high winds

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taliv

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Enthusiast III

473
Tennessee
what's the highest wind you've experienced spending the night in your rig? what style rig? RTT, wedge, high profile hard sided vehicle, low profile vehicle, ground tent, etc
how did your rig handle it?
did you find it necessary to lower your roof, take down awnings, etc, or adjust/add rigging?
 

WrongTurn

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473
DRC
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Matthew
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Allen
Did a night in 100kmh gusting winds, would gust for 30 seconds then die, then crank back up. We have a Roof top tent, I was facing entry into the wind, had to spin around after it ripped out my ropes and lifted half the tent with us in it. Faced into the wind and had to tie down the ropes to my spares. rough night but everything held. did bend the poles for the window openings though 30mm from the bottom, I was impressed as that is some serious pressures. It did wreck my rain fly though, as the whipping allowed the inside rubberized side to peel off.
 
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terryg

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Nixa, MO, USA
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Terry
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I was stuck at a Loves Truck Stop in Kansas during a tornado warning and 60 mph winds (96kmh). I had the penthouse down on my Sportsmobile, but it was fun.
 
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702FJC

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511
Las Vegas
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Joe
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R
Was on the side of Mount Hood in a Marmot backpacking tent with gusts as high as 60-70mph gusts per the weather reports we read the next day. Had the shelter guylined out nice and taught. We were supposed to push off for the summit at 2am, needless to say we stayed confined to the tent until sunrise and headed down to the parking lot.

Made a successful summit bid 5 years later!
 

Louiston

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Lou
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Some of the California folk might remember the storm that blew through on March 16th, just a few weeks ago. It brought heavy snow to many parts of the Sierra's.

I had traveled to Death Valley the day before with a buddy (2 trucks), the day before.

Anyway, we had driven up to see Ubehebe Crater on that Monday and the wind was blowing hard, my guess is 20 to 30mph steady. It was getting later in the day and we were needing to find a place to camp. I usually avoid campgrounds like the plague, but my buddy is new to camping and he needed a little extra time to set up camp.
We drove into Mesquite Springs campground (which was close) and I was content to stay there, but my friend for whatever reason didn't want to stay there. I didn't really care because I have a hard shell RTT and I can set up camp in a jiffy.
So .............. we drove all the way back to Emigrant. There is a small campground there and it was getting near sundown. The wind was still blowing and the sky was filling with storm clouds. We set up camp, rushed to make dinner .......... as the wind seemed to be getting stronger with heavy gusts.
It's a small campground, maybe 10 different camp sights and it filled right up at sundown. My buddy has one of those tents that sets up in the bed of a truck and he managed to get it fairly secured. Other people were struggling to set up ground tents and get them staked down in the rocky surface.
As the sun went down, the temperatures dropped and the wind speed/gusts kept increasing. 45 minutes later, we are both in our tents riding the storm out. It never really rained hard, but hard enough that you were glad to be in a sheltered tent. And it drizzled for about 3 hours.
Within 2 hours, 4 or maybe 5 of the ground tents were hastily stowed and the owners retreated to their car seats. Broken fiberglass poles, nylon fly's shredding and tearing, it was ugly. My friend (David) was having problems as his tent poles were bending down to within a couple of feet of his face while laying flat in the truck bed.

Earlier in the day
IMG_0255.jpg

So, I'm in my tent .......... played a few games of Scrabble on my I-pad and decided to try and get some sleep. I was as snug as a bug in a rug! I was warm, dry, with a nice soft mattress .......... but there was NO going to sleep. The wind noise was bad with the steady wind, but when the wind gusted it was horrendous!
This went on from about 7:30 pm to about 3:00 am.
I just kept telling myself that " I Bought GOOD equipment ...... Trust It". Well, that didn't help me get to sleep.

About 4:00 am, the wind subsided enough that I got a couple hours sleep. David managed to survive the night with fiberglass poles swaying from one side of his truck to the other. My Maggiolina Extreme RTT held up admirably with ZERO issues.
A couple of hours later we hit the Ranger Station at Stove Pipe Wells and they reported steady winds of 30 to 35 mph with gusts into the 50's during the night.

I LOVE that stuff!


2 days later, same spot.
IMG_1074.JPG



The following day they shut down the camp grounds due to COVID 19.
 
