drive from Flagstaff to Phoenix

[REH Co]

I have made the trip from Flagstaff to Phoenix. As an RVer from Colorado, where mountain passes are part of life, I offer this: take your time. Accept the fact you will lose speed going up hill. No sense running your engine at top RPM up hill and risk engine damage or failure. Sacrafice some speed and save your engine with reasonable RPMs. As others have suggested use you tow haul mode for down hill and augment your speed control with periodic breaking. Apply the brakes for a few seconds and release them. Repeat as needed. This helps keep your brakes cool so they still work when you need them. Use a speed where you are comfortable. If you apply the brakes and "ride them" constantly this leads to over heating of the brakes which makes them fade and eventually fail.

I've towed behind my RV all over the US and never had a brake failure on a pass or hill. Good luck. Have fun.

[3belkhunter]

Echo everything said here so far - if you just have to travel on a Sunday, give some thought to going past Lake Mary through Payson if your destination is in the east valley or even ash fork through Prescott if you want to avoid some, not all, of the steep hill declines… an early departure Sunday morning is best, or even better is Monday morning, traffic wise… safe travels!

[Spower]

So the OP never said what route he was taking. If the I17 it's not an issue except for the road work going on. If not that's a different story. Do not go through Jerome

[CAG]

Originally Posted by Spower

So the OP never said what route he was taking. If the I17 it's not an issue except for the road work going on. If not that's a different story. Do not go through Jerome

The most direct route is I17.



To get to Jerome from Flagstaff, you have to go to Sedona and that means diverting off of I17 on the way to Phoenix. The other route is switchbacks and not an RV route of any kind. So why he would go through Sedona on either route to get to Jerome that is then the route to Prescott that is more narrow switchbacks and not a route to Phoenix, unless you now go back to I17 beats logic.

So, while he did not say which route, the logical route is I17, unless you want to get stuck on switchback, or spend the day driving around the mountains before getting to Phoenix.

I am guessing you are new here, do not travel the state much or are not familiar with our highways


Taking the Lake Mary Rd to 260 to 87 and Payson gets you to Mesa/Apache Junction/Scottsdale and not Phoenix directly. On top of that the road off of the Rim and then from Payson down is made up of more downhill that out of Flagstaff.



I think he has plenty of good advice at this point and this horse is down and dying.

[CAG]

BTW. This is traffic going to Payson on a Friday. If you want to exchange this traffic coming back on Sunday for that on I-17. Go for it