Vermont Pavement conditions

[s1214]

Occasionally folks ask about the road conditions while traveling. I stumbled across a couple of Vermont web sites that might prove of interest:
VT MAP
Conditions explained

[sleepy]

Silver, you have me hooked... in two words... "boondocking friendly" :B

sleepy

[silversand]

Here is an extract I did of the most recent Class 4 VT road segs (these roads segments are constantly changing and evolving every year; this is the most recent & up to date Vermont Transportation GIS coverage):



...the trick for planning a truck camper Vermont off-road "Rally" expedition, is to include/blend actual actively maintained road segments with these "offroad" Class 4 segments in a way that would allow a hard-side truck camper rig (height/width) to explore/discover. Once the route is identified, I can extract the precise road segments from my GIS software database, and convert them into real GPS files that can be ingested by any manufacturers GPS unit....et voila; a custom truck camper offroad route through Vermont (all boondocking friendly, of course :B )

....now, just to find the time to undertake this Rally project!

S-

[silversand]

s:

You bet it would. Designing a rally not in vermont at one locale, but as a "rally" on the move throughout vermont would be an expedition in itself on back roads (winches may be required) !

...places like enosberg falls, jay, smugglers notch, green mountain national forest, ripton, etc...

...setting something up like this would need heavy planning, a pre-run, etc...

[s1214]

Silversand: When I looked at the Overland webpages, I thought how cool it would be to tone it down just enough to allow TC's to try some of that. It would rival some of the trip reports from out west.

[s1214]

silversand wrote:
....if you play the VT Class 4 road system correctly, one could see and experience something special (something like the old Route 66 but on steroids), traveling on gravel wide enough for a truck camper. However, with a caveat: trees and old bridges could limit certain truck camper clearance (this makes planning a route challenging, but also rewarding!).

🙂

Where my permanent domicile is located in Vermont, there are 3 'main' roads in. 2 are not suitable for TC's because of covered bridges and the low clearance.

[SugarHillCTD]

Don't want this thread to degrade into some political quagmire, but Vermont's neighbor to the east just raised the gas tax by 4 cents- first increase in 23 years for New Hampshire.

And believe it or not there are many here who opposed the increase. They obviously do not drive heavy pickup trucks on our badly deteriorating roads.

[silversand]

....if you play the VT Class 4 road system correctly, one could see and experience something special (something like the old Route 66 but on steroids), traveling on gravel wide enough for a truck camper. However, with a caveat: trees and old bridges could limit certain truck camper clearance (this makes planning a route challenging, but also rewarding!).

🙂

[silversand]

I read recently that Vermont has more unpaved road/miles than any State in the country (excluding Alaska). Can someone verify this?

Gasoline taxes:

....looking again at gasoline taxes at retail per gallon/litre, the US appears to continue to fall behind nearly every country on Earth (with exception of a handful of "oil producing/export countries").

Currently, the US "Highway Trust Fund" is headed for bankruptcy (a metaphor).

Our "Think Tank" made up of members from several countries (Sleepy, being one of the founding members) has discussed this situation at length over the years. Allocating retail fuel taxes to rebuilding road infrastructure is approached in different ways by each country; however, allocating NO money to roads and bridges infrastructure (whichever way the State chooses to acquire the tax money) will rear up and bite you in the a$$, placing the country in a position of "...no possible way to ever catch up" (ie. where only interstates and bypasses are maintained, and all other roads and bridges/tunnels decay into catastrophic condition).

We are learning this lesson in Quebec currently (ie. bridges, overpasses and tunnels are collapsing virtually every year, sometimes killing people; roads in such bas shape, they are costing the average motorist $2000 each a year in unseen but cumulative damage to every vehicle on the road {there is no free lunch! Pay taxes for good roads, or pay enormously for vehicle repairs through the teeth} ).

[jefe_4x4]

"Very tight trails"? That lets TC's off the hook. We need lots of wallerin' room.
jefe

[sleepy]

South of tennessee most roads are in bad shape... a lot are poured concrete in squares like stepping stones... no slab level with a neighbor slab... Jarring to say the least. If I described them like I want too Wayne would be very busy sorting out the profanity.

We as a country can't collect enough takes to repair roads... except in extreme cases.

Tennessee Intersate Highways are in reasonably good shape... same for Kentucky... The interstate highways in Alabama, Mississippi. Louisana, and Texas about shook the Truck camper apart earlier this year,

Then, when you hit the secondary highways every where you get axel breaking pot holes... ripping out your campers tie downs... stressing you caulking.

I try going slower to minimize damage... doesn't seem to work... cussing doesn't either.

I see a lot of people speeding up... may be if they are fast enough they can fly over some of the damaged pavement... I can't tell... we see some of them over and over as we pass them by in the service stations or parked along the road.

We hear rumors that we are going to see huge tax jumps as vehicles get bigger and heavier.

And... I might be smiling when we are at home with our 54.6 mpg Prius... turns out that I fill it up about every 6 weeks... 8.5 to 9 gallons... this isn't fair either...I'm paying very little fuel taxes to use the roads... (I like to think that the Prius is so light that I really don't damage the roads)

The only thing that is working for me is that the 1 ton, 350, 3500 series vehicles are slated to remaing in the "light weight class" for tax purposes... every thing above that is heavy duty... to be taxed like commercial vehicles... heavily taxed... and not just at the pump like the light vehicles.... even on tires, etc.

Some of you might have heard more on this...

Thank goodness I don't seem to have much to worry about with the vehicles that I have registered... us retirees don't like to come up with an extra thousand dollars or more every year just to own a truck... maybe a lot more.

Vermont might ne that much worse than many other states... we have been there too!

Sleepy

[805gregg]

In Calif. we don't have to worry about road conditions, they are all bad, more like a third world country

[silversand]

....great links! Thanks.

I actually put together my own maps of Vermont, using ArcMAP/ArcGIS/map-making software, and the data from: "Vermont Center for Geographic Information", here--> .

Few people outside of Vermont (and many residents) are aware of Vermont's historic Class 4 road system. This road system has spawned a Take-off of the World-famous Camel Trophy global rally, called the "VOT" (Vermont Overland Trophy) here-->. And, the grueling Vermont Overland Rally here--> . The VT Class 4 routes are immortalized as PDF navigation maps, served up through Avenza's PDF Map mobile app.

The VT Class 4 route rallies was conceived as very difficult (not quite like crossing the Darien Gap jungle in Panama, but actually doable by mere mortals) if you are an extremely experienced overlander capable of fording very deep rivers, extreme rock crawling on rocks sometimes as slippery as ice (wet & moss-covered), deep mud, and swamps...it could be the most difficult rally in North America today :E

....anyhow, back to the program: Vermont :B

Silver-