what are some of the steepest grades in N. America??

[DZink24]

:-laf my weight unloaded is about 11,000 pounds. 24' single axle van on a KW chassis w/air brakes. at the time, maybe 13k.

 

[DZink24]

Here a picture from on top after climbing all the way from the bottom without leveling out. Some points of the climb dropped off to 5-7 degrees. What a view looking back to Cody at the base of the mountains in the distance. It took awhile to climb it so we wouldn't fry the turbo. Glad to have climbed it rather than go down it with the load we had. Truck axles scaled at 13,600 with the camper.
View attachment 82231View attachment 82232

are the safety zones cut out by the DOT, or are they natural? that is a rediculous sign. that's gotta be like a roller coaster ride!

 

[TLane]

This sign is from Grand Teton National Park - one of the roads to access the launch ramp to the Snake River. I did a double take and went back to take pictures of the sign. I looked a lot closer at the sign and realized that someone had used black electrical tape to change it from 19% to 49%. 19% is pretty steep, but it isn't really all that long.

 

[B.G. Smith]

DFL, your switchbacks remind me of the back road I got on one night in the Tenn/NC border area: It was so bad I could look in the rear view mirror and see my headlights coming up behind me. Mark

That's probably the hwy. coming over the mountain from NC into Bristol Tenn. Very sharp turns, narrow and steep road. Made me dizzy coming down. bg

 

[BIGNASTY]

View attachment 82271

This sign is from Grand Teton National Park - one of the roads to access the launch ramp to the Snake River. I did a double take and went back to take pictures of the sign. I looked a lot closer at the sign and realized that someone had used black electrical tape to change it from 19% to 49%. 19% is pretty steep, but it isn't really all that long.

Surprised there aren't a bunch of skid marks trying to get it shut down before they went down

 

[JR]

:-laf

Surprised there aren't a bunch of skid marks trying to get it shut down before they went down

You mean on the road or in their shorts

 

[BIGNASTY]

MY guess would be both!!!! and a very large chunk of the seat missing

 

[Crazy Horse]

are the safety zones cut out by the DOT, or are they natural? that is a rediculous sign. that's gotta be like a roller coaster ride!

That was the real sign at the top. And it was uphill the entire time while climbing. The steep parts of the 10% climb lasted for at least 13 miles. This the sign attests to. There were at least an additional 6-10 miles that were between 6-8% incline not worthy any mention. And it's all downhill from the top, no leveling off to 0 incline to recover brakes or cool down a hot engine/turbo. At the bottom driving along at 55 mph I noticed the pyro starting to rise over 1200 degree mark and I thought we were still on the flats. At this point we were still miles away from the obvious steep incline start and it was necc at this point to pop out of OD to prevent melt down. I remember seeing a warning sign at the bottom about this same time that warned "for the next 25 miles expect inclines of 13%". That's all there was at the bottm some miles away from the steep part beginning. The run away ramp areas seem to me were carved out of the natural rock because there were large rocks and stone on both sides of the ramp area. The ramp area as I remember appeared to climb upwards from the beginning part of the ramp to the end, trying to multiply the rate of speed decrease, and they were filled with sand?? or small crushed rock??

 

[Gonzo 1066]

That was the real sign at the top. And it was uphill the entire time while climbing. The steep parts of the 10% climb lasted for at least 13 miles. This the sign attests to. There were at least an additional 6-10 miles that were between 6-8% incline not worthy any mention. And it's all downhill from the top, no leveling off to 0 incline to recover brakes or cool down a hot engine/turbo. At the bottom driving along at 55 mph I noticed the pyro starting to rise over 1200 degree mark and I thought we were still on the flats. At this point we were still miles away from the obvious steep incline start and it was necc at this point to pop out of OD to prevent melt down. I remember seeing a warning sign at the bottom about this same time that warned "for the next 25 miles expect inclines of 13%". That's all there was at the bottm some miles away from the steep part beginning. The run away ramp areas seem to me were carved out of the natural rock because there were large rocks and stone on both sides of the ramp area. The ramp area as I remember appeared to climb upwards from the beginning part of the ramp to the end, trying to multiply the rate of speed decrease, and they were filled with sand?? or small crushed rock??

All of the Westeren runaway ramps I have seen are filled with several feet of pea gravel. If you dont know this is under 1/2" round rock, this WILL slow you to a stop quickly. I pucker each time I pass one and know that the PacBrake saved me agian. . With all of the Western passes I have been up and down I have never seen a truck imbedded in a runaway ramp, I did follow a tractor trailer out of the blue mountains towards Pendelton, smoke billowing off of his trailer brakes Then watched the right side catch on fire. THAT WAS exciting. .

