I am renting a compact SUV from Hertz for the RTR. Bob has now said more than once that the frontage road must be taken to get to the site- and that it is a super rough road. Does anyone know how rough and whether it might be worth risking in a rental? Any info is appreciated. Some people would probably rather risk their own car but I can't do that right now and I don't want to return a rental car with damage. Thanks.
2019 RTR-Frontage Road too rough for rental car?
- Thread starter cynanne
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Seminole Wind
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just go slow, like 10 mph. might take a few extra min but no damage. it is just bumpy rough, not knarly 4x4 rough
wagoneer
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I find at 30MPH best
highdesertranger
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what's the difference between a 4x4 and a rental car?
a rental car can go anywhere.
seriously though you will be fine. the road Bob is talking about is paved, but rough. the graded dirt is smoother but remember be kind no dust in camp.
highdesertranger
a rental car can go anywhere.
seriously though you will be fine. the road Bob is talking about is paved, but rough. the graded dirt is smoother but remember be kind no dust in camp.
highdesertranger
Cammalu
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One thing about the frontage road I want to mention. A lot of people drive on the side of the road so they aren’t on the pavement. Please don’t do this. There are many campers and also people walking up and down off that road and you will dust the hell out of their campsites.
Please be considerate. I got dusted many times and a shout of , “slow down” got me nothing but a birdie out the window.
This year I will chase you down I promise. I will dust the crap out of anyone’s campsite that wants to be that inconsiderate.
Remember to be kind if you want me to be kind.
Please be considerate. I got dusted many times and a shout of , “slow down” got me nothing but a birdie out the window.
This year I will chase you down I promise. I will dust the crap out of anyone’s campsite that wants to be that inconsiderate.
Remember to be kind if you want me to be kind.
People are going to find their safest path and speed to get down the frontage road, and that may very well take them off onto the side of the road.
With that in mind, I respectfully suggest that folks not camp up by the frontage road. There is plenty of room for remote and private camping in areas not subject to dusting by passing vehicles.
And, by the way, threatening people in a post is not a good thing, so let's not do that.
See you at RTR!
Johnny
With that in mind, I respectfully suggest that folks not camp up by the frontage road. There is plenty of room for remote and private camping in areas not subject to dusting by passing vehicles.
And, by the way, threatening people in a post is not a good thing, so let's not do that.
See you at RTR!
Johnny
cynanne said:
It's 'rough' as in similar to driving over an old style brick-paved road, or maybe a bit worse, but nothing that will cause any damage to a normal car. Your compact SUV will probably handle that road better than most of the heavier rigs traveling that frontage road.
Cars and SUVs tend to have tires that are inflated to around 32-36 PSI, and many vans and RV's have tires that are inflated to 60-80 PSI so we really feel that rough pavement thru the steering and suspension.
And once you hit the non-paved dirt section, it actually smooths out.
MrNoodly
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It's crumbly pavement with a few potholes. You can take it extra slow, or you can take it at 40+ MPH so you just skim the high spots and have a much smoother ride. The latter will probably piss off the folks creeping along at low speeds.
The bigger problem for low ground clearance vehicles is the unpaved road. Sometimes the unpaved road is pretty good if it has been recently graded. (Some years it has been better than the pavement.) Otherwise the surface gravel and rocks range in size from walnuts to softballs with an occasional football sized rock.
Most of the RTR site will me fairly hard packed and level stones, but traffic will smash the smaller stones down so the larger ones stick up. Then you need to pick your path so you don't scrape bottom on the larger rocks.
But every year there have been low slung cars at RTR. It's totally doable.
The bigger problem for low ground clearance vehicles is the unpaved road. Sometimes the unpaved road is pretty good if it has been recently graded. (Some years it has been better than the pavement.) Otherwise the surface gravel and rocks range in size from walnuts to softballs with an occasional football sized rock.
Most of the RTR site will me fairly hard packed and level stones, but traffic will smash the smaller stones down so the larger ones stick up. Then you need to pick your path so you don't scrape bottom on the larger rocks.
But every year there have been low slung cars at RTR. It's totally doable.
Seminole Wind
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Cammalu said:
that is the way in and the way out and the side of that road has been used for ages as an alternative to the bad pavement. anybody driving in, whether they are in "our" group or not can clearly see that camping next to that main road is going to have a issue with traffic. they can camp somewhere else if that bothers them. it is going to happen
and i am extremely disappointed to see such threats and violent attitude on this forum. this is not the old testament and an "eye for an eye" is not acceptable behavior.
if the forum administration thinks this is acceptable to be posting retaliation threats, it is really going to cast a dark shadow on what used to be a nice group of people
We've found that 35 MPH is a good speed for us. It smooths out the bumps nicely. Try different speeds and you may hit on the right one for your vehicle.
