Daily distance and average speed cross country?

**Kings7248** · 04-07-2021, 02:46 PM

Originally Posted by 2ACDogs

We're in the planning stages of a September trip from Arizona to Maryland to western Pennsylvania then back to Arizona. 2400 miles to our destination in Md and 2100 miles from Pa back home to Az.. We've done some big mile days with previous travel trailers and did 3 -700 mile days with a Penske truck moving to Az in 2005 (never again) but have never done back to back 5 or 6 long days with a TT. I'm interested in what people get for average speed for 400 to 500 miles/day driving. We both drive and will have 2 dogs along on this trip that travel pretty well. We have a pretty efficient traveling routine but I just never kept track of miles/hours on 1 day runs. 6 - 400 mile days or 5 - 500 mile days. I'm thinking if we could average 50mph start to stop we'd be lucky.

Thanks

We've made 2 round trips from Maine to Colorado. Taking into account fuel stops, bathroom breaks, lunch; we do well to average 55MPH over a day of traveling. We try to travel between 350 and 450 miles a day and arrive at a campground in the daylight. We average about 10mpg towing and we have a 36 gallon fuel tank.

**AustexGP** · 04-07-2021, 03:45 PM

Originally Posted by 2ACDogs

I just came across this in another thread about trip planning:

"If this is your first big trip, I would definitely would use a tool like Trip Wizard to plan the trip. As a member of our forum you are already a member of Trip Wizard."

Can someone explain what this means?

A couple of years ago, Grand Design signed up with Trip Wizard to allow forum members to use Trip Wizard for a period of time. In fact we used it to plan our trip from Austin, TX to Moab Utah and around Utah. Currently you have to subscribe to Trip Wizard to use it. In your case, I think it might be a good idea to sign up and use it to plan your trip. We were able to use it to find campgrounds within the miles we wanted to drive. It also gives you the location of all Love's and Pilot Truck Stops. These are great rest areas for an half hour to an hour.

If this is your first big trip with a TT, then I'll give you some free advise. Driving a TT becomes very stressful after 3-4 hours, that's why I would recommend not driving more the 4-5 hours a day. Even if that mean stopping around 3-4pm, setting up for the night and then enjoying eating out or cooking something. The rest will be worth it.

**2ACDogs** · 04-07-2021, 05:17 PM

So lots of travel ideas from 200 miles a day to 14 hours. Start early and start at noon. It sounds like 50 mph average start to stop trip speed is reasonable for planning purposes. We've pretty much settled on driving 400 +/- a day and take 6 days to get there. Get some miles in but don't kill ourselves and take care of the dogs. We always get up early so might as well get up and get going. We're going to run I-40 to Knoxville then I-81 up through Virginia. Google calls it 2336 miles and 34 hours, figuring more like 45-50 hours drive time. We've done 12-14 hour days with previous TTs to get somewhere, just not 2400 miles worth.

**fez111** · 04-07-2021, 11:28 PM

We just pulled our Solitude through Georgia and "around" Atlanta. Hours and hours and hours in stop and go traffic! We've never seen it this bad. I turned off the power to the hydraulic disk brake power pack because I was afraid of burning it up...

I wish you the best, but your hours and miles formulae doesn't fare so well in Georgia!

**geotex1** · 04-08-2021, 06:10 AM

Originally Posted by fez111

We just pulled our Solitude through Georgia and "around" Atlanta. Hours and hours and hours in stop and go traffic! We've never seen it this bad. I turned off the power to the hydraulic disk brake power pack because I was afraid of burning it up...

I wish you the best, but your hours and miles formulae doesn't fare so well in Georgia!

IMO, towing through ATL is not for daytime. The hours after midnight and before daybreak are best. I am on 30 years of regularly traveling to Atlanta multiple times each year and the growth in the city and traffic has been unreal! I have a plant located north of the City, and for the past 6-7 years I only take the latest flight in so I can have an unhindered drive from the airport!

**Schiefswret** · 04-08-2021, 06:47 AM

Everyone has there own comfort level, we try to stick with about 300m per day and not exceed 63mph which brings us to a typical average of about 50mph. Works for us and we can cheat from time to time and go as much as 400 in one day, if we really need to. We try to never get in a rush for safety reasons. Travel safely!

**Rvlife** · 04-08-2021, 08:04 AM

I read this somewhere: 2-2-2 Rule: This rule of thumb suggests you travel no more than 200 miles per day, arrive by 2 pm (so you have plenty of time to find a spot and set up), and stay at least two nights (so you have at least one full day to enjoy the location).

The older we’ve become the more wisdom we see in the advice. In our early days and when still working, we drove long days. Now we try to keep the distance under 200. We keep the speedometer under 60. We still do back to back driving days but don’t like it.

**offtohavasu** · 04-08-2021, 11:17 AM

With kids, we try to stick around 300 miles a day. I pushed 500 one day, but we made sure to do an extended lunch break that day. Movies in the back seat help too. When the ask how much longer, I'll say, "One more movie." That makes them happier because they can watch another movie.

**2ACDogs** · 04-08-2021, 03:03 PM

Originally Posted by Rvlife

I read this somewhere: 2-2-2 Rule: This rule of thumb suggests you travel no more than 200 miles per day, arrive by 2 pm (so you have plenty of time to find a spot and set up), and stay at least two nights (so you have at least one full day to enjoy the location).

The older we’ve become the more wisdom we see in the advice. In our early days and when still working, we drove long days. Now we try to keep the distance under 200. We keep the speedometer under 60. We still do back to back driving days but don’t like it.

If we followed this rule it would take us 24 days to get to our first destination! We've planned 25 days for this entire trip. Maybe we'll try it someday though.

**offtohavasu** · 04-08-2021, 03:07 PM

Originally Posted by 2ACDogs

If we followed this rule it would take us 24 days to get to our first destination! We've planned 25 days for this entire trip. Maybe we'll try it someday though.

Good plan...for retired folk. For us, we're still in destination mode with vacation days limiting our time, so we have to get to the destination with as few (and short) stops as possible.