Mt. Washington Auto Road

Several members of the New Hampshire Lakes Region Model A Club drove the Mt. Washington Auto Road last fall. I wasn't one of them, but the trip occurred without incident. I believe that the Club made prior arrangements. A good cooling system, stout brakes and a heavy dose of common sense would seem to be prerequisites. :)
 
I forgot about the rocks and gravel flying.I got sprayed pretty good on the bikes,and quite a lot on the VW bug.It was mostly from the Travelalls they were using.If dirt wasn't squirting out from behind the tires on the way up it was throwing roostertails sideways on the corners coming down.I don't know what they are using to ferry people up and down nowadays.
 
Fred K-OR said:
Mike that is the place. It is great in that area in the fall, unless you want to go down the slopes. But in the fall you have the falling leaves around NE. But you being from OR, we have much the same stuff in the fall.
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Yeah, but Fred, here you can drive downhill without leaving PUCKER MARKS on the seat!

:D

Mike
 
Hi folks - I manage the Mt Washington Auto Road and have for 29 years now. I thought I ought to jump on your forum since you were discussing the Auto Road and there were so many inaccurate or outdated statements being made. If I were to simply read this forum and not bother finding the Auto Road website, I'd have to wonder if the Road was actually in business, it sound horrific from some of these posts.

International Travelalls were last used on the Auto Road as tour vehicles in the late 60's. There never was a time when the first mile was paved and the rest gravel - back in the 60s we started paving the road where the most problems occurred with washboarding or erosion. That process started up beyond halfway, the bottom of the road finally got paved in the late 70s. Today, there is exactly one mile of unpaved road at mid-mountain, all the rest is paved. The gravel section is generally kept very hard packed. At 12% average grade, the road is steep - but several of us had a good chuckle over the idea of a car with locked brakes continuing to slid down the mountain!

Vehicles over 25 years old do go free and have for as long as I've been involved here. Our tour drivers are considerably more relaxed these days than they may have been in the past - ie, they don't drive as fast as they apparently used to!

As the wind comes up the first restriction we put are on motorcycles - we don't want them blown over! Next, as we deal with icing in the spring and fall, we may have to put down sand. When we do that we often have to restrict mc use due to the obvious loss of traction on steep grades.

We've been in business for 154 years - we take safety very seriously and will always be conservative in our operations. In 154 years, we've had three fatalities on the Road, tragic events all of them. The notion that there were several vehicles over the side during someone's visit is simply nonsense.

Please check the reviews on Trip Advisor - you'll see that this road isn't for everyone, but it is unique in the Northeast for sure! Yes - bring your A , just do your homework first!

www.mtwashingtonautoroad.com
 
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Thanks for posting, Howie. It's a great adventure. Any special advice for model A's?
Ron W
 
You're welcome, Ron. I'm not very familiar with the old Fords - so have no good advice to offer. I was hoping that some of the guys who I know have been up and down in their A's and T's might chime in as I think it's completely doable with proper caution and common sense.
 
Howie, good to hear from a source.
I have video I can share of when I went up and only the first mile was paved

It is an awesome adventure I assure all
 
my wife and I climbed/hiked it in the 70s went up Tuckerman riven I believe it was called. When we got to the top people driving up looked at us like we were crazy. When I saw the road they came up on I was happy that we hiked it, (nice to be young), there is no way I would attempt to drive any of my 3 As up that hill, especially the down part.. best of luck...
 
We have a pretty steep hill nearby. It's about 1/3 mile long. I'm going to try engine breaking on that and see how well it works! Ron W
 
Ron W said:
We have a pretty steep hill nearby. It's about 1/3 mile long. I'm going to try engine breaking on that and see how well it works! Ron W
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In my younger years, I would drive farm trucks loaded with wheat. We would go down a grade of several miles. We would put them in a low gear and apply the brakes rather hard every once in awhile but in doing so, we would bring it almost to a stop. Would not let the truck get going very fast before applying the brakes again. It doing it this way, we would not burn the brakes. In between the stops the brakes had a chance to cool. Worked great.

It would seem like this may be a good way to go down the road at Mt Washington with your Model A. Good luck and have fun!

Just another thing to note about some of the comments above about driving the Model A up that road. When some of the people above did it, that was a number of years ago. Now days I am sure there is far more traffic on that road. Be careful.
 
We've done it several times over the years, once in a Model A, in a 64 Falcon, a 63 Fairlane stick 6, in other later model cars also. The only "nail biter" was in a 67 Lincoln Continental which was much too heavy for the downgrade. Be sensible, take it easy, and you will have a great ride!
 
Hey guys... I've been up there twice in my life so far.. but not with the "A" yet! Driven the "A" up Pikes Peak and that wasn't that bad except for the fog and the mist that only gave us a 20ft visibility at times!

Here's a really cool link that shows the drive in fast forward with the William Tell Overature music... maybe this year or next ?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aqUhRtael3Y

It's the places you go and the people you meet that make Model A times the best!
Larry Shepard
 
I took my 1912 T touring car up to the top of Pike's Peak, but I can tell you that was a breeze. I wouldn't have tried Mt Washington in a T. When I was there I took the cog railway which was a treat for sure, you've never seen a piece of machinery shake like that. Sunny and warm at the bottom, freezing cold weather moved in while at the top. Highest recorded peak wind gust in the US one of the signs said: 231 mph.

John
 
In August of 2915 the N. H.Lakes Region Model A Club did a tour up Mt. Washington. We had 6 Model A's. Six made it up and six made it down. Use first gear all the way up and all the way down and you should be O.K. I would recommend pulling over at the pull over spots and let the car cool down and let the faster cars go by both going up and down. The only thing I would do differently is not take the pair of clean underwear, I didn't need then. Check out the story in March/April issue of The Restorer. If anyone needs more information you can find me on the MAFCA website as secretary.
 
Re: Mt. Washington Auto Road-Borg Warner OD

Under what conditions does the Borg Warner Over Drive free wheel?

Some say that it does "free wheel".

I have heard that it will not Free Wheel over 28 MPH ... but 28 might be too fast if your brake drums are thin and over heated!

Seems that the B.W. might be dangerous in free wheel mode when rolling down hill!
 
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