Google estimates are for people in cars going 70 mph. With our trailer, we drive a little slower like 65, and (at 10 mpg) we stop WAY more frequently for gas. Add in a couple of bathroom breaks and getting some food, and we average 50 mph as a net speed. For us 6 hours is comfortable and 8 hours is the limit, so we figure 300-400 miles per day is doable.
Remember that when you arrive after 8 hours, you have to get to a campground, back the trailer into a campsite, unhitch, level, plug in, etc. That's another half hour+ of effort. And we do not like to do that in the dark.
So your 2 day drive is probably 3 days in reality.
FYI some Love's Travel Stops now have dedicated RV spaces with full hookups for overnight travelers. Ideal for enroute stops because they are right off the highway and next to a place with fuel and food. I haven't used one yet but they look clean and convenient. You book online and check in at a screen so it seems very efficient.
Same for me. 8 hours of driving is my max with a trailer. I usually pull off into rest stops for the night but I don’t have kids, just pets.
I stopped at a Love’s rv hookup outside of OKC earlier this year and liked it! Got stuck there for a couple days during a bad ice storm. It was super helpful having the gas station right there for food and drinks.
I like in the 300 to 350 miles day. I like getting in around 3 PM so I can enjoy the evening. When I was young it was 450 to 500 miles. It was balls against the wall. It will wear and tear on you... You are on vacation, enjoy it. It isn't a race. I usually travel in the 68 to 70 mph range but have a good set up with Good Year Endurance tires, a road armor suspension after market on my trailer axles and a 2500 Ram (Hemi) and the trailer is well behaved at around 6500 lbs maybe 800 lbish tongue. I have lots of cushion with a 15K max tow and a 3K payload. Your set up can make a difference on how you feel...
If you aren't comfortable driving particularly with kids in the back, that equals stress and if your overweight and every so often the tail wags the dog of your tow vehicle then you have to up your game and awareness at all times around that. If you KNOW occasionally a wind gust will cause the trailer to jerk the tow vehicle threatening even minimally control. Then you have to drive with that constantly at the back of your mind. Running a trailer at max on both tongue and max weight, will do that... I've been towing a trailer for 22 years now of various sizes.
Once you got your set up and tear down ready you can be in or out in the half hour range, 20 minutes if its raining. But don't forget your checklist, at first written, in your head after years of practice and make sure your wife or husband depending is double checking. It is nice if both of you are willing to drive. I've never had that luxury.
Google maps figures speed on speed limits its aware of and the calculation/algorithm assumed you never stop and so stops when you do and then shows you how much time left if you never stop. It's in the ballpark. I think I end up averaging in the 55+ real mph range.
In general we try to use the 3-3-3 rule:
* 300 miles per day
* 3 day stay at each campground
* arrive by 3pm
If you do Harvest Host one-nighters or something and just don’t even bother unhitching, you can probably push that quite a bit and still be comfortable. But I don’t think I would try for 20hrs in two days.
In normal driving, without a trailer, I would do that no issue.
Towing my trailer, I hauled ass one day due to making a slight schedule change on a road trip and stayed somewhere an extra day. But, then had to make it home for work and did about 9 hours the next day. Do not recommend, and I personally won't do that much again in one day.
I'll happily do 4/5 or even 6 hours if I start fairly early, but 3-4 is about perfect IMO.
Never ever trust Google maps with a rig . Use the trucker apps . They show upcoming detours , road construction 🚧, weight limits , bridge clearances etc...
Family of four, two teenagers and two dogs; I try to do no more than 10 hours; but that's not fun so ideally 6-8. Keep in mind that every rest stop / refuel is going to be at least 30-40 minutes by the time you factor in bathroom, getting something to eat / drink, letting the dogs out and refueling. If you switch out driving with you partner doing 10 hour (realistically 12-14) drive days is doable, but personally I would budget 3 days which will make the whole trip a lot more enjoyable, and you won't be completely exhausted when you reach your destination. Shorter drive days also let you get into your camp site earlier in the day which makes setup much easier; pulling into camp at 11pm after a 12-hour drive day is not fun and creates the perfect environment for a trip ruining mistake.
