughters are with us. But I tend to smoke down the highway solo, towing is much slower.

No matter if you are pulling a trailer or driving a motorhome of any size the amount of time on the road should be gauged by the weather, road conditions, traffic, the driver's fatigue level, time allowed for the entire trip and what you want to see over a day's drive.

Our personal choice is to drive no more than 300 miles/5 hours per day, stopping at will to see the sights and take a nap or have a meal as needed. It's just nuts to push too hard, arrive dog tired and not really enjoy the trip.

We have found that everyday brings new challenges and maybe the driver won't feel as energetic everyday so we vary our travel time if we'll be rolling for more than 2 days. We also trade off driving duties, splitting the time as close to 50/50 as possible.

But, the only way you'll know how far you will want to drive is to just get in and go not setting yourself up for such long days especially at 1st then adjust as you go.

RVing/traveling isn't about the destination, it's about the whole journey!