LaVeta Pass

Passin Thru wrote:
BTW/the first time I went over LaVeta was in a 1959 B Model Mack with a load of cows on the old road doing 13 MPH at night. That old Mack would put out 18 inches of flame and belch black smoke but it was a wimp. Spent many night crawling up and down Co NM mountains in that tub. It had holes in the floor, no AC, was 180 in the summer and you got slush in your face in the winter. Slept across the seat if you needed a nap.

Too bad you don't have a photo of that. If you did Hemmings Classic Car magazine does a write up each month on old trucks and there drivers.

BTW/the first time I went over LaVeta was in a 1959 B Model Mack with a load of cows on the old road doing 13 MPH at night. That old Mack would put out 18 inches of flame and belch black smoke but it was a wimp. Spent many night crawling up and down Co NM mountains in that tub. It had holes in the floor, no AC, was 180 in the summer and you got slush in your face in the winter. Slept across the seat if you needed a nap.

LaVeta pass is a wimp as far as tough long steep twisty winding roads with high altitude passes go.
The first time I pulled it was with a old 2500 chevy 5.7 205 hp dragging a 7680 lb 5th wheel trailer.

You sure won't have any issues with the high hp turbo'd EB engine.

La Veta is beautiful. I've run it a lot of times on the old road which was a pain. The new road is pretty straight, 3lane, 2 lanes on the uphill. Go down the same speed you pulled it.

As always, just take it easy going down.

mjames wrote:
I will be pulling a 32' TT from Colorado Springs to Taos NM.LaVeta Pass seems to be the best route.Any issues to be concerned about our justa routine Mt Pass?

As Colorado passes go, North La Veta Pass (it's official name) is not overly difficult. As stated previously, it's steeper on the east side of the pass than the west side. Topping out at just over 9400 feet, there's not as much of an altitude concern as there are with other passes in the 11,000 to 12,000 feet range.

Assuming your tow vehicle has adequate power, I agree it should be no problem. Traveling west bound it is a long and fairly steep climb up the east side. Going down the west side is not as steep. We tow our 5er that way every year. The previous 2007 F350 6.0 diesel was straining by the time we reached the top and would be down to 50 mph or less. The current 2012 F350 6.7 handles it much easier.

Any concern about power and you can go west at Pueblo, over to Poncha Springs, and south to Alamosa. Not as steep that way and still a good road.

no big deal