Dollytrolley Posted March 18, 2015 Author Report Share Posted March 18, 2015 Jeff' Great reminder about depleting the airsupply. One way the "old-stone-age-truckers" guarded against depleted air was to gear down and keep the RPMs up keeping the compressor at peak output. The older mechanical engines were often run at higher RPMs than our modern engines and Jakes have made me somewhat lazy in keeping the RPMs up in the proper range .......sometimes I just apply 3rd position on the Jake when I should really be in a better gear.... Using the higher RPM engine ranges during heavy loading (+105,000K) while descending long grades would allow excess service brake heat to build up so many of the trucks were fitted with +200 gallon water tanks that supplied air-over-water pressure to a spray port on the outer brake drum surface for each drive wheel. It was fairly common to expel 200 gallons of water on an 20 mile grade. For the most part our RV loads are pretty "light" so seldom will heat be a factor but by all means your air warning has a lot of merit (maybe I'll get a bit-less-lazy .....and gear down a bit more...). Good reminder, thanks. Dollytrolley 97 Freightshaker Century Cummins M11-370 / 1350 /10 spd / 3:08 /tandem/ 20ft Garage/ 30 ft Curtis Dune toybox with a removable horse-haul-module to transport Dolly-The-Painthorse to horse camps and trail heads all over the Western U S Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jkennell Posted March 19, 2015 Report Share Posted March 19, 2015 Yup. My truck is older and the JAke doesn't always brake as much as I'd like, so I tend to think about these things more. The actual location I was warned about was Cadillac Mountain in Acadia NP...eehrn I asked about access with the truck, a park ranger specifically warned me they have had some issues with air brake vehicles coming down that mountain. I couldn't really go many places in Acadia--low bridges! No camper at present. Way too many farm machines to maintain. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dollytrolley Posted April 3, 2015 Author Report Share Posted April 3, 2015 One of our favorite routes from I-15 Las Vegas to I-80 is take US 95 North to Tonopah, NV then East on NV-8 to the Tonopah Airport then North on State 376 up the Great Smokey Valley then turn West on US-50 OVER the TOP of a pretty Mtn range then wind down into the great ghost town of Austin Nevada http://www.ghosttowns.com/states/nv/austin.html Just West of Austin you will turn North on NV-305 to meet I-80 at Battle Mtn, NV GREAT drive NO Traffic (US-50 official name is the "Loneliest Road in America") and a Great OLD Ghost Town that still has a few folks, fuel, and food........well cared for ghosts............ The descent from the top of the mountain above Austin is pretty curvy and a bit steep but just gear down to 30 MPH 1# Jake and enjoy the view.... Try it, you'll like it...... Cheerz, Dollytrolley 97 Freightshaker Century Cummins M11-370 / 1350 /10 spd / 3:08 /tandem/ 20ft Garage/ 30 ft Curtis Dune toybox with a removable horse-haul-module to transport Dolly-The-Painthorse to horse camps and trail heads all over the Western U S Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hdonlybob Posted April 3, 2015 Report Share Posted April 3, 2015 A slight right turn to this thread. I had no desire to do the back windy road scenario with my HDT.....If you want that, get a sports car or motorcycle. My opinion is that you can really see the real USA from the "Old Roads", such as the state or federal highways that preceded the Interstates, and usually run parallel to them. In the scenic area of WV, VA, PA, and out West, obviously you can still see awesome sites while traveling on the Interstates....I-68 running thru Cumberland MD is a perfect example, as the speed limit on the Interstate thru there is 45mph Going thru the old towns can be quite interesting also. Jeff-C IL, A good example you can attest to is running Old Route 6 rather than I-80 thru Illinois. Total boring ride on I-80, but quiet interesting and scenic thru Northern Illinois on Route 6. Cheers, Bob 1989 Safari Serengeti 34'Towing a 1952 M38A1 Military Willys Past HDT owner Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dollytrolley Posted April 3, 2015 Author Report Share Posted April 3, 2015 Right on Bob, 99% of the Vegas to Austin to Battle Mtn is very straight road with only the few miles into Austin curvy so it is a great mix but the views are forever stunning! Great bike ride as well... Dolly Report Temps: Today mid 80's clear AZ sky Dolly Trail; Vulture Peak North side Rattlesnakes: Few (3) Gila Monsters: Good crop this spring (5 so far) Dolly: Happy Dolly-moma: Happy Dolly-driver: Grumpy, has to load a TON of Dolly feed and 330 gal of water on the FL today.... Cheerz, Dollytrolley 97 Freightshaker Century Cummins M11-370 / 1350 /10 spd / 3:08 /tandem/ 20ft Garage/ 