Using a tow vehicle as a windbreak while boondocking

[profdant139]

We were recently boondocking in the Eastern Sierra -- gusts up to 60 mph were predicted. When they arrived, the trailer started to shake a little. No risk of overturning, but still annoying -- like a small earthquake every few minutes. (And yes, we had our stabilizers deployed, but the trailer still shook.)

We realized that the gusts were coming from the southwest, so we parked the truck across the path of the wind, right next to the trailer, to serve as a windbreak.

It worked! Although the wind was still noisy, the trailer stopped shaking, and we were able to sleep more soundly.

This simple solution works when you are boondocking and you have a lot of freedom to position your mobile windbreak. It probably would not work in a campground with tight parking spaces.

[mrw8i]

A few years ago we were in the desert near Amboy, CA. Big ass 5th wheel toy hauler, pointed South. Front end jacked up pretty high to level it. That evening the winds came up out of the west, really hard and gusts well over 60 mph. Wife slept through it, I didn't. I could feel one of the landing gear starting to lift on some of those gusts and then the trailer coming back down on it. Late at night, pitch black otherwise I would have hooked up and moved.

When we were out in the same area in May (unseasonably cool), I parked headed west. Stayed hooked up to the truck and dropped the jacks. When the wind picked up out of the west, barely felt it.

When we go off roading near Cal City, I typically park the 5th wheel perpendicular to the wind - leave the truck hooked up, but at close to 90 degrees to the fifth wheel. Don't feel the trailer move much and blocks the wind pretty well outside. Downside is the wind will swirl around the trailer and draw the smoke from the fire which is downwind, back towards us near the trailer. I built a simple wind block so the water heater doesn't blow out as it is always on the windward side of the trailer when I park like this.

[profdant139]

huachuca, how do you piece together the parts of the sun shades?? They are riveted, not bolted together, so it is hard to re-assemble them.

The reason I ask is that we live near the beach and the dumpsters are often full of damaged shades -- it would be great to rehab them instead of sending them to the landfill!

[Crabbypatty]

We do the same thing camping on the beach or SP. Just went through some mighty gusts.

[huachuca]

Having tent camped at Cape Hatteras and Cape Lookout National Seashores on the NC Outer Banks for over fifty years, I've seen some pretty good storms roll through. I've used my vehicle as a windbreak, filled coolers with sand and placed them inside the tent to hold it down and flipped picnic tables over to reduce their profile and tied my guy lines to their skyward pointing legs.

Its interesting to check out the campground dumpsters the day after one of these hits. I've got a couple of functional EZ-Ups pieced together from wind damaged units that were discarded. And several of the NPS staff who work there have told me they haven't bought any new camping gear in years.

Whenever we suffer through one of these, I'm reminded of Lyndon Johnson's comment on the Viet Nam war as I approached draft age in the mid sixties (paraphrased as I'm sure this isn't exactly accurate) "Being President right now is a lot like being a jackass in a west Texas hailstorm. I can't run. I can't hide. And I can't make it stop."

[DutchmenSport]

Many years ago we were in a pop-up when a tornado passed. No where to go. Pop-up did just fine (believe it or not), I think ... because we were in a thick grove of trees that broke most of the wind. Fortunate, the tornado did not sit down in the grove of trees. It was a near miss, but, as my dad use to say, "An inch is as good as mile. It didn't hit!"

[old_idaho_guy]

Tent camping in Iceland tied the guy rope to the bumper of the truck to keep it from blowing away

[profdant139]

Tiger, that's the advantage of a Class C or a truck camper over a trailer -- once we have gotten the trailer into position and stabilized, it would be a lot of work to undo everything and then point the nose in a different direction!

So before we actually park, we always spend a few minutes trying to thing about where the trailer should be situated in the campsite: What's the best view? Will there be big rocks near the doorway? Will we have room for the awning? But this is the first time I ever wished we'd been able to predict the direction of the wind!

[Lwiddis]

Were you near Lone Pine, Tuttle Creek and the Alabama Hills? Can really blow thereabouts.

[Tiger4x4RV]

Back in my tenting camping days, we'd park cross-wind, then pile cargo boxes under the van's side door. Kids slept inside and we slept outside on the ground pretty well sheltered from the wind.

Now in the Tiger, I point the hood into the wind even if that means I have to park crosswise in the campsite. This works way better than letting the wind hit the sides.

[dieseltruckdriv]

I have done that for years when boondocking also.

[Old-Biscuit]

3 of us were Duck Hunting ----Owen's Valley north of Lone Pine
Tent camping.......storm blew in that 1st night and wind was blowing 50+mph which had a flattening effect on the tent

Parked truck to block the tent from the wind and finally got to sleep.
Wind continued the next day/night.
Finally 3rd day storm had passed....so did the Ducks!

That was back in 1985

[1320Fastback]

3 years ago in Las Vegas we were at a dog show and thankfully we arrived a day earlier as their worst wind storm in a decade came through. RVs and buses were pulling in with broken windshields, torn off awnings, hanging awnings, access hatch doors missing and I heard people saying that there were big rigs blown over out on the highway also.

We had assigned parking so we couldn't turn our trailer but thankfully a big Prevost parked besides us before it got too bad so we used him as a windbreak.

[monkey44]

We were camped in a rainstorm on the inlet near Panama City one time during as storm. Our truck camper was off the truck. The wind gusts were so strong, I thought we were going over, altho probably not, the imagination works wonders under those conditions.

I actually went out in the storm, and put the camper back on the truck so it would have a 6000 lb anchor.

[2oldman]

Good idea. I do the same to protect my satellite dish.

I don't know if those are the worst winds you've been in, but years ago on Lake Mead I really thought the 5er was going over.