<VV> Interesting roads

[Jim Davis]

A couple years ago I discovered "Mountain Directory, West for Truckers, 
RV and Motorhome Drivers".  There is also one for the East, but I 
grew-up in the east (Smokey Mountains), so I have driven most of the 
difficult routes in cars.  If you heed the recomendations and 
descriptions of these publications, you won't get into trouble.

The hardest climb for us was from Grand Junction, CO to the Eisenhower 
Tunnel - 189 miles with a 6,500 ft climb.  The UltraVan was new to us 
and has a 95 hp engine with PowerGlide weighing 5,200 lbs.  To make 
things worse, it was 88 F degrees ambient when we passed through Vail at 
25 mph in low range.  We hit the Western Tunnel Portal at 12 mph.  Roy 
had her foot on the floor for 95% of the five hour climb, as I was 
looking for places to turn around encase we stalled out.    Now with a 
190 cuin Corvair engine and a 140 PowerGlide, we can make the climb in 
high at 50-60 mph.

This year our UltraVan's International Rally was in Cody, WY so we took 
the chance to drive WY-14A and experience Bald Mountain pass and "OMG 
Hill" (10% grade for 10 miles - that'll heat the treansmission and oil 
temperature up :-) ).
Jim Davis



On 11/4/2014 11:02 AM, Smitty via VirtualVairs wrote:
>
>
> From: Jim Davis <jld at wk.net>
> To: "J. R. Read"
> Not US-89A but I did take US-89 from Flagsatff  to Mount Carmel
> Junction, UT after the CORSA Convention in the UltraVan.   The worst
> road of the trip was UT-14 east out of  Cedar City (up Coal Mountain).
> It says no RV or trailers but I was driving an ULTRA VAN.
> Jim Davis-
> --------------------------------------------------
> Smitty Says;  We have gone out of our way to travel some recommended 
> and "not recommended" roads just for the experience. Jim I seriously 
> would not recommend either of these for the Ultra.  The scariest was 
> the road up to the peak of Mt Evens.  No shoulder and the roadway 
> crumbling away 3 ft into the asphalt. Passing opposing traffic is by 
> the Braille method.  The toughest was Redman Pass.  If I remember 
> right it was 3 hours wide open in low (PG) gear with a max speed of 15 
> mph.  That can't be right but it is what sticks in my mind.
> I recognize that I can't go on forever, so I am passing my banner on 
> to Tim Shortle to put every mile in the US behind him.  I always 
> considered signs saying NO Trucks Or Trailers to be nothing more than 
> a challenge.