Motorhome demolished, 1 killed in Teton Pass crash

[Rollin Ollen]

We like the US Highways and state roads - will frequently use them instead of Interstates. But do use interstates in some cases.
Down side to state roads is they can be steeper. I think last year in Oregon we had a 8% grade but don’t recall exactly where. Tripwizard planner helps us see these ahead of time and then I review the road and how sharp the curves are - to determine if we should take a longer route around.
I like the typical rule of thumb for diesel engine braking, don’t go down faster than the engine can pull you up. If you exceed that speed than the engine braking will have no chance of maintaining the speed. And, don’t care about trying to keep up with others, do what the physics say your setup can control.
On that 8% grade, following that rule, we didn’t have any issues and as usual didn’t need to use the brakes, but we were doing around 35-40mph down that hill.

I'm with you on grade speeds. Most folks understand that larger vehicles need a little more time to climb but lots think it should be just fine to fly down. Not so.

We run a gasser but I have never had any problems using the engine compression and lower gears to keep things under control. We do our best to stay off of interstates and I have yet to meet a hill that has caused my brakes to overheat.

Darrell

 

[Chuggs]

Mass x Velocity squared. You can't adjust Mass on the fly...but velocity is up to you.

 

[Ddmo]

Is this the same road that had part of it closed due to a landside earlier this year?

Yes. They are still working on it, but 2 lanes are open. No issues for trucks or RV’s.

 

[Ddmo]

Anybody happen to take notice of this paragraph?

"However, as the website Book Outdoors points out, using the runaway arrestors isn’t easy. “There are two runaway truck ramps, and to use them on an east descent, you need to cross to the left through head-on, uphill traffic,” the site reports."

The article claims the driver passed an arresting system a 1/2 mile before the accident. I can't help but wonder what moronic civil engineer thought it would be a good idea to force runaways to cross oncoming traffic.

Roger

The runaway ramp is on the right side. It is a cable/net system I’ve never seen before, hence I took notice. Not sure what I would have done if I’ve never seen it before. Looks like you are going to hit a wall of cables not knowing what is on the other side.