Reasonable number of hours or miles to drive each day when towing a Travel Trailer

[Old Bill]

DW and I are planning our first long haul with our travel trailer, about 2800 miles round trip, primarily driving on Interstate highways. I'm not sure if I should base my daily travel on the number of hours behind the wheel, or the number of miles I'd like to make per day. I cruise at 60 mph when towing and have to stop every 150-200 miles for fuel. For you experienced long-haulers, what have you found works best for you in terms of reduced stress and less fatigue.

[Tucson Joe]

I like you like to stop every 125 to 150 miles to use restroom and stretch the legs. About
400 to 450 is enough. Sometime we even go less.

[Kaadk]

Originally Posted by Old Bill

DW and I are planning our first long haul with our travel trailer, about 2800 miles round trip, primarily driving on Interstate highways. I'm not sure if I should base my daily travel on the number of hours behind the wheel, or the number of miles I'd like to make per day. I cruise at 60 mph when towing and have to stop every 150-200 miles for fuel. For you experienced long-haulers, what have you found works best for you in terms of reduced stress and less fatigue.

Longest haul I did was to the Rally in Goshen. ~3 hours by GPS, ~7 hours with all the stops, kids bathroom breaks, etc... By the time I was there I was still fine and could have maybe pulled a couple of more hours.

On the other hand, I've done trips at ~1 hour where I was wiped by the end of it. All seems to depend on the day, weather conditions, etc....

If you have the luxery of time, then your best bet is to know when to give up. It's better to not go as far and be happy than to make it there and be miserable.

[ependydad]

I have found that my family has an overall travel schedule of about 45 mph once we include stops and whatnot. That means, to go 450 miles - it'll take us 10 hours from the time we get in the truck in the morning until we get out. 350-450 miles is my goal for a day usually. Much less than that, it just takes too long to get to the places we're going and my vacation time at work doesn't support it.

For us, we have 2 drivers. My wife will usually drive midday while my son is napping so that I can catch some shut eye.

We've done up to 600 miles in a day at about 13 hours- I was wiped by the end of that and still had more driving the next day. We did do 915 miles in one long haul- starting at 10 or 11pm and arriving at 6pm.

[Old Bill]

Originally Posted by Kaadk

Longest haul I did was to the Rally in Goshen. ~3 hours by GPS, ~7 hours with all the stops, kids bathroom breaks, etc... By the time I was there I was still fine and could have maybe pulled a couple of more hours.

On the other hand, I've done trips at ~1 hour where I was wiped by the end of it. All seems to depend on the day, weather conditions, etc....

If you have the luxery of time, then your best bet is to know when to give up. It's better to not go as far and be happy than to make it there and be miserable.

I agree, but I am trying to determine where to stop each day so that I can make reservations ahead of time for overnight stays along the way. I don't want to end up being unable to find a safe place to park at night.

[ependydad]

For reduced stress and less fatigue, I'd opt for 250-300 miles maximum each day. If you're an early riser, you can be done with that while it's still daylight and relax each evening before continuing on.

[Shinny]

I'd say it all depends on your rear end. How long can you sit in the truck?
We go to Myrtle Beach every other year or so. We drive straight through, with the normal fuel and bathroom stops. It's a 7 hour trip by GPS but 9-10 with stops.

[Biscuit]

I travel with the grandkids and plan on 300 miles max with one or two stops on the way.

[Kaadk]

Originally Posted by Biscuit

I travel with the grandkids and plan on 300 miles max with one or two stops on the way.

My experience with my own kids is at least 2 stops in a 70 mile run. Only 1 or two in 300 might be optimistic, (depending on the kids of course.)

[Lefty59]

When towing, we like to shoot for about 350 miles per day +/- about 50 miles. That equates to about 6 hrs of travel time per day for us. We prefer to reach our destination before dark and leave some time for sightseeing along the way or for troubles like flats (had 2 in one day once).

