Straight Truck "cross wind" question

ChanceMaster · Oct 21, 2012

My random thought last night :

I wonder if my straight truck is LESS LIKELY to be pushed over or flipped by a severe cross wind then a tractor trailer combination would be ?

Have any Straight truck drivers here been flipped over on the side by winds ?

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shadow7663 · Oct 21, 2012

In theory I would say less likely, Straight trucks have less surface area to catch the wind. However this can be argued on many different sets of circumstances.

ChanceMaster · Oct 21, 2012

shadow7663 said:
In theory I would say less likely, Straight trucks have less surface area to catch the wind. However this can be argued on many different sets of circumstances.

That was my thought as well, but we both know theory and reality are two different beasts !

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BigCat · Oct 21, 2012

I've seen it happen out west several times. I don't believe it has as much to do with length as it does height when a strong wind it pounding the side of the box.

zorry · Oct 21, 2012

There's probably a formula. The area of your surface, multiplied by your weight and divided by the contact spacing on road multiplied by the square root of your speed.
All I know is slow down. If handling becomes a problem,pull over.
I had the wheels lift on an empty 53' and a friend came out of an overpass and got blown over in a city tractor with a big trailer.

BobWolf · Oct 21, 2012

The odds are abbout the same.

Turtle · Oct 21, 2012

zorry said:
There's probably a formula. The area of your surface, multiplied by your weight and divided by the contact spacing on road multiplied by the square root of your speed.

There is, but it also factors in the center of gravity. The center of gravity is the point where ½ the mass is above and ½ the mass is below (which is not necessarily in the middle). Tractor-trailers already have a high center of gravity, and when you load freight into it the center of gravity rises. Straight trucks have an inherent lower center of gravity. The faster you are traveling the higher the center of gravity, too, so speed is definitely a factor. When parked, the center of gravity lowers, so the primary factors become whether or not the wind has enough surface area to have it's strength multiplied enough to overcome the center of gravity with regard to weight.

ChanceMaster · Oct 21, 2012

I saw a semi trailer in OK with its tandems in the air from a cross wind. It wasn't even me, but it scared the buhjeezus Otto me.

Interesting formulas and facts, think i'll remember zorrys advice ..SLOW DOWN. and Turtles observation that speed increases the center of gravity.

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Deville · Oct 21, 2012

A few years ago I got caught in a mirco burst storm going over the Bayonne bridge. The wind was so strong that I could feel my driver side steer tire pancakeing. I was doin about 45 in 5th gear & the wind hit the truck so hard it was like hiting a wall. The truck all but came to a stop.

It was one of only a handfull of times out on the road that scared me.

Way back in the early 90's, during what they called the perfect storm, I saw a cab over truck have it's rear wheels picked up off the ground & slam it into a retaining wall at hwy speed. In this case the wind that caused the crash actually cushioned the crash. Like my experiance on the bridge the wind stoped his forward momentum, the truck had a push bar on it, so when it hit the wall it wasn't going very fast, it was more like a hard bump. We pulled over to help the guy, he wavied us off, he was fine He righed the truck & drove off with no damage to the truck. He did not even get out to look at it.

So yes. It could happen.

butterfly610 · Oct 21, 2012

My husband drove a tractor trailer before we drove a straight truck, and it feels like the straight truck doesn't handle the wind as good. It practically knocks you off the road, and whipped us around more. Always seemed like we had to slow down more in the straight truck.

21cExp · Oct 21, 2012

Don't know if it was the wind that night or another cause, but just two nights ago coming down I-35 in TX, saw a driver pulling doubles that had gone up the off ramp in town and the rear trailer went over. Blocked up that exit pretty well.

Next morning much further into a Texas saw a guy who went down a ramp, missed the turn at the bottom, and drove straight into the corner of a small business. His whole tractor went in. Not wind, but another example of something going wrong unexpectedly.

Moot · Oct 21, 2012

Cheri posted a picture on FaceBook of 4 tractor/trailers laying in the median along I-90 in South Dakota the other day. Maybe she can post the pic in this thread. Cheri?

cheri1122 · Oct 21, 2012

Sorry, Moot, I tried, but no go. [copyrighted?] The comments were amusing, some assuming OVM was responsible for blowing trucks off the road in his haste to get home, but actually, it was pretty scary. I've seen a lot of similiar situations caused by ice on the road, but never that many trucks literally blown down by high winds.

tknight · Oct 21, 2012

Back in the 90's I wasn't blown over but the tt in front of me and behind me both flipped on a curve I was blown off the road with them but didn't flip we all stood there freaking it must have been a wind burst and while we were rounding the curve we apparently turned sideways to the big blow and we all got shoved off the road very scary
Less tires on the road than a tt and a lot less weight=an easier push for Mother Nature in my book

Moot · Oct 22, 2012

cheri1122 said:
Sorry, Moot, I tried, but no go. [copyrighted?]

Cheri, could you get RT to post the pic here or e-mail it to you so you could post it. It's a great picture and certainly pertains to the topic of this thread, well, except that there are no straight trucks pictured.