Toughest Tows In The Nation, Anyone?......

Rt. 50 through eastern WV. I grossed 33,000gvw with my dually from petersburg, WV to Fellowsville, WV. Up Scherr mountain down into Gormania up out of Gormania down Cheat Mountain up the back side of Laurel mountain down the front side of Laurel Mountain into fellowsville. I you guys are bored someday check it out on a topagraphical map noting there's probably not a straight strecth in WV more than 3/4 of a mile long.
 
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Actually route 29 from Augusta toward Slainesville is the longest straight road in WV at just over 8 miles from curve to curve. That merges with 50 just East of Augusta and goes towards Rt 522 eventually....
Go ahead- ask me how I know.... Oh yeah, I didn't say FLAT, I said STRAIGHT!
I remember old Rt 50 through WV from my youth (really, Dad was driving) in a 72 GMC Astro and remember checking the tail lights on the trailers in some of the turns!
I once stuck my head out the window and said "Dad, we're going so slow the wind won't even blow my hat off". Then I promptly opened the door and climbed down and ran back and got my hat and ran back and CAUGHT the truck and jumped on the step and climbed back in - all the while he never stopped. If he had stopped we would have never gotten started again- too steep and too heavy with a 6 cyl Detriot is not a good combo!!
 
me1magoo said:
Actually route 29 from Augusta toward Slainesville is the longest straight road in WV at just over 8 miles from curve to curve. That merges with 50 just East of Augusta and goes towards Rt 522 eventually....
Go ahead- ask me how I know.... Oh yeah, I didn't say FLAT, I said STRAIGHT!
I remember old Rt 50 through WV from my youth (really, Dad was driving) in a 72 GMC Astro and remember checking the tail lights on the trailers in some of the turns!
I once stuck my head out the window and said "Dad, we're going so slow the wind won't even blow my hat off". Then I promptly opened the door and climbed down and ran back and got my hat and ran back and CAUGHT the truck and jumped on the step and climbed back in - all the while he never stopped. If he had stopped we would have never gotten started again- too steep and too heavy with a 6 cyl Detriot is not a good combo!!
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Thats agood piece of info to no. I've been on that road once or twice. I beleive thats east of Romney.
 
Yep, it sure is. If you have a fast enough car you can actually jump the hills on 29. OF course, that turns to carnage eventually. My step brother and I rolled a car four times on that road one night and both crawled out and walked away! Dad asked "how the hell did you wreck on a straight road???" Then he looked at us and said "never mind- how fast did you get to?".....
 
Done alot of towing with a 7.3 a few years back. Haven't gone too far since I put the 5.9 in.
Across 80 in pa grossing 34-36k more times than I can count. Sign at the top of one hill saying it was the highest point on 80 east of the misissippi.
77 around the VA/WV line? 6% for 6 miles. something like that at about 32k.
76 the whole way across pa then up 77 at about 40k.
322 in pa has some decent grades require you to stop and shift into low gear before you go down.
Worst weekend was going to baltimore and dayton VA on 4th of july weekend. bad holiday to be in that part of the country. weighed about 36-38k. 33 east is bad 10-12%. top of the several mile long drive says welcome to WV. took the runoff ramp on the way down. they work very well. got sideswiped that weekend and had a bad morning with DOT.
Probably hardest on the truck was Oklahoma City to northeast ohio. Pulling a 77 Pete that was actually a OshKosh with a Pete cab. Log truck, has 38K front, 52k rears and triple frame to front and back. that SOB is heavy and about as aerodynamic as a skyscraper. temp gauge was on the edge of red all afternoon and my gearshift boot melted. probably 100 degrees outside and 120 in the truck.
 
Teton pass out of Jackson, Wy is kinda nasty. With or without a trailer of any sorts, way worse than parleys (I80 utah) or Sherman (I80 Wyo).
 
It's true that anything on the west coast is tougher than the east. I have driven and towed in both and taller steeper mountains make for harder pulls- not too hard to figure that one out. The appalachians are mountains, but the rockies tower over them.
 
roachie said:
The ones in around me.....