Our tow vehicle's max distance is about 380 miles one one tank of diesel - but we prefer refueling as soon as the tank goes below half as diesel can be tougher to find sometimes. However, I prefer to park the 5'er before refueling whenever possible so fuel stops can and do play a role in our total travel distance for a typical day.

[schrederman]

My next trip will be about 2K miles round trip. I will drive most of it in a day, from west of Ft. Worth to Las Cruces, NM. The second day I'll cruise on into Queen Creek, AZ, and set up. I've done 15 hours straight before and it doesn't seem to bother me. With a fuel stop half way on day one, and a couple of stops in between to check everything, I'll have no problem. On the way back, I'll make it to somewhere in West Texas before stopping for the night. That makes for an easier last day of the trip.

[Mike&Nan]

We don't have vacation time to worry about (finally), so we meander by some people's standards. We try not to drive for more than 4-5 hours (250 miles with rest stops) so that we don't have to rush to get on the road when we're leaving, and still have time to unhook the camper and go somewhere to fill the truck after we arrive at our destination. Better to have extra time to enjoy the trip than to be trying to rush, especially in heavy traffic on the interstate. Safe travels!

[Capt. Mike]

Originally Posted by Mike&Nan

We don't have vacation time to worry about (finally), so we meander by some people's standards. We try not to drive for more than 4-5 hours (250 miles with rest stops) so that we don't have to rush to get on the road when we're leaving, and still have time to unhook the camper and go somewhere to fill the truck after we arrive at our destination. Better to have extra time to enjoy the trip than to be trying to rush, especially in heavy traffic on the interstate. Safe travels!

X 2 250-350 miles is a good day. We run about 60-63 mph, stop every couple of hours for a break or fuel, and don't feel like we're rushed anywhere. Like Mike and Nan, we're retired and don't have a finite number of vacation days that we can camp/travel each year, so why rush? If we have to be somewhere on a certain date, we just leave early enough to get there without killing ourselves.

[grayfox]

Originally Posted by ependydad

For reduced stress and less fatigue, I'd opt for 250-300 miles maximum each day. If you're an early riser, you can be done with that while it's still daylight and relax each evening before continuing on.

X-2

[caper]

I try to drive about 300 miles per day. I base my trip on the location of CG. Some days I only travel 150 miles because the next CG is 350 miles away. Even at freeway speeds you will only average about 50-55 miles per hour due to stops.

[asquared]

Longest trip I have done to date was from NC to Disney 660 miles. One the way down, we broke it up into 10 hrs on the first day and 3 hrs on the second day. (This included all of our stops). Coming home we did the whole thing in one 13 hour shot. DH had pink eye so I drove the whole thing. Never again. I think 6-8 hrs including stops is about right. That is probably pretty close to 350-400 miles depending on your stops, trAffic, etc. I take along the next exit and start looking through that at my last rest stop. I look to see what I think will be 2 hrs away, cross reference it with campgroundreviews.com and then call to see if they have an opening. This takes the stress off if you have a tire blow, get caught in traffic, get tired, take a longer stop or feel like going farther that day.

[DDC]

I think age has a restricting factor, I go 250 to 300 now but I use to be able to do 1300, it might be that I don't bother about rushing anymore (retirement has it's privileges).

[Linnemj]

Went we are in transit trying to just get from point A to point B we try to stay under 400 miles a day. I figure 50 mph with stops for restroom and fuel. 8 hours @ 50 mph works for us.

Once we get to the area we want to visit, our travel time drops to 200 miles a day maximum. We also try to stay a minimum of 3 nights in one location so we have time to see the sights.

[Mike Tav]

300 + - 25. This makes for a very comfortable day.

[NO3putt]

We drive around 60-62 mph, leave around 9ish, stop for lunch, breaks when needed, stop around 3ish, 250-300 miles per day, and after 3 days, stop for a day of rest. Retired and no hurry to get from point A to point B.