We've been having some Santa Ana winds out here in California, which are the same ones responsible for all the fires.? I had a fly fishing trip over the weekend, and the winds at my destination weren't predicted to be too bad, so I went.? Early on Saturday morning, the winds hit me, and were much higher than predicted.? Gusts must have been around 50.? But the nasty part was the leading edge of the gusts hit like a fist and really shook the Aframe.? I couldn't see anything outside because it was pitch black out.? But I could tell that the winds were hitting the door side, because that was getting pelted by sand and pebbles.? I had the stabilizer jacks down pretty firm, but the gusts hit so hard that I thought the stuff on the A wall shelves was going to fly off.? The wheel chocks I have are those light weight hollow yellow plastic ones, and they blew away from the wheel on the windward side of the trailer. Luckily the trailer still didn't move though.? I guess I've got to get some of those heavy solid rubber ones.

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The winds were predicted to die down at 8 am, then resume at 10 am.? But the prediction for the drive home, if I went the next day, were winds gusting up to 65 mph.? The winds did die as predicted at 8 am.? So I folded up the trailer and got the heck out of there.

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The trailer held up fine.? I have the wind straps to hold the roof halves together.? I also have 2 poles mounted crosswise between the A walls, to keep them from collapsing inwards.? But when the wind is howling, the trailer is shaking, and all the hinges and joints in the roof system are creaking and squeeking, there's no way I could fall asleep.?

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It was quite the adventure.

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Steve

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I had both vent lids snugged down tight, because even with the 15 mph winds predicted the lids would have been flapping a lot.

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The other thought I had about issues with opening a windward side door is that the double wide skylights on Chalets are held on by a 400 psi adhesive, not the 3000 psi stuff that the other manufacturers use.? You can pop off a Chalet skylight pretty easily when you go to replace it.? Makes me wonder if a skylight would pop off on one of the long edges due to wind.? Plus the aftermarket skylights like the ones I put on don't have as good of a bond to the sealant as the original Chalet skylights.? I wish I knew where Chalet got their skylights.

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BTW if you were ever debating whether to get a porta-potty or not, nights like I just had are a good reason to have a potty INSIDE the trailer.?

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On Mon, Jan 13, 2025 at 04:36 AM, elegy3983 wrote: