That's the Sherwin Grade.

I've come down it at 160 and my temp gauge never budged from normal.
Oh, did I mention? Not in a van.

You can go to Bishop to hunt, fish and drink, and pretty soon you get
tired of hunting and fishing.

Mike

Used to live there a while back.

On Jul 20, 2011, at 4:20 PM, Rocket J Squirrel wrote:

> On Wed, 2011-07-20 at 15:04 -0700, Scott Daniel - Turbovans wrote:
>> there is a big climb northbound on 395 in California ...north of
>> Bishop.
>> A diesel vanagon giuy was telling me about going up that at only
>> about 30mph
>> ..
>
> I did that climb -- the Sherman Grade -- in my van in 2008 in August,
> pulling my camping equipment trailer, in midafternoon, easily over 100
> F. First gear was all I could use. I watched the coolant temp gauge
> like
> a hawk. I also watched my rear view mirror as more modern cars with
> better aerodynamics and stronger engines blew up the grade behind me,
> hoping they'd see my blinkers. I can't imagine what the oil temp was.
>
> I've blown the cooling system on two cars going up that thing in
> summer.
> Had to limp back down to Bishop. Guess which end of town the two
> radiator repair places are? North end, end closest to the grade. With
> all the cars that fail, they do a land office business, I can tell
> you.
> So do the cheap motels at that end of town, folk overnighting waiting
> for the rad shop to get the parts and finish the job. Bishop is not
> the
> most interesting town in the world.
>
> Same deal for the desert grades I clumb over last summer. Second gear?
> Forget it. Too steep, too much campin' and kayakin' tackle along. Just
> grind up the hills and hope for the best.
>
> -- RJS