Question for the Arizona troops

[C9]

Things are looking good for the move to Arizona.
Not too much longer I hope.

We moved the 31 and some other stuff to our daughters house in North Las Vegas last weekend.
The pickup (5.4 liter Ford SuperCrew) did really well pulling the about 6000# gross box trailer.
Next load will have us grossed out at the trailers max gross of 7000#.

So far, we've been staying in Laughlin on our house hunting trips and the grade down to the river is fairly steep and about 10-12 miles.
The grade up out of Laughlin is about 11 miles and steeper.
Running with the trailer empty - at about 3000# - not too big a deal going down to Laughlin from the west or going back up to the west, but I'm thinking the long and steep climb up out of Laughlin going east to Kingman is gonna be a tough haul with a grossed out trailer.

We've been going to Laughlin, headed east on I-40 and then cutting to the north on Hwy 95 and turning east on Hwy 163 and down the hill to Laughlin.

Since we'll be going all the way to Kingman on I-40 next time around (with the grossed out trailer) I'm wondering if the grade up to Kingman from Needles is a long and not too steep one or are things about the same as the steep grades into and out of Laughlin?
If things are all about the same, it looks like I-40 would be the best choice since its a freeway.
Even so, with Hwy 95 being a two-laner it's not too bad and it's only about a half hour drive on it to the 163 turnoff.

Long question I know, but some advice would be appreciated.

[av8]

Jay -- I sent this link to my pal Bill Williams who lives in Prescott and has driven the route to SoCal towing a car trailer and with other various loads.

I don't know if he'll post here or send and answer to me. In any event, I hope he can provide some info.

Mike

[C9]

Many thanks.

Kind of a dingbat question and the answer may be indicated by the not too bad long grades on I-40 headed west from Hwy 95.

Seems like I-40 N/E to Kingman from Needles wouldn't be too bad, but if there's a killer long grade maybe I'll do the midnight drive bit and use 95 & 163.

May do the night time transit anyway - specially if the heat is really on like it probably would be at the end of July....

[30tudor]

I've made that drive a few times, and I would recomend the freeway trip up to Kingman from Laughlin when towing a weighted trailer if you have any concerns.  It will be a longer drive but the grade is no where near as steep.  On the other hand you could leave the river at 3am or so and the temperatures will be much more favorable.  The grind up to Golden Valley from Laughlin is a hump indeed.  A check of the night time lows might be helpful in deciding.

[av8]

Many thanks.

May do the night time transit anyway - specially if the heat is really on like it probably would be at the end of July....

Speaking of heat, I've been rethinking my brave plan to tour the Southwest along Rout 66 in late August in a non-AC '48 Ford pickup. The new engine install before Speed Week, with a suitable breakin/sort-out period, is iffy at this point. I've raised the installation of the the Mustang T-5 to a higher priority, probably about three weeks away, and feel that the original sweet-running 8BA will love having that 23-percent overdrive top gear to cruise with.

I'm thinking the Speed Week trip will be about all the hot cruisin' I need, and would have more fun if I were to postpone my Southwest tour until early Spring '05.

Do you notice how much nicer we treat ourselves after retirement?

[Glen]

Sorry, Im not familiar with that highway.

[av8]

Many thanks.

Kind of a dingbat question and the answer may be indicated by the not too bad long grades on I-40 headed west from Hwy 95.

Seems like I-40 N/E to Kingman from Needles wouldn't be too bad, but if there's a killer long grade maybe I'll do the midnight drive bit and use 95 & 163.

May do the night time transit anyway - specially if the heat is really on like it probably would be at the end of July....

Jay -- Here's the response from my pal . . .

"I have not run that section of road. I have run I -40 and find it heavy with 18-wheeler traffic. With the load he will be pulling he may find himself in the truck lane a lot. I also think he should run at night. The heat is a big factor.  He will still have the truck traffic, however, the 4 wheel traffic is less and it gives a break for the left lane to get around the slow trucks."

Hope this helps.

Mike

[Glen]

I never thought about the weekend traffic, I know that traffic is bad.

