Taking on the Trans America Trail

[Bruce Thomas]

My son in law wants to do the TAT in April and I told him I would come along as the voice of sanity. The initial idea is to tow a 16 ft Air Stream Nest. The Nest is just over 3k lbs and 7 ft wide. I am specifically targeting members that may have done the TAT. Is this a possibility?

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[Charley]

Well, it depends. You could with a lot of re-routing.

Though it would be very humorous to watch as you climb up to Cinnamon pass with a parade of about 2 dozen frustrated side by sides behind you and a parade of about 2 dozen Jeeps waiting for you to pass. (a parade of vehicles is my endearing term for a way too big of group of vehicles on a trail)

Seriously, I drove the TAT in August and September of 2020. Remember the TAT was created by a guy on a dual sport motorcycle and the goal of avoiding main roads, which means a lot of secondary twisting roads - which may be fun on a motorcycle, but not always in a four wheel drive vehicle, let alone towing a camper.

If you plan well, there are plenty of campgrounds, whether local, state, national parks and of course KOA to stay at along they journey. I read a blog of a couple who drove the TAT in a Jeep and they stayed in motels the entire time.

Gravel – many of the roads are gravel, so I recommend mudflaps, (gravel flaps?). I wish I had them. On a side note you will learn that there are several types of gravel roads and maintenance theories. Even a gravel overpass somewhere in Oklahoma.

Water - Numerous water crossings. Some have the low water bridges, some have a concrete path across the bottom. All are generally guess the depth. Once again knowledge of previous storms helps.

Mud - in Alabama, Tennessee and Mississippi could be a problem, and many gravel roads are old and turn to mud pretty quick. Always check the weather for where storms are coming from.

Going from New Mexico into Colorado. You drive through the middle of a farm and next thing you know you are climbing a hill with a gentle switchback in the middle. {NM county road B036 (from NM 456) to get to Branson, CO. (CO. county Road 4)} Air Guardrail

Leaving in April-

Colorado. As our Colorado members will explain, some forest roads maybe closed due to snow.

Camping in higher altitudes and in the desert can bring on cooler if not colder over night temps.

Utah shouldn’t be too bad. They probably plow the road up to MT. Peale. But once again research and find out the weather situation for the time frame you will be there. You will be on or near the Pony Express Route. Plus you will go by Bonneville Salt Flats. How fast can one tow a Nest?

Idaho, once again you are in the desert and up in the mountains.

Oregon, mountains, hopefully no forest fires, though you will drive through numerous areas of former forest fires. If you can, I do recommend a side trip to the Alvord Desert in Southeast Oregon.

Below are links to the Motortrend/Rivan trip. Plenty of old blogs, just use Jeep or Wrangler in your search

Rivian R1T TAT

Rivian R1T TAT2

hope this helps and is not TLDR

 

[Bruce Thomas]

Thank you
You are the exact reason I posted this string. It sounds like it would alter the entire trip to compensate for the comfort of the Nest to a point that I would feel guilty wearing the T-Shirt.
Thank you for sharing both your recommendations as well as your experience.
I will pass along this post to my son-in-law, and relegate to sleeping on a pad in a tent.
Thanks Again and congratulations on your achievement.

 

[Msfitoy]

The Nest is too nice (i.e. expensive) to be tortured on this kind of event...maybe an off road square drop would be better...

 

[MXGOLF]

WOW that looks awesome and very scary at the same time. I am looking forward to hearing how you all do this.

 

[Frenchy]

I will chime in about the lovely Colorado Snow. Thanks to the high elevation in many parts a lot of trails.will not be open until mid/late June to July. Again, this mainly has to do with Elevation. Another part is the north side of a mountain takes longer too loose snow due to not having enough sun light to melt it.

For what it's woth nothing wrong with making a nice trip.

 

[JohnnyO]

Long-time friend of mine and owner of another Ranger board did the TAT a couple years ago. Ford loaned him a new Ranger for 6 months (the "Loan Ranger") for him to write articles about. I wouldn't recommend taking a trailer on it. His truck had a RTT. I got a ride in it off-road at our event in Ohio in 2020.

Articles here:
https://www.therangerstation.com/?s=Trans+America+Trail

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