30 ft Curtis Dune toybox with a removable horse-haul-module to transport Dolly-The-Painthorse to horse camps and trail heads all over the Western U S Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adept99 Posted April 3, 2015 Report Share Posted April 3, 2015 To many to list. My wife is always taking us down curvy, hilly, skinny two lane roads all over the USA. The worst one so far was last summer between Mountain City, TN. and Bristol, TN/VA. 421/34. If you took an HDT & a 5'er over that road, two things - Congratulations on your excellent driving skills, and two, if you do it again, please let us motorcyclists know so we can stay waaaayyyy away when you do it. Met far too many large trucks on 421 (The Snake) and 129 (Tail of the Dragon) that could not stay even remotely in their lane on those roads. Paul & Paula + Daisy the amazing wiggle worm dog... 2001 Volvo 770 Autoshift, Singled, w/ Aluminum Bed - Toy Draggin 2013 395AMP XLR Thunderbolt Toy Hauler 2013 Smart Passion 2012 CanAm Spyder RT 2013 Harley Davidson Street Glide Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dollytrolley Posted April 3, 2015 Author Report Share Posted April 3, 2015 Paul & Paula, Bikes and trucks make a exciting mix on curvy mountain roads for sure..... West of our Bend Oregon home are several mountain pass highways and the least traveled is Hy-20 (South Santiam Pass Highway) and it is pretty steep with lots of 15, 20, 25 mph curves that are fairly narrow two lanes except in two places where the road slides off a cliff a few times each year. Scooter riders love Hy-20 and the only other real traffic is Loooong Log Trucks that tend to use most of both lanes of the sharper curves. The interesting thing about Hy-20 is that even though it is narrow, steep, curvy it seems that the scooter riders and the log trucks understand the "Law-of-The-LUGNUTS".......(he or she with the most lug-nuts HAS the right-of-way)...... The log truckers maintain a reasonable speed and the riders keep a sharp eye and reasonable speed and most years few if any accidents occur on Hy-20 Now just to the North of Hy-20 is the North Santiam Pass Highway Hy-22 and it is a much "improved" and much faster drive and with the "faster better" highway come some pretty nasty wrecks so....... maybe taking the slower curvy roads have some merit at times....... Happy travels, Dollytrolley 97 Freightshaker Century Cummins M11-370 / 1350 /10 spd / 3:08 /tandem/ 20ft Garage/ 30 ft Curtis Dune toybox with a removable horse-haul-module to transport Dolly-The-Painthorse to horse camps and trail heads all over the Western U S Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nolan Posted April 4, 2015 Report Share Posted April 4, 2015 If you took an HDT & a 5'er over that road, two things - Congratulations on your excellent driving skills, and two, if you do it again, please let us motorcyclists know so we can stay waaaayyyy away when you do it. Met far too many large trucks on 421 (The Snake) and 129 (Tail of the Dragon) that could not stay even remotely in their lane on those roads. JoAnn was driving our car up front and called me over the radio every time she met another vehicle. There weren't to many on that road. I will never take the truck and trailer on that road again. There was this one 15 mph switchback that I didn't like and I don't think the truck did either. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bob Cochran Posted April 5, 2015 Report Share Posted April 5, 2015 US Route 191 - Arizona (The Devils Highway) Clifton / Springerville This is where the "Dark Side" really starts to shine.........do a little homework .......find the "sweet-spot" to park the HDT and then unload the Harley, Smart , Jeep or......... and get ready to "twist and turn". U S Highway Adm lists the 100 miles of this route as perhaps one of the most "curve / elevation challenged" highways in N. America. One of the things that sets the devils highway apart from most mountain highways is that this road climbs up, up, up to the top of the mountain range (well above 9,000ft) and then it wiggles along the TOP of the mountain range so..... yes children some sections have drop-offs on both side of the road! Several sections of the road have curves rated at 10 MPH for 6 miles back to back so wear those Nomex driving gloves to keep your handle bars from catching fire.... As I recall the main section of the road is limited to total length of 45 ft and bobtailing the HDT would be a real wheel-twister however at the North (Springerville) end of the road many very nice places will provide world places to bed-down the HDT for the day-trip-ride on the Devil. We used to drive the Devil with a company F250 non-turbo and even empty it was pretty breathless at sustained elevations above 9K but most HDT-Toys have power to spare so should be a pure joy to travel the Devil. Having a bit of a engineering