Nice Feet Seven Inches

[Mike and Carol]

RV owners should know the height of their trailer or rig.  For the last ten years 9’ 7” has been in my brain just in case we encountered a low overpass.  My thinking has always been if it’s under 10’ I’m turning around!  Some years ago we came to an overpass on a back road somewhere that was 9’6”, there was no traffic and I was able to easily back up turn around and find another route.

On our trip home from Hohenwald a couple of weeks ago we were on I-35 South between Dallas and Waco when our GPS showed a red road ahead and recommended we exit and take back roads.  That’s what we usually do anyway so we followed all the other folks doing the same thing.  We started out on normal county roads but after a half hour or so we were put on a small, unnamed road for a few miles before intersecting with a major highway.  We were one of many, there was a big boat and two long travel trailers ahead of us.  The road soon narrowed to about a lane and a half.  Basically one way traffic unless you moved over to be half off the road.  There were a few oncoming vehicles, so we slowed and moved over.  We could see the highway ahead so we ventured on with everyone else.

When we got close to the highway we saw that we had to go under the highway, make a sharp left and continue on the access road before merging onto the highway.  As we got closer we could see a big sign on the overpass - 9’10”.  The boat ahead went right under.  The 30+’ travel trailer stopped and two guys got out, scratched their heads, rubbed their chins looking at the overpass and their trailer while traffic is backing up behind us.  They turned around and announced they couldn’t go under and would back up to get out of the way.  This is on a 1.5 lane road, with a curve and a line of traffic.  Cars started to scrunch over and he proceeded to back his long trailer with his big dually pick up.  I put my truck mirrors in, there was about 12” clearance as he went by, slowly.  Once he passed the guy in front of me came back and asked me “how tall are yew?.  I said 9’7”, how tall are you?  He said he had no idea and wasn’t about to measure now.  He said I could just go around and then he’d do the backup thing too.

When I looked at the line of traffic behind and the narrow road I estimated that it would be a better choice to break my 10’ rule and go for it.  We pulled around the other long trailer and moved slowly to the overpass.  Carol jumped out to watch and I was checking my mirrors.  We had at least 2” to spare.  I heard cheers and “he made it!” being yelled as Carol jumped back in and were were quickly on our way.

Worst case I figured I might have to replace my noisy Dometic AC, but alas it is still there!  Mike

Edited 3 hours ago by Mike and Carol

[mountainoliver]

You were lucky on that one! With our new air conditioner and new axles/springs our new height is 9’ 8”. My personal comfort zone is nothing under 11’! I have many times wondered what the real height is under a bridge seeing new looking conduit or some other pipe hanging under the bridge and/or a new layer of asphalt on the road. Hence my 11’ lower limit.  Of course having an old Dometic air conditioner is sort of like curb feelers for the roof! No real loss if it takes one for the team! 🤣

Edited 2 hours ago by mountainoliver
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[Mike and Carol]

2 hours ago, mountainoliver said:

 Of course having an old Dometic air conditioner is sort of like curb feelers for the roof! No real loss if it takes one for the team! 🤣

My thoughts, exactly.  There were plenty of scrape marks in the concrete above!  The ALCAN springs probably puts me closer to 9’8”.  Doing a backup exercise with no room for error for a couple hundred yards convinced me that a Dometic sacrifice was worth it!