Driving Milwaukee to Los Angeles | What route do you recommend? (moving truck, rental)
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I'll be drivng a moving truck from Milwaukee to Los Angeles the last week of this month. There are a few routes and I'm just wondering what you guys recommend?
Details:
Will be driving a 16" truck w/car carrier
Can take up to and including 5 days to make the trip.
I would suggest your choice may depend more on the loaded weight of the truck and trailer, and its ability to pull long steep grades. I-70 thru CO has several (Eisenhower Tunnel, Vail Pass, Mt Vernon Canyon). Are you OK with doing 20-30 MPH uphill in the right lane with the other trucks, and staying off the brakes on long steep downhills, down-shifting as necessary (it will be !). Seems like every trip we would see a rental truck at bottom of hill with burning brakes !
Truckers have a rule "You go down a hill in the same gear you went up (engine braking)". While there will be lots of scenery and vistas, there aren't too many tourist spots easily accessible to I-70 in CO. Maybe Red Rocks Amphitheater outside Denver, Historic Georgetown,
I'll be in a rental Penske truck with an automatic transmission. So unfortunately engine braking will be limited by the transmission's gearing. Maybe it's best I avoid CO.
In my opinion, I would avoid Utah as well. Your best bet is to go the southern route through Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico and Arizona. The southern route is much less desolate and you will have fewer gaps in cell phone coverage from my experience. You will also have more rest and gas options going the southern route. Utah in particular has a very long stretch of ~110 miles on I-70 which states "no services for next 110 miles." You don't want to get stranded on a stretch like that with no cell reception as I did not get cell reception in that stretch.
Utah and Colorado are just not good for an inexperienced driver. Factor in a trailer and car on that trailer and I think you're taking unnecessary risk.
I agree with I-40 over I-70. 70 in Colorado makes me a nervous wreck even in a car. There are some moutainous areas on 40 but it seems they are a more gradual grade.
Good choice. Unless you have experience with the mountain grades, you do not want to take a loaded rental truck over I-70.
Route 66 trip will be a good one.
Several points of interest depending on what you're into: A short detour, you can visit Fort Sumner, where Billy the Kid was kilt by Pat Garrett, and is buried.
Santa Fe area is pretty country, and worth a visit.
Also, the meteor crater is just off I-40, and may be worth an hour or two.
The Grand Canyon could be worth a day's detour.
And Las Vegas is a short detour off I-40, but then you can take I-15 on to LA from there.
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), I'll take I-40.
