My quest to test 5G has taken me to a baseball game and interstates between Chicago and Nashville. Through the journey, I've carried three phones from the three major US carriers to determine which has the best coverage. I just did it again, but I changed some things up.

Also: I compared Verizon, T-Mobile, and AT&T 5G coverage on a road trip - and the winner surprised me

I still packed my car for a weekend away, and I still had three phones riding in the back seat. I used nPerf (more on that later) to continuously test carrier and network performance throughout the journey. But this time, I went a little John Denver on you and stuck to those old country roads. Interstates were off the menu. As I mentioned during the Nashville trip, it benefits carriers to build networks where people are, like major cities and interstates. So I wanted to go where people were not.

I also changed up the devices. In the past, I carried three Google Pixel 10 Pro phones. This time, I upgraded to three identical Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultras. One of these was provided by Samsung, and the other two came from AT&T and T-Mobile, respectively. All three ran on eSIMs provided by the carriers.

This time around, I had a more refined setup. My last trip had a 2-by-4 board zip-tied to an Anker battery with bolts connecting to cheap $5 phone clamps. It worked well enough.

I zip-tied the phone holders to an old piece of PVC that was clamped to the top of a tripod and held in place by a ratchet strap. I said it was "refined," not "good." One of the benefits of this setup was I was able to glance in the rearview and see all three phones running. Side note: nPerf on the S26 Ultra crashed far fewer times than on the Pixel 10 Pro. I was relieved we stopped as often as we did on the Nashville trip because I often found one of the phones no longer running. No such issue here.