Holding on in high wind.

[Lakota Wolf]

Hello fellow RV'ers.. Its the ole Wolf comming atcha live from Waco Texas,, or close to it at the moment, As its after 1;00 a/m in the early morning hours of a new day. As a retired gentleman,, Sleep is just that annoying time between naps,, So I log in and check on the new members posts and such,, and then get the ole peanut rolling in the tin can and type down lifes journeys, Bear with me, because I do jump around a little on and off topic at times.. (You have been warned).

If you have traveled and met up with other RV'ers and decide to sit around and talk shop or what ever the conversation be,,It all seems to come to the fun times and dreaded times,, Those scary mountains and crazy drivers,, speed limit signs going from 55 to 12 in 2.1 nano seconds,, etc.

The scariest situation on my top 35 list,, (it used to be 10,, but life is funny that way when you have to add more,, Think Honey do lists,, Yea right,,, and you thought is was only 10 things to do,, Boy,did you think wrong. Ok anywhooooo,,, I was pulled off and parked at a Home Depot one evening,, about an hour before the sun was going to set, And the radio news forecast stated severe  thunderstorms with heavy rain,lightning, winds,, possibly flying cows,, you get the jist,, One of those storms you just dont want to be on the road when it hits.

Especially with a trailer,,, That thing you pull behind you that is the size of a billboard with no vent holes.. High winds and Tornado's purposley look for those, Like they zero in on trailer parks.. Tis true.

I had parked and gotten out to get a good determination of which way the wind was going to be blowing,, So I licked my finger and held it high in that 40 mph wind to see and feel which way it was blowing.

(I will pause for a moment so you can let that sink in).

Ok,, So now I know which way the wind is blowing,,Thank goodness for the old wet the finger method. I aim the truck and trailer into the wind, and prepare for a rough ride sitting this out.After about 40 minutes of a rockin and a rollin,, it gets earily quiet,, the ole wind machine just shuts off. Dead silence, You know those little hairs on the back of your neck? And for us older guys,, thats fuzzy hair in our ears?  Well it starts to stand up pretty rigid,, They say this is a sign,, this is not good. I scramble to find the emergency weather station on the radio and they say a Tornado was spotted near mile marker such and such.. My ole peanut is frantically trying to remember what exit did I take. The wind starts to pick back up again, But this time the wind changed a full 180 degrees,, No time to really spin my truck around to face the wind., Not gusting just yet,, when I hear the most deafening sound of screaching metal.

I frantically look around to figure out where it was comming from.

Finally, I see it,, a full size Chevy with a nice bumper pull,,sliding sideways across the parking area near me,, and the screaching noise was a steel dumpster it was pushing.. It was that dumpster that kept the truck and trailer from flipping onto its side. I have seen some weird stuff in my day, But that ole boy must have had an Angel on both his shoulders that day. I saw through the window, his death grip on the steering wheel and his eyes was bugged out,, and knowing that he was thinking,, this is not going to end well at all. Him and his rig set up slid about another 50 yards or so and stopped at a curb,, and I watch what seemed like an hour,, which was more like 5 minutes, this guys truck and trailer heave back and forth, tossing him like a rag doll inside that truck. My senses came back to me when I felt my truck and trailer start moving,, I feel everything sliding forward,, and I dont care how hard you push that brake pedal,, it dont really help much.

I slid forward to about 10 feet from the other guy before I cam to a stop and my trailer had turned sideways just a little to where I could feel it rocking and the hitch banging..It seemed like forever till the wind finally calmed down and the rain stayed steady. I look back over to the other guy and he had that WOW, look on his face.. We both get out of our trucks to survey damages. We were both in awe as we looked around and saw a couple cars and a box truck flipped over. I reach back in the truck and flip the chatter box on (c/b radio) and the truckers are blowing up the airways. A tornado DID blow through right behind us and several semi trucks got rolled along with a few cars that got spun off the road. We was only a 1/2 mile from that exit. It wasnt a huge tornado,, but enough to pack some wind to make you respect mother nature. The other drivers trailer did suffer some side damage from being pushed against that dumpster, But it could have been worse. He told me he heard about the storm warning and was behind me a ways and decided to pull off like I did,, but the wind spun him sideways and he ended up clipping the dumpster,, and we both agreed, that was the only thing that kept him from bringing up the dirty side.

To this day, I still watch the skies and when they look not so friendly,, I find local weather radio,(a/m band). If your ever in a situation with high wind try to aim your rig into the wind.

[Rich Thomas]

I've been in that mess too. No trailer no truck. My sons and I was out in the garden pulling what wasn't supposed to be there. We live in a high density white tail deer population so we fence it in with two strands of electric. We all of a sudden felt our hair lifting up on our necks and the air was stagnate and dead still. I cautioned my son to leave the garden and not touch the fence. I felt like the wire fence had in essence became a large capacitor and we was in eminent danger. just as we left the confines of the garden a side ways wind blew through and topped out four 100 year old pines in my front yard caring them 50-60 feet down the road. I am so thankful we had the since to get out of the garden that day. That storm encompassed most of the state of Ohio and surrounding states.   

[Laura G]

The wind is scary. Here in southern Colorado, we have had several days of hurricane force winds. Blew Jolene over and around in the front yard. She sits kind of high up. Wanted to go camping yesterday but the winds were just too strong to try and pull her. I'll be glad when calmer weather prevails.