Heading To North Carolina to pick up a tractor any advice?

Heading south tomorrow after work to pick up a tractor route will take us down 77 south to 74 east, 52 south, 220 south ending in Asheboro, North Carolina. Anywhere along our route I should watch out for? Have our 01 f350drw cab and a half and 25foot 14k gvw Kaufman trailer. Any tips would be appreciated....
Also how much is fuel down that way? Were at 3.99 here......

If I remember right it can be pretty rough around Mt Pilot/Pilot Mountain. Can't even remember which it is. Coming up on three years since I was there.

74 exits from the left lane after the tarheel coops.

Always found it easier to go the couple extra miles south to I-40 versus using 421/business I-40.

Make sure you read your signs.

Petty's are from Randleman, you'll be going right by their original race shop, think it's a museum now.

If you go through Wadesboro, be careful. It has always been a speed trap. Also, the weigh men drive tahoes that are grey and black so they are not easy to spot. I've heard a lot more guys complaining about them lately but I think they usually go after more big-money targets with more wheels than you have under you.

When you go through Wv. when the sign says the corner is 55, that's 55. At 56 tires will be squealin. And watch the down hills in that state and the start of Va, they most all have a 50 or 55 curve bout 3/4 the way down. That is the best route, depending on where you start in Oh. Cheapest fuel for you today on your route is the Wilco at exit 77 on I77 in Va. It's 3.649 today.

if you had gone a week ago you could have stopped at Denton farm park for the fall festival . I have always liked that part of N.Carolina

Use to pick up furniture at Randelman for Slumberland Furniture.

Don't forget the ransom to pay 3 times to get across WV and back again. It will be about $40.00 for the round trip. Like said it's not flat lander driving.
If your going by way of US35 from Gallipolis OH they have turned 35 into a big road now not the little skinny road it used to be.

If you have to hit Hwy 64 in Ashboro at any time keep an eye out for the Highway Patrol, and/or DMV. Other than a weight station that's the only place I've ever been pulled over. That day they were working the area hard and anything with a weighted tag was being pulled and the paperwork inspected. So, make sure you have your Class A, your medical card, and any other pertinant paperwork on hand and ready just in case you 'get lucky'........

If your staying overnight the NC State Zoo is in Ashboro. I haven't been there in years other than working on a machine 'behind the scenes' for a customer working on the new Polar Bear habitat, but I've heard it is a really great place to visit. Good luck and have a safe, and great trip.

Depending on the time of day the traffic on 74 heading east will be pretty heavy. Especially so coming into monroe.

Mt Airy, off I 77, Mayberry days is this weekend I think, stop in at Snappy lunch for pork chop sandwich and see Thelma Lou and Charlene Darling!

Being a homebody from flatland south Ga,I had a buddy tell me one time that a mountain mile is not the same as a flatland mile and after visiting the Smoky mtns of east Tn and western NC he was right!Twelve miles around here is nothing but in the mountains that twelve miles seems to take forever.If your route takes you through any mountain country you better allow lots of extra time for it especially pulling a trailer.We even went from Cherokee NC one time to Va and there was a place on the interstate with a special lane for trucks and truck speed limit was 35.

Yea if you're a flatlander then I-77 from Charleston into NC will be a real treat(LOL) and that truck you thought had real power maybe not so much.Stop at the scales or they'll come get you and check you over with a fine tooth comb.Gas/diesel is cheaper because the tax is less here than in WV or NC.

I have a copy of the regs in my truck I"m
Not commercial and have never stopped at a weigh station so not going to start now we will be traveling mostly at night.. Leaving work at 4 getting to tractor at 1-2 then heading home should be back around 10-11 tomorrow morning I"ll upload some pics tomorrow thanks for the advice..
Jimmy

all this, and unless im blind and i might be, ask my wife, nobody mentioned what the tractor was! as to the drive you should be fine just take it easy some of those old hiway curves can sneak up on you , nasty things like sharper that you think, decreasing radious as you go thru it, which if your pressing the limit of your rig when you enter that will bite you, dot shouldnt even bother you unless its a young stud muffin who doesnt know his fanny from his ear, your hauling your tractor on your owned equipment, totally private deal

If you need fuel stop at exit 1 in Virginia(Love's Truckstop). Cheaper than NC because of tax. Scale house at mile 107 in NC. They may be closed at that time. Good view going up 77 towards Fancy Gap. Exit 101 will get you to 52 south. Have a safe trip. I live over the hill from scale house. DH

Ericlb good call lol it's a 51 John Deere G to add to our collection.

Gas is $3.82 and diesel is well over $4. SC is a lot cheaper.

