SYCAMORE – If you see a heavily armored truck barreling down the road during a thunderstorm, make sure you’re driving the other way.

“Don’t follow it,” Jim Leonard said. “If you see this car in bad weather ... don’t follow the car. Don’t be within 25 miles of the car. As a matter of fact, go the opposite direction for your own safety.”

Leonard was talking about the Dominator, an 8,000-pound Chevy Tahoe outfitted with armored plating and reinforced windows that allows storm chasers such as Reed Timmer, of the Discovery Channel show “Storm Chasers” and tornadovideos.net, to get very close to tornadoes.