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oldmopars

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Member III

2,865
Selah Wa
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Scott
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Solomon
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20486

A few years ago a friend of mine and I set out from Tacoma WA to travel down the Oregon coast to Northern California. However it was February and the weather was terrible. Oh, and we were riding KLR650s. So, all of our gear was strapped to the outside of our bikes. Lucky for me, having been down this road before I had everything packed in dry bags and everything stayed dry.
Our second night was in Southern Oregon on the coast about 300 feet from the beach. It was raining cat and dogs, sideways, and about 50 MPH winds. We were in tents. The wind was blowing the rain so hard that it was blowing up the side of the tent under the rain fly and into the tent.
I had to sleep with a plastic garbage bag over my head with just enough of a hole for me to breath. I bought a better tent shortly after that.
Second worst night was at Yellowstone, also a motorcycle trip with a different buddy. Thunder, lightning, driving rain, cold, etc. However I had a great tent and I sleep with a noise machine and a CPAP. So, it was bearable.
Still have the bikes, but now I use my Suburban with my wife, at 7,000lbs and sleeping inside, bring it on.
 
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taliv

Rank II

Enthusiast III

473
Tennessee
thanks for the replies. i love rain but being in high winds is really annoying for me. my camper is pretty light weight. and it's not incredibly high profile, but it's enough that it shakes a lot. if it's going to storm i will usually leave my trailer hooked to the truck. it's not in danger of turning over, just keeps it from rocking so much.

but great views usually mean high winds. elevated, no trees or hills to block the wind.
 

USStrongman

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Lubbock, TX, USA
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Bryan
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In West Texas the wind never, ever, ever, did I mention ever... stops. We get 15-20mph breezes daily. That can be followed by gusts to 50mph+ out of nowhere. Haboobs, dust storms, you name it but it was nothing compared to a snow caving trip I did about 30 miles NE of Whistler, BC many year ago. I was dropped off by helicopter with a prearranged meet place and time 3 days later. I snowshoed about 2 miles from the drop point on a hillside about 300' high and about 20' from the top. Day 3 of 4 the clouds disappeared, the wind picked up so I made my way back to the snow cave. I wound up having to stay 6 days as the wind did not let up. I was told the winds in the area north of Whistler were gusting 80mph+. My snow cave kept me out of trouble but I did wind up digging a L shaped jog to keep the wind from freezing me out. Worked perfect. Other than a good shower, I was fine.
 

702FJC

Rank III

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Las Vegas
First Name
Joe
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R
In West Texas the wind never, ever, ever, did I mention ever... stops. We get 15-20mph breezes daily. That can be followed by gusts to 50mph+ out of nowhere. Haboobs, dust storms, you name it but it was nothing compared to a snow caving trip I did about 30 miles NE of Whistler, BC many year ago. I was dropped off by helicopter with a prearranged meet place and time 3 days later. I snowshoed about 2 miles from the drop point on a hillside about 300' high and about 20' from the top. Day 3 of 4 the clouds disappeared, the wind picked up so I made my way back to the snow cave. I wound up having to stay 6 days as the wind did not let up. I was told the winds in the area north of Whistler were gusting 80mph+. My snow cave kept me out of trouble but I did wind up digging a L shaped jog to keep the wind from freezing me out. Worked perfect. Other than a good shower, I was fine.
/Thread
 

Billiebob

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earth
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William
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Wyoming is the windest place I've ever seen. Stopped for gas in Chugwater and the door whipped wide open. The gas girl said, It's only 55mph today, yesterday it was 80mph. Yikes.

I thought Lethbridge, AB was windy.
 
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cdavis90

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Caleb
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Arizona will give you a run for your money.
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I love pictures of dust storms! I'm in So. Central AZ, so I feel this. Everything you own and love will get dust in it. I change my air filter often. :sweatsmile:I miss West Texas and would like to head out that way again. The Chihuahuan desert and Big Bend country is a sight to behold.
 

PapaDave

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Usal Beach, Northern California it was blowing about 50 mph. My iKamper has a hardshell that opens laterally and so I put that shell towards the wind. The gas struts have clip-on locks that keep it open in high winds and it worked great. I keep earplugs in my roof top tent and aside from the whole truck shaking I didn’t hear a thing. :)
8718C473-DD8B-4095-992F-081315D412B9.jpeg
B338E8F3-8E35-4D65-9DFE-5B92F2F009C6.png
 

Louiston

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Lou
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Usal Beach, Northern California it was blowing about 50 mph. My iKamper has a hardshell that opens laterally and so I put that shell towards the wind. The gas struts have clip-on locks that keep it open in high winds and it worked great. I keep earplugs in my roof top tent and aside from the whole truck shaking I didn’t hear a thing. :)
View attachment 148632
View attachment 148633
Ear plugs? That's cheating! :smile: :smile: :smile: I should have thought of that!
 
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Charles M

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I was on a climbing trip temperatures in the teens, winds started kicking up rattling our 6 foot tall dome tent. I finally fell asleep in my cot and a few hours later I felt something hitting me in the face... I couldn't see in the moonless night what was hitting me so, I turned on my flash light just in time to see the tent fold down on top of me... I have know idea what wind speeds were or what the tent was supposedly rated to.

I do like sleeping in the back of our Tahoe now, wind noise is minimal and you don't feel all those drafts...