Let’s face it, we take a lot of crap over the size of our truck. Comments we get on the road range anywhere from, “Bet that truck doesn’t have any trouble hauling that trailer,” to , “Don’t you think that’s a bit of overkill?” The answer to both, in a word, is no.
Throughout our travels we’ve talked with many other RVers hauling trailers in roughly the same size and weight range as ours (42′ long and around 16,000 lbs.). Many of them have shiny new full-sized pickups rated for towing 25,000 lbs. or more. Their trucks breeze up the mountain grades without even breathing hard and they seemingly have power to spare. We do consistently hear one complaint though: stopping power.
We’ve heard story after story about their white-knuckled trips down the backside of a grade because they were trying not to overheat their brakes while being pushed downhill by the weight of the trailer. The other drive-by-the-seat-of-your-pants experiences we keep hearing about have to do with traveling in strong crosswinds. A large trailer acts like a giant sail, and can many times end up moving around at the mercy of the wind.
One of the reasons we decided to buy such a large truck was to ensure we could maintain control easily in both situations. We had already experienced heavy winds while hauling with our old pickup, and it was only slightly less than terrifying. At one point we ended up pulling into a roadside rest area to wait out a particularly strong squall.
As we said goodbye to Denver and began our month-long journey towards Michigan, where we would stay for the summer, we put the truck through its paces in both situations, which only underscored why we’re glad we drive a behemoth.
Roughly 20 minutes on the road, we had just negotiated a nasty construction zone with miles of tight lanes and grooved pavement. Just when we were breathing a sigh of relief to be clear of the mess, Bubba started saying, “She’s coming over. She’s going to hit us.” I looked up just in time to see a white Jeep hit the front left corner of our truck, then get spun around the front until she was facing the opposite direction on our right side. My first thought was, “Dear Lord, I hope no one was hurt.”
Bubba pulled the rig over onto a wide stretch of shoulder and we went over to see if everyone was okay. Not knowing what to expect, we were immediately disarmed when the young girl behind the wheel rolled down her window, completely undone and in tears. Before we could even ask if everyone was okay she began apologizing profusely to us. As it turns out, she had just received her learner’s permit. Her mom was in the car with her, and had pointed to their exit saying, “You need to get off here.” Being a young, inexperienced driver, the poor girl darted for her exit, not even noticing our rig.
A couple of things happened which we believe helped mitigate the seriousness of the accident. First of all, Bubba stood on the brakes, locking down the semi and nearly putting our fifth wheel up on its nose. While it might not have been the best thing for our rig (or our dog, poor girl), he was able to bring a 32,000 lb. rig from 55 miles per hour to a dead stop in roughly the rig’s own length. We feel that being able to stop so quickly prevented us from pushing the other car down the freeway, and potentially helped avoid serious injuries to the passenger.
We were also able to maintain control of the rig, bringing it to a stop in a straight line. When a vehicle hits you from the side at freeway speeds, the momentum at impact is often enough to send even a larger truck swerving in a new direction. Had our truck been suddenly forced in a new direction, there’s the possibility that the trailer could have jackknifed or even flipped. Thankfully, because Bubba was able to keep the truck moving in a straight line, the trailer followed.
We were delayed about an hour while the police arrived, helped the other driver get a tow truck, and wrote her a ticket for making an unsafe lane change. We felt really terrible that she got a ticket, but we’re willing to bet she won’t make the same mistake again…at least not for a long time.
Once we were able to get underway once more, we headed south to Pueblo and then east towards our destination for the night, Dodge City, Kansas. Just east of Pueblo we ran into consistent 40 MPH crosswinds, the remnants of a nasty cold front that had moved through Denver the night before. We chose the southern route because, at the time we left, I-70 east out of Denver was still closed, with 70 MPH winds and ground blizzards. We felt the southern route was safer.
We had hoped the winds would die down some as we headed east, thinking the trailing edge of the storm might move away from us. Sadly we were mistaken, and we fought the wind until we finally made camp for the night, then listened to it howl around our trailer throughout our first night.
Since our truck is so big and heavy, it provides a very sturdy platform on which to stabilize our fifth wheel. Granted, we had to ride the centerline of the highway while the rear end of the trailer rode the shoulder marker line, but the wind wasn’t moving us around on the road. There was never a point at which we didn’t feel like we had total control of both the truck and trailer.
Looking back, I’m sure the harrowing events of that first day added a few gray hairs to both our heads, and possibly removed a few minutes from our lives. Even so, they also reminded us of why we bought our semi in the first place, and made us that much more grateful to have her on our journey. Not only is she extremely comfortable to travel long distances in, but she has proven that she will take good care of us along the way.
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