All in 4 days. Now I feel beat, but I thought I'd share a few tidbits with you guys in case any of you are contemplating a similar trip.
But first an update from the thread on how to stop the double axles on the trailer from bouncing up and locking. 1) I re-tightened all the bolts. 2) I took the large landscapers tailgate/ramp off the back and strapped it down in the front to get rid of the drag on the rear and add some weight on the front. I don't know which worked, but the trailer towed smooth as silk empty.
In hindsight I did this backwards, but the daughter wanted to stop in Sedona on the way back so I took the South route (10) on the way out and the North route (40) on the way back.
The reason I say I did this backwards was that the South route was pretty flat and the north route was awfully hilly. The empty trailer would have been much easier to tow on the hilly route and the loaded one would have been better on the flat terrain. People had said the 10 was a boring drive when compared to the 40, but I didn't find that to be so. Both ways had terrain far different from my green rolling hills around Fort Worth so they were both interesting. 40 did have more side trip options, but I've never done that trip that I had time for side trips.
The trailer was so heavy that I was towing with the throttle just a hair away from a downshift and any incline put me over the line. There were hills I couldn't even go 40 mph. Time for a bigger engine.
A very nice benefit to the southern route was gas prices. I never spent over $2.49 for gas until I hit the Cali border whereas just 2 days later I never found gas much under $3 a gal. I found as much as $1.00 a gallon variance in pricing within just 1 mile on the north route. How does $4 a gallon grab you?
Another nice benefit to the southern route was the speed limits. Did you know that west Texas has an 80 mph speed limit? I didn't and Iive here. The speed limit in Texas on the northern route was only 70.
Both Google and my iPhone seriously underestimated the time it took to get to 40 from L.A. and to get down to FW from 40. They were spot on everywhere else. The northern route took me almost 6 hours longer to complete, Sedona notwithstanding, and almost all the time was on the run up to 40 and down to FW.
Here is something I thought all you guys might be interested in. We had a mini top of the line Passport vs. Valentine war all the way back. The Valentine won hands down.
Arizona has apparently done their own studies on radar detectors too and have really stepped up their game. We never saw just one Arizona Highway patrol, they ran in packs and the Passport never stood a chance. The Valentine's number count and arrows saved our butts multiple times.
Arizona is sneaky. Not only do they run in packs so most radar detectors can't find them all, but they've added Periscopes to their SUVs. Since it's so flat they sit over any hill or in any depression and run the periscope up till it clears the crest and shoot at you that way. I was hit with either Ka, Laser or K band from these trucks. No one uses K band anymore! The Passport didn't even pick up the K band (grocery store door band). The K band was mostly photo traps. They take a photo and mail you a ticket.
They also used lower power outputs so that most detectors couldn't find any stray signals from any distance. They relied upon stealth. Once again the Valentine found all of them and the Passport missed most of the signals until we were far too close for comfort.
Arizona must be worried about going bankrupt too as we counted over 40 instances of these sneak attacks on Hwy 40, down south they were prevalent, but not this prevalent.
Hopefully some of this will help someone.
