Driveroneuk:
Luckily, strapping the curtains back & the doors open is something I’ve never had to do.
Before strapping back your curtains, check that the trailer you are planning to do it with is suitable. Some are built so light-weight that you can’t do it, they need the curtains to be closed to give the body the needed rigidity. Then you need to be sure that your companys insurance will cover you to drive with your curtains open.
If that all checks out.
Pull your curtains to the back. Open your doors and put a strap over the roof and down to the chassis so that the doors are strapped against your curtains. Then wrap a couple of your internal straps round each door and curtain bundle, to keep everything wrapped up tight and tidy. Thats about it really.
I’ve never done it, but I’ve considered it often and seen what other people have done. The neater you make the bundle the better.
Be careful when thinking about running with sides and door strapped open.
Most modern Curtainsiders are built so the the curtian provides much of the strengh and the one with sliding roofs the door hold the rear of the roof down and the sides together.
As the trailer makers never designed or tested thier products to run with the sides open then if anything goes wrong you or your bass will have no comeback.
Also if the roof falls to peices in high winds strips of ally sheet will end up flying through the air, with the possible injury to those around. You have to weigh this possibility with the risk of blowing over.
The real problem is we have no wind speed at which we have to stop and we have these 16ft trailers that are massive sails in high winds. As usual it’s left to the driver, to put weigh up the risk to his (or her) or others life or the risk of losing their job.
I have never tied the curtains back, and never would.
As my boss said to me when I first started, “if it that windy for gods sake pull over. it is not worth the risk.”
few years ago i worked for smurfits out of west auckland, we used the a68 a lot, one day it was really howling a gale trls were 15"9, guy ties his curtains back in the usual way, and was travelling towards corbridge just about to drop down kilnpit hill and a gust of wind caught him and turned him over, they reckon the gust lifted the trl from the roof and just flipped him, he was saying it was like slow motion nothing quick or violent luckily it went over on n/s.so i,m not sure tying curtains back is of much use.