Bad roads - Montana Owners Club

Montana_4423 · 01-23-2006, 01:02 PM

Just missed going over the 89A from Prescott AZ to Cottonwood and Sedona . Lucky enough to call Deadhorse Ranch State Park beforehand and they advised take alternate route as over the mountain might result in loss of side mirrors or more! We just drove up to Jerome and were thankful that we didn't take that road because we might have lost the entire side of our Montana. Travelled down the 49 from Auburn CA to Placerville CA in October and the wife was calling the Saints to her side with menacing log trucks, motorcycles and assorted gawking tourists on an extremely winding, steep road. Also the 36 from Redding to Fortuna CA which turned into a 10% grade and one lane road (Downhill traffic yields to uphill traffic, a scary sign) up and down several mountain ranges.
Does anyone know of a road atlas that highlights unsafe roads so that we don't find ourselves in a jam?
Thanks for your help.
Bill

FireTruckerWife · 01-23-2006, 02:55 PM

There is one for the west and one for the east. And of course I can't remember the name of the book. I'm sure someone will come along that will know, Ours is out in the truck.

kwbosch · 01-23-2006, 03:13 PM

Quote:

quote:Originally posted by wlparry

Just missed going over the 89A from Prescott AZ to Cottonwood and Sedona . Lucky enough to call Deadhorse Ranch State Park beforehand and they advised take alternate route as over the mountain might result in loss of side mirrors or more! We just drove up to Jerome and were thankful that we didn't take that road because we might have lost the entire side of our Montana. Travelled down the 49 from Auburn CA to Placerville CA in October and the wife was calling the Saints to her side with menacing log trucks, motorcycles and assorted gawking tourists on an extremely winding, steep road. Also the 36 from Redding to Fortuna CA which turned into a 10% grade and one lane road (Downhill traffic yields to uphill traffic, a scary sign) up and down several mountain ranges.
Does anyone know of a road atlas that highlights unsafe roads so that we don't find ourselves in a jam?
Thanks for your help.
Bill

Is this what you're looking for?

http://www.mountaindirectory.com/

HTH,

Ken

Charlie · 01-23-2006, 03:31 PM

It is available at CW. Best I remember it has details for major roads and passes only.

Camping World

Northstar · 01-23-2006, 05:44 PM

Thanks Charlie for the hint. Since I will be heading to the Northwest this spring this book will be very helpful.

Montana_4423 · 01-23-2006, 05:54 PM

Thank you for the reference. That book looks like the one I imagined must be out there. Will be in Scottsdale tomorrow to pick up mail and will find a CW to purchase this atlas which will hopefully prevent any snafus.

ols1932 · 01-23-2006, 06:02 PM

We've been sight seeing in that area of Jerome, Cottonwood, Sedona and Prescott several times. We noted the first time we went that there were signs not recommending long rigs of any kind so we left our rig parked and just galavanted with the truck. Saw some great sights!
Orv

smc · 01-23-2006, 10:02 PM

We went to Jerome last year without the trailer thank goodness. I think they said there are 130 hairpin turns in 30 miles! We met some people whp pulled a trailer over in the dark! Maybe they are loucky the couldn't see what they were going through. We marvrlled that they had even made some of the turns in Jerome.

Sunshine · 01-24-2006, 05:11 AM

Thanks for the info. We will be headed that way the first of March. In central Oregon a road to avoid is Hwy 242 out of Sisters, heading west. We had never been that way on our trips to the valley to see family, so decided to "take the tour" (not pulling a trailer). It was the weekend that the FMCA ended, and despite warnings against vehicles with a combined length of 35', there were very large Class A's towing vehicles, and some folks towing large trailers. This is also a very narrow road with many turns where you meet yourself coming and going - we were amazed that these folks ignored the signs and jeapordized their own safety as well as everyone else's!

sreigle · 01-24-2006, 03:08 PM

If I recall, the Motor Carriers Road Atlas by Rand McNally highlights roads ok for semi's. You can get it at just about any major bookstore or truck stop.

I think the roads highlighted are those designated by the state to be ok for semi travel. There may be some roads not highlighted ok for rv's but at least you'd know these roads are fine for rv's. This atlas also tells you location of low clearance areas (listed in the front of the book, by state), which is what I use it for.

Rand McNally Trucking

Koalityman · 01-26-2006, 05:59 PM

Thank you all for the information. I've been wondering where to find such references for trip routes. I've looked at Barns and Noble, Borders and CW to no avail.

jpkelpe · 01-27-2006, 04:16 PM

the trucker's atlas can be found at Truck stops. it is a great reference for bridge heights, etc--tells trucks where not to go.

sreigle · 01-30-2006, 09:36 AM

http://www.discoveryowners.com/cginfolinks.htm

If you use either Streets and Trips or Street Atlas the above link will take you to a page where you can download low clearance information. The file you download will be a draw file (for SA) or text file you can import into S&T as a pushpin file. You then see the low clearance locations right on your map. They also have files for CoPilot Live.

This site also has many other similar files, including Cracker Barrel, Walmart, Flying J, Camping World, Costco and many other business locations. And many others. I check this site regularly for updates.

Parrothead · 01-30-2006, 02:49 PM

Glenn
Do you have this site on your link? I downloaded a bunch of files after Steve told us about this several months ago and they work beautifully.
Happy trails.................

CountryGuy · 02-25-2006, 06:59 AM

Ahhhh, my computer skills, errr, lack of them, are showing. I downloaded a clearance file, it is zipped. Tryed to open and save as a text file on my hard drive and then download into S & T. Somebody is not happy, it does not want to work. SIGHHHH

Hummmppphhh, try again??

sreigle · 03-02-2006, 01:37 PM

Quote:

quote:Originally posted by wlparry

Thank you for the reference. That book looks like the one I imagined must be out there. Will be in Scottsdale tomorrow to pick up mail and will find a CW to purchase this atlas which will hopefully prevent any snafus.

This might be too late for you but I've seen the mountain directory in some Barnes & Noble and Borders bookstores, too.

sreigle · 03-02-2006, 01:42 PM

Quote:

quote:Originally posted by sreigle

http://www.discoveryowners.com/cginfolinks.htm

If you use either Streets and Trips or Street Atlas the above link will take you to a page where you can download low clearance information. The file you download will be a draw file (for SA) or text file you can import into S&T as a pushpin file. You then see the low clearance locations right on your map. They also have files for CoPilot Live.

This site also has many other similar files, including Cracker Barrel, Walmart, Flying J, Camping World, Costco and many other business locations. And many others. I check this site regularly for updates.

A couple of our members contacted me for help getting these files imported into Streets and Trips. I had forgotten I had to do a little bit of massaging of the files prior to importing, although I think it could be done as they come from discoveryowners. I added the headings the import wizard wants and deleted the irrelevant "begin" and "end" lines. I have several of these files, low clearances, passport america, escapees parks, love's, flying j, and some others. I have them in a zip file and can email them to anyone who emails me and gives me their email address. For those not familiar with the moc email, just click the envelope just above this post. Give me your email address as I'm not sure if that's provided in the email I get or not.

We'll be on the road for about a week or so starting this Sunday so I may not see your email right away.

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