My Personal Record--Towing in Wind

[Cyote61]

We just returned from a 6 week trip out to the west. Left Arkansas and headed to Silver City NM. Pulled into Silver City in the middle of a dust storm. It blew for two days, stopped for one and then blew for the next day again. Headed out for higher pasture to the North and Holbrook, Az was the next stop for a couple of days. Dust storm #2. Never saw the west this dry either and I grew up in Ariz. Next long stop Kanab, UT. Wind blowing every afternoon. Third day there dust storm #3 with a light drizzle falling. Mud pies falling from the sky! After visiting 4 National parks moved on to Panguitch, UT. Ended up at Bear Valley RV park in the middle of sagebrush and dust Still Dry and wind wind wind. Next move was to Fish Lake UT, elevation 8860 feet. No wind no oxygen! Next move was over and down through Capital Reef, up and east to Arches national, then down to canyon land, and on south to Cortez, Colorado. Wind and dust storm #4. This dust came up form the Navajo Res. from the South, blew in over the mountain and covered us for hours, then came the drizzle and mud rain. So far, never a rain on the entire trip yet and almost 5 weeks gone by. Next move on over Wolf Creek pass into South Fork. Very breezy but nice for the next 6 days. Headed home after that and caught the first rain we'd seen in 6 weeks coming across Eastern CO and Kansas. No wind. So much for that trip, now planning the next one.

[myclmac]

Heading West on I-80 from Colorado many years ago towing a 22 ft TT with a Ford SD 250 P/U. Freeway signs said HIGH WINDS Short time later a UPS semi truck, set of doubles, was flopped over in the center divide. Holding on tight to the wheel for many miles taking it easy. Finally got to a town to stop and checked the rig and saw my bat wing antenna blade was folded back, several decals were peeled off and the frame over the front window protector was bent. Learned my lesson there. Stay put till the weather subsides. Saw a second semi over later, probably happened during the night. Better to be late than not get there at all. Travel safe and smart.

[jbflag21ds]

Back in October I drove through MN on 94 and it was forecasted for 35-40mph sustained and 55 mph gusts and they were coming in at 2 o'clock direction. Once they started I stopped at the next rest stop for a couple hours until the high winds warnings were over. It was not very fun to drive in. I've seen what the straight line winds in that area can do,

[pgandw]

Originally Posted by NMWildcat

Agreed! I do like to see the entire wind system that Windy shows. Now if we could just get all the weather forecasts to agree

I would rather have just one of them be accurate than getting them all to agree on "fake" weather.

[jwfrede]

I remember one time I was in a campground out in western Kansas on the prairie. I had my F-650 dually at the time pulling my pop-up. So, I thought we were good for anything and we were headed to the Colorado Rockies. Just as we were pulling out of our site the wind picked up and roared like I have never heard it before. We looked around for tornados but didn’t see any, so we forged ahead. We were a bit exposed where we were and I thought at first it was going to flip the rig over. There was so much dust in the air we could barely see the pop-up behind our truck. It seemed clearer out the front so we forged ahead. No matter which direction we went it seemed the wind was in our face and into the side at the same time, and howling like the devil every minute. The truck instrumentation said we were getting 3 mpg. I slowed down and stuck my anemometer out the window and was recording steady wind at 30-35 mph with gusts to 60-70 mph. I got a mouth full of dirt for my effort and we were still cleaning dirt out of the cab three weeks later. Then the rain came on so hard I couldn’t see the front of the hood. We weren’t moving too fast but the cab was rocking and rolling like you wouldn’t believe. Then the rain backed off and we thought we might be coming out it. That’s when the hail began. First quarter inch hail and then larger. I thought it would break the windshield and there were some dents in the hood but we really needed to get to our destination, so we forged ahead. Eventually we got to the campground exit and the skies cleared and we had sunshine the rest of the way.

In truth I follow the weather forecast and never travel into high wind or snow.