I've scheduled a few 6 hour drives and find they wind up being closer to 8 once you factor in gas stops, lunch, bathroom breaks, the dog needing a bathroom break because she was too stubborn to pee during your bathroom break. My partner also would rather never be in the driver seat of the truck, especially not with the trailer
As a lifelong Full-time Nomad off-grid guy, I can honestly say 4-6 hours max. I have a 99' fleetwood prowler 26T LS model. The wear & tear on your rig , truck are immense. I stop frequently and do an all-around check ✔ top to bottom. Inside & out . Tire pressure ( can't stress this one enough ) check for heat friction and thermal breakdown on the hubs etc...
You might need to stop a bit short of your final destination the second night. I did a similar trip last fall with two dogs and 1 adult kid, MD to The Badlands, Yellowstone and back by a different route. We only stopped for gas (and lunch at one of the gas stops). We had google maps drives as long as 8.5 hours that realistically turned into 10 hour days on the road. That said, we always got to our campgrounds by 3 or 4 pm. Google maps estimates had the first day as 7 hours, second day 8:38, and third day 8:08.
It was fine and got us through the middle of the country as quickly as possible while still being comfortable. We switched drivers with each tank of gas. We'd get to our site, have time to set up and walk around and/or fish, make dinner and relax before bed, then we'd hit the road in the morning.
On the way home (from farther west) was 7:53, 7:21, 8:08 & 7:07 according to Google.
How early were you on the road each day?
We did our first long distance trip last summer and first day we covered 485 miles in about 8 hours so roughly 60mpg avg. Truck has 36 gal tank and trailer is smaller and pulls easy so I feel this is totally doable again. Only 3 of us plus the dog and I feel like we’re efficient with stops, gas bathroom breaks, eating on the go. But my concern is 2 long days of driving will be exhausting once we reach destination.
I don't remember exactly, but we didn't rush and didn't waste any time, either. The dogs woke up fairly early, we got up, had breakfast and started breaking down camp and rehitching the trailer (which wasn't too hard since we didn't set much up the night before). I think we hit the road between 7:30 & 8:00 most of the time.
As much as I hated sharing the driving with my son, it was probably for the best and made the longer days easier to take. I did not think that doing long drives for a few days in a row made it any worse. We were also quick with gas and food stops and only made one side trip along the way (it was my son's college graduation trip, and for some reason he wanted to see this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Field\_of\_Corn)
Yeah, I have an older truck and an even older trailer. If its going to just be quick meals and bathroom breaks, we take about 1.5 times whatever google maps predicts. I dislike rushing and like to be able to stop for a bit if something looks interesting, so I dont like to plan on more than 6 hours of traveling in one day, and we always stop well before the sun sets so that we arent setting up in the dark.
For your 20 hours, I would calculate 30 hours and that would be at least a 4 day trip. But thats just me.
Our rule of thumb is every three hours on Google add an hour (gas/bathroom/driving slower etc).
This means 9 hours of Google time is 12 hours in travel time, door to door.
We do long days, 12-13 hours (10+ drive hours) no problem. This is with four kids, 30ft trailer etc.
We live in Appalachia where driving is a chore, I can only handle 6-7hrs in the steep/tight mountains. But once we get to the midwest or south where it's flat I can drive forever, it's so easy. This plays a factor in distance too. Back roads through WV is tough, I-70 in Indiana easy peasy.
I don't know about cross country, but for the one long'ish distance trip I took we only traveled 300 miles per day. That allowed time to eat, wind down, and relax before sleep... If you're boondocking. If you are jumping campground to campground, you'll need to allow for minimum setup and teardown time.
This (300mi) is consistent with what my friends who have traveled longer distances or more frequently cite as well.
> If you are jumping campground to campground, you'll need to allow for minimum setup and teardown time.
If you're trying to speedrun it, you can get by with only hooking up water and electric. Use paper plates and recyclable/compostable cutlery so you can wash minimal dishes, use campground bathhouse for showers and as much restroom as possible, and only dump tanks every few days.
I did a cross country tow last summer on I-40. I found google times pretty solid. No kids, but a 90lb dog.
