US 285 Ft. Stockton to Carlsbad

[timandsusan]

We will be heading west from San Antonio and will be on US 285 from Ft. Stockton to Carlsbad in about a week. I had a friend who drove it in his car and he said the road was really rough--oil field traffic. Anyone have addition info?

[thekrusers]

One of the worst roads we've traveled. Very rough and lots of truck traffic. It's doable-just go slow and watch for the w9rst dips and potholes.

[stungjoe]

About 7 months ago I was running crude oil in that area. US285 from Pecos through Orla is a very dangerous road. We routinely ran well over the 80,000# gross weight limit(we had overweight stickers) on the crude side. Also on the salt water tanker side, they are notoriously inconsiderate about pulling onto the hwy from lease roads (dirt roads) and will pull right out in front of you. We had a driver barrel roll his rig when a tanker pulled out in front of him. The shoulders can be very soft and deep sand in places so stay on the road. I must caution about the "taking it slow" I would agree except for the fact that it makes people very impatient behind you. That's a 75MPH road and most will doing every bit of that and more. If you run slow people will stack up behind and will try to pass even when it's unsafe Making it dangerous for you and them and the on-coming vehicle. I had more than my share of four wheelers pass in a no passing zone (I was doing 75MPH) which is bad in itself but tankers will do the same and it takes them infinitely longer to gain momentum. I wished I could give an alternate route but out west that's about all there is. Drive safely but watch out for the idiots out there!

If you can run it on the weekend there will be less traffic which will help. Also avoid the "coming to work" and "going home" times if possible. Watch out for the Mentone "T" intersection. It's where HWY302 from Mentone connects to 285. HWY285 is curving near that intersection and the 302 traffic has somewhat limited line of sight. Plus the southbound 285 traffic is turning left and will cross in front of you.

[elknut]

stungjoe is right on about US285 in that area; oilers run the route 24/7 the road is breaking up and extremely rough. There have been at least 2 fatal accidents in the past 90 days. Save yourself from beating up your equipment and try US54/180 from I-10W (it will add a lot of time and miles) to the trip. Safe travels.

[jcurtis934]

Avoid! Been there, done that, took me more than two weeks to get the slime off of monte. Butt ugly with major trash near and in road...used to be pretty low desert. Plan on using side door through big springs tx to hobbs next time we want to visit carlsbad area or access to interstate 20 from new mexico. And as mentioned above...it is dangerous to use the road due to the trucks. John

[rohrmann]

Lost a wheel bearing the following day after running that road last year. It is burned in my memory that I will never drive that road again, no matter how far out of the way I have to go.

[timandsusan]

Thanks for the reminders. I have driven that route about 1 or 2 times per year over the past 5 years to get to Santa Fe. It requires an overnight for us and Artesia was a nice stop but the oil patch is not worth driving through again. So, I will stick to the Interstate and stay in Las Cruces for my overnight and then cruise on into Santa Fe. Thanks for the reminders again.

[timandsusan]

Follow up report. Yes, I did skip the oil patch. I-10 from San Antonio to Las Cruces was really great. El Paso was a little busy but the road is in great shape. Then I-25 on to Santa Fe. Arrived in great shape and enjoying the 62 degree morning!

[scattershot]

Having been to Ft. Stockton, I can truthfully say that if someone wanted to give the wold an enema, I know just where to stick it.