How many hours/miles driving per day?

[Hattie]

Just curious, but many would benefit with a general understanding of the below questions from those of you who make major trips with your Jayco:

• What do you consider the max driving hours or miles in a single day?
• At what average MPH and/or MPG?
• What type of terrain?
• What is your TV/TT/rig?

 

[DocBrown-JAY]

This is a very subjective question. A lot of the answers you get will vary by age and personal comfort level.

What do you consider the max driving hours or miles in a single day?
12 hours. I've done many all nighters and 15 hour days. I love driving at night. However as I get older it's just getting to hard to do that. I'm breaking the 12 hr rule in Sept. for a trip to the Great Smokey Mountains. It'll be be around 13 1/2 hours for that one.

At what average MPH?
62/63 EDIT: forgot mileage. Current rig gets about 10. Previous setup with Trailblazer and Kiwi 17a got 11.

What type of terrain?
Depends, relatively flat in WI and upper mid-west. I've done the Rockys west of Denver and twice on I-90 through Wyoming and Montana.

What is your TV/TT/rig?
See my signature block

 

[mike837go]

I think we can start with (and then abandon) the U.S. federal rules that apply to over-the-road truckers because we ain't making money here.


Personally, hours per day is not as important as hours between breaks. I've found that with 2 competent drivers, 1 tank of gas is the limit for a driving 'shift'. Get off the highway, refuel, potty, meal, potty, fresh driver for another tank. The driver who is not behind the wheel gets some nap time in too. When we 'did Disney' (NY to FL and back) we had 4 possible drivers ('only' 3 were competent for the rig). That gave us extra driver swaps whenever the one behind the wheel felt fatigued at all.


At this point it is just SWMBO and me. We set the cruise for 59 on the Interstates. Plenty of hills. Between the interstate and our campsite are state highways, country roads, tree lined lanes and a mile of unpaved single-lane private road.

 

[Iraqvet05-JAY]

We had a big trip last week and I drove for about 6 hours the first day (with two breaks for gas and lunch). I had driving rain and curvy, hill roads to deal half of the trip and I was ready to call it a day by the time we had arrived. I probably averaged 63 mph on open, 4 lane roads and 50 on those back roads. I had some hills to deal with that your Duramax would not blink at.

 

[JFlightRisk]

We usually don't drive more than 6 hrs a day, mid pm start looking for a CG. we keep the speed to about 60 or under (of course, obeying the speed limits). We try to go places where it's not too hilly. NY state isn't like Va. The trip over the Blue Ridge was a killer. And finally, a Tundra hooked to a Jay Flight 19RD.

 

[TWP723]

I've driven 550 miles in one day with my pop-up to NY with an 2005 F150 5.4 3V and got about 8-9 miles per gallon highway.

 

[Zinkow]

We fulltime, so we're in no hurry to get to a destination, so we drive anywhere from 30 minutes, if we see something interesting, to a max of 4 hours. Also this rig does NOT move in any kind of inclement weather. Top speed is 60 -65mph depending upon road conditions. We've driven all over the US, Canada, & Mexico and we get between 11 -14mpg depending upon terrain.

 

[carlb]

8 to 12 hours a day. We have pushed to 15 once.
Our last long distance marathon was Tampa FL to NC(near the outerbanks) for memorial day weekend. Two days up and two back down.

GreyHawk 31fs with the V10 we averaged around 7 to 7.5 mpg, running mostly 60mph unless we found a tractor trailer to draft that was doing around 65ish.

Terrain - pretty flat on I95.

 

[Camping Couple-JAY]

We are going on a trip in August to South Dakota. The plan is to drive half way from here in Michigan the first day. We are stopping at a CG in Iowa off of I-29. According to Google maps and my Garmin, it's a 650 mile drive. Both devices say it's about 8hrs. I'm going to add 2 hrs to it for fuel, potty and food stops. Another 6-7 hrs to Custer South Dakota the next morning. Like Doc Brown, I like driving at night. We are leaving at 2am the first day to get by Chicago traffic and into iowa by daybreak. Hopefully be into the CG in Iowa by early afternoon.

We are driving a Silverado 2500HD and towing a Jayco 24FBS. I'm expecting 7-9 MPG, My hopes are around 10-11MPG.

I have never driven I-80 past Joliet Illinois. I'm sure its pretty flat beyond that. I'm not expecting any hilly terrain until we get into South Dakota, Anyone who wants to fill me in otherwise please feel free to do so.

 

[troutslayer]

Just curious, but many would benefit with a general understanding of the below questions from those of you who make major trips with your Jayco:

• What do you consider the max driving hours or miles in a single day?
• At what average MPH and/or MPG?
• What type of terrain?
• What is your TV/TT/rig?

Generally, 300 miles max. 200 miles is comfortable
65 mph on highway (ST tires)
All type of terrain from prairies to mountains
see below for rig info.

 

[Murff]

Currently on the road returning home from Ohio. We have been doing about 450 miles per day. the Sport Trac has no problem maintaining 60 to 65 MPH. On the trip out, going through Wyoming over the Rockies, we averaged 10 to 12 MPG. got to Nebraska Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, & Ohio averaging about 8.5 due to the constant head winds.

As we really want to by home this Sat, we will push for a few more miles the next few days. BTW, I do all of the driving, but the Sport trac has a 22 gallon tank, so fuel stops are about every two hours.

we try to be on the road at 9 AM and docked by & 7 PM.

Murff