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Michael, Good advise from all. Best suggestion was relax. Many of us have been all over the country west to east, north to south, some of us have a lot of miles under our belts some not so many but regardless I can't remember the last time a member reported going off a cliff. ;) I have a jake in my bus and have gone up and down some serious grades with very little pucker up factor involved. As stated leave the jake on high and stab the brakes as needed to maintain a comfortable speed and don't worry about holding up cars behind you. They'll get over it. Some of the best scenery in the country are on roads and highways that are not the best suited for our buses. But if your like a lot of us we bought our buses so we could enjoy those areas.
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All great advice. I drove some really steep long descents coming from WA to Yellowstone. Start your descent at a reasonably slow speed; 45-50mph. Keep the Jake on high.
After you do this once you will realize it's not too difficult.
Keep an eye on your transmission temperature and you'll be fine. It's doubtful that you have a transmission retarder.
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The road is wide, and the turns are not tight. You will be fine in High Jake & 5th Gear. When you get down towards Black Canyon, the turns are a little tighter. If you are not comfortable at 55-60MPH, drop down to 4th, andf it will keep you around 50MPH.
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Adding a bit to Steve's advice. When in any lower gear the transmission will shift up at around 2100RPM, use stab breaking to keep it below the shift point (until you're ready to shift up of course). Monitoring RPM as well as speed will allow you to use the Jake to its best advantage and keep you from shifting up before you are ready to. Slowing to about 1500RPM will cause a shift to the next lower gear.
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Mike & Cindy, while never a professional driver of any sort, in our 7 yrs with our bus, this past summer we elected to take US30 West from York , PA towards the PA Turnpike, being forwarned about the grades. In Arkansas & Colorado we've gained confidence, but US30 was a good challenge. Result, slow but steady and now feel much more confident that we can go about anywhere we want. Take it easy and you will do well. US 30 was not 4 lane either.
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Make sure you downshift at top of hill and don't let the rpms get over 2100 coming down.
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One item that has assisted me in navigating the mountain grades is using the elevation graph on the Garmin 770LMT. It uses a quarter of the screen to display a graph that spans 30 miles and shows you the elevation changes. This way you know when a hill or descent is coming and can be prepared for the elevation change.
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Hey Andy I bet u r having a blast ain't ya!!
Do u take the bus out of cruise and drive it in the mountians? What have some of the grades and roads been so far?
