Advisory 35 in the Rain: A Loaded Trailer Through a Chevroned Reverse Curve
At 9:40 p.m. in October you are westbound on a two-lane state highway in western North Dakota, towing 18 round hay bales on a gooseneck trailer behind a one-ton pickup. It has been drizzling for 20 minutes, the pavement is wet, and the air temperature is 41°F. The posted limit is 65. Ahead you see a yellow diamond reverse-curve arrow sign, then a 35 MPH advisory plaque, then a SLIPPERY WHEN WET sign, and then, through the bend, four chevrons mounted on the outside of the curve. Your headlights pick up the curve, but the centerline paint is faint and the fog line disappears in the spray. An oncoming pickup with a stock trailer is running slightly over the centerline. Your speed is 60 mph as you reach the reverse-curve sign.
1. Does the 35 mph advisory plaque legally cap your speed at 35? What should your actual entry speed be, and how does the law treat the advisory if something goes wrong?
Read the worked answer
The 35 plaque is yellow, therefore warning, not regulatory. It does not by itself create a 35 mph limit and a driver is not automatically cited for exceeding it. It is an engineering judgment of the speed at which a typical passenger car can negotiate the curve under dry conditions.
You are a different vehicle: a one-ton with a high center of gravity and 18 bales, on wet pavement, at night, with a 41°F surface that could be slick in shaded spots. Legally you are bound by the basic speed rule, and the advisory is the state's own evidence of what is prudent for far better conditions than yours. Your entry speed should be roughly 25–30 mph, set before the curve - braking mid-curve with that trailer is how a rig jackknifes or pushes wide into the oncoming stock trailer.
If you crash above the advisory speed, the plaque does not need to be a legal limit to hurt you: it becomes documentary evidence that you were traveling faster than the highway agency judged safe for the geometry.
2. How should you use the chevrons through the curve, and what does it mean if the chevrons stop appearing where you expect them?
Read the worked answer
The chevrons are alignment guidance, not decoration. They are mounted on the outside of the bend and aimed so a driver's headlights catch them in sequence; the arrow points the direction of the turn. Keep them in the beam pattern and steer with the direction they indicate. Looking at the chevrons also pulls your eyes through the curve, which is exactly what a long trailer needs - you steer where you look.
If the chevrons stop appearing where the geometry says they should, you have a problem, not a reprieve: it usually means you are drifting wide of the intended path, or that you are looking past the curve instead of through it. The response is to ease off the throttle, look back to the marked alignment, and make a small, smooth correction - not a sharp steering input, which with a loaded gooseneck transfers weight and can start a trailer sway.
At the end of the curve, the last chevron is your cue to resume speed gradually, checking that the trailer has tracked back inside the lane.
3. As you enter, the trailer's rear begins to push the truck wide toward the oncoming lane. What is the correct immediate sequence of actions, and what should you not do?
Read the worked answer
The cause is almost certainly entry speed plus the trailer's momentum, not a steering failure. Sequence: release the throttle smoothly, keep both hands on the wheel and your eyes on the intended path, and make only the small correction needed - do not saw at the wheel. If the trailer is swaying rather than merely pushing wide, a brief, firm application of the trailer brake controller (if fitted) or a light application of the tow vehicle brakes straightens the rig; hard braking while turning is what converts a wide line into a jackknife or a rollover.
What you must not do is jerk the wheel to the right toward the fog line: the shoulder may be soft, and an abrupt correction with 18 bales at that height can roll the trailer. Do not accelerate out of it either.
Once straight, pull off at the first safe wide spot and check the load and the hitch before continuing.