Which road to use?

Next month want to go east from Salt Lake City over to Colorado Springs to have our tm worked on at the dealer located there.

There are two (2) highway possibilities I am contemplating; Interstates 70 and 80. Having never gone either one, and pulling a tm with a Liberty 6 cylinder, automatic, open for suggestions of the better of the 2.

I am concerned about high passes; so the one with the less steep grades will be preferable. The Liberty is just not that much of a beast on the higher and steeper roads.

Thanks

[RockyMtnRay]

Originally Posted by charlie

Next month want to go east from Salt Lake City over to Colorado Springs to have our tm worked on at the dealer located there.

There are two (2) highway possibilities I am contemplating; Interstates 70 and 80. Having never gone either one, and pulling a tm with a Liberty 6 cylinder, automatic, open for suggestions of the better of the 2.

I am concerned about high passes; so the one with the less steep grades will be preferable. The Liberty is just not that much of a beast on the higher and steeper roads.

Thanks

Eastbound I-70 in Colorado has 3 grades that will bring your Liberty to a painfully long and slow crawl. The first is the climb over Vail pass...you start in Vail at about 8000 feet, after 10 miles of nearly continuous 7% grades you will reach the summit at 10,600 feet. Then comes a stairstepping descent down to Silverthorne/Dillon where you "bottom out" at 8700 feet. Then you get to climb a very steady (no breaks whatsoever) 7% grade for 8 straight miles until you reach 11,115 feet of elevation at the western entrance of the Eisenhower tunnel under the Continental Divide. Then comes another stairstepping descent (sometimes in the 6% range) until you get to the bottom of Floyd Hill east of Idaho Springs. Then you get to do another climb...this time around a 6% grade for about 2.5 miles...and if it's a warm day the elevation here is low enough (around 7000 feet) that you can encounter 80 degree temperatures and overheating is a definite possibility. A few miles later you get to do a long and plummeting descent into Denver.

Westbound I-70 is bad but not nearly as bad as going eastbound...first you do a 7 mile, 6% grade (usually in very warm temperatures) climbing out of Denver. Just west of Georgetown is "Georgetown Hill"...about 2 miles of 6 to 7 percent grade where you climb from 8000 to nearly 9000 feet. Then you have 12 more miles of 5 and 6 percent grades...at elevations of 10000 to 11000 feet...with a left lane minimum speed of 55 so you will be stuck in the right lane at 25 mph behind the semis/RVs. Then you plummet down to Silverthorne and start all over again for the climb up to Vail pass...typical grades in the 5 and occasionally 6 percent range.

I used to tow my 2720SL with a Jeep Cherokee...the Liberty's predecessor...who's 4.0L I6 actually produced more torque at a lower RPM than the 3.7L V6 in the Liberty. I made exactly one trip on I70 with that rig and said never again...I was down to 25 mph for so long (watching the engine on the verge of overheating the entire time) that I swore I'd never do that again. I-70 across Colorado is not a road you want to take with a marginally powered tow vehicle...which the Liberty (as you note) pretty much is.

By comparison, I-80 east out of the Salt Lake area is seemingly almost level...yeah there's the moderately challenging (but still fairly low altitude) climb over the Wasatch but after that it's basically just rolling terrain across Wyoming and the maximum altitude is just a little over 8000 feet. Crossing the Continental Divide in Wyoming is a total non-event...almost a laugh.

Because of these exceptionally long, very steep, and exceedingly high altitude grades on I-70 in Colorado, long distance truckers regularly drive hundreds of miles extra to be able to cross the Rockies via I-80 and avoid I-70 through Colorado. I-80 has huge numbers of trans-continental semis whereas the truck traffic on I-70 is almost entirely the semis who are delivering goods within Colorado.

I might add that even traveling across the prairies/suburbs on I25 between Denver and Colorado Springs you will encounter several sections of 5% grades and will top out at 7300 feet (about 2000 feet higher than Denver) at the summit of Monument Hill. Several of these grades along I25 will also give your poor Liberty a real workout.

I should also add that after two unhappy towing seasons with the poor little underpowered Cherokee, I traded it for a Toyota Tundra truck with 4.7L 32 valve V8 that produced 315 ft-lbs of torque and had a 3.91 axle. I soon found that even that was still really not enough power so I spent roughly another $3000 modifying the truck to get even more torque (see the list of mods in my signature). I now think I'm close to having enough torque for pleasant towing in Colorado.

Any questions?

Ray: None whatsoever. You did an outstanding job of advising me; and will definitely take your advice and use I80 rather than I70. Thank you for your kind response.
Charlie

You'll be glad your dealing with the Car Show....they are well worth the drive...good luck getting here

Originally Posted by charlie

Next month want to go east from Salt Lake City over to Colorado Springs to have our tm worked on at the dealer located there.

There are two (2) highway possibilities I am contemplating; Interstates 70 and 80. Having never gone either one, and pulling a tm with a Liberty 6 cylinder, automatic, open for suggestions of the better of the 2.

I am concerned about high passes; so the one with the less steep grades will be preferable. The Liberty is just not that much of a beast on the higher and steeper roads.

Thanks

Hi Charlie... we too have a Jeep Liberty and are concerned about driving on roads with steep grades and hairpin turns, so we just purchased a Mountain Directory which shows maps and gives detailed information about steep roads, etc... for truck drivers and people towing trailers. I would highly recommend it if you have any concerns about towing your trailer over these kinds of roads. I purchased mine directly through the publisher, but found it was cheaper at CampingWorld: http://www.campingworld.com/browse/p...28&prodID=1817. They have an Eastern & Western Directory. It will come in handy for us when we travel to Washington State this Summer so we can select which route is easiest to take before heading out.

I'm interested in hearing from anyone who owns a 6-cyl tow vehicle and has traveled into the Sierras in California. I enjoy mountain camping but am not too sure if I need to be wearing Depends when we go or if we're better off avoiding such an adventure altogether. We'll be getting a bigger tow vehicle eventually, but still want to enjoy all we can for the time being. At least the gas mileage is great with a 6-cyl and besides, we plan on unhitching and can take the Jeep 4x4 off road wherever our hearts desire. That's the beauty of being able to tow with a smaller vehicle! But, it sure would be nice to pull a Trailmanor into a nice pine-shaded mountain campsite near a babbling brook!