Protocols for Storm Safety in Fifth Wheel (or any RV)

[johnnybadger]

Currently in Fort Walton Beach at Destin West RV Resort. One of the staff at the park just advised that the weather service is predicting VERY severe weather, beginning around midnight tonight. In addition to all the "normal" preparations, he is advising fifth wheelers to hook their rigs to their TV's for added stability. Seems like a good idea to me.

Any other suggestions you guys might have? For example, would you recommend bringing our slides in? I am sure the park community (5'ers, TT's and Class A's) will start organically sharing safety actions. I will share anything that they come up with to add to this thread.

John

[flybouy]

Of course it's best to avoid that weather but sometimes it's unavoidable. Hitching up anmd putting everything away outside like grills, chairs, mats, anmd of course the awning in. Look for a sturdy shelter within close proximity now and have a plan. Most campgrounds will have a block building for showers or laundry that would be sturdy. The most dangerous object in a cg are trees. No RV, not even the biggest class a can stand up to a large tree falling on it. Keep a flashlight in arms reach and your cloths/shoes where you can get them on quickly.
If you don't have your cell phone set up for emergency weather alerts do that now.

[Javi]

not sure that hooking to the truck is gonna help much.. Generally speaking as someone who grew up in tornado country.. When bad weather is headed our way, I always tell my wife.. "If you see me putting my shoes on head for the door"

Here is the aftermath of last weeks storm on Palo Duro Canyon https://www.msn.com/en-us/weather/to...e=BB1eyOtL_1|1

[johnnybadger]

Thanks Flyboy and Javi.

Javi, your wife must be a saint! ��

[jasin1]

Originally Posted by johnnybadger

Currently in Fort Walton Beach at Destin West RV Resort. One of the staff at the park just advised that the weather service is predicting VERY severe weather, beginning around midnight tonight. In addition to all the "normal" preparations, he is advising fifth wheelers to hook their rigs to their TV's for added stability. Seems like a good idea to me.

Any other suggestions you guys might have? For example, would you recommend bringing our slides in? I am sure the park community (5'ers, TT's and Class A's) will start organically sharing safety actions. I will share anything that they come up with to add to this thread.

John

If you have slide toppers I would probably pull the slides in... I might even pull them in just for the heck of it if it was severe winds ..although a case could be made for added stability with them out ... kinda spreading out the weight and making it less tippy

[JRTJH]

I'd store everything that's outside somewhere inside. Pull in the awnings, if you have slide awnings, pull in the slides for sure. If you don't have slide awnings, it depends on your "comfort level".

I'd take a few minutes "NOW" to walk around the campground bath house, see if it looks like it's sturdy enough that if you need a place to "shelter in place" (a place that's more sturdy than the RV) you know that it will work. If the bath house isn't sturdy enough, then NOW is the time to find an alternative. You don't want to be driving around falling trees, in a torrential rain, trying to find a restaurant that looks open so you can be safe... FIND IT NOW and know the fastest route to get there.

I wouldn't hitch the truck to the trailer, but I would make sure all the stabilizers are down and tight, all the tires are chocked and secured. I'd want my truck (smaller and less likely to be blown over) as a separate vehicle in which to escape. It doesn't help much if the trailer is rocking and sliding and you need to get out of it and the truck is hitched and also rocking and sliding...

[wiredgeorge]

Originally Posted by Javi

not sure that hooking to the truck is gonna help much.. Generally speaking as someone who grew up in tornado country.. When bad weather is headed our way, I always tell my wife.. "If you see me putting my shoes on head for the door"

Here is the aftermath of last weeks storm on Palo Duro Canyon https://www.msn.com/en-us/weather/to...e=BB1eyOtL_1|1

Wow... thanks for posting. Didn't see that on the news.

[dutchmensport]

There's a big difference between a really bad rain storm and a tornado or a hurricane. If an RV is getting strong headwinds from the front the camper, that's no different than driving down the road at 60-70-80 mph. Your camper can withstand that with no issues at all. It's designed to take head on winds at those speeds.

