Need serious Advice Safety not fun

[travelingman]

Maybe it would be possible to mount a small air conditioner in a window? There are 5000btu 50lb units. Of course, you’d have to have the proper wiring for it. Safety first.

[OldMotorhome3]

Donna that route sounds better and if i plan Cajon pass should be doable-- do you know how i can get this route displayed on an on line map? That way i can check total mileage and also temperature ranges- i checked out a few cities and definitely cooler!-- I also dont like going near Mexico with this border Crisis.

Traveling man-- i have a 900watt generator that will go for 4- 5 hours--i will check out the AC unit
power ratings that you suggest-

thanks to you both!! I have time to plan as im busy with details for the next 5-10 days
Comments welcomed and appreciated

[glc]

Try using Google Maps. Once you set the start and end points you can drag the intermediate route anywhere you want.

Taking I-40, you are going to have one big issue - the I-40 bridge over the Mississippi at Memphis is closed. Detour is I-55 to I-240, expect traffic delays. If you time it right, you can go through Atlanta without too many issues, the western bypass would be the best bet. US-27 really isn't that great a road.

[AZBuck]

There's no sugar coating this. You have several significant problems:

1) You've got a 55 year-old under-powered motor home
2) It has no air conditioning
3) Its brakes are questionable
4) It starts to get unstable at speeds greater than 45 mph
5) Its top speed is 60 mph
6) It slows to 25 mph climbing grades

The fact of the matter is that I don't think your vehicle is safe for Interstate Highway travel. Period. Full stop.

Study after study by federal (FHWA, NTSB), state, and academic researchers have shown that speed differential is at least as important as speed per se in determining highway safety. You yourself note how scary it is to be traveling 30-40 mph slower than the rest of traffic. It is not everybody else on the road causing safety problems. It's you. No one can tell you how to make this trip safely because your vehicle itself makes every moment that you're on a road with a greater than 55 mph speed limit an accident waiting to happen. It's up to you to keep out of everyone else's way, not vice versa.

If I were you and I had to get that vehicle cross country, I'd allow an absolute minimum of 10 days for the task and stick to surface roads rather than Interstates. I wish you luck. You're going to need it.

AZBuck

[travelingman]

AZBuck has a good point! I’ve had several “close calls” with slow trucks. The problem is twofold. First of all, you’re not expecting someone to be driving slow on the expressway. Second, you get surprisingly close to a slow truck before you realize just how slow it’s really going!

It might be a good idea to run your emergency flashers continuously. It might also be a good idea to somehow hang a large SLOW VEHICLE sign across the back, up high. Your flashers will only be obvious to the car directly behind you.

It may be illegal, but I might consider posting an orange triangle too.

The scariest situation is a couple of tailgaters coming upon a slow vehicle. The first driver zooms up behind the slow driver and quickly changes lanes at the last moment. The tailgating driver might not have the time or clearance to change lanes and might be traveling too fast to brake in time.

[noFanofCB]

An alternative would be to engage a flatbed company to transport it. Vehicle transporting company would be what I'd search for.

I had a Mercedes Unimog that was that slow or worse. It was delivered to me in California and I live in Colo. I thought long and hard about it but decided to get it shipped.

There was a story in the Unimog groups about a group of trucks that were wiped out from behind as they were convoying someplace when a big truck ran into them. It only takes one mistake like that to cause mayhem.

[DonnaR57]

There's one issue that I see with surface roads, and that's the unpredictability of climbing (and down) grades. Surface roads, such as those on US and state highways, are allowed far more leeway with grades than an interstate.

For instance, US-60 might be a nice alternative to I-40. However, it has some of those problems I just mentioned: grading issues. In Eastern Arizona, for instance, it has some 8% grades (if memory serves), while I-40 is limited to 6% (and usually stays under that).


Donna

[BillyGr]

There's no sugar coating this. You have several significant problems:

1) You've got a 55 year-old under-powered motor home
2) It has no air conditioning
3) Its brakes are questionable
4) It starts to get unstable at speeds greater than 45 mph
5) Its top speed is 60 mph
6) It slows to 25 mph climbing grades

The fact of the matter is that I don't think your vehicle is safe for Interstate Highway travel. Period. Full stop.

Study after study by federal (FHWA, NTSB), state, and academic researchers have shown that speed differential is at least as important as speed per se in determining highway safety. You yourself note how scary it is to be traveling 30-40 mph slower than the rest of traffic. It is not everybody else on the road causing safety problems. It's you. No one can tell you how to make this trip safely because your vehicle itself makes every moment that you're on a road with a greater than 55 mph speed limit an accident waiting to happen. It's up to you to keep out of everyone else's way, not vice versa.

If I were you and I had to get that vehicle cross country, I'd allow an absolute minimum of 10 days for the task and stick to surface roads rather than Interstates. I wish you luck. You're going to need it.

AZBuck

The question is, how much of the fault is really due to this vehicle? If it is going 45 or 50, the only way for a 30-40MPH difference is for someone else to be going 75-90. While there may be a few places that those speeds are posted, most are not that high. Thus the speed differential would be much lower if everyone was following the rules (thus some of the blame goes to those speeding, possibly well above the limits to get to 90).

Same would be the issue on most of the surface roads (where speeds above 55 aren't terribly common) - the motor home going 45-50 wouldn't be as much issue holding up traffic as those behind it who want to go 60+ but shouldn't.

[glc]

65 on surface roads is becoming very common in a large portion of the country. A few states even allow 70.

[AZBuck]

The Original Poster (OP) said his vehicle's speed dropped to as low as 25 mph on the shallowest of grades. On an Interstate, with 70 mph speed limits being common, that's a 45 mph difference. Normal traffic will be going three times as fast as his 55 year old motor home is capable of on those grades. Bicycles and mopeds are banned on some Interstate Highways for precisely this reason. Then there's the fact that the OP stated that his vehicle started to get unstable above 50 mph or so. That in and of itself is VERY not good. If he can't control his vehicle at highway speeds, that vehicle has no place on the highway. The OP claimed it was a 'white knuckle ride' negotiating the flat terrain of LA, also not very good.

Finally, there is the fact that the OP apparently knows that all this is unsafe and asked for 'serious advice' and stated that he 'definitely needed trip advice.' I gave him my best advice. That advice was NOT based solely on his comfort or just for his benefit, but on the safety of the thousands and thousands of innocent people who would be forced to share the roads with no knowledge of how unsafe someone else's actions have made those roads. I stand by my comments that his vehicle has NO PLACE on the Interstate Highway System.

AZBuck