Talladega Superspeedway Infield Camping

[Blue Deuce]

Hi all... wanted to share my recent trip to the Camping World 500 at Talladega Superspeedway.

We left last Wednesday morning from La Vernia TX (southeast of San Antonio...about 35 miles or so) and made out way to West Monroe LA to camp for the night at Ouachita RV Park (IH20). Nice little RV park, decent amenities and great camp host. Drove right at 9 hours the first day about 400 miles running with cruise set at 62. Truck and TT did great with no issues! Averaged right under 9 mpg.

Departed the RV Park and headed for the raceway on Thursday morning... arrived at 4:30 right as they opened the infield for TTs. Drove about 8 hours this day and mpg stayed about the same (8.6 on this leg). Again, no issues from the truck or TT. Long drive but was nice ride.

Camped for 4 nights (Thurs - Sun) and pulled out Monday morning heading Bossier City to Diamond Jacks Casino for the night. About 9 hours of drive time... again, no issues and truck TT did great. Had a tail wind on this leg and mpg went up to 10.8!! Diamond Jacks was nice, great amenities and camp host was good. Lost $200 at the casino... but the buffet hit the spot!

Left out Tuesday morning for home... again, no issues with truck or TT. 8 hours on the road (cruise set again to 62) and arrived home about 5. Emptied the TT and grilled burgers for dinner... very nice (but long) trip!

1800 miles with zero issues! Trailer did awesome and was very impressed with my Ram 2500! To quote Forrest Gump (almost)... the truck just wanted to tow! I've never pulled that distance but man, that Ram just kept pulling and towing and never once disagreed with anything!

Saw 5 TTs with blowouts on the road, 3 5ers with tires blown. All passed me at some point. Saw one blowout right in front of me.... guy passed me running at least 70 or 75 and the rear tire was bouncing real fast! Within a min of passing me it went... tore that rear fender right off that 5er!

Infield camping was...well, Talladega! Had a blast, met some great folks, drank a few too many adult beverages too... but it was all I expected it to be and then some! Race was awesome (up to the end) and we had seats coming out of turn 4 so it was a hoot to see 40+ cars in a pack running almost 200mph!

It was a bucket list item for me... checked!

[JMack]

What a great trip!!!!

[Swinepartner]

Sounds like a great trip. Dega is on my camping bucket list. Also glad to see your 6.4 did good. I've been looking at that one w/ our 28BHBE and was wondering bout the 3.73.

[Blue Deuce]

Originally Posted by Swinepartner

Sounds like a great trip. Dega is on my camping bucket list. Also glad to see your 6.4 did good. I've been looking at that one w/ our 28BHBE and was wondering bout the 3.73.

It was on our bucket list too... we plan to go to Bristol in Aug 2016 for the night race next year! Flying up though and staying in a hotel this time... to far to travel pulling the trailer. I put in 4 8-9 hour days going and coming back. 4 days of travel with only 4 days of camping!

As far as the 6.4 and 3.73 goes, she did great! Pulled the hills in Alabama with ease and while she did downshift, never felt the truck was over working. I chose the 3.73 because we are in south Texas and it's flat here but I would look at 4.10s if in hill country as I think it would perform better. Plus I went with the 6.4 because of the payload difference when picking the diesel...I have 700 pounds more payload. My drive to work is short as well. Heck I can pull 17 mpg on the highway when I do drive her somewhere.

I think the 6.4 is a great rig and handles my 28DSBH with ease... even with 5 adults and loaded to the gills going 1800 miles!

[Roy W.]

We too camped in the infield at Talladega, site #807 in Green Geco. 495 miles each way from St. Augustine, FL. Man, that place is party city compared to Daytona infield. Daytona is a lot more reserved and not as many Home Depot screaming generators........Got that one checked off.

[Lincolnjayflight]

I own a 2016 jayflight 23mbh the tow vehicle is a Ram 1500 5.7Hemi sport/RT My wife and I took a trip To Truckee Ca The Ram ran like a champ even at altitude at 7000ft.

[edatlanta]

Originally Posted by Roy W.

We too camped in the infield at Talladega, site #807 in Green Geco. 495 miles each way from St. Augustine, FL. Man, that place is party city compared to Daytona infield. Daytona is a lot more reserved and not as many Home Depot screaming generators........Got that one checked off.

I enjoyed meeting you Roy and our nice chat. I stopped by your site a time or two after you walked up to where I was working. As you can imagine I was terribly busy driving all over the track on the ADA cart. The day you and I visited was my last easy one, but it was all well worth it.

I missed out on the infield camping since my site was in Geico East, but then I didn't have to pay $$ for it either, only 5 days of work. I will do it again in the spring however.