STEEP grade passes. Sonora pass California

[Gonzo 1066]

Just wondering if any FOOLS out there beside me have ever towed over something as steep as Sonora pass? We were about 20,000# with a camper and trailer behind. The grades steepest part is 26%???!!!!! 2nd gear at 12mph and 30+ lbs boost.

 

[Bill Stockard]

Yep, I know about it and have avoided that route with an RV. I've been on a 12% grade and that semed almost straight up. I can only imagine what a 26% grade would look like. .

 

[FParisi]

Wow! Where the hell is that? So I can avoid it!;-)

 

[Driftwood Ram]

Sonora Pass - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[rubberneck]

I havent had the pleasure but my dad used to climb it every year with camper on the truck and sand rail in tow to do the Bridgeport run. Old 76 chevy. stinking crazy

 

[GAmes]

Dragging a 15k 5er south on Hwy 60 between Bell, AZ and Globe AZ through the Salt River Canyon was bad enough for me. Those grades probably were not worse than 11 or 12%. Really scenic though.

 

[SierraRam]

Its close 4-5 months during the winter, it is one crazy road on the east side!

 

[Matt42]

Other fun routes

Panguitch to Boulder Utah and beyond, eastbound, on UT State Route 12 is a scenic route with marked grades of 16% and up, and unmarked grades of who-knows-what. Don't miss a shift on an upgrade. I made that trip when my truck was new, before I had an exhaust brake, and it was a fun time, in the very best sense. I was pulling my 26 or 27 foot TT (depending on how you measure it) passed a couple of other newish non-Dodge F-trucks with similar trailers that had vapor locked out on the roadside, or otherwise been disabled. (How a fuel-injected truck vapor locks is beyond me. ) Temperatures were in the low 100s, even at the altitudes. For us, the trip was a breeze. The road is very good, but steep and winding.



Another fun one is California Routes 138 and 190 from Lone Pine over the Panamint Range into Panamint Spring and then into Furnace Creek. I make that trip in a fully loaded 04. 5 4X4 3500 pulling a 10K equipment trailer, with an exhaust brake. I forget the percent grades, but they are steep. At the pass summits, the roadways smell of coolant from the decades of boil-overs. The Dodge handles it with a GCVR of 21,000 lb at 115F or higher (no onboard thermometer) with the AC on without breaking 220F. We coast using the exhaust brake and use the cooled-off wheel brakes for when someone in front of use does something stoopid, and for 15 mph hairpins. Gotta love it.



A number of secondary roads in Nevada don't seem to have grade percent signs. Just "steep grade ahead" signs. Lots of time to see the scenery and work out road cut stratigraphy.



One of the best grades is on California Route 127, just east of Shoshone. It's not terribly steep. It's actually a road cut, and has its own parking area, and the link will show why. Fileumice roadcut on CA 178 near Shoshone, California. JPG - Wikimedia Commons

The link incorrectly calls it pumice, which it isn't. :-{} It's fun, though. The Shoshone Museum often has a pamphlet on the place. But I digress.



I obviously need a road trip. Been waaay too long in airplanes and behind a desk.

 

[Deleted member 995608]

I'd guess you'd be alright as long as you was a wearing some big boy diapers.

 

[MMeier]

AWWWWW, some of you ain't no fun !!!!!

 

[Bill Stockard]

Panguitch to Boulder Utah and beyond, eastbound, on UT State Route 12 is a scenic route with marked grades of 16% and up, and unmarked grades of who-knows-what. Don't miss a shift on an upgrade. I made that trip when my truck was new, before I had an exhaust brake, and it was a fun time, in the very best sense. I was pulling my 26 or 27 foot TT (depending on how you measure it) passed a couple of other newish non-Dodge F-trucks with similar trailers that had vapor locked out on the roadside, or otherwise been disabled. (How a fuel-injected truck vapor locks is beyond me. ) Temperatures were in the low 100s, even at the altitudes. For us, the trip was a breeze. The road is very good, but steep and winding.

