Well I'm back from my trip with no current intentions on selling the trailer or the pickup. On the way up we left just about 12:30 PM CST and pulled straight through the night and got into Jackson around 8:30 AM MST for a total travel time of 21 hours with 7 stops along the way and 2 sit down meals thrown in.
We kept the truck right around 65mph most of the way which was the speed limit for the vast majority of it. Pulled a few hills down to 55mph but it was more of a matter of letting the truck roll with the hill rather than an issue that it couldn't pull the hill. Hand calculated mpg at 10.24 for the trip up. Started at 3,200' elevation and ended at 6,500' with quite a few ups and downs in between. We were lucky to have very calm conditions nearly the entire drive.
Transmission temps were pretty good except for the 20+ miles of ROUGH gravel roads that had a 15mph speed limit. It got up to 205 on that a couple times going up hills because we were going too slow to let the cooler do much good. I put it in 4wd to help eliminate wheel spin going up the bumpy rutted hills and that helped some.
Coming home we left Jackson at 1:15 PM MST and got home at 11:00 AM CST for 21 hours and 45 minutes of travel time. Only 6 stops this time but 2 sit down meals again. Ran into some crosswinds in Wyoming and a strong 30mph crosswind quartering to us as a slight headwind when we were nearly home. Ended up slowing to 60mph with the strong crosswind as we were near home. Hand calculated mpg on the way home was 10.92 mpg and the overall trip total was 10.56 mpg. Total miles were 2,583 roundtrip. Worst mileage was a 139.7 mile stretch at 9.01 mpg and best mileage was a 121.1 mile stretch at 11.58 mpg.
I meant to weigh it after we had everything loaded up but didn't get a chance. With the ATV in the truck bed and camping supplies for 3 people and hunting supplies for me I would guess we had around 1,000lbs in the trailer and around 500lbs in the bed of the truck.
I didn't get my elk this year, but overall it was a pretty enjoyable experience. I was worried based on several comments that we would be pushing it by pulling the trailer for 20+ hours nonstop for over 1,100 miles but it really wasn't that bad. The wife and I rotated out with each stop and the drive was really uneventful. Of course we are used to that type of driving, as this was our 3rd trip north this year, it was just our first with the travel trailer. Our 2 1/2 year old son did awesome on the trip as usual. This was his 7th trip to Montana or Wyoming and back since he was born. That's one of the reasons we drive through the night, so he can sleep for a good part of the drive.
Just thought I would update everyone with the results.
Nathan