 

[Bill Stockard]

All of the Westeren runaway ramps I have seen are filled with several feet of pea gravel. If you dont know this is under 1/2" round rock, this WILL slow you to a stop quickly. I pucker each time I pass one and know that the PacBrake saved me agian. . With all of the Western passes I have been up and down I have never seen a truck imbedded in a runaway ramp, I did follow a tractor trailer out of the blue mountains towards Pendelton, smoke billowing off of his trailer brakes Then watched the right side catch on fire. THAT WAS exciting. .

Over all the years we have been RVing in the western US, I've seen only one truck on a runaway truck ramp. It was about half way up the ramp and up to the axles in pea gravel and it had left deep ruts in the gravel where it exited on to the ramp. A big wrecker was winching the rig back out of the ramp.

Several years ago while driving west off of Donner Pass on I-80, an 18-wheeler sailed past us going downhill loaded with what looked like slabs of slate rock. I commented to my wife, "We'll see that one again". About 5 miles down, there it was parked on the side of the highway with smoke pouring off brakes. It's amazing how some drivers evidently ignore the warning signs.

Many years ago when US 160 over Wolf Creek Pass was only a narrow two lane road, we were gooing down the west side and before we got to the fisrt switchback, the right side of the highway was littered with thousands of cans of Coors beer. A bit further down we came to the truck. Evidently, the brakes on the truck loaded with a shipment of Coors beer had failed and the driver had been dragging it on the side of the mountain to slow down before the switchback. Scary!! CODOT was using a big 4-wheel drive loader to scoop up the beer cans to clear the road.

Bill

 

[NIsaacs]

Years ago I drove log truck for a guy in Phillipsburg, Mt. that believed Jake brakes broke crank shafts and turbos melted pistons, so his trucks didn't have them I had to haul down this long mountain grade near the Pintler Wilderness area that required 1st and under, and still needed to use the brakes.....



Nick

 

[Bill Stockard]

Years ago I drove log truck for a guy in Phillipsburg, Mt. that believed Jake brakes broke crank shafts and turbos melted pistons, so his trucks didn't have them I had to haul down this long mountain grade near the Pintler Wilderness area that required 1st and under, and still needed to use the brakes.....



Nick

Yep, that may have been his excuse for not wanting to pay that ~$1,200 or so extra for the Jakes. $1,200 was a lot of money extra back then compared to the truck tractor that probably cost around $20K in the mid '60s.



Bill

 

[Yo Hoot]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grade_(slope)

Interesting. I always thought it was degrees.



So 100% grade is equal to a 45 degree slope!

 

[JLeake]

Bill;

I saw the wreckage of a Digby Golden Arrow truck in 1968 that had a similar experience on the West side of Wolf Creek Pass. Truck was apparently in the wrong gear to hold it back, driver attempted to downshift, and of course could not get it back into the gear it had been in. The guy not driving bailed out, then the driver put in the wall as you described, but hit a lump of rock outcropping stopping the truck and trailer instantly. The bottles of Coors beer opened up the trailer like a tin can, and then flattened the cab of that Freightliner cab over into virtually nothing except where the driver was. One guy died, the other lived, but seriously injured. The DOT guys used an old dozer from the DOT shed on the east side to push the bottles out of the way. The creek foamed for part of the day.

 

[Yo Hoot]

Wow... guess you could go there and still find bottles.

 

[Bill Stockard]

Wow... guess you could go there and still find bottles.

Nope, they are long gone. US 160 over Wolf Creek Pass over the past 40 years of almost continous construction, has been rebuilt and widened and has been made a lot better, but like all high steep mountain passes must be driven with caution and some common sense.



Bill

 

[Yo Hoot]

A little off topic but we had a Navy jet crash locally here in 1967 (Aston, PA). To this day if you look hard, you can still find pieces of it. It crashed into a 10,000,000 gallon water storage tank, spewing parts down a ravine and into a creek. Pilot ejected and survived. No one on the ground hurt but what a flood! I was 8 years old at the time and remember the sound of the crash to this day.

 

[Bill Stockard]

Nope, they are long gone. US 160 over Wolf Creek Pass over the past 40 years of almost continous construction, has been rebuilt and widened and has been made a lot better, but like all high steep mountain passes must be driven with caution and some common sense.



Bill

Maybe I should revise my answer... Some of the glass from Coors beer bottles is may still there; however, they are more than likely buried under tons of blasted rock since the side of the mountain has been drilled and blasted in order to widen the highway.



Bill