Planning summer road trip

[Pijm]

Hi, I am a newbie. My husband owns his own business and we may actually take Two weeks this year. Our plan is to travel from north central Ma. To mackinaw, Mi. We have a 21 ft microlite travel trailer and a new Ford F-150. I guess my main question in planning a route is how do I know if it is a route for a travel trailer verses just a car?. I have been looking around the site and didn't see anything to distinguish the routes?

[glc]

Welcome to RTA!

Any numbered route (Interstate, US, state, county) should be fine with a trailer. However, the tolls on the toll roads will be higher than they would be with a car. The only restrictions I'm aware of are some parkways that don't allow any trucks or commercial traffic, those are primarily in New York (example - Taconic State Parkway) and you shouldn't have to take any of those on this trip.

[Pijm]

Thanks. Is there a way, in planning my routes to put in that we are traveling with a trailer?

[glc]

Not that I'm aware of, but I don't see where that would really make a difference? What are your specific concerns?

[Mass Tim]

The routes between the two locations should all suffice for your needs. There aren't any specific routes I can think of that would be recommended by the mapping tool that wouldn't be usable in your situation.

[DonnaR57]

You might want to plan this trip with paper maps, rather than from the confines of a computer screen or GPS. It will be much easier to see the differences in the types of routes.

As has been mentioned, toll roads would be far more expensive with a trailer in tow than just with your pickup -- there is a charge for every extra axle over the normal two axles. So a 2-axled trailer costs more than a single-axle.

If your passports are in order, you could cross via the Trans-Canadian Highway. This is not an option if you don't have passports, though.


Donna

[Pijm]

My concerns would be low bridges, cities, tunnels.

[DonnaR57]

Low bridges, cities and tunnels are usually well-marked. Know the height of your vehicle at its HIGHEST point, including antennae. Low clearance is *always* marked ahead of time and usually a low bar will hang down stating the measurement. With our Ford pickup (which has a camper shell on the back), we avoid parking garages and drive-through windows, for the most part. You'd want to avoid those if your trailer is in tow, anyway, because of your overall length.

As for cities -- RVs such as motorhomes, 5th wheels and travel trailers are not city-friendly. Or should I say, cities aren't friendly to RV's. If you transit a city on an interstate, you'll be fine. You'll be okay on a US highway, as well. If you see tractor-trailers on a given highway, you'll be fine there because they're going to be longer and taller than you, no doubt about that.

Tunnels? Biggest issue with RV's and tunnels regards your on-board propane tanks. We've towed through most tunnels with our RV's propane turned off. Then we turned it back on at the next rest area, so that the refrigerator could stay cold. There are a few tunnels which do not allow hazardous material to go through them at all, and that would include propane tanks. Once again, they will be well marked in advance and a suggested detour route posted.


Donna (ex-5W owner)

[Pijm]

Thank you. Your info was very helpful!

[travelingman]

If you'd like to visit the U.P. as well, but are scared of driving over the bridge, they offer drivers to do it for you at no charge.

http://www.mackinacbridge.org/freque...idge+services/