background I tend to look at curve speed limit signs and assume that they are based on some spec but after having the wife yell "slow down, I want to shoot more pictures" and then I look at the speedo and it says 8 MPH I guess the geek that put the 10 MPH sign up never factored in the photo-shooting-factor...... Obviously this road is not a full-up-HDT-5er travel route but as Stanley, Trey, Susan and others have said it is a huge pile of fun to use the HDT to stage at the gate of the attraction and then hop on the toad and let the good times roll....... Cheers, Dollytrolley One comment on this "US Route 191 - Arizona (The Devils Highway) Clifton / Springerville". It has been awhile but I don't think it has changed, There is a tunnel on the Clifton side of 191 that the height clearance is such us with HDT's will not get through. CFheck this out before going as I don t remember the exact tunnel height. I have taken US Route 191 fron St. Johns Az. almost to the Canadian border even through Flaming Gorge with the HDT and was fun but is not for everyone. 2019 Thor Chateau 28E on a Ford E450 chassis. Maybe awhile but will get a new picture forgive one up there it is my old rig. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
4Girls&aMan Posted April 8, 2015 Report Share Posted April 8, 2015 Yup. My truck is older and the JAke doesn't always brake as much as I'd like, so I tend to think about these things more. The actual location I was warned about was Cadillac Mountain in Acadia NP...eehrn I asked about access with the truck, a park ranger specifically warned me they have had some issues with air brake vehicles coming down that mountain. I couldn't really go many places in Acadia--low bridges! We had no trouble at all with Cadillac Mountain - I didn't even know there was reason to be concerned.... 2007 2L Freightliner Century Condo, 14.0L Detroit, QD 60002013 Space Craft Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blz450 Posted April 8, 2015 Report Share Posted April 8, 2015 I agree with Dollytrolly about SR140 in Oregon. A beautiful drive with little or no traffic. Just make sure you gas up before embarking. Another nice drive in Oregon is 205 through Frenchglen and the Steens. And still another Oregon scenic drive (can you tell we're from Oregon?) is highway 62/138 from Lost Creek Lake to Diamond Lake. Most of the way is right along the Rogue River and the scenery is spectacular. Especially if you can spot Rabbit Ears through the trees. If you take 62 south to Klamath Falls it runs along a canyon for quite a ways then you experience the change in scenery from forest to desert. In Wyoming we really enjoyed the drive down 120 through Thermopolis. The road takes you through a gorgeous canyon south of Thermopolis and there are all these signs along the way about what period of geologic time you are passing through. In Idaho Hwy 55 from McCall to Boise has some beautiful scenery. We've done them all in our HDT pulling our 40' fiver. Ahh, so many roads to travel! Fulltiming is awesome! 2005 Teton Frontier Experience 39' 1999 Volvo 610 1988 Suzuki Samurai 2008 KTM 450 EXCR 2009 goofy Weimaraner Attack life! It's going to kill you anyway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dollytrolley Posted April 8, 2015 Author Report Share Posted April 8, 2015 BLZ, Right on, GREAT routes..... Funny thing, just a few minutes ago the wife was looking at the map and said " heck we have not driven 205 thru the steens and Frenchglen since the big fire so we might wander back North that way the wildflowers after a fire are awesome and we can boondock at some of the remote horse camps along the way and that will let Dolly-the-paint-horse munch the sweet spring wild flowers along some of the steens mtn trails......." Life is funny, I'll bet we are the only two groups of people on earth thinking about OR-205 right now and here we are writing about it....... We have 3,000 miles of diesel onboard so it will take a lot of "roads-less-traveled" to make the 1160 miles from Tonapah AZ to Bend, OR into a 3,000 mile "detour"...... We'll start looking at more of those light grey wiggly roads-less-traveled on the map....... Cheerz, Happy travels, Dollytrolley 97 Freightshaker Century Cummins M11-370 / 1350 /10 spd / 3:08 /tandem/ 20ft Garage/ 30 ft Curtis Dune toybox with a removable horse-haul-module to transport Dolly-The-Painthorse to horse camps and trail heads all over the Western U S Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blz450 Posted April 9, 2015 Report Share Posted April 9, 2015 Hey Dollytrolley! We're going to be in Bend this summer. Sent you a PM. 2005 Teton Frontier Experience 39' 1999 Volvo 610 1988 Suzuki Samurai 2008 KTM 450 EXCR 2009 goofy Weimaraner Attack life! It's going to kill you anyway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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