Driving Truck in the Wind! Need help!

Yeah but this is how dumb dispatchers are. I have a family member who is also a truck driver and he drives a lot through Utah, Wyoming, up in that area. You know the windiest part of the whole country. Coincidentally he had to shut down two out of three days due to winds. Asking him to Haul an empty through 65 mph windstorm. With icy conditions nonetheless. So he shut down, and come to find out his dispatcher called up the road to where another truck driver had just started his break. This guy is about 15 miles up the road and asked him if the conditions my family member had described were true. The wind was only blowing about 25 mph up the road there. You would think these idiots could get online and see the updated weather. So the dispatcher called my uncle back and tried to accuse him of lying . My uncle was on the way out with this company but it was really funny how he handled it. He told the dispatcher to hold on for a second. He was in the middle of something. Then he said “here State patrol officer James (last name) he’s going to fill you in on what the weather situation is currently where I’m at. Now after he does that he would like to ask you a few questions about forcing me to continue to drive when the conditions are unsafe and I’ve clearly demonstrated that to you.” Lol
So funny.

 

It's not empathy as much as it is sensibility and reality.

 

Seat position and arm rests affect my shoulders badly in the wind . I don’t get sore at all if I let air out of seat and don’t use the armrests ..every bump the air ride seat will drive your shoulders upwards if your resting arms on armrests I find..

 

I just got my first, and hopefully last, preventable on my record due to wind last week. I consider myself a very safe and cautious driver and have managed to go nearly six months without so much as setting off one of Schneider's "critical events" in the truck. I've had very limited experience with wind in the time I've been driving. I've never driven up in Wyoming or or other areas really known for wind. It's been pretty windy here in North Texas the last week or so, but I've never really associated this area with producing those kinds of winds short of a storm or tornado.

Well, I was traveling down a 2 lane state highway that was mostly tree lined and I could tell it was windy, but didn't seem too bad. I was near fully loaded, about 76k gross, and it wasn't pushing the truck around at all. I've been in some wind in Kansas and West Texas that was much worse.

The trees stopped and it opened up to a clearing. As soon as I reached the clearing, I got hit with a gust of wind like I've never felt before. It pushed me hard toward the right shoulder of the road. I fought it, but I was already leaning so much that my gut feeling was that if I pulled it any harder to the left I would tip over. The grass on that side of the road was relatively wide and flat and that seemed like a better option than tipping so I decided to stop fighting and try to bring it to as controlled a stop as I could in the grass. It turned out the ground was extremely soft from recent rain, which I think turned out to be a blessing because the wheels sinking into the ground brought me to a fairly quick but gentle stop. Still didn't even trigger a critical event. In all, the only damage was cosmetic to the front bumper and I needed a winch out of the mud. I got pulled out and continued on my way down the road.

It was, and still is, very unsettling. I got lucky the ground beside the road was as good as it was. The whole rest of the trip I was looking at the side of the road thinking if that had happened here, I probably wouldn't have survived. I also question whether I actually would have rolled if I pulled it harder to the left. I felt like I was leaning too far, but I don't think any wheels had lifted from the pavement at that point. There's probably no way to answer that question. If I had seen there was a huge drop-off or trees right next to the road, I'm pretty sure I would have taken my chances with tipping.

I'm also still a little uncertain how I could have prevented it. The speed limit was 65, and I was going around 60-65. Clearly, I needed to be going slower than I was, but how slow, and how would I have known? Would I have been ok at 55? 45? I looked at the weather before I left and didn't see any active wind advisories at the time. Up to that point, the wind did not seem concerning. About an hour after it happened as I was waiting on the tow truck, I got a wind advisory warning on the tablet. I know next time, I will be more aware of areas that may have higher gusts, like going into that clearing after being shielded by trees. I also apologize in advance for anyone that gets stuck behind me driving slow on a 2 lane road on a windy day.

Schneider has been good about it so far, but I think any wind accident is automatically considered preventable, and I don't really dispute that it wasn't. My DBL was genuinely more concerned with how I was doing over the load delivering on time. The bumper was fixed within an hour after I got back to the OC. I'm scheduled to go in for "training" with Safety about it on Thursday. I don't have any concerns about being fired over it. I'm actually looking forward to talking the situation over with them.

Shortly after I was pulled out and on my way, still on that same road, a truck comes up behind me and tells me over the CB the speed limit is 65. I just turned it off.

 

There’s some truth in the Volvo theory. Same with my Freightliner. Any Condo style high Truck catches the wind more. Add air ride Cabs, maybe Air ride front axle. You have a lot more swaying in the wind. Especially since the Integrated Cabs came along. The old separate Cab and sleepers felt more glued to the road. They were, and you felt it. They didn’t ride as well, as the One piece Cab/Sleepers do. Almost have to just ignore it. Sure feels like you’re about to go over sometimes. Knowing the wind speed helps. 50 mph gusts will blow over an empty Truck w/ dry van. Much more than that, I’m not taking the chance. I’ll park it, preferably between 2 other Trucks, with the wind to my back. I’ve been through 2 Tornadoes while parked. Once I parked long ways in front of the biggest store I could find in Bolivar Tn. Other time in New Albany Ms. Both wreaked havoc and caused a lot of damage. Not much else can be done. Hang on and try to enjoy the ride.

 

That’s the straight truth. Can’t trust the wind reports either. It can be a matter of 5 or 10 miles an hour higher gust at any time. Any Driver that’s not concerned, hyper alert, or nervous is just being careless. Let them go, often a wreck waiting for a place to happen. A walk through a Truck Junkyard tells a lot. Looking inside some of them, seeing how they were running ragged. I doubt any of them thought they’d have a wreck.

 

Amen to these 3 posts

 

The Volvos have the cushier plush ride, but in the wind it "feels" like the trucks gonna flip. Most of it is just the cab moving around, the truck isnt actually being pushed around, you fell it like it is and correct for it, then have to correct it back, because it really didnt need the first correction, it really is (mostly) just the cab moving around.
Took me a while to get use to it when I had my 780. Great cushy ride, but wow did the cab move around a lot.

 

I loaded loose potatoes in Monte Vista, CO yesterday. I'm in a reefer and i told them to put 44k in there, but they put 45k plus. I am heading to Topeka, KS and it's over gross. The wind was so serious yesterday, I told them don't even take any off. I know it's going to be serious today too. I don't know if scale before Topeka will be open, it usually isn't, but to avoid that type of struggle, I figured a few hundred over gross won't hurt.