Any mountain passes on this route...from FL-Montana?

[bclan6]

Hi,
New RV'er. Taking kids cross-country. I'm concerned with steep mountain passes and strong winds and looks like a lot of construction on google maps. Here are the stops we would like make. Please let me know of any passes to steer clear of. Any websites that list them all? I've seen a couple that left out ones that I knew of. I don't want to get in a bad situation. Please be as specific as you can regarding the location so I can look them up 🙂 If I need to choose an alternate route (i.e. going through the southern states, then up through Utah and ID instead) that's ok too.

Class A 34', no tow yet but possibly will have small SUV by then.

Florida-Chattanooga-Badlands National Park-Mount Rushmore-Bighorn National Park-Yellowstone-Glacier Park-Mesa Falls.


I75N-FLorida-GA, then it turns into I24.
I24W-Tennessee, Kentucky
I64, then I70 through Missouri
IA27N-Missouri/Iowa
I90W-Minnesota, South Dakota to Mount Rushmore
Hwy 244 W/US 16W/ I90W through Bighorn National Park
Bighorn to Yellowstone. then US 191N/US 287N
us 287N to MT-359 in Madison County,MT.
I-15N/US-89N to Glacier Park-Glacier Route 1 Road to Going-to-the SUn-Road
I-15S to US-69S to US-20- Mesa Falls

I hope this all makes sense and I can get good advice if I need to take a different road to avoid a big pass, major construction issues or strong winds. Anything to see on the way is welcomed advice too! Thanks so much for your help!!

[2gypsies1]

bclan6 wrote:

2gypsies wrote:
The majority of interstates have a max of 6% grade but a couple others come to mind:

I-70 west of Denver:

Eisenhower Tunnel area around MP215 at 11,000' elevation has a west downhill of 7% for about 6 miles

Vail Pass on I-70 westbound also has a 7% for 7 miles

Just take your time and it'll soon be over. 🙂

Highly recommend that you purchase the 'Mountain Directory for Truckers and RVers - West Edition'. It come in East, too. We used it all the time because we enjoy secondary highways and 'most' mountain roads don't bother us. The first biggie is the hardest! Then you'll be a pro.

Do you mind my asking why you prefer to use secondary roads vs. interstates?

The secondary roads offer much more scenery, neat towns to explore and much nicer campgrounds than found along the interstates.

However, we're retired so we don't mind slower travel and we don't put in long driving days - 4 to 6 hours, sometimes less. We rarely made reservations so when we found a place we wanted to explore more, we stopped. We never had problems getting campground sites and we always prefer public parks to RV parks. It worked for us but everyone is different.

If you're still working and have limited vacation time then most folks travel interstates just to get there faster.

[bclan6]

2gypsies wrote:
The majority of interstates have a max of 6% grade but a couple others come to mind:

I-70 west of Denver:

Eisenhower Tunnel area around MP215 at 11,000' elevation has a west downhill of 7% for about 6 miles

Vail Pass on I-70 westbound also has a 7% for 7 miles

Just take your time and it'll soon be over. 🙂

Highly recommend that you purchase the 'Mountain Directory for Truckers and RVers - West Edition'. It come in East, too. We used it all the time because we enjoy secondary highways and 'most' mountain roads don't bother us. The first biggie is the hardest! Then you'll be a pro.

Do you mind my asking why you prefer to use secondary roads vs. interstates?

[WyoTraveler]

Down shift into lower gear. as speed increases to max engine RPM brake hard. Bring your speed down 15 to 20 mph then let up on brakes and allow engine to brake. When engine speed again reaches max repeat hard braking. The hard braking gets the job down without over heating the brakes. Riding brakes lightly over heats the brakes too much.

[bclan6]

Great info and advice here! I appreciate you guys putting up my newbie questions 🙂 I'll definitely be buying that guide and look into modifications for the handling.

[DrewE]

If yours is a gas-powered motorhome, you downshift to get decent engine braking. If it's a relatively new Ford chassis (with the five speed transmission and tow/haul mode, rather than the four speed with the "overdrive off" button), you can put it in tow/haul mode and it will automatically downshift on downgrades when you use the brakes, among other clever transmission programming adjustments.

Don't be afraid of letting the Ford V10 rev at a high speed. It's perfectly capable of doing so without harm, even if it sounds like it's about to shed its parts in all directions. The automatic transmission and engine computer programming won't let you dangerously overrev the engine under any normal circumstances. (I suppose backing down a very very steep hill at high speed you might get it to overspeed in reverse since it has no gear to upshift to...so avoid doing that.)

If it's a diesel without any sort of engine brake, you don't get a whole lot of engine braking by downshifting; that's the nature of diesel engines. (It's because they don't have a throttle plate in the intake, so there's no real restriction on the air pumping through the engine, or so I understand things).

If your coach is rather squirrelly on the road, look up the "cheap handling fix" or "CHF" in these forums (if applicable to your chassis). It's reported to work wonders and costs essentially nothing—just a set of adjustments to the suspension.

