Height restrictions

[Jerry49]

does anyone have any recommendations what to use for knowing bridge heights while traveling? Any info will help.

[Community Alumni]

We use a Garmin RV760. It has a built-in clearance database and will do its best, when in RV mode as opposed to car mode, to route you around low clearances. You enter your rig's height, weight and length into the unit.

I also installed the Route-1 database for the US and Canada (lowclearances.com) on the same GPS. I did that as a bit of a backup, and the way I have it set up the GPS will start dinging if we're approaching a bridge that is of concern with respect to our rig's height. I have it set up to also show bridge heights that are not of concern, just because I can. 😉

Oh, and also installed lowclearances.com on Google Maps so I can do some quick reconnaissance when trip planning.

[rhagfo]

13' - 6" is the standard for interstates and state highways. If the clearance is less than 14' I. believe that the clearance needs to be posted

[K_Charles]

I don't drive with a GPS, I watch the road. The low bridges have a sign.

[Old-Biscuit]

laknox wrote:

Old-Biscuit wrote:
Our 5th wheel measures 13'4" actual height when hooked yo to truck.

There are no issues when traveling Interstates which we rarely used.

We traveled secondary/back-roads for 7 yrs. of full time travel.
Bridges/overpasses are marked PRIOR to encounter with signage.
Only came across 2 low clearance issues w/o signage far enough ahead to take alternate route in all our travels.

What did we do???

Turned around and went different way. Big Deal!

If you know YOUR actual height you can easily determine YES/NO.
IF in doubt go around. Simple. No GPS required just pay attention.

Campgrounds are more of an issue then Interstates/Highways/Routes.

And yet it's not hard to find stories of lost A/C's or other coach damage from a marked bridge, but where the lower road was re-paved and is actually 4" higher than original. So, you see a 13'6" clearance sign with your 13'4" rig and think, "I've got 2" to spare", then the next thing you know, you're picking your A/C up off the road. I know there are several posts here where people have stated that they move closer to the center of a span on =any= suspect clearance, even if it means blocking traffic a bit.

Lyle

And yet in 7 yrs traveling every week over 100,000 miles rarely on an Interstate I never whacked the top of my TALL 5vr except in a few CGs low hanging tree branches.

Pay attention and dang if you can drive accident free.
And all done w/o GPS which has lead MANY folks astray due to bad data.

Defense Driving....pay attention.......LOOK.......and common sense
Same advise for car, van, motorcycle......and now a days walking due to Iphones/Tablets :S

[fj12ryder]

laknox wrote:

fj12ryder wrote:
Be advised that those 8,000 known low clearances include all clearances below, I believe, 20 feet. Actual clearances that would affect most campers at 13 feet 6 inches number about 1,500. Most of those 8,000 don't affect most travelers.

Do you carry a jack? How often do you use it? Better to have the info and not need it, than need it and not have it. Just sayin'...

Lyle

I'm just sayin' that most of those 8,000 known low clearances don't apply to most travelers.

It would be just as factual, and less attention-getting perhaps, to say that there are about 1,500 known low clearances that will affect the average RV'er. Doesn't sound as scary though, does it? 🙂

I bought into the hype and purchased the data base mentioned. However when I entered my height: 13'6", I discovered that only about 1,500 of those 8,000 low clearances applied to me. It is handy, and it does work, but the 8,000 low clearances mentioned is a bit misleading.

Just sayin'...

[laknox]

Old-Biscuit wrote:
Our 5th wheel measures 13'4" actual height when hooked yo to truck.

There are no issues when traveling Interstates which we rarely used.

We traveled secondary/back-roads for 7 yrs. of full time travel.
Bridges/overpasses are marked PRIOR to encounter with signage.
Only came across 2 low clearance issues w/o signage far enough ahead to take alternate route in all our travels.

What did we do???

Turned around and went different way. Big Deal!

If you know YOUR actual height you can easily determine YES/NO.
IF in doubt go around. Simple. No GPS required just pay attention.

Campgrounds are more of an issue then Interstates/Highways/Routes.

And yet it's not hard to find stories of lost A/C's or other coach damage from a marked bridge, but where the lower road was re-paved and is actually 4" higher than original. So, you see a 13'6" clearance sign with your 13'4" rig and think, "I've got 2" to spare", then the next thing you know, you're picking your A/C up off the road. I know there are several posts here where people have stated that they move closer to the center of a span on =any= suspect clearance, even if it means blocking traffic a bit.

Lyle

[Old-Biscuit]

Our 5th wheel measures 13'4" actual height when hooked yo to truck.

There are no issues when traveling Interstates which we rarely used.

We traveled secondary/back-roads for 7 yrs. of full time travel.
Bridges/overpasses are marked PRIOR to encounter with signage.
Only came across 2 low clearance issues w/o signage far enough ahead to take alternate route in all our travels.

What did we do???

Turned around and went different way. Big Deal!

If you know YOUR actual height you can easily determine YES/NO.
IF in doubt go around. Simple. No GPS required just pay attention.

Campgrounds are more of an issue then Interstates/Highways/Routes.

[laknox]

fj12ryder wrote:
Be advised that those 8,000 known low clearances include all clearances below, I believe, 20 feet. Actual clearances that would affect most campers at 13 feet 6 inches number about 1,500. Most of those 8,000 don't affect most travelers.

Do you carry a jack? How often do you use it? Better to have the info and not need it, than need it and not have it. Just sayin'...

Lyle

[fj12ryder]

Be advised that those 8,000 known low clearances include all clearances below, I believe, 20 feet. Actual clearances that would affect most campers at 13 feet 6 inches number about 1,500. Most of those 8,000 don't affect most travelers.

[laknox]

Jerry49 wrote:
does anyone have any recommendations what to use for knowing bridge heights while traveling? Any info will help.

Route-1 has over 8,000 known low clearances in its database (7,000+ in the U.S. and 1,000+ in Canada), about 4x more than any other book or trucker/RV GPS/atlas. It's a simple POI database can can be imported into all common GPS units as well as Google maps. They've been running a "special" of $75 for USA and Canada, with lifetime updates, for a long time. Can be found here: www.lowclearances.com.

Lyle

[jnharley]

Buy a Trucker's Atlas at a truck stop. Any route a truck can go on, you can travel on the route safely too.

[ReneeG]

Trucker's Guide and overpass, bridge signs. We measured our fifth wheel both front and back, highest point, typed it on a piece of paper, laminated it and taped it to the front inside upper left windshield with another in the glove box for backup. With this, the driver can glance at it. You'd be surprised how easy it is to forget your exact height.

[fj12ryder]

If you're using a GPS you can get low height warning data base. It works pretty well. There aren't really that many heights below thirteen and a half feet in the country, all things considered.

[Oasisbob]

Most are posted. This is useless information if you do not know the actual heigth of your rig. Measure