Wind, when travelling in a 5th Wheel or Motorhome, or frankly any moving vehicle, can be dangerous. And of course as newbies we have found that out the hard way. We now track wind days prior to heading out, to try and time our departures. It doesn’t always work out, meaning we can’t always time things perfectly, but we are VERY conscious of the average wind speed and gust speed on any given day. In fact, we are now giving ourselves two options to depart Galveston this weekend as we head back north towards home.
Since being on the Island here in Galveston, we have had some serious wind. In fact one day/night while Barb was back in Burlington, Lori pulled in the back bedroom slide (our largest one) for fear that the awning that is attached to the top would shred off, which would be yet another expensive fix. So Lori slept in the front loft and was rocked all night. Not rocked to sleep, but rocked awake as she was afraid something would blow off our RV – or something would blow into our RV!!
When driving, the rule of thumb in a motorhome is to avoid driving in winds that exceed 50 mph. Wind speeds approaching 60 mph are enough to overturn your RV. The larger the RV the more surface area. The more surface area the more likely it is that the wind can tip you over. Thank God our RV is on the smaller side.
Barb and I really started tracking and talking about wind after one day in particular. The wind gusts were so strong Lori had to use both arms and body strength to keep the RV in our lane. In fact the steering wheel was turned as far as she could and all we could hear was squealing as the motorhome tried to comply with what we were forcing it to do. Did we stop driving?? No, we really didn’t think about that in the moment as we were too focused on staying in our lane. In hindsight….well you get the picture.
So now we track, talk, strategize, and have a couple of game plans each time we are getting ready to move. This time around, given the winds off the ocean….we have a few game plans for leaving and heading out.
Currently Sunday will be average wind of 22 km with gusts of 33 km. Not bad and good to move. Monday will be 24 km with gusts of 44 km. So Sunday seems the better day. Caveat: Lori has a meditation class that ends at 1pm on Sunday. So while Sunday is a better day regarding lack of wind, we have less driving time. Monday we have all day, but heavier winds.
Other factors?? RAIN. While rain doesn’t sound like much of an issue, when you are driving a big rig and you have a massive windshield, it is a little intimidating. Lori recalls a time when Elaine and she had rented a RV and they were heading back to the rental place in Barrie Ontario when a windshield wiper broke. It was POURING, really POURING! They now had only one working wiper, and of course it was on the passenger side. Needless to say Elaine was a trooper and got them to their destination but NOT without a lot of stress and worry on both their parts.
So again, when looking at the two days in question for leaving Galveston, we see that on Sunday the wind is better but there is also a 80% chance of rain. Monday is only 55% chance but potentially heavier winds……
SO, we wait. We check daily and will make our decision on Saturday night as to whether we will move on Sunday afternoon and only drive a few hours (we don’t drive at dusk/night) or on Monday, where we will have a full day to drive if we want. Or, if things really change for the worse, we will stay an extra day (or more) until it is safe to move on.