Fancy Gap

Post prompts a story.

Many years ago I agreed to chaparone a spring-break trip of a group of college students headed to Winston-Salem to do some Habitat work. They rented a 15-passenger van, and were determined to do an overnight drive to get down there from western NY state. By the time we got to southern Virginia I was asleep in one of the back seats. It may have been 3 or 4 in the morning, I don't know. At any rate, I was in and out of sleep and not paying much attention to where we were. And then I smelled that smell. No; not that smell. The smell of burning brakes. That got my attention, and I woke right up. The driver and the shot-gun passenger were discussing it. The shot-gun guy recognized the smell, as I did. He was asking the driver if he was riding the brakes. Well, it turned out it wasn't us. We passed an 18-wheeler that was burning them up. That was my introduction to the Fancy Gap hill. I'll probably never forget it.

-Speak

I went both north and south through the gap last year pulling a 6500 pound TT with a 3.5 Ecoboost F-150. Going north, up that is, was effortless--65 mph in the left lane. Truck was in 4th gear running about 2500 rpm. No sweat.

Going south, down, was also easy--came down in tow-haul mode and tapped the brakes only twice, once because traffic had slowed down.

I've been through it a few times in various towing configurations. Once in an 07 5.4L Expedition towing a very small 8'x10' covered trailer with not much weight. No issues. The last four trips through have been in my 05 Superduty 6.0 diesel and had absolutely no problems with our 8K TT. This is our first year going South with my 2015 Superduty 6.2L gasser. I'm not really looking forward to it and am strongly considering staying on I75 to avoid this hill.

I might add this and Tom N will verify I'm sure. Some times when the wind is out of the east it can get sort of gusty and give you a scare as you hit open spaces in the road. The good thing is the uphill lane is the one usually affected and you will be going slow. The downhill (inside)lane is pretty much sheltered so there is not nearly as much turbulence when the gusts hit. Pretty much just a hill, just longer than some

Thanks everyone.

Driven this route many, many times from Pittsburgh to Florida. Never a problem but follow the speed limit signs. I'm 23,200#s and gas. I gear down and tap the brakes every mile or so if my speed increases. Going up I gear down and stay in the truck lane. There are some huge truck runaway ramps going down. Enjoy the view. It's a great one. Fog is the biggest problem in the area and there have been many multi-car accidents so if it's very foggy pull off for a rest or drive very cautiously. There's a FlyingJ at the bottom of the hill at the I-77 I-74 split.

-Tom, W3TLN

My son took this photo following me in the car.


Pilot Mountain, of Andy Griffith fame, in the distance.

We do it every year. With our DP we set the exhaust brake and start at 60 MPH at the top. When we had a gas rig we started at 45-50 MPH using the "tow-haul" mode. If we got up to 55 I would slow down to 45 and let build to 55 again. I would always slow down in 10 MPH increments and NEVER Ride the brakes. It's not a bad hill if you use common sense.

We've been up and down Fancy Gap many times, both with our previous Ford 460 V8 powered 33' motorhome and our current Ford Triton V10 powered 34' motorhome, towing our car in both cases. Going up and down with the older coach was a bit more of a strain, requiring a lower gear going up and a heavier foot for stab braking going down than our current coach. In both cases I turned off O/D going down though, to gain additional engine braking. I've driven worse hills...

We have done it many times with no problems. Just go slow and use low gear. The 18 wheelers will set the pace. As mentioned previously, fog can be a problem so we try to hit the area around mid-day.

It's been about a year since I was last on it, so my memory may not be too exact...but it's nothing too extreme. I think going south it's mainly a long downgrade (several miles) at a fairly steep by interstate standards but not extreme slope. (Fancy gap itself is actually in Virginia, very near the border, by the way.) Googling shows that the grade is between 3% and 5% for about six or seven miles. Here is a page with some nice summary tables on the grades.

In my opinion, more concerning than the grade is the dense fog that sometimes forms in this area...sometimes very dense, catching people who are driving too fast by surprise and occasionally leading to massive destruction-derby sorts of pile-ups. They've now installed (within the past year) a variable speed limit system based on the fog conditions.