Well, I have a deposit on some property up in the mountains and the question of an access road into the property has come up. Specifically how much of an grade can I expect the coach to be able to pull going up into the property. I have plenty of room to lessen the grade to some extent, but with more roadway, more money. Anyone with experience?
I know we did what was listed as a 9% grade in New Mexico. From a dead stop we were only able to get up to 20 mph but we made it to the crest in about 1.5 miles
I have no idea of the grade but we were going to a campground and never got out of first gear and we were roaring up the hill moving at the fastest I could go about 5 mph. It was steep and I was a bit worried coming down as well but full retarder and 1st gear got me down too. Now if there was snow on the ground it would not have been passable. It was in NE PA and in the mountains. As long as the approach angle is ok you can make it up most hills slowly.
Mine was paved but if it was gravel I would be going that slowly too and yes the retarder does not work that slow.
Getting to Brown's Park in the corners of CO, UT, and WY requires what they say is a 17% grade for about a mile. Propane trucks "washboard" the surface. Corners are sharp enough to slow you down and require honking to "clear" the lane. Gravel will roll out from under you if you get too slow. Another way in and out requires 55 miles of terrible gravel road. We will never camphost there again, but it was nice being right on the Green River and giving tours of the place. Some of the history included a hideout for Butch and Sundance....
Consider:
Edges of roadway may not support the weight of our RVs, so hug the inside and let other vehicles pass you on the outside.
Grade is a consideration, but surface condition is a more critical feature of the road for traction. Strange things happen when at large angles as the weight is no longer evenly distributed. Steering is overdone when going downward and the opposite for upward.
Camber of roadway and dips and humps on a "rustic" road.
Good luck. :o
I think the steepest hill I've ever taken a motorhome up or down is the one between our house and the main road. I wonder what the grade is.. walking it and seeing how close the pavement is to eye height at its steepest when you look ahead straight and level, it might be something truly silly like 1 in 3? Glad it doesn't do this for any significant distance but it's more than enough to ground our rig if there's any snow at all.
What I am going to have to watch out for is the sense of invulnerability that our new to us U280 gives compared to what we had. It's just so darn capable and comfortable that it's easy to forget it's 36' and 25k. So I think I'll just memorize your words on ths subject, Lewis, just add them to my list of things to do to stay on the road...
I have never been on an improved road that was a problem to my FT. The worst I got into was the road in the Colorado River Canyon in NM. The pavement ended at the bridge and a washboard road then went up to the top of the mesa, I could see that many feet above the roof was a U Curve sign, turns out that this road was recommended for high clearance vehicle only. No place to back out or turn around. Washboard was so bad that the TV fell out of its mount in the dash. Five miles or so later of dirt,rocks and washboard we reached pavement. Nice scenery though. :)
Gary B
Two lane roads can be much steeper than the interstates. We climbed to over ten thousand outside of Taos and just made the summit without toad and with a very light load. Was thinking we might have to turn around and back up to the summit. An approach to Jackson, WY, was steep but speed was limited by the radiator not the power.
Our driveway is a quarter mile long and so steep, we have to back up it. Creeping down, I have to shift to neutral as the service brakes won't stop it with it in first gear. Makes you check the air pressure twice before starting the decent.
Foretravels (ratios may be different model to model) with four speeds have a fairly tall first gear but reverse will climb almost anything in a pinch.
Pierce
^ Whooooaaaaa....by comparison I guess my driveway just has a bit of a slope to it now :0
I won't even drive my coach on dirt roads because the engine is in the rear and pulls in dirt kicked up by the tires, but that's just me. I hate driving my car on dirt roads too, especially if there's another vehicle in front of me kicking up dirt. I have a Honda dirt bike on my back bumper that's specifically built for dirt riding and that's what I use.
Scott
I've been both ways on Utah 12 between Torrey and Panguich. Mostly 6%-9% but there is a 1 mi section listed at 12%.
No problems either direction, although of course one has to control temps and gears.
Torrey to Cannonville is also a thrill on UT 12 (called "the spine" or "the ridge").... George isn't much of a fan, as you can hear his comment in the video below. I recall there's a sign posted for the 14% grade (found the photo on a blog post):
Running the Ridge, Highway 12, South of Boulder, Utah (http://vimeo.com/25739138)
A recent forum thread asked, what is the maximum grade anyone has driven? I posed that to some folks, what is grade? Most thought it the angle. I found instead that it relates to distances and vertical rise over that distance. In essence it is slope. Thus if a road were to climb as high vertically as the distance it went, it would be a 100% grade. (run divided by rise). So if you go 1000 ft but rise in elevation 80 ft, that is a 8% grade
To save you some effort as to angle equivalent, and using algebra, you can look at the table they presented in this web site. In their example a 10% grade was 17.6 degree angle. A 45 degree was a 100% grade.
Maybe there is more to it than this, but this satisfied my curiosity.
Gradient, Slope, Grade, Pitch, Rise Over Run Ratio Calculator (http://www.1728.org/gradient.htm)
Thanks Mike - Always wondered about that.
Never took a coach up it but there is a road from where I am from (Yorkshire, UK) in Esdale that is 1 in 3 that's 33%. Got hairpin bends as well. Supposedly the Romans built it originally. Great sense of humor those Italians!
Keith
Keith, if that's in Lake Country I think I have been on it. Rock walls on each side and about 10 feet wide.
I gone both up and down the Oak Creek Canyon north of Sedona pulling my truck with my motorcycle on back. Also went up thte mountain range east of Austin Nevada on Hwy 50 (Lonliness Highway in America, filmed "Easy Rider" on this highway) in a rain, sleet, hail, lightning and snow storm....had all the events. Worst yet a friend of mine was driving....and....it was his first time behind the wheel of ANY RV, had about a 100 miles experience until the weather hit and impossible to change drivers! Needless to say, it was a "White Knuckle" experience!!
Lock A CG (ACE) Cumberland River N of Nashville. Leaveing and entering you climb and drop to the river approx .75 mile of grade 1st gear each way. Short but impressive and nice riverfront CG. Josh
Kent,
I found a YouTube video of it. Up and down on a motor bike. There is a road in Wales that is a 40% grade. And the roads into Port Issac (where Doc Martin is filmed) in Cornwall are also very steep and narrow as are most North Cornwall roads.
Keith
Hardknott pass steepest road in England UK Europe riding motorbike in Lake District (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xJCqS9cWMg#ws)