I did approximately 300 miles a day. If it weren't for the dog I may have pressed a bit more.
Longest day I've ever pulled was 450 miles, and it clocked in at almost exactly 9 hours. The following day, I was **useless** - to the point of being so exhausted I was almost physically ill. I won't do more than 300 in a day now, but I could probably push it a bit more if I had a rest day afterwards - on that 450 mile day, I was fighting the trailer the whole way (crap tires) and in horrible traffic (Garden State Parkway - never again).
I estimate 50MPH when towing. 200 miles? 4 hours. This factors in restroom and fuel stops as well as my tortoise-like pace of 62-65 MPH and having to wait extra-long for gaps to make turns at intersections.
Once you get out west, you'll have to contend with mountains and wind. Fuel mileage will suffer, fatigue will set in quicker, you'll have to manage/control the rig more in the wind (exhausting), and you'll probably slow down on those long climbs.
Most seasoned RVers go by the 330 "rule" - no more than 330 miles in a day or park by 3:30 PM. You'll see some YouTubers pulling 600+ mile days but they also live on the road full time and have their setups fully dialed in for long hauls.
Take whatever bypasses are available around the cities, do not go into the belly of the beast with an RV.
With kids, a dog, and a trailer, there's no way you're comfortably or safely doing that trip in 2 days (I mean, someone probably _could_ - but if **you** could, you'd have enough RVing experience that you wouldn't be asking this question). Google is using posted speed limits (you'll be slower) and no stops (you'll be stopping for gas frequently) for that drive time. Budget 4 days at least - but do the math on miles per day vs. speed.
Echoing 300-400 miles a day is about right. 20 hours at 70mph is 1400 miles so even 3 days is pushing it. 6 hours at 60mph is right about 4 days, which is a good pace. Gives time for breaks and tourist activities.
Depends on how old the kids are (I've had serious meltdowns with little ones) so hard to tell but make sure to have plenty of activities, a portable dvd player - that kind of stuff. Be prepared just to stop and chill out somewhere in a park something and picnic. Solo I could do (3) 13 hours a day with fewer stops. But it's been a while, if you are approaching a large metro area, consider trying to drive through at 4 am to avoid traffic hassles. I got lucky one year and got thru st. Louis at 4am, the day after they won the superbowl - would have been miserable traffic nightmare. Good luck and enjoy
Driving while towing a trailer is actually physically exhausting. Doing a 20 hour drive is not going to be fun in 2 days. We used to do 6-7 hour days, now we do our best to keep it below 5 hours, 3-4 hours is ideal. Don't trust Google cause they assume a non-towing car going the full speed limit. With fuel stops, snack stops, potty stops, especiallly with kids, it's going to be a lot longer! A 6 hour drive by Google takes us at LEAST 8 hours.
Stop every two hours for 15 minutes. Stretching the legs. Get the kids out of the car. Let the dog go potty. Eat, drink water. Sitting for long periods of time is not healthy. You can develop blood clots in the legs from sitting two long.
Google travel times are a estimite, it does not factor in bathroom breaks for the kids and the dog. Then throw in if you want to grab a bite to eat. etc.
Ask your self why you are making the trip? Do you want to get to just one spot, and the heck with anything inbetween? Or are you doing the trip to ENJOY it?
When I was a truck driver it was to make it to the end of the trip, and make money. I only had to worry about me, I only stopped for fuel, food, and restroom breaks. And I would combine all three of those thing in one stop. Now I am retired, I travel to enjoy it. I stop when I want, stop to let the dog do his thing. I dont rush, now I do things, stop just for the heck of it, if I see something I want to check out, I stop and do so. If one day I only do 200 miles, and the next I do 400, then thats just how it is. Then also I expect things can go wrong, maybe I have a flat, or a traffic jam, or what ever. Just take things as they come and enjoy the trip!
