small caravans and wild weather

milo · Guru

small caravans and wild weather

Cruising Granny · Guru

If the weather is wild enough, not even a big, huge, monstrous van is big enough to stay upright.
Your motorhome would also be at risk.
In Broome we chained down to the slab. Nothing in Cairns, so it meant watching the monsoonal weather patterns in the wet season very closely.
It's harder to prepare when parked in an area not prone to such boisterous storms.
I always think about anyone living in areas subjected to those storms we've had lately.

jules47 · The Happy Helper

My son drove a 40ft Bedford bus, set up for camping to Darwin, and lived there for about 8 months - one morning in monsoon season, he got up and fell out the door - his bus had been moved by the wind overight, away from the step he was using.
Needless to say, he anchored it down after that!

Cruising Granny · Guru

Sometimes the squalls which precede the actual thunderstorm and downpour cause more damage in the short time, because no one is ready. Cyclones usually give a week or two to prepare and tie down.

milo · Guru

i hate hail storms, they scare me

Dunco · Senior Member

I've been in some good storms in my 21' van (so not a small van) and I felt like I was in a washing machine

jack biggles · Senior Member

Dunco wrote:
I've been in some good storms in my 21' van (so not a small van) and I felt like I was in a washing machine

Exciting hey ?

lyn-n-ken · Senior Member

hi guys
we have a jayco lark of 1980 vintage, so when its windy she rocks and rolls quite a bit.
we check the weather site daily and if the winds are a comming we take down the awning, thats a must.
if the winds are going to be really bad we pack her down and head to a gentler climate.
its all fun being on the road and theres always ways around the weather when you have wheels and can move on.
lyn

Joe · Senior Member

We have a small van (just 11ft long) and we have weathered some fierce enough storms with little real effort.

The worst one was a near cyclone (it never quite made the category 1 level, but it was WINDY and wet all the same), but we had warning about it so all i did was pack everything away (awnings, chairs etc), hook the van up to the Patrol and, when the wind started, I turned the whole rig to face into the wind.

The idea was that the windflow would be the same as when driving down the highway at 100kph and indeed, we were snug, dray and comfortable (apart from having pulled the pop top down so head room was limited) in the van.

I'd expect the bigger units to catch more wind and be more badly affected.