Campers prohibited?

[Smokecreek1]

Hawks-Check out the N DOT weather map site-it says vehicles over 9 feet high not permitted at certain locations on 395-seems more accurate than the weather-road advisory on CalTrans site(you can also get to it by using Reno-NBC channel 4 web site). Better get my tape measure and go check how high my st up is !

Smoke

 

[SunMan]

Came out of Death Valley this afternoon at Olancha. Winds were blowing strong, gusting to 40+kts easily, all of Owens Valley was in the midst of a massive dust/sand storm, as bad as I've ever seen it. I Actually ruined my windshield coming across from the Keeler side of the lake, the sand coming off the Olancha dunes was a near white out and peppered and pitted my windshield horribly. I was surprised to see all of the huge trailers heading north into that mess.

 

[Lighthawk]

Thanks for the TR, Sunni. Last time we went through Keeler we heard the sound of sand pitting our windshield and it's not pretty.
Guess it comes with the price of admission.

Smokecreek: I hear ya on NV DOT, where I think they understand wind.
It's the CA DOT and the CHP I'm concerned about.

 

[ski3pin]

Came out of Death Valley this afternoon at Olancha. Winds were blowing strong, gusting to 40+kts easily, all of Owens Valley was in the midst of a massive dust/sand storm, as bad as I've ever seen it. I Actually ruined my windshield coming across from the Keeler side of the lake, the sand coming off the Olancha dunes was a near white out and peppered and pitted my windshield horribly. I was surprised to see all of the huge trailers heading north into that mess.

And we turned left into a massive dust event in Panamint Valley. Made it through okay but a good inspection tomorrow is necessary along with a new air filter. Was surprised later that there was not a breeze blowing at Stovepipe Wells. Winds not bad on 395 today. It was sure nice to see white roads and chain controls, although we could have done without the usual fools. A few more storms and more of them will get weeded out as we saw today.

 

[Accrete]

My wife and i lived south of Reno in the Washoe Valley area. While i do remembe the _winds_ they were/are nothing compared to life on the Oregon Coast. The weather station on top of our big rig we full time in has clocked ~78mph during our typical winter _storms_. A mile from us in a NOAA station that clocked 110mph gust last winter.

All that said? We regularly drive in 50>60mph winds and it's just part of life on the coast.
PS. our lifted van is just under 9ft high.

YMMV,
Thom

 

[SunMan]

Coming home from Mammoth just before Xmas there were CHP roadblocks for tractor trailers in Lone Pine with about 20 rigs parked at the side of the road that had been denied further travel but CHP waved me through.

Further on down the road near Ridgecrest/Inyokern there was another roadblock manned by DOT personnel. They asked me if I was feeling lucky and I asked "how bad is it , 45-50MPH?" They said "try 80! There are 20 trucks flipped over like toys between here and Mojave." The two gentlemen discussed it and decided I wasn't truly high profile and let me go provided I was careful. I drove slow all the way to Mojave and indeed saw all 20 trucks, my estimate was gusts of 50+ but definitely not 80. So bottom line It appears we are legal, or its open to interpretation by the powers that be at the given time. YMMV.

 

[Lighthawk]

Thank you for a real world example, Sunman.
Glad you got home and they made a reasonable decision to allow you to travel.
But, they could have just as easily said that you were "prohibited", which is a new rule as far as I know.

 

[ntsqd]

I wonder what vehicle code that "prohibited" is based on? There's due caution on the part of both the authorities and the driver, and there's "big brother". I'm all for the former and want nothing to do with the latter.

 

[CALIcamperdad]

I bet perception has a large role in who gets through. I wonder if a flat bed fwc on the same truck would have been let through?