Posted by David Sherman on Tuesday, September 20, 2005 at 6:45PM :
In Reply to: Re: Help! Need answer quick, please posted by Keith in Washington on Tuesday, September 20, 2005 at 11:49AM :
I've arrived safely without anything scary happening. I went over the mountains at night when there was no traffic, camped in Moses Coulee for a few hours, and just now rolled into Wallace. Took it slow and easy, stayed off the brakes as much as possible. Speeds ranged from 15 mph going up from Scenic to Stevens pass and from Orondo to Waterville (in 2nd gear) to 50 mph on flat straight highway with no cars in sight. Probably averaged about 30-35. It was a little squirrelly if I tried to turn while going too fast, but that was easy to solve just by going slower. People used to figure two days to go across the state by car, and I'm fine with a slow trip once in a while. I can easily see all the ways somebody could get in a pile of trouble in a second if they went too fast or didn't leave enough space in traffic, or tried to turn too sharp, or weren't alert, but those are all just reasons to take it easy, pay attention, and get there in one piece. I've towed two M35s over the same route, using an M35 for the tow vehicle, and I'll have to say I like that combination better as it doesn't tend to drift on the turns so much. My pickup was loaded up to 6000 lbs which really helped since at that point it at least outweighed the M37 by 500-1000 lbs (M37 has no bed). This'll probably be the last pavement that M37 sees, so it's not like I'll be doing this regularly.