driving in strong wind

Very good idea! Life is good in the tanker world. Learn the ropes and within a year or two defiantly make the switch.

 

Every year there is the picture of trucks laying down in the median along Wyoming. Too windy to drive, these guys pulled over and the wind pushed them over anyway.

Woke up one night, truck rocking real bad, I got up and parked the truck 90 degrees to what it was so the trailer doors were facing the oncoming wind, i was in line with the strong winds in other words.

 

Here's the advice I got from my last trainer about windy conditions:

Go Slower

Yup, great advice. I can slowly go into a ditch.

My advice:

Pull over when you feels it's unsafe.

Oh and some key advice. Know and read the Surface Transportation Assistance Act.

 

Ya..have been mysteriously shoved into the shoulder,from out of nowhere,even when it didn't appear to be windy.Oh,it'll tighten you Right Up.Does anybody need any washers? Seriously,high downhill elevations,high winds,ruts in the roads and an empty trailer takes skill.About the Worst thing you can do..is to jerk the steering wheel back and forth.Have learned to accept the wind and gradually steer back,you kinda do a delayed response,don't fight the wind.It just makes it worse.JMO

 

This is why self driving trucks will ultimately fail

 

I was blown over on the way to Rochelle, IL going north on I-39.

The weather turned bad fast and all the trucks and cars stopped on the highway to wait it out. Construction barrels took off in the air and the rain was about sideways. I was also stationary and it still tipped me over. I was also hooked to an empty trailer.

 

Yes,and can you imagine one trying to back in an alley,where you must get close to cars,walls etc.

 

Doing battle is something not easily chosen. Whenever there is a high wind warning with sustained greater than 55 and gusts greater than 65 it's enough to blow you over. I usually find a hole if I don't get loaded and escape a hurricane etc. Finding a hole means to nestle up against a powerful building in a place where there is at least three sides of protection with a opening towards the north and face the north with your cab.

You can do a little bit. But you are going to be wrestling with the steering wheel and being shaken violently at times for hours and if you have had enough you stop. If you go too far you get blown over.

It's far worse in winter. A little bit of ice means a smaller softer wind gust can blow your whole rig brakes on and all sideways across that ice with the right properties.. usually too slippery to walk in.

Winds in flatbedding means you get to potentially wrestle a 50 foot long tarp 30 feet wide and it's a old time sailing ship sail that will get away from you after inflicting a thousand cuts in addition to ripping your fingers off. Oh joy.

It's also a problem when you are on some place high and it comes up rocking you just so until you hang outside the window blowing chunks when trying to sleep. You get your truck legs at that point.

And then there are certain localized winds that screech and howl when tearing at your truck trying to strip the paint and letters off you to get inside and kill you. Usually while dropping either a mountain of hail stones or whiting you out.

Ive been tipped by storm winds, but not all the way over. But enough to consider quitting the industry. My last one was on the Md Bay Bridge decades ago. #### thing was about over that rail westbound and I was fixing to hop off the fuel tank which was rising higher, enough to break both legs or get chopped on the steel grating below.

 

I wanted to get out of the industry, but I'm in a terrible location and bad job market so reluctantly coming back.

 

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