Mountain directory

[chessie4905]

Anybody heard of or used this?

https://www.mountaindirectory.com

[richard5933]

I've got the app for my android smartphone. Lots of good information, as it has a description of the various problem stretches of road. Helps to know what to expect. There are two portions that you've got to buy - eastern & western. They don't include every road or grade, but most of the serious ones on the more traveled roads.

[Ed Hackenbruch]

Yup, wouldn't leave home without them!!!  Since we fulltimed for 12 years they were always with us.    Anytime we wanted to go someplace new or by a different route i would consult them.  Rand McNally road atlas, google earth, and the mountain directories were all i needed and all i used.

[eagle19952]

this is useful.
https://www.flattestroute.com/

[richard5933]

this is useful.
https://www.flattestroute.com/

Here's an updated link. Someone else took over the project.

http://flatrvroute.com/

That's a good site for a quite look at the grades on a route, but the Mountain Directory provides much more information, IMHO.

[buswarrior]

That flattest RV route thing is confused.

Try Perth ON to Knoxville TN...

Sends you down I81, that highway does nothing but up and down.

Now try Perth to Detroit to Knoxville in 2 bits... via 401 and I75...

Friend of mine runs 80k loads down there 3 times a week.

Fuel bill following this thing will be the devil, lots more climbing on the route it suggests.

Effectively the same distance either route.

Can't trust nobody anymore...

Happy coaching!
Buswarrior

[richard5933]

Without knowing the algorithm being used, it would be difficult to know why it chose that route. Not sure if the priority it sets is to minimize overall altitude change, minimize number of steep grades, or something else.

In the route you mentioned it looks like the maximum downhill grade is about 4% going both ways (direct and through Detroit). My first thought was that the distance would be longer going through Detroit, but it's almost exactly the same going both ways. It does look like the route through Detroit would eliminate lots of the up & downs.

Not sure why it chose one over the other, other than possibly factoring traffic or some other road condition. However, when you run the route directly through Google Maps, it chooses the route via Detroit.

[chessie4905]

Put it on a rail car. Maximum grades are more like 2% or considerably less.

[Jim Blackwood]

It's always a good idea to look at how the mountain ridges run. I-81 goes almost entirely through the length of the Appalachain mountain ranges, Detroit and I-75 lays on the plains. Only one hill to speak of (Jellico) and it isn't anything to get excited about.

Jim