Everyone should drive slowly on dusty roads whether it's along the side of the paved road or on the dirt roads on BLM land. On windy days the dust blows a long way.
That being said there is not reason to post threats on the forums. Any more posts of this type will be deleted.
That being said there is not reason to post threats on the forums. Any more posts of this type will be deleted.
Ask for a rental car with good ground clearance. If the clerk does not know ask for the list of models they rent and do your own research on it. Sometimes those high ground clearance cars are lager than the economy models. That is not necessarily a bad thing to have a larger sized car for camping in at the RTR. Remember there is more than one car rental company around in that area.
Great point on tire pressure. For those that will be staying for the duration of the RTR I highly recommend you lower your tire pressure as low as 25 psi. Not only will you notice a substantial cushion but you're interior of your rigs will rattle less and feel overall more comfortable.
It is also true that there is a sweet spot for going on roads that are unpaved and unfortunately it is around 30 to 35 miles an hour. Overland off-roaders taught me this and it really has helped me, my rig, and my comfort following these guidelines. The byproduct unfortunately is dust in the frontage road.
Of course when approaching the public and campers the no dust rules is common courtesy
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It is also true that there is a sweet spot for going on roads that are unpaved and unfortunately it is around 30 to 35 miles an hour. Overland off-roaders taught me this and it really has helped me, my rig, and my comfort following these guidelines. The byproduct unfortunately is dust in the frontage road.
Of course when approaching the public and campers the no dust rules is common courtesy
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Headache
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Maybe someone who is actually going to be working registration and knows where it's going to be located can chime in here.
From what I understand from discussion last year the entry point for the 2019 RTR is possibly being located down the dirt road(the road you drive on in front of that camp host after turning off the pavement) from the camp host. If that is still accurate you'll be on the "bad" road for all of about 30ft.
One of the points of changing the location(among many) was that road. Hopefully someone with more updated knowledge will set everything straight.
For the record I took the bad road at about 35mph. Smoothed it out very nicely.
From what I understand from discussion last year the entry point for the 2019 RTR is possibly being located down the dirt road(the road you drive on in front of that camp host after turning off the pavement) from the camp host. If that is still accurate you'll be on the "bad" road for all of about 30ft.
One of the points of changing the location(among many) was that road. Hopefully someone with more updated knowledge will set everything straight.
For the record I took the bad road at about 35mph. Smoothed it out very nicely.
highdesertranger
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while threats will not be tolerated and I really didn't take that as a threat from Cammalu. I hardly think returning the dusting some inconsiderate person gave you is a threat. If some one dusts out my camp and I can ID them, I will pay them a visit and have a friendly talk with them.
I can see no logical reason for driving on the shoulder of the road. you are kicking up all that dust, if the wind is blowing right it blows the dust right across I-10. you are going to feel real good if your dust causes an fatal accident on I-10.
again this whole dust issue is from city folk who have no consideration for others. don't be an ass the speed limit on dirt is 5mph or no dust. why are you all in such a hurry and so self absorb that you can't see the issue. highdesertranger
I can see no logical reason for driving on the shoulder of the road. you are kicking up all that dust, if the wind is blowing right it blows the dust right across I-10. you are going to feel real good if your dust causes an fatal accident on I-10.
again this whole dust issue is from city folk who have no consideration for others. don't be an ass the speed limit on dirt is 5mph or no dust. why are you all in such a hurry and so self absorb that you can't see the issue. highdesertranger
Cammalu
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A friendly talk with HDR is surely going to be worse than a dusting from an old lady.
The dust from driving on the side road travels for a longggg way. People are parked way off the road and still getting a heavy coat of dust every few minutes.
It’s not right
The dust from driving on the side road travels for a longggg way. People are parked way off the road and still getting a heavy coat of dust every few minutes.
It’s not right
Cammalu
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Seminole Wind said:
Why use the side of the road to drive when you know it kicks up a ton of dust? That’s so incredibly rude. I suppose nobody should be allowed to walk or bicycle anywhere on the road either? When you are on dirt anywhere there are people around you should never go more than 5mph out of courtesy.
Since all of the rtr campers are on dirt roads of some kind if people choose to raise a cloud where can they possibly camp to get out of the dust?
“They can camp somewhere else” if they don’t like it? Really? Where? In Quartzsite in town at an RV park and walk to rtr every day?
Do we really want all the campers getting dusted to start lodging complaints about the rtr people? I’ve already been hearing in Quartzsite bad things about the “rubber people”. I’m sure we want to be on our best behavior and not give us a bad name.
All you inconsiderate dust devil drivers, I'm gonna send the head of the Dirt Mafia (HDR) to have a little talk with you.
