Newbie riding out storm - jacks up or down? or other tips

[YogaNE]

Thanks again to all of you for your insightful comments both for and against jacks up vs down. We already had slides in and full tanks and started jacks down but then in reading the jacks up comments we unhooked from shore power, went on battery through the night then generator for the next day. We had only gentle rocking and even then only occasionally i think in part bc we were headed into the wind from the NE for the first part of the storm and away from the wind from the SW for the second part of the storm with only a short time broadside. I am so appreciative of the collective knowledge ... and yes, but for the unknown factor (hospital possibly discharging my brother to outpatient rehab on the Thursday of the storm), we definitely would have taken off and waited out the storm elsewhere. Interestingly most folks -- at least as far as we could see from our vantage point at the RV park -- who had slides kept them out and jacks down.

Thanks again to the individuals and this great community. Jocelyn

PS: Our hot water was hit and miss on our drive down from NE and was permanent miss by the time the storm hit. We left a message for the wonderful folks at MobilePro on Thurs night and they came first thing Friday morning and fixed it. Apparently, Tiffin's switch up front is a 12v convenience (my words) and the relay switch at the 110 had been replaced at least twice before (two dead ones present) so he bypassed that and now we turn on the water heater at the 110 breaker in the panel in the closet. Great to have consistent hot water again!

[DRV MS]

When got in windy conditions I also, in addition to the good tips mentioned above, try to get the nose of rig pointing into the wind to minimize the wind hitting the sides of my rig.

[m.donatelli6]

Originally Posted by YogaNE

Question: One suggestion given to us to help ride out Tropical Storm Nichole was to take our jacks up and keep the inflated air suspension in place to help the coach weather the storm. Any thoughts on the pros and cons of this? Any other suggestions?

Background: My brother had a bilateral lung transplant 3 weeks ago in Gainesville FL. We have travelled back to FL from NE - had a great time and love our new-to-us 2012 Phaeton -- took us a week but we got to Florida a couple of days ago. The initial goal was to have the RV in place in FL and were going to drive the toad back to Nebraska to await the transplant. But then with just a few hours notice my brother had the transplant a week and a half before we left. He's doing really well lfor such a major surgery. God bless all organ donors and the wonderful drs and rns and everyone else on the team at Shands Hospital at the University of Florida here in Gainesville! Anyway, Gary and I and Al's wife are in the process of getting prepped for our caregiver roles for the first 100 days post-transplant as outpatient (they say he could be transitioned to outpatient this week or early next week). This could be as soon as tomorrow but probably not. We met today and have another meeting with the transplant outpatient coordinator tomorrow to get ready for discharge. So this is why we have not done the otherwise sensible thing and run to Alabama from Gainesville to get away from Tropical Storm Nichole. Hoping but not counting on it being 25-35 mph with gusts to 45 as Weather Channel indicates. We are staying in a new RV park on the edge of town but near-ish the hospital by car (Santa Fe Palms RV Resort) with high trees to our west in neighboring areas (and wind likely from the east to begin with anyway). The park itself has only small shrubs and small (5 foot or so) palm trees, and has level concrete or asphalt spots, good wifi (for the moment), good power etc.. We have food, a full tank of diesel, a full tank in the Jeep toad, full fresh water on board and virtually empty grey and black tanks.

Thanks in advance (and for the great responses to my prior post re how to keep fresh water tanks from freezing. As it happened, night temps never got lower than 40! I’ll leave my mud dauber follow-up question for another day.

Jocelyn (and Gary)

Our son had a triple organ transplant Feb. 14th he is at 90% recovered thanks to UC san Diego, Our prayers to your brother

[patncris]

Good debate!
I’ d like to offer a hybrid solution that I didn't see anybody else make:
Jacks down, but not to the extent that the rig is raised. You can't acheive this just by
selecting Auto Level on your HWH Control Panel. Rather, with the ignition switch on,
manually select Extend on all four jacks just until ground contact is made, then stop.
My theory is that this configuration will stop the suspension rocking, yet not expose the
jacks to the possible shear forces they would experience in gusty conditions. They would be acting as "rocking limiters", while not reducing the stabilizing effect of the wider stance tires. As opined above, all external features retracted/stowed: turn your rig into a turtle, or perhaps more appropriately, a 35,000 pound stick of butter. I like the concept of unplugging
to become invulnerable to a massive electrical surge. One final note: if you have the option of orienting your rig with the nose directly into the predominant wind, you are duplicating what the rig was designed to do - go down the road at a high rate of speed.
These actions are what I would do with OUR rig - we are a resourceful breed as RV'ers, and you will do what you feel is right with YOUR rig.

[afisher]

I rode out Hurricane Ian in my 2019 Tiffin Phaeton 40 IS. We evacuated Sanibel Island and went inland 15 miles to an empty Shopping Center parking lot.

We had the jacks DOWN and slides out, full fuel and water. When the eye passed overhead and wind changed direction we moved to the lee side of a driveway next to a theatre and no trees or potential flying objects near us. She rocked a little but less than I expected in such high winds.

My after the storm inspection showed no damage other than 4” of slideout cover came off the track. All roof attachments and hatches were fine and watertight. We found no leakage anywhere inside the coach. Any questions just ask.

[BlueDog2]

Totally agree with jacks up.