Roads from Bowling Green to Lynchburg

[kevinpvb]

Hello All:

I’m just starting my fulltimer life. I’ve lived in Florida for my entire RV life. So, mountains are something I have very little experience with.

I’d love to hear your sugestions regarding travel from Bowling Green, KY to Lynchburg, VA.

I have a 42 foot Fleetwood Discovery class A coach and am pulling a 4000 lb jeep. I have a cummins diesel engine and Allison 6 speed transmission. The coach is equipped with an auxilliary exhaust brake and the toad is equipped with a Roadmaster Invisibrake system.

Any thoughts or suggestions are appreciated.

[RockyHill]

We're from Glasgow, KY and I google'd directions from here to Lynchburg, VA. We would go US 231 to Lebanon, TN then I-40 to I-81. Can't help from I-81 over to Lynchburg. Mountains are not a problem to where you would leave i-81, someone else will be able to help there. We went this route in 2016 and stopped at Baileyton, TN RV Park which looks like it is a KOA now. It was a good overnight spot.

Shelia

[Ivylog]

I do not even goggle US highways (or Interstates) but I will sometimes use google to fly a state road using the satellite view... usually out West.

Relax, you have a good rig for mountain driving and most of the time the Allison is smart enough to just let it do it’s thing. Out West I’ll manually downshift so if I let up on the gas briefly (for a sharp curve) the tranny will not upshift. Same on a long climb, but more to keep the rpms up for better engine cooling.

While descending, if you are having to use your brakes more than 20% of the time, you need to manually select a lower gear by getting on the brakes hard so you can shift to a lower gear without over reving the engine...2500 rpm.