Strong side wind. Go fast or slow?

[Vitaver]

There are areas (like by Mesquite, on I15 south of Las Vegas) with strong to very strong side winds often (a town nearby is called Hurricane, for a reason I think). Prudence would indicate to slow down, but speed adds momentum/inertia/energy to keep your direction, kind of a bicycle but without the centrifugal forces.

So what to do with the gas pedal?

[mpsgolf]

I slow down in windy and gusty conditions. Higher speeds with high winds and the possibility wind will start sway is why.

I drive across KS in 25 gusts 40 quartering off the nose. Never thought about speeding up in the moment.

[baggs]

hold a steady safe speed according to conditions....gut feeling is excellent

however hindsight is a bitch....


life is so simple...slow doen..enjoy the moment and smell the roses...why speed up and miss it?

i do 60mph in australia on long long long long empty roads....

i do 50-55mph when cruising through rolling and turning roads ...while i smell the roses

if your in a rush..your doing it wrong

[LNBright]

As of yet, I’ve not really felt sway from trucks or traffic, etc…. But last summer up in Maine, heading south on I-95 between Medway and Bangor…. the wind made things feel unsettled. I dropped the speed. After a bit, I could get a bit faster, then it’d start to feel unsettled again so I’d slow it back down. I wasn’t taking chances, better to slow up and be safe than sorry.

[richard5933]

Slow down. Your trailer is more stable at slower speeds. Higher speeds make away events more likely and decrease stability.

[BigSxyWhtGuy]

I agree with above. Slow to what you feel comfortable traveling at.

Ps if you are referring to Hurricane UT, from their main webpage [emoji23]🤣

By the way, Hurricane is pronounced "Her-ah-kun" by the locals. Don't want you to sound like a tourist.

[SlowPokePete]

Slow.

SPP

[dznf0g]

Originally Posted by SlowPokePete

Slow.

SPP

Slow as well.

[DrivingDan]

Reminds me of an old puzzle that endlessly makes the rounds in engineering/scientific communities, which is if you’re in a rainstorm, do you get less wet if you run (spend less total time in the rain) or go slow (get exposed to less rain/minute). This spawns endless whiteboard discussions …

Not offering an opinion, but in theory if you’re going through a suboptimal situation, driving towards the higher end of the safe speed range might be preferable. For example if near a tornado or hurricane, the risk of faster speeds might outweigh the risk of driving that fast.

My wife always asks about specifically what I’d do in some crisis situation or another, my answer is always “ask me if we get there as I’ll have better information as to the best thing to do”

[field & stream]

We have experienced some very strong side winds on the Pacific Coast and in the Rockies. With the exception of trying to outrun an event, in my opinion the proper question is “go slow or stop?”

[djb75]

In my days as a flight student, we were told to slow down to "maneuvering speed" if we encountered turbulence or strong sidewinds. This was to shorten the longitudinal vector if we weren't in complete control.
Using exaggerated numbers to illustrate the point - suppose you got blown out of your lane and into oncoming traffic, and it takes you a full minute to recover and get back in your lane. Would you rather be going 60 mph and travel a full mile in the wrong lane, or be going 30 and "only" go half a mile?
In extreme cases, you leave it in park, and 0 moh is probably slower than your normal cruising speed.

[Airtandem]

slow down or find a place to stop until the winds die down. Trees, buildings and overpasses can play a big part. I've driven with lesser side winds and no problem until there was a fore mentioned barrier that blocked the wind and ended up in a different lane; even on the shoulder.
my 2 cents; use common sense

[Bill M.]

I think you are most stable stopped. Every increase in speed above that results in more displacement from side forces. Yes, you have more momentum the faster you go. I do not see that as a good thing either. Side winds really affect my mpg. So I go slower.

[Ken G]

If it’s windy near Mesquite pull into one of the casinos.

[Acheron2010]

encountered road closures in southern Wyoming due to high winds, found a camp and spent the night. no hurry.

