Coast to coast on I-90, I-94

[leslie]

Next summer, my husband and I are planning a MAJOR 3-month trip from our home to Maine, then from Maine across the country to Oregon for the LL Rally (Ammobob! Better be ready!), then up to Washington for some camping and granddaughter time, then back across the northern states to get back home.

We plan to go back and forth using I-90 and/or I-94. We plan to visit national parks and monuments, as well as shopping at Mall of America (my credit card will be smoking!)

Since we have not done this before, this will be an adventure. For those of you who have already traveled this route, what are the interstates like when going through the Rockies? How steep are the inclines and declines? Any hairpin turns? Any concerns about altitude sickness while going through the Rockies?

20 years ago, my son drove to Seattle from Phoenix. He had to have his car tuned because he had too much trouble making the inclines, and he took excellent care of his sporty red Pinto Pony. Will we need to stop and have our JGP re-tuned for the trip through the Rockies?

[billmoore]

Any modern car with fuel injection will do just fine. The older carbureted cars had issues with altitude. Your Jeep will be fine. You will lose horsepower, so you will notice the Jeep working harder, especially towing a trailer.

The highest altitude on I-90 is around 6300 ft. and at that altitude you will be down about 18% (you lose 3% for every 1000 ft above sea level) on power. Unless you are really pushing the limits of your vehicle already, this is not likely to be a huge issue. Just drive slower on the ascents, use tow/haul mode if your transmission has it, otherwise lock out your overdrive to keep the transmission temperatures down, and you should be fine.

On the descents, be sure to use a lower gear to control your speed, not your vehicle brakes. A long grade with the brakes continuously on will quickly cause the brakes to overheat and form air bubbles in the brake lines, and then you have no brakes at all...

It is unlikely that you will have issues with altitude sickness at that altitude either. My wife is susceptible to altitude sickness, and we do a lot of hiking at higher altitudes, and for her it is not a problem until she gets over 8000 feet and stays at that altitude for several hours. It was a huge problem for her on a backpacking trip that had us spending two nights at 9000 ft, and peaking at 12000 ft on the day in between, but we have done many day hikes up to the 8000 ft range with no issues at all.

For her the symptoms are headache, nausea and vomiting... no fun!

[billmoore]

Also on the altitude sickness... just driving over a mountain pass isn't likely to cause problems. We've flown into Denver, CO and then driven up to Steamboat Springs quite a few times, and that requires driving over a 10000 ft mountain pass, and my wife has not had any issues with that. But hiking from near sea level to 9000 ft and then trying to go to sleep at that altitude is a problem...

[gbpack]

Gregg says that a V-6 JGC may have trouble pulling the TT at 10,000 foot elevation. You lose 100 HP at that elevation. So, if you have a V-8, you should be ok. But, if you have a V-6, you might encounter trouble. Maybe look for a route (road) that doesn't take you up that high when going through the Rockies.

[gbpack]

Someone asked about the easiest route to the West Coast: http://www.roadtripamerica.com/forum/archive/index.php?t-25246.html

[leslie]

Gregg says that a V-6 JGC may have trouble pulling the TT at 10,000 foot elevation. You lose 100 HP at that elevation. So, if you have a V-8, you should be ok. But, if you have a V-6, you might encounter trouble. Maybe look for a route (road) that doesn't take you up that high when going through the Rockies.

I was looking for some info online about what elevations I would encounter going on I-90 and I-94, but I haven't found anything, so I asked for input from this board. I have towed the trailer in the mountains in West Virginia, going up a 9% incline on a state highway at 35 mph, and had no trouble - the speed limit was 35, and there were a lot of curves. I don't remember what the signs said about the elevation, but I doubt we got much higher than 6,000. It was an interesting drive.

[leslie]

Someone asked about the easiest route to the West Coast: http://www.roadtripamerica.com/forum/archive/index.php?t-25246.html

This was an interesting discussion, especially the part about interstates being limited to 6% grades. I-64 in West Virginia, between Lewisburg to the east and Charleston to the west, has several 7% grades. Having encountered grades of 9% and 10% on state highways in West Virginia, for short stretches, I was concerned about a long haul at a steep grade.

I really want to avoid an elevation as high as 10,000 feet, for my personal comfort, not to mention a loss of towing power. We maximized our towing power with 2-wheel drive on our JPG, since there is a loss of towing power when you go to 4-wheel drive.

[pinstriper]

I use [a href="http://ridewithgps.com/"]this site[/a] to plan routes and see elevation and grade for different routes.

Make sure you un-select the bicycle-centric options like "avoid highways" and "cycling" in preference for driving and highways.

PS they have an iOS app and it is dreadful. But on a laptop it is a great planning tool.