The wind is too much

[SternWake]

I miss weather extremes living in Southern California.

Tent camping in high winds is no fun, but in a metal and glass cage, can be quite pleasant in my opinion.

I love it when the Van is being rocked in a windstorm. It is like sleeping on a boat or a hammock that is continuously swinging. One need never roll over as the motion stirs the blood.

I was in South Africa sleeping next to the ocean in a VW westy camper when a powerful cold front passed, and 60 and 70MPH gusts seemed to want to knock the Kombi on its side. I started the van and put it head in into the wind, and debris hitting the van ripped off the windshieled wipers, and a tent camper knocked on the door and slept across the front seat and awoke with no tent.

 

[gadgetMe]

The wind charger is an AirX 400 watt max output at approx 20 mph winds
I've had it for about 10 years now

 

[jimindenver]

I was going to ask what speed it could handle. Up in the mountains it seems to be feast or famine. Any time the wind picks up and holds, it's higher than you would want with vicious gust. We have sat all day hooked up and ready to waiting for high wind warnings to stop. Memorial day weekend 2012 had gust of 80-108 MPH and i though for sure we were going over a few times. One gust woke me up at 3 am and I thought about pulling the nose into the wind. Luckily putting the truck on the windward side helped enough and the wind came at the nose the next morning.

 

[SoulRaven]

I had to leave Florida three weeks earlier than expected this spring to settle a litigation issue, and am now living in my summer home a 35’ park model (3 way utility hook up) in the upper Lehigh River Gorge in the Western Pocono’s.

The wind was just brutal yesterday over the Pocono Plateau with just a high afternoon temperature near 40 degrees.

After a great ham dinner using the whole ham I received from the local food bank on Good Friday, I had to leave the indoors to change out a 20 pound propane tank that feeds the little buddy heater via a quality hose that needs no filter.

Besides the two layers I wear while sitting indoors I wore my Chris Christie monogrammed fleece with a waterproof and windproof Viking parka over that for the two agonizing minutes of the change over.

Fortunately there were no complications in the changeover process for I then relit the heater and returned to my executive office chair with massage plus heat, then continued watching a British drama on PBS via my 32" flat screen.

 

[LeeRevell]

One year I was at a motorcycle-only campground in NC, on the side of "Cold Mountain", same place as the book and movie. It was October, and we caught the Blue Ridge leaf turning perfectly, and had a glorious display, making the mountains look like they were on fire. We were the last camping group before the campground closed for the year.
On sunday night, it got COLD.... and the wind picked up! It got brutal, and I thought my little three-man dome tent would be uprooted! It was like an angry bear pulling and batting the tent! I had to borrow another sleeping bag from a buddy, as mine was insufficient for the cold. That mountain was living up to it's name!
Next morning, we were all packing to leave, it was still bone chilling cold, and I was dreading the ride down off that danged mountain. Luckily a couple riding buddies from my town had trailered their bikes up, and had room on the trailer for mine, and I rode back with them. I was happy to chip in for the gas.
The next year and after, the camp meet was held a month earlier.......

 

[gadgetMe]

I was going to ask what speed it could handle.

I have had it in winds as high as 100 mph in Casper Wyoming, 
You can fashion a "Stop Block " which is a connector that connects the positive and negative of the charger together to electrically lock the stator so you can get some sleep.

The blades also "flutter" which is pretty noisy, the stop block works well for this.

The wind charger is pretty useless in the mountains, where there are a lot of trees, they cause the wind to swirl, you can't  get clean air flow to the blades.
I have had pretty good results at the high mountain lakes  where there is more open area for straight line wind.

 

[highdesertranger]

almostthere I should have added that disclaimer also.

lucyimhome hahahaha, cows.
highdesertranger

 

[SoulRaven]

I have had it in winds as high as 100 mph in Casper Wyoming, 
You can fashion a "Stop Block " which is a connector that connects the positive and negative of the charger together to electrically lock the stator so you can get some sleep.

The blades also "flutter" which is pretty noisy, the stop block works well for this.

The wind charger is pretty useless in the mountains, where there are a lot of trees, they cause the wind to swirl, you can't  get clean air flow to the blades.
I have had pretty good results at the high mountain lakes  where there is more open area for straight line wind.

I've got a VAWT (Vertical Axis Wind Turbine) at my cabin and it works so much better than my previous horizontal axis one did.  It silently produces power in any speed of wind and has automatic braking to keep the speed acceptable in high winds.  Another thing I like about it is that it works with even the slightest breeze, which my HAWT would not.

 

[offroad]

Off grid - do you have a link to the VAWT ?

 

[WheelEstate USA]

Being an oxygen patient, I often stay inside when the dust blows.
The arrangement of our van gives enough room for us to be comfortable if we're boxed in. After living on a sailboat for 5 yrs small spaces are no problem.

 

[SoulRaven]

Off grid - do you have a link to the VAWT ?

I'm not at home and don't remember the brand, but it looks like a large squirrel cage fan, about 24" wide x 36" tall.