HWY 12 Lewiston, ID to Missoula, MT

@Oxbow @sawmill @tramm01

 

@D.Tibbitt

 

Just me. I would call the Port of Entry. https://itd.idaho.gov/poe-locations/
Also might snoop around at https://itd.idaho.gov/trucking/
I did a check just now, and wildfires are burning along there.
I would be concerned with overall length and kingpin restrictions.

 

Yes you can run hwy 12 from lewiston id out to lolo mt and then 93 up to missoula . its good truck route.. Although you arent going to save any time or fuel going that route because its all mountains, compared to going from lewiston to couer d alene and picking up i90 there... Me personally i would always go up to i90 from lewiston going back to zoola because if u break down on hwy 12 theres no cell service for like most of the way... But its one of the most beautiful drives in the entire country and is worth doing atleast once.

 

It’s about 5 hours or so to Lolo MT. We used to run it multiple times a week back in my flatbed days. After you go through Kooskia you won’t have phone service until you’re about 5 miles or so from Lolo. It’s one of my favorite roads to run, especially now that there’s not near the truck traffic on it that there used to be. Last time I ran it westbound and only saw two trucks from Lolo to about Kamiah.

 

I second what @D.Tibbitt said as far as the route goes, but I would run 12 just for the change of pace and beautiful drive over going up to CDA. The road is a slow windy drive. The fire issue would certainly be worth checking though.

 

It’s not a kingpin restrictions, Idaho figures your offtrack taking your truck wheelbase into concern with any trailer over 48ft. They allow you to go heavier on your trailer tandems when you slide them forward to make offtrack as long as you’re under 80k gross. So for example let’s say you’re 79k gross and you slide ahead to make offtrack for Hwy 12, which I think is 5.5, and you’re 37k on the trailer. You can run like that from Lewiston to the top of Lolo Pass and then slide your tandems back and cruise down into Montana.

 

There are highway patrol call boxes at the 120,139, and 169. I’ve had to write a note to send with a car back when I was working for Cliff. Depending on where you are they’d send someone up from Lowell or down from Powell to check on you.