Forum Discussion

silvercorvette's avatar
Jun 01, 2013

Miles or hours how do you plan your day's drive?

I am a firm believer in hours. With unfavorable traffic conditions a person could spent 8 hours behind the wheel and only travel 200 miles. I personally believe that limiting hours is a safer way to be sure the driver will stay fresh and alert. Professional truckers are restricted to the number of hours they are legally allowed to drive.

Unless I have a good reason I have a specific time in mind when I call it quits for the day which can be anywhere between 4 PM and 7 PM. My goal is to be registered and hooked up at a camp site before it gets dark. Usually I'll start searching for a place to hook up between 3:30 PM and 6:00 PM. Sometimes I'll plan on just pulling into a rest stop at about 6 PM which give me time to walk and feed the dogs make a sandwich or heat up a can of something on the stove and settle in and read a book before going to sleep.

Does anyone else try to calculate their hours rather than miles?
  • Agree with wildtoad. We fulltimed for 10 years and split the driving by driving an hour and trading off. We generally left the RV site at 9:30AM to miss early morning traffic and got off the road by 3:00PM to miss that traffic. It gave us time to smell the roses and see the sights wherever we stopped.
  • Combination normally try to keep it down to around the 300 mile mark. This year with us going up California Highway One the longest mileage day is 156 miles while on Highway One.
  • Eycom wrote:
    Used to be, it was Katie-bar-the-door to get from point A to point B. Not any more. Today, I'm on the 10-2-5 schedule. Leave by 10, arrive by 2 and cocktails at 5. Stay two days and repeat. The destination will be there when I arrive... always has been.
    Only one question why wait till 5?
  • We have always subscribed to the 2,2,2@10 travel.
    200 miles by 2:00 pm for 2 days at $10 a night.
  • I ususally think in terms of miles personally. Not unusual for me to go 700 if the destination is a great distance. :C
  • 300 miles is about all I can take.
    We pretty much base all the RV tripping on 300 max.

    Living where we do there is a lot within 300 miles.
    Usually under 200 will get us into the woods, ocean or foothills easy.
  • Some of both, unless we come across something to see. Then it's all out the window.
  • I can do 6-8 hours, then I'm pulling up the Allstays app and checking reviews for a decent CG.
  • While working it was be on the road by 6am and drive till you get there, potty breaks better coinside with fuel stops.
    now retired and like to leave by 11 drive 150 miles or 3 hours +/- and stop around 2. I subscribe to the old saying "No where to go, and all day to get there"
  • 300 is easy, 400 is long, 500 is about max for us. That translates into maybe 6hr, 8hr, 10hr + food stops. We leave early enough to arrive by dinner. Yes if there is traffic expected we leave even earlier.

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