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Old 05-22-2011, 12:21 PM
 
2 posts, read 6,395 times
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I am moving from IL to Phoenix on Tuesday. I am a single mom with 2 girls driving a 20 ft. Uhaul (packed to the gills) and pulling a van on a trailer behind it. Needless to say I'm pretty nervous!!!! I was planning to drive through Flagstaff and down, but someone told me they thought that was a really steep grade and I would be better off going through Tucson and up. Please tell me which way would be safest and easiest. Thanks SO much for your help!!!
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Old 05-22-2011, 01:51 PM
 
Location: Gilbert Arizona
860 posts, read 2,715,390 times
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We drove our U Haul trailer down through Show Low, not Flagstaff and it was gorgeous but I was a nervous wreck with those mountain grades. The trailer is hard enough to pull and the mountains do add alot of stress to your driving. We moved last year from Indiana.

If someone says there are no hills coming through Tuscon ( i know there are none between Tuscon and Phoenix) then I would follow their advice and go that route.

Good luck and welcome to the Phoenix area.
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Old 05-22-2011, 02:02 PM
 
Location: Chicago,IL
13 posts, read 29,745 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by hipnhumble View Post
I am moving from IL to Phoenix on Tuesday. I am a single mom with 2 girls driving a 20 ft. Uhaul (packed to the gills) and pulling a van on a trailer behind it. Needless to say I'm pretty nervous!!!! I was planning to drive through Flagstaff and down, but someone told me they thought that was a really steep grade and I would be better off going through Tucson and up. Please tell me which way would be safest and easiest. Thanks SO much for your help!!!
Where in Illinois are you moving to Phoenix from? I'll be following you out there in 6 months (we have a projected move date of January)

Good luck with the drive, and come back and update on which route you took, so I know which way to go (or not go) based on your experience
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Old 05-22-2011, 08:46 PM
 
Location: Gilbert, AZ
105 posts, read 326,119 times
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If you come thru Tucson.....you will be using I-10. Ive driven the I-10 many times as far east as Kerrville, Texas, and yeas its fairly flat. Some hills here and there but no insanely steep grades. However, I-10 runs very much south from where you are comming from, so you would have to figure a southern route to eventually merge with the 10.......I wanna say when we moved from Indiana to Texas we went thru Amarillo.......not sure what highway that would be to get you to the 10. I can say if you can get to the 10 around El Paso......its flat all the way to Phx pretty much besides Texas Canyon and thats just a short windy part of road just before Tucson and very scenic to boot......
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Old 05-23-2011, 08:53 PM
 
Location: Rural Michigan
6,343 posts, read 14,676,901 times
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I've done both ways in loaded moving trucks - I did it once in a "van" style u-haul with a gas engine, and once in a 28 foot penske diesel truck...

The "van" style Uhaul had lots of horsepower & pulled a trailer (with a car on it) like it wasn't even there. The gas engine would downshift on hills and allow you to hold your speed, however, the temp gauge would climb if you kept if floored for too long... We took that one through Flagstaff without a problem...

The diesel 28-footer would lose speed as we climbed hills - we took the path through Tucson with that one, and there were still a couple of hills outside of Tucson where the truck slowed to 30 with the pedal floored... a little scary...

The brakes were great on both trucks, although they were smokin' a little bit on the Uhaul truck when we stopped for gas south of Flagstaff...

If I had to do it again, I'd insist on a truck with a gas engine, and I'd take the road through Flagstaff.. Turning south at Albuquerque adds several hours of driving to your trip. If it works for you, I'd try to find a place to sleep around ABQ, then you'll be "fresh" for the hills around Flagstaff...

Don't get discouraged, the speed limits climb as you get further west - so that by the time you get to New Mexico you can keep it floored and make really good time.
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Old 05-23-2011, 11:11 PM
 
Location: Waco, TX
977 posts, read 1,955,504 times
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If you come in from the north, there will be steep grades on all 3 main routes: via Flagstaff (I-17), Payson (Hwy 87), and Show Low (Hwy 60). Coming up from Tucson (I-10) is flat, but if you are coming from Illinois, you are looking at adding 3-4 hours to your trip, because it is quite a ways out of the way. If you look at driving time from Albuquerque:
~7.5 hours in such a truck via I-40/I-17.
~8.5 hours via I-25 to NM 26 to I-10 to Tucson...then another 2 hours from Tucson to Phoenix.
If you do choose the latter, take NM 26 (exit at Hatch) from Hatch to Deming instead of taking I-25 all the way down to I-10 in Las Cruces. Will cut considerable time vs the alternative, and it is flat. DO NOT take NM 152/90 through Silver City. Very hilly and winding.
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Old 05-24-2011, 03:02 AM
 
Location: Rural Michigan
6,343 posts, read 14,676,901 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Cyborg13 View Post
If you come in from the north, there will be steep grades on all 3 main routes: via Flagstaff (I-17), Payson (Hwy 87), and Show Low (Hwy 60). .
Whatever you do, absolutely do not try to come down the 60 in a moving truck... that's a white-knuckle ride in a regular car, much less a moving truck...
http://youtu.be/ab0TkoCRiqg
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Old 05-24-2011, 05:39 AM
 
9,741 posts, read 11,152,452 times
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Hello hipnhumble.

