Wind, Towing and Weights

[sourdough]

I've talked about W TX wind, driving in it, towing in it. For folks that haven't experienced it I think it's sometimes "unbelievable". I know that's the way it was for corporate folks until they actually came down and got to experience what mother nature can hand you......regularly in our case.

We have, and have had, members that wonder about towing at or beyond the capability of their tow vehicle. Many times it seems moot to someone that has never been almost killed by a stroke of fate; a situation that all of a sudden grabs you and then amplifies the shortcomings that one has allowed to happen. We might get by forever (I got by a lot), then maybe not.

I've attached an excerpt from a local paper about a recent windstorm. I've mentioned 70+ mph winds in the past and even recently. Lots of folks hear that and don't believe it. The excerpt it real and the situation is not "unusual". Encountering a situation like described in the article absolutely requires that a person towing a large RV had better have his peas in a pod and be able to control his rig or bad things happen. I've seen countless RVs and semis flipped due to situations like this. The RVrs probably never saw it coming...the pros should have known better. Anyway, trying to stretch yourself razor thin then encountering stuff like this will not end well.

[jasin1]

Originally Posted by sourdough

I've talked about W TX wind, driving in it, towing in it. For folks that haven't experienced it I think it's sometimes "unbelievable". I know that's the way it was for corporate folks until they actually came down and got to experience what mother nature can hand you......regularly in our case.

We have, and have had, members that wonder about towing at or beyond the capability of their tow vehicle. Many times it seems moot to someone that has never been almost killed by a stroke of fate; a situation that all of a sudden grabs you and then amplifies the shortcomings that one has allowed to happen. We might get by forever (I got by a lot), then maybe not.

I've attached an excerpt from a local paper about a recent windstorm. I've mentioned 70+ mph winds in the past and even recently. Lots of folks hear that and don't believe it. The excerpt it real and the situation is not "unusual". Encountering a situation like described in the article absolutely requires that a person towing a large RV had better have his peas in a pod and be able to control his rig or bad things happen. I've seen countless RVs and semis flipped due to situations like this. The RVrs probably never saw it coming...the pros should have known better. Anyway, trying to stretch yourself razor thin then encountering stuff like this will not end well.

Man that’s some wind! If we get a day or three in a row with a lot of wind it drives me crazy..don’t know how you guys do it...I guess I need to be aware of that when and if I travel west...I bet the dust wreaks havoc on paint jobs...my rv785 monitors traffic and weather..I suppose it will let me know wind warnings and god forbid tornado warnings

[sourdough]

Originally Posted by jasin1

Man that’s some wind! If we get a day or three in a row with a lot of wind it drives me crazy..don’t know how you guys do it...I guess I need to be aware of that when and if I travel west...I bet the dust wreaks havoc on paint jobs...my rv785 monitors traffic and weather..I suppose it will let me know wind warnings and god forbid tornado warnings

Sometimes the forecasts can be close....sometimes not and the little weather "updates" you receive from real time devices don't work in situations like that.

In volatile weather areas many times what happens will just happen. The "forecasting" and reporting are after the fact. If you come out this way, see those storm clouds (it won't be "overcast" like here in FL, they will be huge (and tall) coming your way, then see a "wall" of dirt, debris etc. lock it down and secure. May last 5 minutes, maybe 30 but you don't want to be cruising the highway at 65 and "deal with it".

[jasin1]

Originally Posted by sourdough

Sometimes the forecasts can be close....sometimes not and the little weather "updates" you receive from real time devices don't work in situations like that.

In volatile weather areas many times what happens will just happen. The "forecasting" and reporting are after the fact. If you come out this way, see those storm clouds (it won't be "overcast" like here in FL, they will be huge (and tall) coming your way, then see a "wall" of dirt, debris etc. lock it down and secure. May last 5 minutes, maybe 30 but you don't want to be cruising the highway at 65 and "deal with it".

I remember reading about this guy.. really sad

[Badbart56]

Two things I try to stay away from is wind and ice. We try to stay on I-40 as much as we can but we use I-80 a good bit in the summer. Many a tractor trailer has been blown over with those wicked gusts especially in Wyoming.

One of our teams shut down at Laramie last month due to 70+ mph gust and parked on an entry ramp to wait it out. They were videoing the passing traffic when a RV hotshot came rolling by pulling a bumper pull Forest River with a Ford F-250 and the wind picked up the trailer and flipped it, dragging the truck off the highway. Fortunately the truck stayed upright. That RV never made it to a sales lot! We stopped in Rock Springs ourselves to ride it out.

No loads are so important to run in those conditions. I was driving at about 2:30 in the morning on June 23rd of last year through spotty thunderstorms on I-80 in Nebraska when I drove into a tornado. The howling wind woke my wife up and she emerged from the sleeper just in time to see a swirling wall of water as it hit our truck. I told her to hold onto something, I thought for sure that we were going over. I was stopped on a bridge and the truck was shuddering. But it apparently just grazed us. I told her I was glad she woke up and saw it because I don't think I could have accurately described it.

[Cbrez]

In our area the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel is a 17.5 mile bridge that connects southeast Virginia to Virginia’s eastern shore. The bridge authority carefully monitors weather and has strict criteria for vehicles that can cross under a various wind conditions. When wind conditions differ from predictions, the results can be disastrous.

Getting blown over usually means getting blown over the guardrail and into the bay, which is often fatal as happened as recently as Dec 2020. A box truck returning empty from the eastern shore got hit by unexpected wind gusts that cost him his life.

We’ve crossed the bridge numerous times with the 5er and never had a problem, but would not complain one bit if we got turned around at the toll plaza due to wind restrictions. Ain’t worth it. Besides, the wind events are often short lived.