Wind and travel trailer

OLEJOE

OLEJOE

Active member
What’s the worst wind you’ve encountered while Rving? We went to Alamogordo, NM for a short stay and wound up staying an extra day because of the wind and dust storm. We weren’t far from White Sands NP and there was a lot of sand in the air. We waited until the wind warning expired and went on to Amarillo.
When we left Amarillo there was a 50 mph north wind blowing and we were headed east towards OKC. Tuff but was manageable and tried to keep our speed around 60 mph. One truck passed us and I thought our hood was going to fly off. I think we averaged 4-6 mpg until we got farther east and got in the wooded areas. All of the livestock was laying on the ground and not trying to walk around.
 
Two equally windy times that left us parked in an RV park until the wind died down.

First, just east of Albuquerque on I-40. The wind was blowing straight north about 45MPH gusting higher. We pulled off the interstate and parked at a rest stop for several hours. Just getting into the 5th wheel was a real challenge to hold the door.

Second, two Decembers ago we parked for three days in Kansas because of a very windy winter storm. This time we were traveling west on I-70 headed to Fort Collins. For three days in a row, the wind was sustained at 35-40 gusting to 50. That's a no-go, so we stayed in Hays until the winds died down. Of course, it was 10F when we did start moving, but by the time we got to Fort Collins, it was a balmy 35F.

If there is a cross wind over 25 MPH sustained, I would rather sit and wait it out. I don't want to be upside down in the ditch wishing I had sat it out. I've driven about a million miles and have learned many things along the way. One of them is, don't take chances you don't need to and there are very few reasons you really need to take chances.
 
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It was hard to even get out of the truck with it facing north. We stopped on an off ramp that had a parking area at the top of it and it was shaking the trailer like it was a dish rag. We finally got farther east and it let up to the manageable amount. Like 35-40 mph. Very glad we were in a 3/4 ton truck instead of a 1/2 ton. We went on over to Eufala, Ok and spent the night and home the next day. I refused to go back through Dallas heading home because of the amount of road construction.
 
OLEJOE said:
What’s the worst wind you’ve encountered while Rving?
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crossing Montana.. 7 years ago... quartering wind.. just about like you described.. if I was smarter I would have stopped like you did..

reminds me of a few lines from a song called Born and Bred in Black and White, which always plays in my head any time I encounter tremendous winds..

.
The wind blows hard across the Texas plains
Makes some people go insane
While others quietly pray for rain
That's where we came from
Two boys playing in the burning sun
One with books, one with guns
Mama calls but just one comes
The other one runs
 
Like many other here, I have driven through lots of wind towing a trailer. The worst wind on a regular basis causing multiple issues is I80 through Wyoming. Especially in the winter, I can't suggest strong enough an alternate route instead of I80, if available.

The winds have been so bad on I80 while towing in Wyoming, I started to look at gooseneck instead of tow behind, as a way to slightly mitigate some of the wind risk.
 
Southeast Wyoming is one of the windiest areas of the country. I don't think I've seen a calm day there yet and have driving in some awful winds.
 
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we just drove from Uvalde Texas to Alpine Tx.. strong headwind all day.. fuel mileage sucked..

years back I can remember riding the motorcycle across north Texas on I 40 and had a quartering wind that kicked the snot out of us.. all day long..

same thing in South Dakota many years ago, riding the bike all day long keeled over like a sailing ship in the wind..
 
MSCH said:
we just drove from Uvalde Texas to Alpine Tx.. strong headwind all day.. fuel mileage sucked..
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Seems to happen to us both directions. I would love to have a trip where we got a tailwind both directions.
 
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