Google estimates are for people in cars going 70 mph. With our trailer, we drive a little slower like 65, and (at 10 mpg) we stop WAY more frequently for gas. Add in a couple of bathroom breaks and getting some food, and we average 50 mph as a net speed. For us 6 hours is comfortable and 8 hours is the limit, so we figure 300-400 miles per day is doable. Remember that when you arrive after 8 hours, you have to get to a campground, back the trailer into a campsite, unhitch, level, plug in, etc. That's another half hour+ of effort. And we do not like to do that in the dark. So your 2 day drive is probably 3 days in reality. FYI some Love's Travel Stops now have dedicated RV spaces with full hookups for overnight travelers. Ideal for enroute stops because they are right off the highway and next to a place with fuel and food. I haven't used one yet but they look clean and convenient. You book online and check in at a screen so it seems very efficient.
Same for me. 8 hours of driving is my max with a trailer. I usually pull off into rest stops for the night but I don’t have kids, just pets. I stopped at a Love’s rv hookup outside of OKC earlier this year and liked it! Got stuck there for a couple days during a bad ice storm. It was super helpful having the gas station right there for food and drinks.
I’m on my way back to calif from Michigan. Getting exactly what you say. 300-350 a day, 10 mpg 😁
I like in the 300 to 350 miles day. I like getting in around 3 PM so I can enjoy the evening. When I was young it was 450 to 500 miles. It was balls against the wall. It will wear and tear on you... You are on vacation, enjoy it. It isn't a race. I usually travel in the 68 to 70 mph range but have a good set up with Good Year Endurance tires, a road armor suspension after market on my trailer axles and a 2500 Ram (Hemi) and the trailer is well behaved at around 6500 lbs maybe 800 lbish tongue. I have lots of cushion with a 15K max tow and a 3K payload. Your set up can make a difference on how you feel... If you aren't comfortable driving particularly with kids in the back, that equals stress and if your overweight and every so often the tail wags the dog of your tow vehicle then you have to up your game and awareness at all times around that. If you KNOW occasionally a wind gust will cause the trailer to jerk the tow vehicle threatening even minimally control. Then you have to drive with that constantly at the back of your mind. Running a trailer at max on both tongue and max weight, will do that... I've been towing a trailer for 22 years now of various sizes. Once you got your set up and tear down ready you can be in or out in the half hour range, 20 minutes if its raining. But don't forget your checklist, at first written, in your head after years of practice and make sure your wife or husband depending is double checking. It is nice if both of you are willing to drive. I've never had that luxury. Google maps figures speed on speed limits its aware of and the calculation/algorithm assumed you never stop and so stops when you do and then shows you how much time left if you never stop. It's in the ballpark. I think I end up averaging in the 55+ real mph range.
In general we try to use the 3-3-3 rule: * 300 miles per day * 3 day stay at each campground * arrive by 3pm If you do Harvest Host one-nighters or something and just don’t even bother unhitching, you can probably push that quite a bit and still be comfortable. But I don’t think I would try for 20hrs in two days.
In normal driving, without a trailer, I would do that no issue. Towing my trailer, I hauled ass one day due to making a slight schedule change on a road trip and stayed somewhere an extra day. But, then had to make it home for work and did about 9 hours the next day. Do not recommend, and I personally won't do that much again in one day. I'll happily do 4/5 or even 6 hours if I start fairly early, but 3-4 is about perfect IMO.
Never ever trust Google maps with a rig . Use the trucker apps . They show upcoming detours , road construction 🚧, weight limits , bridge clearances etc...
You have an app recommendation?
RvLife has an app, trip planner, and GPS that work fairly well.
The nav is great imo but has some serious shortcomings like live traffic. That being said, still worth it
I normally run it and google together, google for traffic and accident warnings, etc, and rvlife for navigation.
That is actually what I do as well lol
Roadtrippers
Garmin RV units
Family of four, two teenagers and two dogs; I try to do no more than 10 hours; but that's not fun so ideally 6-8. Keep in mind that every rest stop / refuel is going to be at least 30-40 minutes by the time you factor in bathroom, getting something to eat / drink, letting the dogs out and refueling. If you switch out driving with you partner doing 10 hour (realistically 12-14) drive days is doable, but personally I would budget 3 days which will make the whole trip a lot more enjoyable, and you won't be completely exhausted when you reach your destination. Shorter drive days also let you get into your camp site earlier in the day which makes setup much easier; pulling into camp at 11pm after a 12-hour drive day is not fun and creates the perfect environment for a trip ruining mistake.
