Route from Roswell to fort stockton

If going to Florida, consider taking I-20 across then cutting down to I-10 either on I-49 in Louisiana or US 49 in Mississippi. Either of these routes only add 20-30 miles vs taking I-10, and let you avoid a number of major and semi-major cities as I-20 skirts the south side of the DFW metroplex vs I-10 which goes through the middle of San Antonio, Houston, Beaumont, Lake Charles (with major bridge construction for the the next 4 months on I-10), Baton Rouge, etc.

How is 180 to 87 thru Texas to I-20

Last April I took 285 the other direction from Ft.Stockton to Artesia. Between Carlsbad and Ft. Stockton is the Permian basin with loads of oil drilling and production going on. This means lots of trucks. It's not pretty by any means but I didn't find the road to be all that bad. (but I drive a lot of forest service roads so my scale of good and bad might be skewed a bit!!) On my way back through a month later I took 180/87 to Big Spring. Again, part of this trip is in the oil-fields and not pretty but the roads are not bad. While I-20 does skirt the southern edge of the Dallas/Ft.Worth complex it's certainly not a road you want to be on with a large vehicle during peak times!! Other than that it's not a bad shot going east as long as the weather doesn't **** on you.

By the way, in answer to your original question, 18 would at best be more of the same compared to 285 and, as a lesser-rated road, could be worse.

My last trip down 285 was not quite two years ago . It was so rough that lip was torn off the bed platforn. Never again.

kwright wrote:
I have heard that 285 out of Carlsbad is bad would 18 be a better route down to fort Stockton? Heading to Florida? Would appreciate a quick response if anyone has it? Thanks

I just did the trip last week on 285 from Ft. Stockton to Carlsbad and further northeast to Hobbs to get to a tire shop. Only cost me $175 for the 2 new tires on my toad because the one that was flat/cut was under a tire warranty from Discount Tire. Then there was the extra 5 hours and an extra 160 miles The road is full of craters; you can't even call them pot holes they are so big. The service writer at Walmart Carlsbad told me we were lucky to only have 1 tire go down and having a spare.

I used that road as a justification to my wife for the TPMS that we bought before taking off on our trip.

In February/early March of 2014, we traveled US-285N from Ft Stockton to Carlsbad, and on to Roswell.

I did not find US-285 between Ft Stockton to Carlsbad to be in such bad shape. It must have gotten a lot worse since I used it.

We took 380 from Roswell to Abilene. It was a good relaxing road

They just declared the 285 in that area a safety corridor because of the deaths on the road. lots of oil field traffic!!