I purchased from Amazon This book. It has all the tips for driving in western mountains areas. Gives you what to expect on all of 400 mountain passes and Steep Grades in Eleven Western States. Not driving in the mountains very often, this should be very helpful. Where to go and not go. Another book "Mountain Directory" has over 250 Mountain passes and steep grades appears to be the same book. DAN
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We have been using this book for over 12 years and it has been useful in our trip planning. Sometimes it has just been a reference when someone make a foolish statement about the grades found out west and many times we have used it in making decisions about where to go and how to get there.
I'm planning on crossing Teton pass between Jackson Hole, WY and Victor, ID later this spring. What does it have to say about that? :) If IIRC it's a 9% grade. I do plan to drop the toad and have DW follow.
see ya
ken
Ken: What hwy are going on? DAN
@Dan Hwy 22
see ya
ken
I have driven all over the country and in the mountains as well. In fact I live in the mountains on the east coast. Just gear down and watch your temps and air pressure. Stab your brakes and hold it and scuff off a lot of speed. Mountains are easy to drive in if you use your gears and some common sense. I know people fear them and for good reason, but if you bo slow enough you will be fine.
Found It / Teton Pass: 10% grades on both sides of the summit. West bound 10% for 3 miles then 3 to 4 miles of 6 to 7 %. East bound 10% for 5 1/2 miles Hwy 22 west of Jackson, Wy. Use lower gear and you should be able to make it just fine. DAN
Agree with John, he gave me those tips this past summer and I loved being in the mountains in South Dakota and Wyoming. Just go slow and gear down use your retarder but use your brakes to activate your tow brakes once in a while to keep the pressure off the retarder. Watch temps. I found the roads out there in very good condition. DAN
We have found that to be VERY helpful. It just mostly alerts us to what we will find, and be prepared to use the gears and retarder. There are a very few places where we have changed a route, because the book gives you a heads up that the road is "not recommended" for large vehicles or closed in certain seasons. We have found it to be really accurate and give ME peace of mind about what to expect. Major highways are always OK, but some of the secondary routes can be a tad exciting for me. I really, REALLY love to LOOK at the mountains, but I have found that I am not thrilled about driving IN them. Don't do heights.
Ken: This would a great area for a dash camcorder. Cheap one from Hong Kong on Ebay I got works great. Have an enjoyable trip and be safe. DAN
My mantra as a long haul truck driver, "you will go down many hills too slow, but only one too fast". I have been passed by many trucks and RVs descending mountain passes did not hurt my ego. Speed builds energy slowing or stopping converts that energy to heat too much heat will cook brake pads, damage drive trains. What's the hurry, why weaken or damage your equipment? I have seen big rigs burned up on the side of the road and have also seen them on escape ramps. Hurrying down the hill didn't get them to their destination very quickly. As far as secondary or back roads go the grades are usually steeper. The back roads in PA are especially interesting. More onften than not at the bottom of a 10% or more grade there is a small town and an intersection. If you are not geared down you may need more than just a bidet to clean up. ??? :P
Roland
Roland
Thanks everyone. I'm from Colorado. I know & love mountains! I go up slow watching my temp gauge and go down slow watching my speed. 10% is a way steep grade. 8% is about as steep as you'll find on most highways. Not sure if I want to put Big Agnes through that much strain. I can always go south through Swan Lake. Jackson's always a pain in the butt anyway. Humm then I could hit West Yellowstone to miss all that Jackson traffic. That might be the plan. I like Pierre's hole (the Idaho side) better anyway.
That reminds me back in 1976 we drove from Kansas City to Driggs ID straight thru to ski Grand Targee. We got to Teton pass at about 1:00am and driving up I started seeing sparks flying in the road ahead. My buddy and I couldn't figure out what it was when all of a sudden a guy on a flexible flyer went flying past on the road. Pretty soon another one went by. A truck was following down behind them. Turns out the sparks were from the runners on the sled hitting dry spots on the road! To this day don't know if they survived or not but didn't see anything in the paper the next day so assume they made it!
@Dan I have a goPro I use instead.
see ya
ken
We were in that area last fall. We elected to stay on 26 and approach Jackson from the south. The Mountain Directory scared me off going Hiway 22 as did some of the locals. The route on 26 was beautiful and an easy drive. It only ads about 20 miles to the trip. We really enjoyed the area but highly suggest going in the early fall, the campground closed after the first week of October, to see the color changes of the trees and to avoid the crowds. We stayed in the Gros Ventre camp ground with Dave and Nancy K in the National Park. Had a giant Bull Moose stop by for a visit during dinner one night.
Recommend not taking Teton Pass (we have in the Jackson area many times and have seen many accidents down the pass resulting from brake failure. Long long steep grade. We recommend that you go around through Swan Lake.
We came down that grade w/toad in 2nd with the Jake on. Just moderate use of the service brakes with no smell at the bottom. We are shorter and the RAV4 is just under 3000 lbs. but didn't even think about have to go another gear down.
Pierce
When we first got on the road 18 years ago, we had a gas engine motorhome that was happiest on level ground, so we used the mountain book to determine when to disconnect & reconnect our tow car so our motorhome could more easily make it up the mountain. When we got our Foretravel, all the mountains now seemed flat and we could climb western mountains with toad, without overheating engine or transmission. And we never looked at our two mountain books anymore. Life got simpler thanks to our Foretravel.
I agree with you Barry. The FT makes the moutains small both up and down.
My DW and I keep the book handy and consult it approaching an unfamiliar pass. She likes to know the road ahead and so do I. It just makes the trip a bit easier.
Exactly! It is just very nice to know what to expect and when we should be over the parts that require an extra level of "heads up".
When you were going to Jackson,Wy towing what kind of temperature would I expect to see on FT? Thank you John