How to Keep Your Trailer Upright in High Winds?

Tried that when I rode out Hurricane Hugo in a Flying J. Worked until the wind direction changed.......

No, that will only result in the wind pushing your drives even more. If you have a REALLY strong crosswinds, sliding tandems all the way FORWARD is the way to go; all the rotational force of the area behind the axles is counter-acting and equal rotational force forward of the axles, leaving the reduced remainder of area to affect your drives. So, instead of having half of 53' of trailer side pushing your drives, now you only have half of about 25' of trailer side doing the same.

 

I don’t know. One of my good friends runs for Missoula Bottling. They go to Calgary empty and bring back empty plastic bottles to Butte. When they have the high winds coming off the Rocky Mtn front all those guys stretch their tandems out instead of sucking them up. They’re either empty or have about 7500 pounds on running in one of the windiest areas of the country.

 

Dunno about this.
I wouldn't want to be empty in a 30-35mph cross wind.

 

It sucks right?

Maybe with flatbed it would still be okay.

 

Exactly wrong. The wind pushes on all 53' of the trailer all the time when it is not headed directly into or ahead of the wind. Tandems all the way back reduces the angular forces on the drives when the wind pushes on the trailer.

Look at pictures of trucks blown over. They always have their tandems forward.

Did it all the time running empty back to Cheyenne on the Walmart dedicated account. 35mph cross wind, 50 mph gust is the max I could tolerate when empty and tandems all the way back. Got tired of it on icy roads, though, so now I do western regional.

 

How fast do you want to be going when you get blown over?

 

As fast as when you do get flipped, your body would stay intact after hitting the ground on the side.

Best thing to do, if you have a question what to do in the high wind, is do nothing, stay put.

 

Muncie, IN and today is 40-45 gusts until late afternoon.
I just emptied out so I shut down for the rest of the day.