Wow, I was going through Wyoming and what a bitch. While my Jeep is great off road, it is NOT a road car. There were some climbs on the interstate that I almost was wondering if it was going to make it to the top or not. Made it to California and plan on taking the Jeep where it was meant to go, Rubicon trail and others.
Years ago I had a similar experience driving back to NC from Washington state with the bed of my little Nissan pickup severely overloaded with junk from my workshop. Driving over the Rockies was absolutely brutal. Several times I had my foot on the floor, in third gear, and was still slowing down. I stopped in Idaho and bought overload springs for the rear leafs and that did make the rest of the trip a lot more pleasant, but the winds and grades going over the Rockies definitely made an impression on me.
Coming back from my fiance 's house at the beach a few months back I was pulling a small utility trailer with a golf cart on it. Should have been like nothing to my v10 excursion. Left fine but as I got onto I 20 headed to Columbia the truck started to slow. The really aren't hills there, and the road is good. I put my foot in it more and watched the mileage dip into single digits. Had to downshift to maintain speed. I pulled over thinking something must be wrong. Hit the flashers and went to open the door. It slammed back on my leg hard enough to hurt. I forced it open and was faced with the fact that I was driving straight into about a 45mph headwind. Couldn't tell there was any wind while driving. Truck was showing 6 mpg when I turned onto 77 in Colombia. Mileage improved from there, even with the hills. Just had to deal with the crosswinds then.
Happend to me last Moab trip on I 70, wind was blowing a good 40mph steady, gas mileage went to 8mpg, and had to slow down alot. I never realized a strong headwind could slow you down that much. On the flip side though, coming back through new mexico had a good wind to the rear of us and gas mileage was crazy good at near 23mpg.
I averaged about 13-14mpg all the way across the States. Ironically it didn't change much whether I was cruising on flat roads at sea level or climbing the hills at upper elevations. Glad my company paid for the gas.
My wife and I are going to be looking for at least a 2 br furnished home or apartment here in the East Bay area, anyone willing to make the trek is welcome to stay but may have to crash on the floor. I think the GPS says we are 5 hours West of Rubicon. I bought a book that was just published in April of this year listing 100 off road trails in California. It has trail head coordinates as well as pictures and has ratings for the trails so you know what you are going to get yourself into, so I am going to be busy off-roading once we get settled in here. I will be here for almost a year and plan on hitting as many trails as I can. And yes I will be posting pictures. Maybe I will create my own trip thread.
