Driving in high winds, what do you do?

True but the axles further back helps reduce the “turn-roll effect”. Having them short means trailer effectively turns faster, creating more lean potential, faster. This can be good if you turn away from the wind gust but can be bad if you make a mistake and overreact and turn into the wind gust.

 

The thing everyone forgets, even with the axles all the way back (they also put weight at the back to the trailer), it will still blow over if the wind catches it right. Some trailers are more prone to it than others, a 53' container will often blow over faster than a regular trailer will, as there is more flex and the pins holding it to the chassis will shear off, often times only the container will go over and the tractor will stay upright, while the chassis flexes and bends. Whereas, with a regular trailer, when it goes, it's taking the tractor with it because it's more rigid.

In some cases, it's not the wind that blows you over, the wind causes you to drift off the shoulder, then momentum takes over.

Few years back, there was a loaded reefer rolled on US 85 So. of Torrington, 70,000 lbs. Driver told the cops he was blown over, they said there was no tornados in the area. But he was partially correct, dashcam on 4 wheeler caught what happened, the wind was pushing him sideways (wind gusts were reported at 75 mph that day), South of Hawk Springs a gust of wind shoved him into the NB lane, when he corrected back into it, he was too close to the edge of the road, with his wheels turned into the wind, a slight break in the wind, he hit the shoulder, overcorrected and went over.

Some of the blowovers in Wyoming. Wind from the NW will blow you over no matter which direction you're heading, but a westerly wind will generally only blow you over if you're heading N/S. I've seen guys on US 85 So. of Torrington heading NB get blowen into the ditch and then over when the trailer leans.

 

Yes, when I pulled dry van out of California one of the things I would do is get the tandems ALL the way to the back in Wyoming or other high wind areas. The farther forward the tandems, the more leverage a side wind has on them.

EVERY blow over video I have watched, and I have watched a lot of them, the blow over NEVER EVER starts with the tractor. It ALWAYS starts at the ### end of the trailer. I haven't yet seen a blow over dash cam video with the tandems all the way back. Typically the tandems are at about "California legal" and the ### end of the trailer starts twisting up in the air. All that side surface area of the trailer BEHIND the tandems allows the wind to amplify force behind them.

Get those tandems all the way back and you will be more stable. However, if you have to cross a scale you may need to stop and adjust if your axle weights won't be legal.

 

I've got blown over with an empty trailer with the tandems all the way forward. It is best to have them back. Before I got blown over I never cared about strong gusts. Before that event I thought tornados and hurricanes blew you over not just a strong gust.

 

I wonder if a loaded tank has ever been blown over.

 

Well...maybe not blown OVER....

 

There's a mouthy trucker who should have been hauling food grade liquids.

 

I have these "aero wings" on the sides of my van. Whenever a big enough wind gust hits the side of my trailer the wings auto deploy and turn my truck into an airplane.

 

Jim told me not to spit into the wind.

 

In case the young uns didn't get the reference...