I am planning a trip to the Grand Tetons and Yellowstone in late August. As I was planning the route I notice between Dubois and Morgan Junction on US 287 there is the Togwotee Pass. I will be pulling a 25 ft travel trailer with an F-150 5.4 Lt engine. Wondering if anyone out there could tell me about the grade on this pass and how hard or easy it will be to pull a travel trailer over the pass.
Hi Melinda, Without getting technical (because I don't have the automotive knowledge to do so), I doubt that you will have any trouble with this route. Since US 26/287 is one of the major highways used to get into the Teton/Yellowstone area, it is used by thousands of RVs every summer. Unless you know for a fact that your F150 really doesn't have the power to be pulling a trailer or somebody with more expertise on this forum says so, you should be able to drive this route. I drove this road 2 summers ago with a 32' Class C and had no problems except going slower than most everybody else. I am not positive, but I don't thing the grades on this road exceeds 7 or 8 % at any point. In my experience, that tends to be the maximum grade on US highways that are major routes. You're not going to be zooming uphill at 55 mph on these kinds a of roads. I often just plant myself behind a larger vehicle and crawl along at 30-40 mph in a low gear. The entire climb from the town of Dubois to the pass is only about 30 miles and only some of that is really slow going. Again, unless others tell you a F-150 isn't up to this task, don't be concerned. Then again, if folks do tell you the F-150 isn't good enough, I'm not sure you should be using it for any mountain driving.
I haven't been there, but I have pulled some pretty good size hills. Keep an eye on your water temp gauge. The higher rpm you will be using might heat up the engine. Oil pressure also. Same thing as the engine gets hotter the oil will thin out dropping the pressure. Just take it easy. I'm not saying it will happen, just keep a watchful eye on them. Have fun and enjoy your trip.
