Wind is scaring the *#^% out of me

still real windy southern indiana ohio and north ky.

 

the winds JUST died down in cincinnati

 

Went over the grapevine early this morning. 0300 or so, pretty darn windy, and empty. Coulda swore that I saw the asphalt under my tandems a couple times. I'd rather drive snow than wind. Definitely gets the blood pumpin'.

 

Cabbage EB was shut down this morning due to wind, I had a couple of pucker moments coming down WB, then was empty going south out of Yakima this afternoon, had a few puckers there too.

Does insurance cover seat removal?

 

Happened a couple weeks ago there to me in the middle of the night. While heading west out of Laramie they have some signs saying 25+ winds on the way out of town. I think no problem. Get to bottom of the hills coming into Elk Mountain and now it's 35+ signs, still not worried. Get up to the top and it's 50+ signs with light loads not recommended after you're already in the middle of it. What a great place to finally tell you that. Luckily, I was grossing 79,500 so it was doable. Usually WY is pretty good with using their signs and the information on them but they dropped the ball that night.

 

3 things I won't drive in: Ice, Fog, and High Winds.
The latter was added in May 2008. I was one of the few people to ever get hit by a tornado while in the truck. It picked the truck up, rolled it to the driver's side facing the ground, dropped me 4 feet, and slid me across 2 lanes of interstate, down into the median and part of the way up the other side. Spent 2 days in the hospital with a moderate concussion and a severed ear. Took 17 stitches to put my ear back together and I'm still suffering consequences from the concussion. I'm lucky to be alive according to Indiana State Troopers. The accident reconstruction said that my head went through the driver's window and the only thing that kept me from going out and being crushed by the truck was that I was wearing my seatbelt. After 2 years out of trucks I finally got the nerve to climb back in in 2010. Truck gets parked as soon as it starts pushing me out of my lane, I don't take chances anymore, next time I might not be so lucky.

 

just out of curiosity, do you remember how fast the winds were going and how much weight you had?

 

I had on 10K and some change of empty plastic bottles. The winds were in excess of 100mph is what they told me. It was the same tornado that leveled an apartment complex just a few minutes before it hit me.

 

You have to be very careful in the wind especially where it gets funneled through valleys, canyons, overpasses and such. You've had a constant steady wind at a certain direction and all of a sudden you get a sharp blast that can blow you off the road!

When its windy like that of course its best to shut down. If for some reason you are forced to drive for a bit then definitely slow it down! You also want to stay toward the center of the road. Even straddle the crest if there aren't any other vehicles. This way if you do get a gust you have plenty of recovery room! Try to not "white knuckle" the steering wheel. You want to allow for a little bit of play in your steering and you also want to let the truck blow a little when the wind hits you. Don't try to immediately correct the wheel or steer sharply into it! Let the truck take some of the brunt of it. Blowing you a little sideways is better than blowing you over!

Drive safe guys/gals!