How do you handle high winds eamty 53reefer

Good point.

Always keep an eye on high profile vehicles in front of you. If they suddenly get blasted, that's a good indication there's a funnel of wind ahead.

Treat driving in wind the same way as driving in slick conditions. Maintain a lot of space around you.

 

Is a roll over for a rogue wind gust considered preventable or not? I mean if your driving through windy areas, but it still seems like a safe condition, but all of a sudden you hit a funnel that tips your truck? Do they take wind rollovers as case by case or are they all deemed preventable?


Im just curious ahaha ...

 

When I drove through WY in ‘09 my 4-wheeler was sliding around the highway from wind. I can only imagine a 53-ft reefer.

 

Depends on the office functionary passing judgement on you. Swift blasted out a fleet message on the subject once while I was there. It reminded drivers that they are expected to adjust their driving for the prevailing conditions, and wind is a condition.

 

Just slow down, those winds aren't nothing out here...

 

If you are driving through say Iowa and it's a calm day and all of the sudden a 75MPH wind comes out of nowhere it might be a preventable.

If, on the other hand, it's a very windy day, gusts up to 60 are predicted and there is a high wind advisory out then yes, it's a preventable. By the same token, if you are in the mountains and come out a tunnel and flip because of the wind, that's a preventable.

In a nutshell drive for the conditions. If it was snowing so much there was a white out, or fog so dense you cannot see 30 feet ahead would you drive? Would any wreck be a preventable? I would say yes, as in those conditions you should be parking the truck until weather gets a little better.

 

I won't shut down when empty until winds are over 40MPH, if the road conditions are good.

Icy spots on the roads, I will pull over at 30 when empty.

I won't pull over for anything short of a tornado, hurricane, or dust storm if I have 40k or more in the box.

 

En route from Dallas to SoCal past few days, I've seen two double-wides blown over and sitting on the sides of the road [from incidents that happened probably days ago]. One near Colorado City, TX and one west Of Chiriaco Summit, CA. Not sure what sort of wind gusts were ongoing.

The one in Texas - the wind got under it and separated the home from the frame. The frame twisted as the tongue tried to stay attached to the tractor hitch, and the home went ahead and rolled over. The tractors were since removed. I'm unsure if the tractors were rolled over, too in either circumstance.

 

I just passed the Colorado City rollover this morning. Still waiting for recovery. The frame was twisted as you said.

One thing about oversize permits, they state you can't move in high winds. If this was indeed the result of driving in high winds, that driver and company will be paying some fines.

 

Its not always a guarantee but it is usually less windy at night... I pushed hard Saturday night to make it all the way from Battle Creek, NE to Evanston, WY before sun up. I had the weather band on the whole way and was listening to wind and winter storm advisories. I was loaded with about 44,000 and still had a few spots that were a little hairy. Within a few hours of getting into Evanston they started shutting down I-80.

Like most everyone else is saying you have to "feel it out" for yourself... Bottom line is if you aren't comfortable driving then pull it over someplace safe, no company with a brain will fault you for erroring on the side of caution. But if you error on the side of stupidity you may just find yourself looking for a new job... Or even worse.

A DOT officer in WY told me just a few days ago that "there is no such thing as a 'light' load in Wyoming." A few weeks ago some 18 or so trucks were blown over in WY with in just a matter of days.