Yep, we drove that one too with our '92 Dodge D350 with an automatic transmission and without an exhasut brake towing our 29' Hitchhiker II 5th wheel. However, it was in the fall and the temeprature wasn't as hot as when you traveled that route.



Bill

 

[TLane]

Grand Tetons 49% ???

Deadman's bar, Snake River, Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming



Not as famous as Teton Pass.



I got out a looked closely, someone had changed the sign from 19% to 49% with electrical tape.

 

[mrtrombley]

Yeh, I did Salt River Canyon northbound one year when traveling from Phoenix to Chicago. I had just gotten my '01 6 speed stick with exhaust brake. Made for a very pleasant break-in trip. Truck did great going down, over the river, and then up again. Enjoyed it so much I then went up to Colorado and up over Wolf Creek Pass. Went down the east side without touching the brakes, exhaust brakes are great! Does anyone remember the old song about hauling chickens down Wolf Creek Pass???

 

[NIsaacs]

"Wolf Creek Pass" by C. W. McCall



Nick

 

[mrtrombley]

That's it, you must be near the same age as me!! I also remember one that said, "give me forty acres and I'll turn this rig around". I think they were referring to down-east Maine?

 

[fest3er]

That's it, you must be near the same age as me!! I also remember one that said, "give me forty acres and I'll turn this rig around". I think they were referring to down-east Maine?

Willis Brothers recording, 1964. Close, but not quite Down East. It were about Boston. "Gimme 40 sticks of dynamite and I'll blow this rig to... "



And then there was the Bandy/Stampley song about not makin' much money driving trucks, so they figgered they'd try the easy way, like the English singer. "Where's the Dress?" (1984. )

 

[mwilson]

The one in Maine is by Dick Curless

"Tombstone Every Mile"



Written about the Haynesville Woods just above here.

 

[Matt42]

-snip- Enjoyed it so much I then went up to Colorado and up over Wolf Creek Pass. Went down the east side without touching the brakes, exhaust brakes are great! Does anyone remember the old song about hauling chickens down Wolf Creek Pass???

Wolf Creek Pass on a balmy, carefree day in June 2004, westbound, was what made me decide
(1) to install a PacBrake and
(2) that the Morey's synthetic grease I had used to repack my TT's bearings is EXCELLENT, and worth every penny of the $7 for a 14 ounce tube.

The left rear trailer brake was set a touch too tight, and I overheated it, as in black billowing smoke overheated it. To get the rest of the way home, I backed off the brake controller gain and relied largely on the truck brakes and careful driving. When I tore down that brake assembly, I found the drum to be cracked and cobalt blue but the originally bright red Morey's grease was still slippery, just brick red. The spindle had been insulated by the grease, and it showed no sign of overheating.

All the way down, my wife was humming Wolf Creek Pass by C. B McCall, AKA Chip Davis, I believe.

 

[LRutigliano]

I've towed our 5er thru:



- Blue Box pass, Mt. Hood, OR, HWY 26 TripCheck-Road Camera

- Siskiyou pass, Southern OR, I5 TripCheck-Road Camera

- Cabbage Hill - Deadman Pass near Pendleton, OR, I84 TripCheck-Road Camera

- "pinch off tightly" pass just outside Halfway, OR on OR86 on the way to the Snake River Oregon Route 86 ‘Baker-Copperfield Highway' | Motorcycle Roads NorthWest



Finally, not a mountain pass per se, but definately one of the most technically challenging roads I taken the 36' 5er on is HWY199 from Grants Pass, OR to Cresent City, CA. You must pay attention 100% of the time due to constant narrow curves and carved canyon just a few "inches" away from your trailer... California @ AARoads - U. S. Highway 199

 

[Deleted member 995608]

Ya got more brass than I. I won't pull our 5ver over 199.