When I first bought our camper (#426), I drove it from Dallas to "home" in E. Washington state. During the trip I drove north through Denver on I-25. Leaving Denver early in the morning, high wind advisories were posted, which as I recall were approx. 30mph gusts… I wouldn’t have known the wind was blowing if it wasn’t for the advisory on the reader board. North of Denver approx. 10 miles the wind caution was posted for 45mph gusts. The wind was blowing dead out of the west (sideways to my direction of travel). I slowed to approx. 50mph... all was fine… minimal effect on the coach, but I could definitely feel it. Approaching Ft. Collins the wind had picked up some more... high wind advisories & cautions had been replaced with high wind warnings: 60mph gusts… FedEx doubles and the such were pulled over ducking behind road cuts. With 20/20 hindsight I should have ducked for cover at Ft. Collins… but I didn’t… I figured “how bad could it get?” I had no idea of what lay ahead of me… but I soon found out. About 5 or 10 miles north of Cheyenne, WY the reader sign read extreme wind warning 80 mph gusts… still dead sideways to the coach. By this time I was down to approx. 20 mph., crawling along, looking for a good place to get off the interstate, but there was no such option that didn’t go “up” and get a lot narrower… and seeing as it was a challenge keeping the coach somewhat within less than 2 lanes of an interstate… I opted to not go up a 10 or 12ft. wide off-ramp. About then, when I didn’t think things could get any worse, alarms in the coach started going off… first a little, then a lot. I stopped under an over-pass and figured out the alarm was from the teevee antenna… apparently it had raised (been forced by the wind) up off it’s docked position. I powered the antenna back down which silenced the alarm… for a couple minutes, then it went off again. Sitting in the driver’s seat and looking at the rear-view mirrors I could see the whole coach twisting in the wind. The road was moving in-front of me… which was pea-gravel blowing across the road. For whatever reason, I decided to go outside to see what’s up with the damn teevee antenna (and accompanying alarm)… the man door on the coach was on the lee side of the wind. I remember taking about 2 steps outside of the coach and then feeling like I was hit by a line-backer… fortunately my face broke my fall when it was firmly planted into the cheat grass and gravel on the neighboring road bank. I went to stand-up and was hit again by the line-backer… rolling me like a tumbleweed up the bank. I was grabbing at cheat grass… just pulled it out by the roots… and finally glommed onto a sage brush plant and stopped the rolling… then I crawled on my belly back to the coach (teevee antenna be damned). After a trip to the bathroom I sat in the captain’s chair for approx. 2 hours waiting for the ship to roll. It didn’t… even though the weather warning broadcast suggested the coach was probably enduring 100+ mph peaks straight into the side of it. The wind never subsided while I was there… and the coach popped a few rivets on the outside sheetmetal while twisting in the wind… but it never flipped. Finally a loaded 18 wheeler tanker came along and he offered to block for me… I took him up on his offer… we side-by-side convoyed to approx. Chugwater, where we finally drove out of it.
Based on my experience, I’ll suggest that:
30mph side wind: almost unnoticeable.
45mph side wind: definitely noticeable but not a problem if you're steady at the wheel.
60mph side wind: drivability becomes a serious factor.
80mph side wind: best not to attempt to be moving.
100mph side wind: avoid if at all possible… drivability is pretty-much out of the question... and do like a horse... position yourself so your tail's to the wind if possible.
Oh yes... and looking back: your Newell is smart (at least # 426 is)... or the folks that built it are smart, in-that: If there's alarms going off and you're working the wheel pretty hard to keep the coach on a 2 lane interstate highway... chances are (very likely) the wind's blowing harder than what it's safe & sane to be traveling at that time... and it's probably time (and then some) to look for a sheltered spot to ride out the storm. I don't know what it takes for wind to flip a 38,000lb. coach... but I don't want to find out... I suspect I came closer than I cared to.
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