Well That Will Rattle The Nerves A Bit!

Anyone driving in New England today will know that it was pretty windy up this way. Now not so much that trucks were shutting down, but still very windy. Also nothing that I felt uncomfortable driving in, just some rattling of the truck and trailer is all. So coming back from Jersey today and i'm almost home to Maine. I start coming over the Piscataqua River Bridge (Portsmouth, NH to Kittery, ME) which is fairly high and does post about cross winds before on, and notice in my mirror that my trailer was taking an abnormally large lean to the right! Now I don't think my tires lifted at all but it was scary enough to back way out of the throttle and slow way down. Another truck in front of me was also having fun riding his horse over the bridge. I've gone through some wind before but nothing like that. That was intense for the brief moment that it happened. Anyone been in some extreme winds like that before?

Thanks, C, for the heads up. I'm delivering to Williston, Vermont on Friday.

If I kept the cab windows open, would that reduce the wind effects?

The cab isn't the part you need to worry about. The trailer acts like a big sail and there's nothing that can help with that except to slow down. The Windows in the cab won't do anything except mess up your hair haha. Also from my end of things I was pulling a virtually empty trailer so the effects were far worse I'm sure. Still just take it slow if you get into some wide open places that could carry a heavy cross wind.Like bridges that run high over water or large flat fields. I'm sure you'll be fine though I can't imagine this will last into tomorrow.

Hey you want to talk about fun? Pull a light trailer across Wyoming on I-80 in the winter. It's like 6000+ feet elevation, bitter cold all the time so the roads have snow on them most of the time, and not a tree for miles. The wind doesn't seem to get under 50 mph across there!

I was driving empty out of Buffalo one time in very heavy crosswinds and heavy snow. During one particularly terrible gust I was in the right hand lane and my trailer tires were in the left hand lane. Swear to God. I just stayed on the gas and kept pulling on that trailer until the wind let up and it got back behind me. Now to be clear, I was in no real danger of jackknifing and the roads were too slick to tip me over. I knew as long as I stayed on the gas and kept pulling on that trailer it would be fine once the wind died down, and it was.

Many, many times I was loaded light across Wyoming and the crosswinds would literally blow you from one lane to the next. You would get way over on the upwind side of the road, which was usually the right lane going West, and make damn sure nobody was anywhere near you so you could use the whole road when you needed to. A huge gust would blow you downwind into the left lane, it would let up, and then you'd drive back to the right lane and wait for the next one. That I don't recommend trying unless you have a ton of driving experience in big rigs and in the snow. It's hairy. But heck, if you wait for good conditions to go across Wyoming you'd be waiting til June!

Hey you want to talk about fun? Pull a light trailer across Wyoming on I-80 in the winter. It's like 6000+ feet elevation, bitter cold all the time so the roads have snow on them most of the time, and not a tree for miles. The wind doesn't seem to get under 50 mph across there!

I was driving empty out of Buffalo one time in very heavy crosswinds and heavy snow. During one particularly terrible gust I was in the right hand lane and my trailer tires were in the left hand lane. Swear to God. I just stayed on the gas and kept pulling on that trailer until the wind let up and it got back behind me. Now to be clear, I was in no real danger of jackknifing and the roads were too slick to tip me over. I knew as long as I stayed on the gas and kept pulling on that trailer it would be fine once the wind died down, and it was.

Many, many times I was loaded light across Wyoming and the crosswinds would literally blow you from one lane to the next. You would get way over on the upwind side of the road, which was usually the right lane going West, and make damn sure nobody was anywhere near you so you could use the whole road when you needed to. A huge gust would blow you downwind into the left lane, it would let up, and then you'd drive back to the right lane and wait for the next one. That I don't recommend trying unless you have a ton of driving experience in big rigs and in the snow. It's hairy. But heck, if you wait for good conditions to go across Wyoming you'd be waiting til June!

Yep! I'm going across Wyoming all the time. It's my most traveled state right behind Utah. Wyoming in the winter is always fun.

My worst was in Kansas with an empty trailer with a Wall Cloud passing through me. Those winds should have killed me honestly. There was a tornado about 15 miles from me but this wall cloud formed out of nowhere. I couldn't run away from it, I tried. Those winds hit me so hard I couldn't actually see anything out of my passenger side window. My trailer moved into the other lane but luckily it didn't flip over. My closest call to date. I parked at the end of the day to a beautiful sunset, just thankful that I was alive.

