thunder storm and tornado

Definitely. Better safe than sorry. No load is worth your life. I always run by the rule that I'll drive through anything as long as I feel I can make it through alive. I've driven empties through ice-storms, but couldn't recommend that other drivers do the same. You also have to keep in mind that I'm a little bit crazy...but if I'd seen my tandems lift up 2 feet, I'd be on the shoulder asap thanking god or whoever that I made it there safe...and promptly changing my shorts...hehehe....

 

How much can 20-30 mph winds do to you mpg?

Let's say you got 7 miles per gallon going 60 miles per hour with 20- 30 gusts. can that bring your mpg's down to low 6's or even lower?

I'm young just brought my own truck. Now that i pay for fuel i watch how much i spend, unlike when i was a company driver.

 

I ran into heavy rain and hail one evening at dusky dark and the wind was so bad that I knew I was going to skid...but I slowed down and trucks were passing me blowing their horns....and I didn't care I kept at a steady speed about 50 and later on down the road must have been about 10 or 15 miles I saw that ONE truck that has passed me flying off to the side of the road....jackknifed...this is what speed can do when the road is wet and hazardous....thank goodness the driver was out of the truck but he was lucky....I am going to slow down and not risk my life or others when the weather is bad....

"Better to be safe than sorry....."

 

If you have serious doubts about it, slow down. I got sucked into a problem last winter. Running on patchy ice with a gusty side wind, and an empty pup. Only doing about 45MPH but happened to catch a heavy gust of wind at the same time I hit a patch of ice.

Took out some fence line and did minor cosmetic damage to tractor, (from the barbed wire). Worst damage was to my pride. I should have known better. . .

Cost me two days off without pay. But I didn't get hurt. Nobody else got hurt. No major property damage. I got off very lucky!

Several years ago I was running with Knight out of Denver. Coming across WY on I-80 eastbound out of Larimie, caught an ice storm. Shut it down at a rest area and listened to my dispatcher rant and rave. Told him to pound sand and shut down anyway.

The next morning, I headed out and there were at least half a dozen rigs on their sides in either the median or barrow ditch within the first couple of miles. . .

 

Yeah...I've been lucky to have dispatchers who would take my word for it if I said it was unsafe to drive, but I'd definitely tell them to eat it if they tried to force me to do otherwise.

 

Wow good stuff here...about a month ago a wal-mart truck got blown over on his side, and his passenger went to the hospital. It happened just north of town...and a few miles to the east they had a twister. The funny thing was, the truck layed there for 2 days.

Yeah when I get out there on the road...I'm just gonna trust my gut. Shut'er down if it don't look right. Probably way too easy to kill yourself or someone else out there. It does make me a wee bit nervous starting my career at the begining of winter...but I figure I'll learn more and get the bigger learning impressions now than to get caught off guard later.

 

We frequently get wind here strong enough to blow trucks over... and it happens fairly often. It's mostly vans and reefers that go over, but we get cattle liner's going over every so often, and I've seen a modular home in splinters in the ditch too. I've pulled a cattle liner when the tractor was on one side of the lane and I was watching the tires of the trailer running on the other line... not quite enough wind to blow it over, but enough to make me nervous!

 

Definitely be careful. 'Bout a month ago I was running I-75 South to Lima racing a storm front when it finally caught me 10 miles North of town. First gust slid the back of the trailer all the way into the left lane. Second gust pushed the back of the tractor over about 6 inches. Trailer was empty and I was only doing 45 - 50 mph. Another thing to watch out for is water in the road during big storms. Just North of Bowling Green on I-75 I once hit a "puddle" that was at least a foot deep. Thank God I had a full load on driving a brand new truck with brand new tires pulling a brand new trailer. Same puddle pulled two other trucks off the road later that night. Something else to keep in mind.