However, under the right conditions, it only takes 30-40 mph winds from the side to knock a trailer completely over.

In a tornado or a hurricane, the absolute best choice is to "get out of Dodge",. tuck it, and run for the high hills. (Although we did make it through a few tornados in ours, luckily they were not direct hit, but nearby.) However, a direct hit in an RV and it doesn't matter what kind of protections you prepared for, your camper is history!

If confronting a "normal" storm, I have found it best to face the camper in the direction of the wind. All Jacks down, slides in.

[Javi]

When I was a kid we practiced duck and cover incase of nuclear attack. We called it something else, "bend over and kiss your ××× goodbye " 'cause that's what it really was.
You hear a freight train and it's getting closer where there is no train track, you is already screwed..

[travelin texans]

Originally Posted by Javi

not sure that hooking to the truck is gonna help much.. Generally speaking as someone who grew up in tornado country.. When bad weather is headed our way, I always tell my wife.. "If you see me putting my shoes on head for the door"

Here is the aftermath of last weeks storm on Palo Duro Canyon https://www.msn.com/en-us/weather/to...e=BB1eyOtL_1|1

Palo Duro Canyon is the last place I'd want to be in a storm especially with heavy rains.
I remember as kids the family went there to camp, had an early summer storm blow in & within minutes all the low water crossings were uncrossable, we huddled in the ole station wagon & rode it out til morning, by then the crossings were passable & we hauled all our wet camp gear home & scattered it around the backyard to dry out.
Back in Florida, I wouldn't hook up tow vehicle, but would have it pointed towards the exit ready to haul a## in a moment's notice, much easier to make a quick retreat without dragging a rv. The rv & everything in it can be replaced, that's what insurance is for, but the family & myself would be more difficult.
The difference between tornadoes & hurricanes is a tornado is a 1/4 to 1 mile wide so head away for a few miles & miss it. A hurricane could be the width of the state when it makes landfall, you're SOL.

[Javi]

Originally Posted by travelin texans

Palo Duro Canyon is the last place I'd want to be in a storm especially with heavy rains.
I remember as kids we went there to camp, had an early summer storm blow in & within minutes all the low water crossings were uncrossable, we huddled in the ole station wagon & rode it out til morning, by then the crossings were passable & we hauled all our wet camp gear home & scattered it around the backyard to dry out.
Back in Florida, I wouldn't hook up tow vehicle, but would have it pointed towards the exit ready to haul a## in a moment's notice. The rv & everything in it can be replaced, that's what insurance is for, but the family & myself would be more difficult.
The difference between tornadoes & hurricanes is a tornado is a 1/4 to 1 mile wide so head away for a few miles & miss it. A hurricane could be the width of the state when it makes landfall, you're SOL.

Lived thru Carla in Corpus and a couple of others so, yeah I know the difference.

[sourdough]

To me the difference between a hurricane and a tornado is surprise. You know a hurricane is coming weeks in advance and you can prepare. A tornado may hit you in the middle of the night with no warning....I like the advance notice.

[SummitPond]

Originally Posted by Javi

When I was a kid we practiced duck and cover incase of nuclear attack. <snip>

When I was in college one of the problems posed to us went something like the following: You are standing between a large granite obelisk and a polished granite mountainside. A (I don't recall the size) megaton nuclear device is detonated (don't recall the distance) away. Question: How will you die?

I don't recall if the reflected gamma radiation off of the mountainside fried you or the shockwave from the detonation knocked the obelisk over onto you, but the end result was you were toast.

[flybouy]

i recall the drills in school and the "Bert the Turttel" civile defense films. They told us to do those silly drills to "keep us safe". Then a few years later I read a book about the 2 bobms dropped on Japan. I read every wood, looked at every photo, then read everything I could get my hands on about radiation and the effects on the human body. Duck and cover would keep me safe? Ya shure.