I brought down a 20 foot fully loaded trailer from MN not long ago. The path I chose was from 35 south to Iowa and then cross over using highway 80 (though Nebraska and into Colorado). From 80 I crossed over to 76 (a cut off) which took me into into Denver (no tolls that direction). I then hooked into 25 south through Colorado Springs and all the way into Albuquerque NM. Next I went West on 40 (past 200 Indian Casinos which somehow were all busy) and into flagstaff.

The total trip took me 28 hours of drive time and I made it in 50 hours (2 days and 2 hours with 2 nights of sleep).

I was warned by friend of the Colorado elevation. That was child's play. The most sever portion of that trip was the drive down from Flagstaff. But I didn't have one ounce of concern when I was driving. The truck had plenty of torque for the hills and the braked didn't struggle at all. But. Unlike you, the big differnce was that I didn't have a van behind me. That could be a game changer. If I was you, I'd call a UHaul dealer in Flagstaff and see what they think.

A few tips. Don't forget to hit the trailer haul button. In New Mexico on highway 25 for instance, the truck struggled when I left it in overdrive so I hit the button. Going in and out of overdrive will overheat the transmission. With a van behind you, expect to remove the overdrive it all the time. Also. I down shifted letting the engine help me slow down on the longer declines. With a van behind me, I'd definately go under the speed limit and make sure I didn't always have my feet on the brake 100% of the time. Don't be afraid to pull over and let the brakes cool down. But in general, there were only 3 or 4 longer drops that I had to ride the brakes more than I preferred. It's NOT like it is a struggle all of the way down. If you specifically went out of your way on to downshift and then pulled over a couple of times to let the brakes cool out of paranoia on those two steeper hills, I would do it with a van on the back.

There was a couple of other wide areas south of Santa Fee NM that I also needed to downshift. So I would say a total of 6-8 small stretches made me downshift. Remember, the UHaul is a BIG airdrag. That helps out a lot from having the truck want to accelerate going down the hills.

Worse case. If you become scared to death because you feel the brakes struggling (and you smell them), disconnect the van at a rest stop in Flagstaff and drive down without it (still having the trailer). Then have a friend drive you up to the rest stop (3 hour drive back up) and take the van home. But I highly doubt that you will have an issue if you down shift and you take your time. After about an hour of driving out of flagstaff, you won't run into any declines that make you break. So it's only an hour of your trip where you need to be be conscientious of how often you break and when to downshift into drive 3 on the automatic transmission.

I hope this helps.

Last edited by MN-Born-n-Raised; 05-24-2011 at 05:52 AM..
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Old 05-24-2011, 06:06 AM
 
9,741 posts, read 11,152,452 times
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A few other tips. UHaul typically has different tires on their trucks. What that means is the speed limit is off. the spedo and miles were off 6%! I checked the speed with my GPS. The GPS said 66 but the UHaul spedo said 70. I got 2000 miles in the quoted price which was more than I needed. But think about it.... UHaul charges 45 cents a mile and that truck (with the wrong tires) is a money maker. People also think they are getting better gas mileage AND people are actually going slower which is safer for the UHaul.

Another point. My MN UHhaul sales person said most car insurance companies don't insure a TRUCK rental. I asked him 5 different ways as I declined it (out of suspicion). They were wrong. I asked State Farm and I was covered. Nearly all do. It's a scam to sell insurance.

Also. The contract reads "Uhauls are not water proof, they are water resistant". You guessed it, my truck wasn't water proof. It ruined a piece of furniture. UHaul said they water tested it and it was perfect. I asked, "did you test it with 4 thousand pound load at 70 MPH of rain hitting it'? She said "they know how to test it".

In summary, next time I'm going Budget Truck Rental. I'm not done with UHaul yet.
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Old 05-24-2011, 07:06 AM
 
3,822 posts, read 9,470,404 times
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I moved back to the Phoenix area from the east coast with a moving truck and pulling my car. No major problems other than learning that you need to give yourself extra time to brake, you cannot back up (so always pick a gas station or restaurant that you can just pull through) and I should have packed a little better. Whenever I hit a bumpy road the moving van would rock sideways a little bit and it took extra concentration to not freak out and keep driving through it.

I took pretty much the same roads that you will be taking. The small, steep mountains of Virginia and Tennessee were much worse than the long grade down from Flagstaff. Not going to lie and say it will be fun, but just pay attention, go slow and you will be fine. When you are moving you don't want to add an extra day or two just to avoid the hill coming down from Flagstaff.
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