[2gypsies1]

The majority of interstates have a max of 6% grade but a couple others come to mind:

I-70 west of Denver:

Eisenhower Tunnel area around MP215 at 11,000' elevation has a west downhill of 7% for about 6 miles

Vail Pass on I-70 westbound also has a 7% for 7 miles

Just take your time and it'll soon be over. 🙂

Highly recommend that you purchase the 'Mountain Directory for Truckers and RVers - West Edition'. It come in East, too. We used it all the time because we enjoy secondary highways and 'most' mountain roads don't bother us. The first biggie is the hardest! Then you'll be a pro.

[bclan6]

Thanks for all the responses! Great info here! I used to live in Driggs/Victor/Tetonia, Idaho and used to work in Jackson Hole. That pass is 10% grade. You smelled brakes from everyone in front of you the whole way. That was 14 years ago though.

I don't have an aftermarket engine break. Please forgive my naivety here. Is engine breaking just putting it into lower gear? I'm glad to hear interstates are maxed out at 6%.

I think I'm just freaking myself out too. I am taking a month or so to do this trip, but hope I'm not white knuckles the whole way. I'm way worried about the winds through Kansas and will take the newest route through IO then over to SD.

How do you guys handles these winds and still drive over 55? I'm used to being one of the fastest on the road to now being the slowest.
Drove to Saint Augustine today and it took forever because of winds blowing me around.

Thanks again!

[Nunyadamn]

Make a google map of where you want to go, then copy the link from address bar.

For all of your elevation questions, click the link (GPS Visualizer)

Paste the copied link from google in the section that says "Or provide the URL of data on the Web:"

Select the "Units" you want to see - I am in the US, so I select "US"

Next select the button at the bottom that says "Draw the profile"

[paulj]

Here's a brief geography lesson:

Closest to you are the Appalachians, with the highest, twistiest roads around Great Smokey NP. So by going NW via Alabama will be flatter than via the Carolinas and Kentucky.

There are some hilly areas in northern Arkansas and southern Missouri. On the other hand, most of Illinois, Iowa, Kansas and the Dakotas are as flat as Florida.

There are some minor climbs in/out of major river valleys - Mississippi and Missouri (in the I80/90/94 area).

The Black Hills are first mountains you'll see on I90 - which skirts those hills. But seeing the tourist attractions (e.g. big rock faces) requires driving into the mountain valleys - along with all the other tourists.

The Big Horn Mtns cross the NC part of Wyoming, and the first western mountain range that most eastern tourists see. I90 skirts around the north. US16 is the easiest of 3 routes up and over these mountains.

Yellowstone is a mountain top - so all routes involve some sort of climb. US16 from Cody has a long steady grade, but no worse than the Big Horn piece. Most of the other routes into Yellowstone have more gradual grades (except the NE corner).

The drive from Yellowstone to Glacier follows the continental divide, on one side or other. Going to the Sun in Glacier is the highest, most spectacular divide crossing north of Colorado. It is also the most restrictive. US2 around the south side of Glacier is one of the easiest highway divide crossings.

I90 has several passes in Montana, with the I15 intersection in Butte, a mining town. Mines are located where the ore is, even it is a mountain top.

US89 crosses the small Little Belt Mtns south of Great Falls. It also winds through foothills between Browning and St Marys. So many RVs prefer to skirt this section.

[agesilaus]

WE're going doing the same trip from FL to MT at the end of May. But we are continuing on to Alaska from there. The fact is that here in the flatlands we are at less than 300 ft and St Mary outside Glacier is almost at 5000 ft. And inside the park you find spots at 10,000 or more so you are just going to have to adjust to mountain driving.

Frankly the winds have never been much of a concern. The switchback roads will occupy your attention. I find driving thru St Louis, which as far as we are concerned is the worst city to drive thru, much more stressful than mountain driving. The worst wind we ever encountered in 30 years of taking summer trips was in California around Death Valley. Not the mountains. They get dust storms so bad that the wind strips paint off of vehicles.

So relax and enjoy the trip. Staying on Interstates as other recommend will avoid the worst of the roads.

[Dick_B]

Buy Mountain Directory West to help you plan.

[WyoTraveler]

newk has it right about mountain grades. Use lower gears. You can check out "wyoroadinfo" for current weather conditions in Wyoming. Most states google their state and dot for weather.

[4runnerguy]

As noted, you can't take your rig on Going to the Sun Road. Head around the southern end of the park on US 2. Also agree not to travel too far each day with kids. For the trip you have planned, I would go for any less than three weeks, and that is really pushing it.

[Golden_HVAC]

You are not allowed to take any vehicle more than 7' wide over the Going to the Sun road, perhaps your tow car, or there are several tour services that take people to the various rest areas, and then pick them up on the next bus to take them to the next stop, and back to your campground at the bottom of the hill, either the east or west sides.

I did take the alternate route to from the west campground towards Yellowstone back in 1994, I did not recall anything significant about that drive, but I was used to driving through steep mountains back then.

How many miles are you planning on driving, and how many weeks? That does seem like a really long trip. I recall hearing about a 5000 mile trip that a friend took, and they never really stopped to do more than take pictures! You do not want it to all be 800 mile travel days, and I would suggest skipping Glacier NP, unless you are going all summer! It is just more cliffs and rocks to look at, that said I did go there in 1994 and back in 2006 while on my way someplace else.

Fred.