Show total time instead of total miles

[jdownin]

How can I show total trip time? I see all the daily times but total at the bottom of stops list only shows total miles.

Thanks,
John Downing

[DustyDriver]

Hey John and welcome!

You may need to include some more detailed info to get many responses. I, for one, am not real sure what you're talking about.

DD

[OldBaldFat]

My typical one-day trip includes a fuel stop, if it is over 200 miles, and an additional rest stop if it is over 300 miles.

RAM 2500 Hemi MegaCab pulling a 40' TT, total length near 63 feet. 30 gallons of gasoline.

RVTW will show the number of miles in the drive. It will not tell me how many hours and minutes long the driving portion is expected to take.

All my RV trips start with between two and four waypoints before the first night stop. Simply to go around the traffic of Dallas/Fort Worth. I refuse to waste time sitting in major city traffic when it can be avoided. Something I know how to do in that area.

The first 203 miles of a trip headed anywhere in a general northwest direction from the area is always on US-281 and to a truck stop in Wichita Falls.

RVTW tells me the trip is 203 miles. What RVTW does not tell me is how long the trip should take based upon the speed setting I use.

Which can be an unrealistic number calculated based upon highway speed limits. Many two lane no shoulders state highways and farm to market roads in rural Texas counties have speed limits of 70 or 75 mph.

The calculated time based on that method is 3 hours and 16 minutes. Which is a 64.037 mph average speed. Driving an RV at that average speed is unsafe, and impossible on those highways.

Based on ten years and 70,000+ miles across 46 states, 53 mph is a much better average speed pulling my 40' travel trailer. Which includes a lot - at least half - of that distance on Interstate highways.

Average speed of 53 mph is 3 hours 49 minutes according to RVTW's calculations of the three legs necessary to make the program follow my routing desires.

To get that total time requires me to add the time from each leg and manually figure the minutes to hours conversion.

It would be useful for RVTW to add those leg time numbers together for me.

The program does not have that option.

FYI RVTW normal routing wants me to use I-35W through Fort Worth to US-287 headed through Decatur to Wichita Falls.

171 miles and 2 hours and 33 minutes based upon the Routing Engine Estimate - and average speed of 67.058 mph. Which is above the safe speed for my trailer tires.

Or 3 hours 13 minutes based on 53 mph average speed.

Five hours is a much more realistic time from traveling that route due to normal traffic congestion created at the I-35W/I-20 intersection on the south Fort Worth loop, the I-35W/I-30 intersection in downtown Fort Worth, the I-35W/ I-820 intersection on the north Fort Worth loop.

Along with major construction along I-35W between I-820 and the US-287 exit - a distance of about 2 1/2 miles. That construction is active 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Has been ongoing for over two years, with an estimated completion date of the end of 2023.

I don't fault RVTW for not knowing those details about that route across DFW. But I would like a simple way to estimate the difference of a re-routing option not only in miles, but time.

That simple alternate route using US-281 saves me at least an hour at almost all times. I've been stuck for four hours traveling that couple miles at two am on a Sunday on Labor Day weekend, when I foolishly thought it would be safe to travel last year.

[jdownin]

That's the problem I have too. On the page where stops are added, I see the time, distance, and cost between each stop on the trip I have planned. There are totals for cost, miles, and number of stops at the bottom, but no total for time.

How can I show total time? I would like to see how total driving time changes when I change route. Miles will really not help because speed limits vary.

[USMCRET]

That will require a software change.

[Mike8253]

Originally Posted by jdownin

That's the problem I have too. On the page where stops are added, I see the time, distance, and cost between each stop on the trip I have planned. There are totals for cost, miles, and number of stops at the bottom, but no total for time.

How can I show total time? I would like to see how total driving time changes when I change route. Miles will really not help because speed limits vary.

Chasing actual driving times is a frustrating endeavor. You'll seldom get it right, for multiple reasons. In TW, I think the best way to estimate your daily travel time is to set and use your "Average Driving Speed" in your Trip Settings. That speed is calculated as Miles Traveled divided by Elapsed Time, and takes into account time stopped for Gas Stops, Lunch Breaks, Rest Stops, etc. For me, in our Class A pulling our toad that Avg. Speed is is 50 mph, and we're typically pretty close to that number (+ or -). You should set your Average Driving Speed based on your setup and how you typically drive. If you really need to put some miles on a day's travels, you'll know that you'll need to extend your drive time and minimize your stops. If you have lots of sites to see in a day's travels, you'll know to plan your night's stop at a shorter elapsed distance for the day than typical. Trying to get things any more precise than that really won't bear much edible fruit.

[jdownin]

I would like to be able to see how time changes every time I change my route. That way I could see how much time each prospective route would take as I am planning.

That is a very useful feature in Google Maps, every time I change route to try a different highway or waypoint, total time changes.

I like your idea of using average speed because a five hour trip according to RV Wizard usually takes me 6-8 hours. I just need to figure my average speed, maybe this next trip.

Thanks.

[Mike8253]

Originally Posted by jdownin

I would like to be able to see how time changes every time I change my route. That way I could see how much time each prospective route would take as I am planning.



That is a very useful feature in Google Maps, every time I change route to try a different highway or waypoint, total time changes.



I like your idea of using average speed because a five hour trip according to RV Wizard usually takes me 6-8 hours. I just need to figure my average speed, maybe this next trip.



Thanks.

I understand the Google Maps thing, but that's just an accumulated calculation of distance on a route times posted speeds. That's biased to the high side. If you use your average speed, you'll get the deltas your looking for when you change routes, but your final route estimates should be more realistic once you choose.

[NXR]

Originally Posted by jdownin

I like your idea of using average speed because a five hour trip according to RV Wizard usually takes me 6-8 hours. I just need to figure my average speed, maybe this next trip.

We've used an RV GPS exclusively in the motorhome for four years and 16,000 miles. I looked at it recently and the accumulated average speed, because I never reset that function, is 51 MPH, very close to the other person's 53 MPH.

We drive highways almost exclusively due to weight and height restrictions. Our speed is between 62 and 65 MPH.

But we take driving and dog and lunch breaks as well as fuel stops so the average speed comes down.

Ray

[OldBaldFat]

I try to be polite to folks who say they average 62-65 mph.

Had a friend bragging about traveling 450 miles in a day at 65 mph average, he said.

Me "How long did it take?"

"We pulled out at 7 am, and arrived at the RV park at 5:45 pm. Didn't cross a time zone."

Me "Long drive." What I didn't say was You didn't do well in math while in high school did you?