Yall have any idea how freakin hot a turbo has to be that it becomes translucent?!
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Yes roachie, at times when my tune up on my 13b rotary on meth was somewhat of, you could see the turbine wheel spinning in there. Thats maybe 1800-2000 degs/f. Ouch thats hot.:ft:
 
I am in southeastern ohio, and some of the hills here can get pretty hairy. I mostly pull our two farm stock pulling tractors totaling 17k pounds around all summer. My egts can get pretty high when I leave at noon or so when the temperatures that day are up around 95-100. I have one hill to get there that if I remember right is a 17% grade and there is a 90 degree turn half way up............that thing can get very hairy if you have the wrong gear.
 
Monteagle Mountain in Tennessee on I-24. I can't remember what % grade it is but it steep but there are steeper grades.
 
cumminspuller said:
Monteagle Mountain in Tennessee on I-24. I can't remember what % grade it is but it steep but there are steeper grades.
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I got to say Monteagle is a good one and so is Fancy Gap VA. but I haul campers now for a living and I just took one across I-40 between Gatlinburg TN. and Asheville NC. and I will not go that route ever again if I can avoid it. It took myself and another driver along with a bunch of rigs over 2hrs. to travel 31 miles across that stretch.
 
Blackdog said:
I got to say Monteagle is a good one and so is Fancy Gap VA. but I haul campers now for a living and I just took one across I-40 between Gatlinburg TN. and Asheville NC. and I will not go that route ever again if I can avoid it. It took myself and another driver along with a bunch of rigs over 2hrs. to travel 31 miles across that stretch.
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I've never been the I-40 pull but I think I'll take your word for it after that long of a trip for taht short of distance. lol
 
I came thru there at 1AM this morning with a semi truck I didn't think it was that bad.
 
lorendiesel5.9 said:
I came thru there at 1AM this morning with a semi truck I didn't think it was that bad.
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Probably not that bad in a semi but with a 39' 3 axle toy hauler 5th wheel with a stock 1-ton it wasn't the best stretch. I'm going back that way saturday so I will see how it is empty.
 
I doubt anybody will know where I'm talkin about. But there's an old route that a lot of coal trucks still use running across Black Mountain from Appalachia,VA over into Kentucky. It's a STEEEEP windy two lane road. You gotta have the C.B on cuz there's some switchbacks that two trucks can't pass at the same time.
 
pulled a hill thats 7 miles of 10% grade in southern alberta last week grossing 105,600 pounds. fully chained i had to be pulled up by a chained up 988 cat loader.....damn those canadian salt mines down in a hole......LOL
 
Not a main highway, but north of where I live the grade coming out of the snake river canyon is about 1 1/2 miles of 20% grade. Only "trucks" going up that are 10 wheelers hauling fish from the hatchery. Pulled a loader up it in my 99 24v, in 2 wheel low 2nd gear, pretty crappy, oh did I mention its gravel. Also the grade coming out of salmon falls creek canyon called lily grade is 18% for a LONG ways
 
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307diesel said:
Teton pass out of Jackson, Wy is kinda nasty. With or without a trailer of any sorts, way worse than parleys (I80 utah) or Sherman (I80 Wyo).
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parley's is WAY worse in a big truck, the weight limit on the teton pass is 60k pounds, Parley's has no weight limit.


Lookout pass between montana/idaho is pretty brutal this time of year, the road is rough as sh!t, and the last mile HAS to be an 10-11% grade climb for westbound traffic
 
Some of the pulls mentioned here are pretty good ones. Texas Canyon, in Arizona on I-10 east bound is a good one too, as well as us 89, coming out of Utah into Arizona. Steep hills aren't anything to sweat. The hardest pulls are the ones that never let up...they climb 6-8 percent, plateau out for maybe an 1/8th mile and them back to 8% again. That shlt is relentless!
 
monteagle pass in tennessee is a 6% grade that has some curves going up and down seen some vehicles on fire on the side of the road
 
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