How far can you comfortably tow in a day?

[wayfun]

We are relatively new to the RV life style. We have a 28ft trailer and while we've towed it a couple of hundred miles on weekend trips we haven't travelled any long days. Next month we plan to tow it about 1100 miles south to Florida along I75. By car I would typically drive 700 to 800 miles in a day. I know towing at 60 to 63 mph I can't cover that kind of distance. What is a comfortable day range? Can I make that in two days or should I plan three?

Thanks
Dennis

[wintersun]

I think in terms of hours at the wheel and the type of terrain and weather conditions. A strong cross wind is much more tiring for the driver as are situations with lots of hills or steep grades or winding stretches of highway.

I avoid planning a daily drive time longer than 6 hours and prefer to keep it closer to 4 hours or about 250 miles. If I was driving across Texas then I would do a 12 hour leg to get to the other side and I would drive it at night.

[stetwood]

This spring we drove 6100 miles in 31 days. The route was 5100 miles. We should have extended by 7 to 10 days. The longest was about 400 miles. In a few days we will be headed out for a 3350 mile trip for 24 days. That's a more leisurely pace by about 15 miles per day. The first one had scheduled dates to meet, this one has no set dates to meet. We leave by 9 or earlier, plan an hour lunch, see at least 1 site, and stop between 2 & 5. We also plan on staying in one place for two or more days every other stop.

[Scott16]

I plan between 400 to 500 mailes depending on the road conditions. I take a break at, between every 2 to 3 hours, or gas stops which ever comes up first, and check the tires, anything to stay fresh and alert.
Scott

[allen8106]

I once towed 800 miles from Encenitas, CA to Albuquerque, NM, with stops it took me 15 hours. when i got there I could barely walk and my right side from my waist to my foot hurt bad. I will never do it again. My max would be 8 hours.

[DodgeVoltage]

I love to drive and will usually do 800-900 miles per day when I am by myself. I have done almost 1100 in a day and didn't even get going til 9:30 that morning. I almost made it to Oklahoma City from Baltimore before I stopped. Recently did a 3000 mile round trip from DC to Houston. Averaged about 800 per day.

I'm really contemplating getting back into trucking when I retire from the Air Force in a couple years. I love the open road and enjoyed my time trucking before the military.

[frankdamp]

In my case, as DW can't reach the pedals in our rig, I'm the driver. The awful. uncomfortable Flexsteel seats usually limit me to an initial leg of around 100 miles, followed by 30 minutes walk-about to relive hamstring cramps, then another 75 miles or so and I'm finished for the day.

The only day we'll do more is coming home, when we're on familiar roads for the last 100 miles. I'll put up with the cramps a bit longer, knowing we'll be back and the S&B.

[wbwood]

JIMNLIN wrote:
IMO age has much to do with distance towing.
When I was younger years ago I towed with one ton DRWs and 15k-18k GVWR equipment trailers (28k-30k GCW) for a living off and on and full time. Racked up over 800k miles and many times ran 750-800 miles before daylight to after dark.
I'm on the plus side of 70 now and simply cannot do that anymore. I find 350-400 miles now and I'm really done.

Exactly. There are some that are older and retired on here that remark on how crazy it is to drive 500 miles or so in a day, but they have the time to take a slower approach. Many of us don't have the time to do that. Hopefully when I am able to retire and am still able to RV, that I will have that slower pace as well. At 44 years old, I prefer to try and enjoy as much as I can now. I never know what tomorrow brings. I might not be able to do this physically in 20 years from now. I hope so, but I would rather start now and enjoy it as much as possible and get to see as much as possible. My wife was diagnosed with gluacoma. While not a life or death event, it hit her hard at our age. Luckily they can control and slow down further vision loss, but she will not get back what she lost. It won't get better for her in the future, just hopefully maintain somewhat. But she realized that there is a lot of this beautiful country she wants to see. If we were to wait another 20 years to do it all, it would not be as enjoyable for her. I want her to be able to see as much of it as she can and while she can. Same goes with my daughter. I would rather her see as much and learn as much as she does by hand on. I don't want her just learning about places and things in the class room or watching a video of it, I want her to see it in person and touch and feel it. I have a boss who is nearing retirement age quickly. He's lived here his whole life, but he has never been to the Smoky Mountain National Park or even Gatlinburg (which is less than 4 hours away). I couldn't imagine living in a place where something is so great and close by and never go there in 60+ years of living.

[Parrothead_Mike]

I've done 700 miles in a day a few times. We went from SW Michigan to Santa Rosa, NM in two days. That was somewhere over 1,400 miles.

[PatnRich]

Four years ago we went to the RGV, 2200 mi in 5 days. I would not do that now. I prefer 300 to 350 a day, but sometimes do 425 to get to an open cg.

[Allworth]

Three Hundred Twenty Six Miles; Eight Hundred and Forty Two Feet; Nine and a Half Inches.

[oldokie]

We drove over 500 a day for 6 days in a row to get to Oklahoma city form Skagway,Ak. That was in 2003 and I could not do that today.

[Beatfarmer]

I did 669 miles in one day with the TT. It was a long, long day.

[tegu69]

jnharley wrote:
Wow, you all drive lots of miles in a day. Sometimes we do not even drive a hundred miles. With all the horrible drivers on the road, we find the actual drive towing to be very stressful and try not to drive more than 250 miles per day. We prefer a more relaxed approach.

My sentiments exactly. Soon after I retired a couple years ago, we camped from Florida to Alaska and back. Usually left campground by 9:30-10:00 and was almost always off road by 2pm. Never had reservations, except Denali and those weren't made until we got most of the way there. Been there done that on those long days when I was working. (600 to 700 miles a day with three kids)

[colliehauler]

When I had a single cab truck and topper for the Collies I would leave at 6am and would pull into a campground when the temp in the topper would get to 85, usually around noon to 2pm. I would set up have a bite to eat and hit the pool. Now that I have a crew cab it's dawn to dusk. When I retire I will go back to leaving early and pull into the campground around 2pm.

[Padlin]

400 is average, up to 600 when I need to. Average 50 miles traveled per hour, check out about 8, in at 4ish.