How much weight for the wind?

How many Reddaway trailers have you seen flipped in high winds? Across Wyoming i80. When I worked there 0 in my time. We must be doing something right. I’m not talking about speeding but there is a posted speed limit. They have the electronic signs. Go the speed limit. Drivers would Go way slower or crawl. I never ran empty in high winds but we wouldn’t always have comfortable freight weight. Good luck. As the hodgetwins would say. At the end of the day it’s just advice do whatever the F you want to do.

 

Stop giving bad advice please

 

Let's follow the logic of your arguement to the extreme.

You argue the slower a truck goes the more likely it is to flip in the wind.

If that's true, pretty much every truck stop and parking area on I-80 in Wyoming should look like a pile of dominos on a windy day. You can't go slower than zero.

To your "downforce" statement. While its true a tractor generates some downforce, the amount is barely measurable compared to the weight of even a bobtail. Trucks are not designed to create downforce. Downforce is drag and affects fuel efficiency, exactly what trucks are being designed to eliminate. At highway speeds, on a vehicle the size and weight of a empty class 8, it would take a mechanically assisted ground effect design or wings rivaling a decent size aircraft to create a meaningful amount of downforce.

In short. A 60mph wind doesnt care if the effective weight of your truck is 80k or 80,001.

The reason you see drivers creeping along get blown over is either they are light/top heavy, or they screwed up. Experience just feeling how your truck is acting and knowing how to recognize the especially dangerous areas goes a long way.

 

You got a link to one of those videos?

 

Another way to look at it is that the down force, if significant, is only on the tractor. Every single video I've seen of a blow over starts at the trailer, not the tractor. There isn't any down force on a trailer, so speed cannot be beneficial.

 

She only runs in slow-mo and she doesn’t tip over.

 

You're correct. Tractors dont flip, trailers do and they take the tractor along for the ride.

My first reply was from my phone and I had to hit the road so I left something off.

Wind hitting the truck, specifically wind hitting a Van trailer or other tall flat loaded trailer turns that trailer into a really crappy wing. The opposite side of the trailer, "lee" side in nautical terms, becomes a a very large low pressure area. The same way as the rear of a Van trailer as you're driving down the road. The high pressure on the wind side is assisted by the low pressure on the lee side.. The faster the vehicle is traveling the greater the efficiency of the wing effect and the lower the pressure on the lee side of the trailer.

9 or 10 years ago I was on OH-127 grossing about 70k when I got caught in a very rare type of windstorm. I could actually see a wall of wind coming at me from the west. As I recall steady winds were reported in the 65mph range with gusts into the high 80's. A couple of places in IN and OH reported gusts over 100mph. When that first blast hit it shoved my truck about 5 feet sideways and thats with both hands locked on that wheel ready for it. I watched that wind whip a northbound tanker's tandems into the ditch. The tanker didnt flip, the driver never lifted, and didn't try to correct for it. He simply allowed his momentum to pull the trailer back on the road. Biggest diff between that tanker driver and most of the flipped trucks I saw that day? He didn't overreact. That's the biggest cause of wind induced rollovers, drivers trying too hard and making things worse.

 

I personally just slow down when it’s very windy. It’s also good for the MPGs. You can use The Weather Channel app to look at the current and future wind speed.

 

I believe one of the reasons people roll over is because they fight the wind. They hold onto the steering wheel very hard and don’t allow the wind to move them. This can cause the truck to tilt. My recommendation is to allow the wind to move you a foot or two, while maintaining a firm grip on the steering wheel.

The other reason people roll over in high winds is because they panic when the wind pushes them, and they steer hard toward the wind, which then causes their equipment to “wobble” (if that’s right word).

 

I was taught by my BRO IN LAW. Who's been driving longer then me. And is VERY knowledgeable about trucking.

HAUL ARSE.

He must know what he's saying. He's never had an accident and been driving around 25 years.
And it's worked for me so far in 19 years.