[Vitaver]

Yes, slowing down comes up as the first instinctive reaction, and maybe the right one. There there is science (that may validate the instinct), then there is E = m times the square of c, apparently indicating that the Energy equals mass (TT + TW) times the square of the speed. If I understand it correctly the energy in the direction of travel (and to remain in that direction) will increase by the speed… please correct me if I am wrong. If my understanding is correct, the energy to keep the rig stable in the direction of travel is greater going faster, countering the side forces to either pushing you into another lane, put it you in you ear (capsizing) or both…. If your knowledge is deeper, I am willing to learn. In other words, it would be your inertia forward in a straight line against side forces ( a variable you can’t control), but we can control the first one: speed, inertia, energy forwards.

[Vitaver]

Nobody can appear wrong by recommending ‘go slow’, but is that also the right advice? Testing that line of thinking here.

There is also the parallelogram of forces: with ‘y’ axis being vertical and representing the (combination of) weight and speed, which we control, and ‘x’ the horizontal representing the side forces of wind on the windward side and drag on the leeward of the TT.

The longer the y axis would make the x axis smaller (weaker) intuitively. Apparently.

When in doubt, we chose in general to lighten the load on the TT, like draining the tanks. Yet a lighter body with the same surface, will be easier to topple over. So for areas of high side winds… fill out your fresh water tank.

Not an expert, any better understanding will be welcomed.

[BigSxyWhtGuy]

Sounding more and more like a flat earth theory. It takes more wind to topple something over that is stationary than it does to topple the same object moving.

How often do you do a semi truck toppled while parked vs moving? Granted there is usually turning involved and we aren’t talking about driving in sustained hurricane winds or tornadoes. Right?

[richard5933]

Originally Posted by Vitaver

Nobody can appear wrong by recommending ‘go slow’, but is that also the right advice? Testing that line of thinking here.

There is also the parallelogram of forces: with ‘y’ axis being vertical and representing the (combination of) weight and speed, which we control, and ‘x’ the horizontal representing the side forces of wind on the windward side and drag on the leeward of the TT.

The longer the y axis would make the x axis smaller (weaker) intuitively. Apparently.

When in doubt, we chose in general to lighten the load on the TT, like draining the tanks. Yet a lighter body with the same surface, will be easier to topple over. So for areas of high side winds… fill out your fresh water tank.

Not an expert, any better understanding will be welcomed.

Without a doubt, filling the fresh water tank (if it's over the axles) will result in a more stable trailer. More difficult to pull & stop, but more stable. But that's not the question here - the question is whether to slow down or to speed up when encountering side winds.

If you've got statistics or modeling which demonstrates that going faster helps against side winds please show us. Otherwise I'm sticking by the common wisdom that bad things happen get worse when a vehicle is traveling faster.

Originally Posted by BigSxyWhtGuy

Sounding more and more like a flat earth theory. It takes more wind to topple something over that is stationary than it does to topple the same object moving.

How often do you do a semi truck toppled while parked vs moving? Granted there is usually turning involved and we aren’t talking about driving in sustained hurricane winds or tornadoes. Right?

When I was driving a semi a couple of years ago making a delivery outside of Chicago I saw a line of semi truck/trailer rigs laying on their side on an off-ramp. They were all stationary waiting their turn to enter a distribution lot when strong straight-line winds toppled them like a house of cards.

About three years ago driving my 30,000 coach through Iowa when the winds suddenly spiked coming across the freeway. In about a split second the coach was nearly pushed into the next lane as we came from behind a sheltered area into one where the wind was blowing freely. Fortunately there was no traffic there. I had to slow to about 35 mph to maintain control and get off the road to wait it out at the next exit.

Speed is not your friend in situations like this, unless maybe if you're trying to outrun the storm.

[BigSxyWhtGuy]

Wow [emoji50] that’s nuts