Wind & Carelessness

Often new drivers are unsure when to shutndown due to wind. Somehow snow, sleet and rain seem more dangerous.

Today I was driving through California, and I saw a rollover with a "wind warning" sign. The wind didn't seem to exist so i thought "old wreck, old sign".

100 miles later, i started getting whipped around so i parked for 2 hours hoping it would dissipate. Shortly after starting a doubles trailer came flying past me at 78, and he got up to 82 to pass someone in front of me.

2 miles later, he overturned, wrecking two other trucks and a pick up, while throwing oranges all over the highway. He probably won't get hired anywhere and caused a 2 hour shut down of the highway. How the guy in the pick up survived i have no idea.

While sitting on the road waiting for it to clear, a wind advisory went into effect until 1800 tonight. I have 33,000 in the box and the wind is 25 to 35 with 50mph gusts! Not good.

Use your weather apps. The Weather Channel does a radar with various "layers" for wind, snowfall, temps and more. Look at us surrounded by all that dark blue!

G Town posted an awesome wind chart. Use it, and don't risk a life or your career!

Rainy,

Would the chart apply to flatbed trailers you think?

Turtle said it is different but depends on the load. At least it is somewhat of a guide

My trainer told me for wind if you have the space the safest park is to put you truck as close to a 90 from trailer as possible. This way even if the wind changes direction it will be incredibly hard for the trailer to tip and pull your truck with it or vice versa.

Putting the landing gear down adds more stability too.

Dealing with wind ain't fun at all. Was following a Prime truck today in Iowa on I80 just west of the 680 split. Wind was out of the east at about 30mph so when making the turn to the south the side is exposed to the wind. What made me take notice was the Prime trailer. It was getting tossed around with lateral movement of 2 plus feet. Thing was, I wasn't getting tossed like that.

I've got 42k in the box. My tandems are set back as far as I can and still be legal. Which is pretty far back. Some where in ths neighborhood of 9 or 10 hole (didn't count but scale ticket says I'm good). Was the Prime driver light? Probably. But I noticed the tandems were way forward. Having them forward makes for easy turns but one sacrifices stability in the wind.

Just learned about setting the tandems back when it's windy helps with stability. Hadn't had a chance to test it out untill today. Pretty successful test too. Felt pretty stable going west bound across Nebraska today. 45+ degree 30 mph tail wind with 40 gusts. Wiggled a little but nothing I couldn't handle.

With a full on 90 degree side wind it was a little dicey but stable. Add another 10 mph wind speed and I would have parked.

Oh, another good resource is the weather radio bands. Wyoming, Nebraska, Montana and a few other states will give wind and gusts speeds on major routes.

I fought 30 to 40 miles per hour gusts in Missouri today to get back to the terminal for Hometime. Driving back to Iowa in my pickup I saw trucks in front of me swerving and fighting the wind. Got 25 miles from my home and all of a sudden my tonneau cover on my pickup was almost ripped off. Pulled over rolled it up and stuffed everything I could from the bed of my truck into the backseat that wouldn't fly out. damn cover cost me $400 glad I didn't lose that.

My guess is that Prime driver should have parked. I agree with you in that he was light, thats why his tandems where all the way forward. Hadnt heard about the t andems thing, but that does make a bit of sense, I'm on i80 as well with my tandems in the 9th hole. Didn't really feel all that dicey today, had some shoves but no lateral movement on the trailer with 40k in the box. I didn't take 680 though, I kept going east on i80.

Having all that weight in your boxes is the key here. My tractor gets all squirrelly on me when winds are acting up. But my trailer stays straight as an arrow. That Primate should've been driving slower but hey, I hope he/she doesn't have to learn that the hard way.

Splitter wrote:

Having all that weight in your boxes is the key here. My tractor gets all squirrelly on me when winds are acting up. But my trailer stays straight as an arrow. That Primate should've been driving slower but hey, I hope he/she doesn't have to learn that the hard way.

Yes agree, reducing speed during a wind event is the right thing to-do. Guessing...their trailer was empty.

I drove home Monday in light to medium wind. Had to have my tandems forward because I had 36k in the box but it is all in the front half of the trailer. Paper rolls they loaded differently for some reason.

I could see my trailer tandems over the white line even though my truck was centered.