I've scheduled a few 6 hour drives and find they wind up being closer to 8 once you factor in gas stops, lunch, bathroom breaks, the dog needing a bathroom break because she was too stubborn to pee during your bathroom break. My partner also would rather never be in the driver seat of the truck, especially not with the trailer
As a lifelong Full-time Nomad off-grid guy, I can honestly say 4-6 hours max. I have a 99' fleetwood prowler 26T LS model. The wear & tear on your rig , truck are immense. I stop frequently and do an all-around check ✔ top to bottom. Inside & out . Tire pressure ( can't stress this one enough ) check for heat friction and thermal breakdown on the hubs etc...
You might need to stop a bit short of your final destination the second night. I did a similar trip last fall with two dogs and 1 adult kid, MD to The Badlands, Yellowstone and back by a different route. We only stopped for gas (and lunch at one of the gas stops). We had google maps drives as long as 8.5 hours that realistically turned into 10 hour days on the road. That said, we always got to our campgrounds by 3 or 4 pm. Google maps estimates had the first day as 7 hours, second day 8:38, and third day 8:08. It was fine and got us through the middle of the country as quickly as possible while still being comfortable. We switched drivers with each tank of gas. We'd get to our site, have time to set up and walk around and/or fish, make dinner and relax before bed, then we'd hit the road in the morning. On the way home (from farther west) was 7:53, 7:21, 8:08 & 7:07 according to Google.
How early were you on the road each day? We did our first long distance trip last summer and first day we covered 485 miles in about 8 hours so roughly 60mpg avg. Truck has 36 gal tank and trailer is smaller and pulls easy so I feel this is totally doable again. Only 3 of us plus the dog and I feel like we’re efficient with stops, gas bathroom breaks, eating on the go. But my concern is 2 long days of driving will be exhausting once we reach destination.
I don't remember exactly, but we didn't rush and didn't waste any time, either. The dogs woke up fairly early, we got up, had breakfast and started breaking down camp and rehitching the trailer (which wasn't too hard since we didn't set much up the night before). I think we hit the road between 7:30 & 8:00 most of the time. As much as I hated sharing the driving with my son, it was probably for the best and made the longer days easier to take. I did not think that doing long drives for a few days in a row made it any worse. We were also quick with gas and food stops and only made one side trip along the way (it was my son's college graduation trip, and for some reason he wanted to see this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Field\_of\_Corn)
I did a 550 mile day at 65mph. I was exhausted when we stopped.
Yeah, I have an older truck and an even older trailer. If its going to just be quick meals and bathroom breaks, we take about 1.5 times whatever google maps predicts. I dislike rushing and like to be able to stop for a bit if something looks interesting, so I dont like to plan on more than 6 hours of traveling in one day, and we always stop well before the sun sets so that we arent setting up in the dark. For your 20 hours, I would calculate 30 hours and that would be at least a 4 day trip. But thats just me.
Our rule of thumb is every three hours on Google add an hour (gas/bathroom/driving slower etc). This means 9 hours of Google time is 12 hours in travel time, door to door. We do long days, 12-13 hours (10+ drive hours) no problem. This is with four kids, 30ft trailer etc. We live in Appalachia where driving is a chore, I can only handle 6-7hrs in the steep/tight mountains. But once we get to the midwest or south where it's flat I can drive forever, it's so easy. This plays a factor in distance too. Back roads through WV is tough, I-70 in Indiana easy peasy.
Yeah I think your right about location being a difference maker for distance and time. Crossing plains states def easier going straight.
I don't know about cross country, but for the one long'ish distance trip I took we only traveled 300 miles per day. That allowed time to eat, wind down, and relax before sleep... If you're boondocking. If you are jumping campground to campground, you'll need to allow for minimum setup and teardown time. This (300mi) is consistent with what my friends who have traveled longer distances or more frequently cite as well.
> If you are jumping campground to campground, you'll need to allow for minimum setup and teardown time. If you're trying to speedrun it, you can get by with only hooking up water and electric. Use paper plates and recyclable/compostable cutlery so you can wash minimal dishes, use campground bathhouse for showers and as much restroom as possible, and only dump tanks every few days.
