Wind

Regardless of what we say, decisions are best made on your end (with your trainer). Better safer to pull over if wind is wild/uncertain.
You gain the knowledge of the wind direction perspective from reading our posts, but the real conditions where you are at on the roadway, are first hand experience and those are what's important. But sometimes in cases where you have a strong "steady-direction" wind from the north, the negative effect on the T/T can make a huge difference/imprivement when you head due south. The key is... if the wind stays in a steady north to south direction.
But as StoneExpress said, sometimes wind won't always be in a straight line, and blow in many directions.

No problem, I thought you were thinking it was based more on load transfer, than axle position.
Good to hear it worked out the way it did, and ended up as the better choice.
Anything near 65 mph gusts are best handled sitting somewhere safe with a cup of coffee.
I don't blame ya. I was in ground zero of a tornado once and that changes ones heartrate/perspective on those ever since.

 

check out u tube type in wreckhouse a few good videos there

 

What about with flatbeds, especially empty, in wind?

 

I've bookmarked The Weather Channel's website and always consult their "Classic Maps" section. One map is great for understanding current wind conditions:

http://www.weather.com/maps/maptype/currentweatherusnational/uscurrentwindsgusts_large.html

This helps my decision making regarding "go" or "no go", depending on whether I can see that my route will have wind that will improve or get worse.

I completely agree with having a light touch on the steering wheel. The image that comes to mind is "holding a wounded sparrow". If you are white knuckle driving you are doing it wrong.

The next thing regarding steering in the wind, or in any condition for that matter, is to make sure my arms and shoulders are relaxed. I like to think that my arms are heavy and hanging straight down like a suspension bridge.

The reason why I think this relaxation is important when steering in a side wind is because it is very similar to being at the helm of a sailboat on a reach (sideways to the wind). When a gust hits that sail and causes you to heel over you need to have soft hands on the helm in order to feel and counteract the heeling with the rudder in order to stay on course. When driving a truck in gusting side winds I want to be relaxed to feel the impact of the wind and make small course corrections to counteract it and maintain my "line" in the center of the lane (or on the side of the lane on the windward side in case I need to "steer downwind"). When doing this I can almost feel the tires flexing as I maintain course.

Whenever I grip the wheel too hard, or tense up my arms and shoulders, invariably the wind will knock me around a lot more than if I'm relaxed and feeling what is going on.

One more thing to add is to watch the trucks in front of you like a hawk. If they get hit hard by a gust, then you can prepare to get hit. Last spring I was headed west on I-40 from OKC in fairly light winds. I was approaching a beautiful thunderhead that had an obvious downdraft with heavy rain just off the freeway. I was watching the trucks ahead closely as they passed by this downdraft, all seemed normal until the truck about 8 seconds ahead of me got knocked sideways into the passing lane. I immediately slowed and steered toward the gust and also got knocked sideways. It must have been what they call a microburst, quite the slammer. Had I not been paying attention and made sure the left lane was clear before it hit the situation could have become serious.