I'll second that comment about the hill and curve on 77. I think it's a 6% grade for several miles (about 3000 ft elevation change.) Yes, there are a couple curves, when it says 55, whoa it down, they mean it.

Where in OH are you coming from?

I'm coming from south of Canton Ohio between New Philadelphia and Carrollton Ohio.

Couple more things- Sometimes it gets so foggy on Fancy Gap mountian that you can't see anything. Watch out for deer as they are everywhere around here. Gas is around $3.65 and diesel around $3.99. DH

Just because you are a private, not for hire carrier, doesn't mean you don't have to stop at the scales. Regardless of what your state regs say, if you go out of state with a rig like that you fall under state as well as federal regs. That said anyone with a straight vehice with a GVWR of more than 10,001 lbs, or pulling a trailer with a GVW over 10,001 lbs is required to go through the scales, 'commercial' operation or not. Wether they choose to chase you down for not stopping is their choice.

The last time I went into West Va, I was on I-77. There was no where to go around anything so they had a 'temporary' weight station/truck inspection going at the first rest area across the line. They did their best to make sure anyone that should be weighed/inspected turned in and went through it. Thankfully I got waved through without being weighed, or being pulled for inspection, but as I left I noticed they had officers parked on the outlet from the rest area to chase down anyone that chose to pass without stopping.

Too, regardless of the GVWR of the vehicle being used to tow the trailer, anyone towing a trailer with a GVWR of more than 10,001 lbs is required to have a Class A CDL. It will have a restriction on it so it's not good for driving a 'big rig' but it's still required. Even if you didn't have to have a CDL, anyone driving a straight vehicle with a GVWR of over 10,001 lbs is supposed to have a health card in their possession too.

My service truck is a straight truck with a GVWR of 26,000 lbs amd is tagged for 38,000 lbs. The tagged weight is higher to allow me to tow a trailer as the weight of the trailer and load is in addition to the weight of the truck as far as tags go. The way it is I can legally tow any trailer with a GVWR of less than 10,000 without a CDL, even though the weight of my truck and a trailer would through me over the 26,001 lb limit that requires a class B CDL for a straight truck. However if I hook to a trailer with a GVWR over 10,001 then a class A is in order. Like I said before, I got stopped on 64, in Ashboro, and checked for everything being proper. Anyone that travels that area regularly, like I do, will tell you DMV loves that whole area. The only thing I got hit for, when stopped, was no health card. That's when I found out about that requirement and had no choice but to get one to stay in business. I got lucky and got no fine or anything else, that time, but from what I understand any infraction gives them cause to park you until you make things right.

With all of that said, when you are traveling Intrastate (meaning you don't leave your state), one set of rules are in effect. When you start traveling interstate then it's a whole different ballgame. Good luck on your trip and I hope you don't run into any problems along the way.

JohnDeereJimOhio, i know this may sound odd, but do you know the history of that G at all? i have been searching for a later model G that my dad sold to a guy in NC in the late 90's. We got it from the local guy who bought it brand new and when i was in the Marine Corps dad sold it. I have been following a few leads but now i am going to post here to tell the story of it, as well as in g/m and t/c to see if it will turn up or if the story rings any bells with anybody. My email is open, would just be curious to know. Thanks.

He'll be on I74/US52, not US74.

I hate 74, especially Monroe, early in the morning, the cops can control the traffic lights. Sat at a red light for 20 minutes with the only other traffic on the highway being the cop that was pulled up under my rear bumper like I couldn't still see his lights.

Shoulda called the state police and told them I thought someone was stealing my load.

West Virginia hardly ever opens the scale at that service plaza. They have scales in the inbound lanes, they plug a computer into a cable, and have your weight before you even get in there. PA uses a similar set-up. The I-79 scales up by Morgantown don't even have scales in them, they just watch you roll through, just like I-69 in Coldwater, MI, when I ran through there a lot.

The trick to the Virginia scales, is to get behind a long line of trucks coming up to them. The trucks file in and fill the ramp, then they flip it closed and you can often get by-passed that way.

I think it was 1PM on Sundays, when they opened those scales. As long as you were through by then, you were OK. The one time I had to do that, I had to take 21 north of Statesville, because I had barely got on the interstate in South Carolina when an SUV with MA plates decided to run off the road, whip back on, and flip over and skip a couple hundred yards on its roof right in front of me. And I knew that, for some reason, once North Carolinians get into single file in a construction zone, they can't manage to get up to more than half of the posted speed limit.

Have they re-paved the SB lanes of 77 up flat top yet? The truck bounced so bad, I'd top the hill 10 MPH faster if I stayed out of the right lane.