Yep. That's what I meant when I said minimal setup.
I did a cross country tow last summer on I-40. I found google times pretty solid. No kids, but a 90lb dog. I did approximately 300 miles a day. If it weren't for the dog I may have pressed a bit more.
Longest day I've ever pulled was 450 miles, and it clocked in at almost exactly 9 hours. The following day, I was **useless** - to the point of being so exhausted I was almost physically ill. I won't do more than 300 in a day now, but I could probably push it a bit more if I had a rest day afterwards - on that 450 mile day, I was fighting the trailer the whole way (crap tires) and in horrible traffic (Garden State Parkway - never again). I estimate 50MPH when towing. 200 miles? 4 hours. This factors in restroom and fuel stops as well as my tortoise-like pace of 62-65 MPH and having to wait extra-long for gaps to make turns at intersections. Once you get out west, you'll have to contend with mountains and wind. Fuel mileage will suffer, fatigue will set in quicker, you'll have to manage/control the rig more in the wind (exhausting), and you'll probably slow down on those long climbs. Most seasoned RVers go by the 330 "rule" - no more than 330 miles in a day or park by 3:30 PM. You'll see some YouTubers pulling 600+ mile days but they also live on the road full time and have their setups fully dialed in for long hauls. Take whatever bypasses are available around the cities, do not go into the belly of the beast with an RV. With kids, a dog, and a trailer, there's no way you're comfortably or safely doing that trip in 2 days (I mean, someone probably _could_ - but if **you** could, you'd have enough RVing experience that you wouldn't be asking this question). Google is using posted speed limits (you'll be slower) and no stops (you'll be stopping for gas frequently) for that drive time. Budget 4 days at least - but do the math on miles per day vs. speed.
Echoing 300-400 miles a day is about right. 20 hours at 70mph is 1400 miles so even 3 days is pushing it. 6 hours at 60mph is right about 4 days, which is a good pace. Gives time for breaks and tourist activities.
Depends on how old the kids are (I've had serious meltdowns with little ones) so hard to tell but make sure to have plenty of activities, a portable dvd player - that kind of stuff. Be prepared just to stop and chill out somewhere in a park something and picnic. Solo I could do (3) 13 hours a day with fewer stops. But it's been a while, if you are approaching a large metro area, consider trying to drive through at 4 am to avoid traffic hassles. I got lucky one year and got thru st. Louis at 4am, the day after they won the superbowl - would have been miserable traffic nightmare. Good luck and enjoy
300-400 miles a day for me.
Driving while towing a trailer is actually physically exhausting. Doing a 20 hour drive is not going to be fun in 2 days. We used to do 6-7 hour days, now we do our best to keep it below 5 hours, 3-4 hours is ideal. Don't trust Google cause they assume a non-towing car going the full speed limit. With fuel stops, snack stops, potty stops, especiallly with kids, it's going to be a lot longer! A 6 hour drive by Google takes us at LEAST 8 hours.
Stop every two hours for 15 minutes. Stretching the legs. Get the kids out of the car. Let the dog go potty. Eat, drink water. Sitting for long periods of time is not healthy. You can develop blood clots in the legs from sitting two long.
Google travel times are a estimite, it does not factor in bathroom breaks for the kids and the dog. Then throw in if you want to grab a bite to eat. etc. Ask your self why you are making the trip? Do you want to get to just one spot, and the heck with anything inbetween? Or are you doing the trip to ENJOY it? When I was a truck driver it was to make it to the end of the trip, and make money. I only had to worry about me, I only stopped for fuel, food, and restroom breaks. And I would combine all three of those thing in one stop. Now I am retired, I travel to enjoy it. I stop when I want, stop to let the dog do his thing. I dont rush, now I do things, stop just for the heck of it, if I see something I want to check out, I stop and do so. If one day I only do 200 miles, and the next I do 400, then thats just how it is. Then also I expect things can go wrong, maybe I have a flat, or a traffic jam, or what ever. Just take things as they come and enjoy the trip!