Resources on which highways, roads to travel to avoid steep mountains?

[XERTYX]

I'm planning to take some trips once I get my van fixed. (Initially seemed to be alternator now narrowed down to the battery) 

I have nothing to do at the moment but wait for next months paycheck to replace it and I've been wanting to chart out some routes I'd like to take and that got me to thinking.

I am horrified to drive on steep grades. I'd drive 100 miles out of my way to avoid the worst of them. Is there a resource already in place like an app or website for this very purpose? Or should I study topographical maps and plan routes on my own?

 

[highdesertranger]

What do you call a steep grade? Interstates try to keep the percentage down. But I have seen them around 8% which is steep but not to bad. Highdesertranger

 

[WanderingRose]

I like the PocketEarth app, which has markers for grades at 5-6% or greater.

I found myself unexpectedly on a 15% grade in Oregon, I think, some years back.

It was a bit scary.

 

[Matlock]

If you haven't looked yet, you can find elevation on Google Maps by turning on the "Terrain" function. I've used it a time or two and liked it but I'll be damned if I can remember any specifics.

There's another "trip map" that shows road grades by least to worse grade over a set distance, like between point A and point B. It's an app for your phone. I see if I can find it.

Edit: ^^^ Rose has it, PocketEarth.com

 

[XERTYX]

Oh cool thanks peeps. I'll take a look at that.

Yeah I dont have a road atlas or anything so i was planning worst case scenario to use terrain filter on google maps.

@HDR i dont know "grades" basically anything over a 2° angle for a super long distance. Haha.

I went over monteagle with my dad as a kid. Both ways. I finally sat down in the floor board and prayed to any deity that would hear me promising to never come back there if they'd let me live. Super scary.

Hwy 111 i think it is in Tennessee has a stretch of hwy that's like a 35° angle that goes on for about 11 miles and terminates into a 90° turn at the bottom with a flimsy guard rail keeping you from falling about 5k feet straight down. More than once on that stretch I have been tempted to use the runaway truck lane in my old minivan. I used to go to cookeville Tn every few days during spring/summer to visit a friend.

 

[tx2sturgis]

Not trying to be a wise-ass but you might have to stay where you are...or in Florida. 

This country has mountains (some big ones too!) and to go anywhere interesting you will probably have to drive over some steep mountain roads now and then. If you plan on heading out west, or back east FROM out west, there are these things called the Rocky Mountains. There are many other mountain chains and ranges in the USA...depending on where you are they could be in your way also!

Sometimes you might find an alternative highway or road that is not as steep...depending on where you are and where you are going.

Without knowing where you are or your travel plans, it's hard to be of much help with first hand advise. Maybe the listings above will guide you to the flats...oh wait...thats where I am!

 

[highdesertranger]

Ha, you should learn. 2° is the max set by the ADA for handicap ramps. 2° is nothing.

Grades are measure in percent. 6% means the elevation change is 6 feet in elevation for every 100ft traveled. Once you get above 8% you are getting real steep.

2° is abut 3.7%.

Highdesertranger

 

[XERTYX]

Haha. Yeah. I'm from the foothills. We have steep hills. But then in a few hundred feet they go back up. Then back down. And up again. What I cant do is to go down and down and down for what seems like forever.

Call me a ridge runner. One leg longer than the other. I dont mind. But super steep grades make me feel like I'm in a multi thousand pound pinewood derby car with no brakes.

 

[WanderingRose]

I was taught to downshift on grades, and it helps.

 

[XERTYX]

Yeah my dad said on steep grades you downshift and keep constant pressure on the brakes. He was a professional truck driver with like 7 million miles without a credited accident when he retired.

But I feel more nervous going down a grade than if I were diffusing a bomb. Swamp palm, panic attack, and the constant thought of "just run really fast when you hit the ground" after bailing out running thru my mind. XD

 

[XERTYX]

"Just start running really fast when you hit the ground. It'll work." - Butt Head

 

[B and C]

You slowly pump the brakes to allow them to cool a little between applications and/or shift to yet another lower gear. I have been in first gear going down some roads and still having to pump the brakes. Burn off a little speed and let off the brakes. Let the speed build again until time to slow down. I try to get in a gear where I may have to actually give it some gas to keep speed up.

 

[highdesertranger]

Yep this is one of the situations where a stick shift out shines an auto 10 to 1. Highdesertranger

 

[jacqueg]

Yeah my dad said on steep grades you downshift and keep constant pressure on the brakes. He was a professional truck driver with like 7 million miles without a credited accident when he retired.

But I feel more nervous going down a grade than if I were diffusing a bomb. Swamp palm, panic attack, and the constant thought of "just run really fast when you hit the ground" after bailing out running thru my mind. XD

Oh yeah, going down is far scarier than going up.

My best advice - when crossing mountains, stick to the interstates or other major state highways. Especially look for highways that run next to rivers. You will still run into scary spots but they spend huge piles of money engineering those roads, and unless you have solid information otherwise, odds are they're the safest.

 

[XERTYX]

My first car was a stick. I wanted a 1984 Pontiac fiero. Never again. If god wanted us to all have manual trannies he wouldn't design ridges and hollers.

Haha.

When the auto transmission was invented either steep grades should have been abolished or hovercrafts should have been made the norm. Haha.

Driving over a steep grade for me is worse than asking someone to perform a selfie tattoo with an oyster fork.

I learned the manual transmission BTW. I can steal your antique car. No guarantee it will still be mobile afterwards.

I have a 17year old son than says a manual transmission is the best anti theft device... he's right. I'd never steal a non automatic. Not ever.

 

[highdesertranger]

But you are not a auto thief, right? Highdesertranger

 

[XERTYX]

My kid out shined me. Told the barber... ess. That games WEREN'T real. It was imaginary. The playstation games were a GAME.

 

[XERTYX]

He played grand theft auto better than me.

 

[MrNoodly]

I know this sounds preachy and judgmental, but we get over our fears by facing them. I suspect the more you drive in hilly and mountainous places the more confident and comfortable you'll become.

 

[ckelly78z]

I just drove a long stretch of I-77 through West Virginia in heavy rain on Sunday...not for the timid !