i just got back from a 2 week vacation to 'wheel with the members of my former 4x4 club at the sandlake,OR dunes. since i broke my front R&P in the cj, i decided to leave a little early and take the scenic route back to PHX. my wife and i decided to take the 31' motorhome towing a 20' trailer with my cj7 on it to lake tahoe through reno. that was the 1st mistake. i figured it couldn't be any worse that the siskyous and shasta that we negotiated with ease. well, it was a little steeper and a little longer than anything near shasta, southen OR, and the OR coast range. i made it up, albeit slow, made it up and over. the way down to the lake taxed the brakes. they started to squeal. uh oh. we had a good time at tahoe and left the next day. this is when i started to realize that the sierra's suck. i swear we hit every mountain pass around that lake. one in particular, the rig almost overheated and spit the coolant out as i was cresting the hill at 17 mph with the 454 floored in low gear. on the backside going down the steep ass mountain, it was all i could do to keep the thing at a controllable speed in 2nd. at the bottom of monitor pass i had to make a right to head toward markleeville. very steep with a stop sign. well, i had boiled the brake fluid and the pedal went to the floor, several times. i had to take the sharp right at about 25 mph and about flipped it over. i made the corner and parked it on the side of the road. i managed to convince my wife that the brakes would work again after they cooled down. after an hour of sitting, we were off again thinking the worst was over. wrong. little did i know the sierras are a very long mountain range and i spent most of the day above 7000 ft. low gear up and low gear down. my target speed became 20mph. hoping to go that fast up, and wishing to stay that slow down. we finally got out of the mountains and on some flat 2 lane highway. we wanted to cross over from 395 to 95 and go through vegas, see the hoover dam, and back to az. that was the 2nd mistake. we looked at the map and decided on a road with the least amount of backtracking. 168 to 266 to 95. seemed like a good plan. as we exited 395 onto 168, there was a sign that said "steep hills, sharp corners, not reccommended for large trucks." crap, back across the mountains. my wife said "i don't know about this" and i said "it can't be any worse than what we've already been through." boy was i wrong. we began traversing a highway that resembled an asphalt goat trail. at one point i had to sqeeze the rig through a one lane crack in the rocks and crested the hill a 7 mph. floored in low gear. i thought i was going to have to unload the cj and pull the motorhome over the top. going down was a 9% grade M F'er and by now the brakes aren't just squeaking, it's the metal to metal grind where you know you're damaging very expensive rotors. i had dialed up the trailer brakes to a very aggressive setting to help slow the 20,000 lbs. of mass down a little. needless to say, i burned those out too and they were in need of adjustment. at long last we made it out of the sierras and to the comforting flat desert of nevada.

the moral of the story is: anyone towing to the rubicon or lake tahoe from the east, don't cut across from 95 to 395 on 266 and 168. find another way, even if it means backtracking. go to i-5 to sac and cut over. THE SIERRAS SUCK! THEY'RE BIG AND UNFORGIVING.

I'm glad y'all survived! Sounds like the title of the story should be "Towing with a motorhome sucks" <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/cheers.gif" alt="" />

"TOWING WITH A MOTORHOME AND NOT RESEARCHING YOUR ROUTE SUCKS" it's all good though. it's just funny that we decided to take the scenic route instead of the interstate and the roads were worse than the trails we had just been 'wheeling the jeep on. same horsepower but quadruple the weight. it's not the worst shape i'd ever been in though. we went to table mesa out here near PHX over easter and it had just rained. it was a 4x trail just to get in and i had to mud bog just to get to our campsite. the motorhome still has mud under it.

I hope to get out that way again some day. But I will be driving the Jeep and looking for those scenic routes! <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/notooth.gif" alt="" />

it's a beautiful drive through the sierras, as long as you're fuel injected and your brakes work. i didn't have that luxury.

I plan to get a few mods done before I come that way and bring the YJ . I can't wait to get back into the mountains, I was born and raised a flatlander, never lived more than a couple of miles from the Gulf coast, but have visited all of the continintal states, Canada and Mexico. I was planning a trip to Arizona this last spring but got sidetracked. Now with the new job it may be another year before I can get more than one week off. Oh well, a man can dream! <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/cheers.gif" alt="" />

The only time the Sierras have sucked for me was during a backpacking trip. We were at 9600 ft or so and it snowed a couple of inches on us. Now that's not a lot of snow, but this was in late June of last year and there was still a LOT of snow left over from the past winter. On top of that, we still had to hike through a pass that was 2000 ft higher. We weren't prepared for it. So we had to hike back down, and not complete the trip. But like valleycat said, they are beautiful.

I've been to Jackson Hole WY a few times and people arn't around to help you out when you drive the passes. Everybody assumes you know what you're doing. My son and I decided to go over Teton Pass to get to Grand Tragee on the other side. Nobody ever said watch out for this or watch out for that. Man, what a ride in a snow storm. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/cheers.gif" alt="" />

it makes for good memories though, i'll never forget that trip.

The Sierras can kick your<img src="/forums/images/graemlins/butwiggle.gif" alt="" />if you're not careful...

but you learn to love them. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/kewl.gif" alt="" />