Minot North Dakota to Bossier City Louisiana

[nodakcajun]

Any advice on a route with the least amount of hills/ mountains? I will be pulling a 30' travel trailer with a 2011 5.3L 4x4 Crew Cab Silverado. I have the highway friendly 3.42 gear ratio and not the optimal 3.73 ratio. The camper weights 6500lbs dry and i estimate about 6800lbs with the gear currently in it. I know with wind resistance i will be close to the 9300lbs tow capacity. It definitely doesn't like long or tall hills. What would be the best route to take to bypass the long hills of Missouri and the west side of Arkansas? Looking to start bypassing south of Sioux Falls SD. Thanks for your time and help!!

[AZBuck]

Welcome aboard the RoadTrip America Forums!

Technically, I suppose, you could just follow the Missouri/Mississippi downstream before finishing up by striking west to Bossier City, but that wouldn't be the most efficient route, especially when it's relatively easy to skirt the Ozarks to the west. Use US-52/US-281 down through Carrington to I-94 east. At Fargo pick up I-29 south to Kansas City. Bypass the city to the west on I-435 to I-35, but shortly after leaving KC get on US-169 south to Tulsa. US-169 is freeway quality as it bypasses the hart of Tulsa to the east an south and takes you to US-75 south to the Indian Nations Turnpike (toll) which becomes US-271. Use the US-271/US-82 bypass around Paris TX and take US-82 east to I-30 at New Boston. At Texarkana there's yet another bypass, US-59 south/TX-151 east/AR-245 east to AR-549 south and finally US-71 south to Shreveport/Bossier City. All of those roads are pretty flat and many of the US routes are multi-lane divided highways. Indeed a few of them are in the process of being upgraded to Interstate routes so you shouldn't see many real traffic difficulties either.

AZBuck