[C9]

Jay -- Here's the response from my pal . . .

"I have not run that section of road. I have run I -40 and find it heavy with 18-wheeler traffic. With the load he will be pulling he may find himself in the truck lane a lot. I also think he should run at night. The heat is a big factor.  He will still have the truck traffic, however, the 4 wheel traffic is less and it gives a break for the left lane to get around the slow trucks."

Hope this helps.

Mike[/quote]


Many thanks Mike and thanks to your pal as well.
We had a goodly amount of 18 wheelers on I-40 going west and with the empty trailer it wasn't too big a deal.

Been re-thinking things a bit and instead of having daughter and granddaughter follow us out on the train, it may not be much more than a train ticket costs for the two of them to rent a Ryder van and put maybe 1500# in it so we can get the trailer load down to reasonable.

I know, we're running a SuperCrew with seats for six, but we're moving three doxies and three cats and Sweetie wants em to ride in air conditioned comfort in their own little plastic pet kennels.
Besides, with the van, daughter can bring some of her own stuff.

I'm thinking more and more and your bud's good advice adds to it, we need to leave here around 9-10 in the evening and that'll have us on I-40 to Kingman somewhere around 4-6 in the morning when it's at the coolest.

I knew we shoulda moved in the winter....

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

About that treating ourselves well after retirement - geez . . . I thought I was just getting to be a wimp....

[Bib_Overalls]

Jay,

I made the Needles-Kingman run this past January.  As I recall it is a steady climb but I don't recall anything particularly challenging.  Something like 45 miles from the river to Kingman.

Have you considered off loading some of the weight at your daughter's place and making two runs?

Steve

[C9]

Jay,

I made the Needles-Kingman run this past January.  As I recall it is a steady climb but I don't recall anything particularly challenging.  Something like 45 miles from the river to Kingman.

Have you considered off loading some of the weight at your daughter's place and making two runs?

Steve

That's not a bad idea and one I hadn't considered, but when you factor in the three long grades on I-15 to Vegas, especially the long Baker grade I think it would work about as well as doing I-40 all the way.

Bummer part is, it's almost the same mileage from my house to North Las Vegas as it is to Kingman.

The steady climb doesn't sound too bad.  About like the long and steady and not too steep climb 30-50 miles south of Barstow when headed west.

[parklane]

Jay
I made that trip on I-40 last October towing a trailer with 6 touring bikes, and a Honda magna in the back of the truck. Total weight including  trailer was about 6500# plus the one in the truck. The truck was running a 4.6, and a 5 speed, and had no trouble heating up at all.

John  

[C9]

Jay
I made that trip on I-40 last October towing a trailer with 6 touring bikes, and a Honda magna in the back of the truck. Total weight including  trailer was about 6500# plus the one in the truck. The truck was running a 4.6, and a 5 speed, and had no trouble heating up at all.

John  

Thanks John.

The info is appreciated.
We were ready to go last October, but the California house hadn't sold.
So now it looks like we'll be slidin through the dez heat in late July.

From what I saw on the F-150 board when we bought the SuperCrew most trailer towing folks reported doing ok with either the 4.6 or 5.4 liter.
Interesting part is just about all of them ran with the A/C on regardless of load or weather.
A far cry from pickups of the 70's & 80's as far as cooling and A/C go.

Summer before last we towed the 50 Plymouth coupe on a tandem axle open flatbed trailer - probably a 5000# plus total load - over the infamous 'Grapevine' (I-5 between the San Joaquin Valley and L.A.) on a 109 degree Valley heat wave day in early July.
When I hit the subtle 6 mile grade before the 5-6 mile steep grade I shut the air off.

Old habits die hard, but I'd rather suffer a bit for 10-15 minutes than break down due to heat related causes....

[parklane]

Jay
   The good news was that the truck didn't overheat - the bad news was that we averaged only 6mpg round trip from Ontario Canada to Cali.  :cry: And our $$ being worth about 0.70US, it made for a expensive trip. Good thing that 7 people chipped in!!

John