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Old 02-01-2018, 03:26 PM   #1
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Anchors

So I have an idea I wanna blow by people... lol

So say a big storm is coming your way. I remember reading in some FB groups posts by skoolie people who were stuck in Hurricane Irma, no gas to move, or just decided to wait it out and see...

And I had already thought about what I would do in a bus in the event of a storm. Here in So Ill, a tornado is more likely than a hurricane. But they say, don't try to outrun a tornado. So what's a skoolie to do?

Well I wondered if anyone has something like anchors? For example, I was thinking of having steel bars attached to the sides of the bus, perhaps 3-4 per side, that would lengthen out once you lifted them, allowing you to anchor them in the ground perhaps 16-20 feet away, like drill a big screw in or something at the ends.

Would this prevent the bus from rocking or being blown over when stationary? Would the anchors help keep the bus from being pulled up?

Now I know that to the right storm, it won't matter what you do: bus or house, everything in it's path is coming up.

But would such measures extend the strength of the storm it could weather?

I just had a thought: those steel bars could make the bus side heavy, perhaps make turns sway more? BUT, instead of having them attached to the sides, perhaps you could unhook them from something at the top, and lay them lengthwise on something at the sides under the bus?

Guess there's lots of ways you could do this, cheapest way is prolly just ropes and spikes. But if you plan on being somewhere where the weather is wild, what do you think?

I think I saw an idea like this on that old Twister movie... lol

I would love to be a storm chaser skoolie...

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Old 02-01-2018, 03:44 PM   #2
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I'd go park by a large structure for a wind break. If there were no wind breaks I'd park with my arse headed into the wind to protect my windshield.

Also, don''t park broadside in a hurricane.
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Old 02-01-2018, 03:49 PM   #3
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yeah, ass to the wind is best...
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Old 02-01-2018, 04:13 PM   #4
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Quote:
Originally Posted by DreamWeaverBus View Post
So I have an idea I wanna blow by people... lol

So say a big storm is coming your way. I remember reading in some FB groups posts by skoolie people who were stuck in Hurricane Irma, no gas to move, or just decided to wait it out and see...

And I had already thought about what I would do in a bus in the event of a storm. Here in So Ill, a tornado is more likely than a hurricane. But they say, don't try to outrun a tornado. So what's a skoolie to do?

Well I wondered if anyone has something like anchors? For example, I was thinking of having steel bars attached to the sides of the bus, perhaps 3-4 per side, that would lengthen out once you lifted them, allowing you to anchor them in the ground perhaps 16-20 feet away, like drill a big screw in or something at the ends.

Would this prevent the bus from rocking or being blown over when stationary? Would the anchors help keep the bus from being pulled up?

Now I know that to the right storm, it won't matter what you do: bus or house, everything in it's path is coming up.

But would such measures extend the strength of the storm it could weather?

I just had a thought: those steel bars could make the bus side heavy, perhaps make turns sway more? BUT, instead of having them attached to the sides, perhaps you could unhook them from something at the top, and lay them lengthwise on something at the sides under the bus?

Guess there's lots of ways you could do this, cheapest way is prolly just ropes and spikes. But if you plan on being somewhere where the weather is wild, what do you think?

I think I saw an idea like this on that old Twister movie... lol

I would love to be a storm chaser skoolie...
Something like this...with straps around the frame rails...but nothing gonna help with a tornado...anyway, you put steel bars in the square steel tubes (2' long bars) and drive them into the ground

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Old 02-01-2018, 04:29 PM   #5
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I live close to Tulsa.

Despite the common jokes and cartoons, in Tulsa we take bad weather very seriously, because the weather can kill you.

Unequivocally, one of the worst places to be in a tornado is inside a vehicle, any vehicle with any anchoring system, ever.

You might be able to make a vehicle remain on the ground in all but the most severe conditions, but what you cannot do without armor-plating is make it safe from flying debris.

A tornado can send a 2x4 at your bus, at over 250 mph. The standard for stopping that from penetrating is a brick wall backed by 3" of concrete, or steel plate of 1/4" thickness.

Tornadoes can pick up semis ... and drop them anywhere. Your bus is tough, but a semi dropped on it would ruin your entire day.
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Old 02-01-2018, 04:46 PM   #6
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One of the advantages of a Skoolie is that when bad weather is headed your way...you can drive off. Hurricanes give you plenty of time...tornadoes...not so much. But it doesn't take long to crank up and go. Just keep your battery charged up & tank topped off.

And a good emergency band weather radio is always worth having on the road.
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Old 02-01-2018, 05:24 PM   #7
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One of the advantages of a Skoolie is that when bad weather is headed your way...you can drive off. Hurricanes give you plenty of time...tornadoes...not so much. But it doesn't take long to crank up and go. Just keep your battery charged up & tank topped off.

And a good emergency band weather radio is always worth having on the road.
There is a lot you can do, even though individual tornado warnings don't give much time, and sometimes don't give any time.

While tornadoes are common, in any individual spot on the map they are really rare. When you are camping you know where you are. You can see the storm development on radar, and the formation of tornadic super-cells with plenty of time to get out of the way.

When bad weather is in the forecast, keep a very close ear on the radio. Use your cellphone or laptop to track the storms. You will see if a line, or cell is approaching and you don't need to go very far, perpendicular to the line, to be perfectly safe.

The problem we have is that we can't move our houses, but we can move an RV.
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Old 02-01-2018, 05:29 PM   #8
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Yeah, when you put it like that, taking off seems obvious.

So tell me about driving a school bus in high wind speeds? Common during storms and sounds like a nope.
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Old 02-01-2018, 05:38 PM   #9
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Quote:
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Yeah, when you put it like that, taking off seems obvious.

So tell me about driving a school bus in high wind speeds? Common during storms and sounds like a nope.
I've never driven a bus in high wind.

I have ridden a motorcycle through a 50 to 70 mph gust front of a storm line.

The wind was coming at me and it wasn't the worst part of it, although it was bad enough. The worst part was the horizontal driven rain that cut visibility to a few feet.

It didn't last more than a mile or two, although the regular rain lasted about 100 miles because the line was moving in the worst direction it could have been moving for my route.

It's not something I want to do again. I would have stopped, but I was on a remote part of I-40 and there was just nowhere to go.
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Old 02-01-2018, 07:35 PM   #10
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And when there is a hail storm there is never an overpass in sight.
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Old 02-01-2018, 09:48 PM   #11
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When I was driving my bus back home the night after I had bought it, I was on the top of the Grapevine Pass with a horrendous cross wind. I could feel it tugging the bus, but I still kept in my lane without much difficulty. There was some miserable little RV thing ahead of me, and I thought it would hit the guard rail several times because it was swerving so much from side to side because of the wind gusts. That was the moment I realized I had made a good decision to buy a heavy-duty commercial vehicle instead of a top-heavy wooden shed on a breadvan chassis. Unless you do something to radically change your bus's CoG, it will be far better in wind than almost any RV.

So saying, I would just get the hell out of Dodge if I knew Something Bad was about to happen. I wouldn't be waiting to move until the last moment either. I think the only unforeseeable thing would be an earthquake, and being in a vehicle is better than being in a house for that anyway.

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