Hey you want to talk about fun? Pull a light trailer across Wyoming on I-80 in the winter. It's like 6000+ feet elevation, bitter cold all the time so the roads have snow on them most of the time, and not a tree for miles. The wind doesn't seem to get under 50 mph across there!

I was driving empty out of Buffalo one time in very heavy crosswinds and heavy snow. During one particularly terrible gust I was in the right hand lane and my trailer tires were in the left hand lane. Swear to God. I just stayed on the gas and kept pulling on that trailer until the wind let up and it got back behind me. Now to be clear, I was in no real danger of jackknifing and the roads were too slick to tip me over. I knew as long as I stayed on the gas and kept pulling on that trailer it would be fine once the wind died down, and it was.

Many, many times I was loaded light across Wyoming and the crosswinds would literally blow you from one lane to the next. You would get way over on the upwind side of the road, which was usually the right lane going West, and make damn sure nobody was anywhere near you so you could use the whole road when you needed to. A huge gust would blow you downwind into the left lane, it would let up, and then you'd drive back to the right lane and wait for the next one. That I don't recommend trying unless you have a ton of driving experience in big rigs and in the snow. It's hairy. But heck, if you wait for good conditions to go across Wyoming you'd be waiting til June!

Yep! I'm going across Wyoming all the time. It's my most traveled state right behind Utah. Wyoming in the winter is always fun.

My worst was in Kansas with an empty trailer with a Wall Cloud passing through me. Those winds should have killed me honestly. There was a tornado about 15 miles from me but this wall cloud formed out of nowhere. I couldn't run away from it, I tried. Those winds hit me so hard I couldn't actually see anything out of my passenger side window. My trailer moved into the other lane but luckily it didn't flip over. My closest call to date. I parked at the end of the day to a beautiful sunset, just thankful that I was alive.

That's intense! Other than ice would you say major wind like that is a truckers worst enemy? It just seems like it can sneak up on you and it doesn't seem to be a thing most would notice when checking the weather conditions.

I know that bridge well,That bridge n maine is pretty awesome thankfully it's also pretry short I travel up that way often enough usually the 95 to 495 interchange is the worst part ( especially in the summer on weekends) due to traffic but with winds like today I can imagine the bridge took the cake. From what I hear the winds in Wyoming in the winter is a whole nother world though.

The last time I went through Wyoming in January, there were 35-40 mph cross winds with gusts up to 65-70. The port was advising trucks to shut down. They would not say it was closed but let the drivers make the decision. I went ahead and got home but then I was also pulling a flatbed.

I pulled a stepdeck with a couple of backhoes on it through Wyoming in January with 30 mph winds and some 45+mph gusts. It pushed the tractor pretty good, and occasionally the trailer would wiggle a little bit. I called a couple people to see if they had a top wind speed limit for pulling over, but all they told me was "It's your decision." Finally one old flatbedder told me he'd usually think about pulling over when it got to the 40-45 mph range (steady) with a flatbed. I decided to keep going and made it fine through the wind - low center of gravity for backhoes on a stepdeck.

Coming out of Wyoming was even more fun. I had a load of dirt on that same stepdeck, very low COG. I had 50 mph tailwinds and a little bit of ice and snow. Got great gas mileage. Lost some weight sweating till I got out of it.

Even with the optimal low COG load, I got pushed around quite a bit. I can't imagine pulling an empty box or a high load of stryofoam (same thing really) through those kinds of winds.

I was driving west on I-80 in eastern Kansas, came across a concrete bridge into an area with 5 lanes westbound in a snowstorm with ICE on the pavement ... before I could think about it I felt my EMPTY trailer slide towards the center divide at least 6-8 feet in a FLASH ... I didn't have time to react but the trailer caught some traction and lined up behind me like a good boy ... I pulled to the extreme right, hit the hazards and CRAWLED at 20 MPH for the next 10 miles, shaking the whole time ... I looked in my mirror and two other rigs were right behind me with their hazards on running at the same slow pace ... must of scared the crap out of them just seeing what happened to me ...

Jopa