[jasin1]

Originally Posted by johnnybadger

Currently in Fort Walton Beach at Destin West RV Resort. One of the staff at the park just advised that the weather service is predicting VERY severe weather, beginning around midnight tonight. In addition to all the "normal" preparations, he is advising fifth wheelers to hook their rigs to their TV's for added stability. Seems like a good idea to me.

Any other suggestions you guys might have? For example, would you recommend bringing our slides in? I am sure the park community (5'ers, TT's and Class A's) will start organically sharing safety actions. I will share anything that they come up with to add to this thread.

John

Did you get the bad weather? Any problems?

[Hblick48]

Originally Posted by flybouy

i recall the drills in school and the "Bert the Turttel" civile defense films. They told us to do those silly drills to "keep us safe". Then a few years later I read a book about the 2 bobms dropped on Japan. I read every wood, looked at every photo, then read everything I could get my hands on about radiation and the effects on the human body. Duck and cover would keep me safe? Ya shure.

For air raid drills we used to go into the hallway, cover oir heads with arms, and lean on the walls. Would do a lot of good except there were skylights in the hallway.

[Cracker]

Originally Posted by sourdough

To me the difference between a hurricane and a tornado is surprise. You know a hurricane is coming weeks in advance and you can prepare. A tornado may hit you in the middle of the night with no warning....I like the advance notice.

I agree! As a Florida native, active boater, RV'r, and marine construction engineer, I had an established hurricane procedure with respect to my marina-based boat. I would start by moving it to the center of the slip, remove all of the loose gear and stow it below, double up on all of the dock lines, grab my marine insurance papers, and get the hell out of Dodge at least 24 hours in advance of the hurricane! If, and when, it passed over my boat I would be safely in a hotel with my wife, enjoying a cool drink, about 200 miles from the proposed landfall. As for riding out a storm in my RV, if anything really bad was in the forecast (---bad enough for you to consider drastic tie-down and escape facilities at the RV park,) I would, once again, get the hell out of Dodge and park the RV in a distant hotel parking lot. For the record, the panhandle of Florida, and especially the Pensacola area, can get some nasty little storms anytime in the year.

[mikz86ta]

Been thru a few heavy storms. Wind can shake the RV a little but no big deal.
Awnings in, secure any loose items around the RV that's ours and even stuff that isn't. Most parks will one by and remove patio furniture cushions and turn tables and chairs over for you. But I do it.myaelf and to any empty spots. I help out at any park I stay at.
Stability from good wheel chocks or x-chocks and maybe a kingpin tripod.
We have a Fuzion with a side patio, so closing that is a must. But we never closed the slides. I don't think the side winds are going to lift the RV by the slides like it's wings.
I've contemplated hooking up the truck which is a dually for extra stability but can't say that it would actually help if it wanted to tip.
Being on cement or asphalt surely would be most ideal. Close trees would certainly cut down on side winds but could also fall on an RV and do some major damage.....would be totalled. A RV couple on YouTube with a Momentum found that out recently.
In 2017, our friends evacuated leaving their Coachman 5er for the hurricane. He did buy some Mobile Home straps and anchors. Drove the anchors at an angle under the concrete pad and bolted the straps to his frame. Not sure if the wind was bad enuff to flip it that time but if it did try, it survived no issues

[KeystoneKal]

Just following the nuclear attack thread. You may remember that some major cities were ringed with Nike anti aircraft missiles in the fifties.

[flybouy]

Originally Posted by KeystoneKal

Just following the nuclear attack thread. You may remember that some major cities were ringed with Nike anti aircraft missiles in the fifties.

There was one about 5 miles from where I grew up. I doubt anyone today can say off the top of their heads where the closest shelter is unless they are survivalist. With that said, living in the I95 corridor between Wash DC, Balt., Phili, and NY there really is no where to run in the mere minutes it would take for an ICBM to "drop out of the sky".