We will be driving the motor home and pulling the car tomorrow. The forecast is calling for 16MPH winds where we will be driving. We will be on freeways/highways nearly the entire time with a speed limit of 55MPH (wink, wink). I have no after market suspension upgrades on the motor home and it actually drives pretty well in normal conditions. Are winds at that speed likely to make the drive a white knuckler?
"If "your rig handles badly in 16 mph there's something seriously wrong somewhere but I doubt you will have any issues, if you do... Start by checking the inflation of all of your tires relative to the load they are actually carrying - not per the door sticker or the max psi on the sidewalls.
When it gets 25 - 35 I have to start paying a little more attention and when I start getting 50 mph gusts it is time to call it a day. My 24' Class C is about as boxy as they come and I usually am towing an 8' tall 6 X 10' cargo trailer as well.
Three weeks ago while on our way to Yellowstone we encountered 35 gusting to 45 out of the southwest between Casper and Shoshoni Wyoming {we were headed northwest} putting the wind right on the beam of our rig. After and hour of this I pulled off at a rest stop and it was all I could do to get my door open into the wind. Took a break for 15 minutes and then got back out on the road and while it was not fun it was doable. After another hour we made it to Shoshoni and put the wind behind us, end of problem.
Since we traveled mostly out West and throughout the Great Plains I set up our coach just to deal with heavy winds. Naturally getting on the road early in the morning allows you to avoid some of the winds until later when they start to develop. I added four corner air bags that are adjustable from a dash switch for either the front or rear axle. I would pump them up to 70-90 psi as the winds increased and drop them down to 20-30 psi when the winds subsided. This stiffened up the suspension and would allow me to continue to be comfortable on the highway even with heavy crosswinds. Trucks did not bother me at all. The air bags gave me the option of a stiff suspension when I needed it and a softer suspension on the back roads and those times when there were no winds.
