Aquaplaning advice
Discussion
Having had nothing but trouble with automatics, most notably a jeep cherokee (4.0L petrol) that refused to kick down until I was halfway in to a bend thus propelling me in to a ditch, I can't comment on what to do in an auto, although I presume the N thingy on the shifty-wifty would have the same effect....
Aquaplaning is a tad more complex in reality. Essentially, the driving wheels are being forced to turn, so as the tyre enters the water, the forced rotation of the wheel drags water from the front of the tyre, and pulls it under the tyre. It is not as simple as a bow wave of water in front of the tyre; the wheels are actively dragging water under the wheel to the point grip is lost.
The short answer, is as soon as you feel the car begin to aquaplane, DIP THE CLUTCH (or crunch the shifty-wifty in to N, but idk about whether you can even do that in an auto, someone educate me if you can move the shifty-wifty from D in to N whilst moving at speed).
That instantly removes the drive from the wheels. Taking the foot off ther accelerator isn't enough, as even with engine braking, the engine is still powering the wheels, and still dragging water under the tyres.
For drivers of manual cars, I suggest you try a little test. I do this all the time when driving.
On a straight bit of road with puddles, (lots of rain about so easy to try this weekend) find a puddle and hurtle through it. Feel how the car judders, and twitches a bit.
Then as you approach the next puddle/standing water, just as you're about to hit the puddle, dip the clutch and coast the car through, before lifting the clutch the other side of the puddle. No juddering or twitchiness. The moment (turny-turny) of the wheels once drive is removed no longer has the capability or the turning force to drag water under the tyres.
On my daily drive, I have to negotiate a crappy bit of road, it's a mild bend to the left, with a bit of a hill downwards and water running off the hill streams across the road over the apex. It's easy to understeer and be flung off the road in to the opposite carriageway. I simply dip the clutch and carry on my merry way whilst all the driving gods in their audi's and leased beemers pirouette through the hedge resulting in automobile/bovine interface.
I have had the misfortune to aquaplane on several occasions, each time I have dipped the clutch and carried on with no issues besides having fudged my huggies. The car is much easier to control with the clutch depressed, simply steer back in the direction you want to go in, and release the clutch in the same way as you would if downshifting for a corner/hazard. Drop a gear if required.
In the meantime, certainly experience the difference in stability by dipping the clutch as you go through a puddle or standing water. Trust me, it works, try it and post the results.
Aquaplaning is a tad more complex in reality. Essentially, the driving wheels are being forced to turn, so as the tyre enters the water, the forced rotation of the wheel drags water from the front of the tyre, and pulls it under the tyre. It is not as simple as a bow wave of water in front of the tyre; the wheels are actively dragging water under the wheel to the point grip is lost.
The short answer, is as soon as you feel the car begin to aquaplane, DIP THE CLUTCH (or crunch the shifty-wifty in to N, but idk about whether you can even do that in an auto, someone educate me if you can move the shifty-wifty from D in to N whilst moving at speed).
That instantly removes the drive from the wheels. Taking the foot off ther accelerator isn't enough, as even with engine braking, the engine is still powering the wheels, and still dragging water under the tyres.
For drivers of manual cars, I suggest you try a little test. I do this all the time when driving.
On a straight bit of road with puddles, (lots of rain about so easy to try this weekend) find a puddle and hurtle through it. Feel how the car judders, and twitches a bit.
Then as you approach the next puddle/standing water, just as you're about to hit the puddle, dip the clutch and coast the car through, before lifting the clutch the other side of the puddle. No juddering or twitchiness. The moment (turny-turny) of the wheels once drive is removed no longer has the capability or the turning force to drag water under the tyres.
On my daily drive, I have to negotiate a crappy bit of road, it's a mild bend to the left, with a bit of a hill downwards and water running off the hill streams across the road over the apex. It's easy to understeer and be flung off the road in to the opposite carriageway. I simply dip the clutch and carry on my merry way whilst all the driving gods in their audi's and leased beemers pirouette through the hedge resulting in automobile/bovine interface.
I have had the misfortune to aquaplane on several occasions, each time I have dipped the clutch and carried on with no issues besides having fudged my huggies. The car is much easier to control with the clutch depressed, simply steer back in the direction you want to go in, and release the clutch in the same way as you would if downshifting for a corner/hazard. Drop a gear if required.
In the meantime, certainly experience the difference in stability by dipping the clutch as you go through a puddle or standing water. Trust me, it works, try it and post the results.
I've aquaplaned properly twice in my 24 years of driving, and added to that I've had very small moments of it when driving my Yoko 48R shod 2-Eleven in absolute downpours. The two proper incidents lasted only about 2 seconds each; one was in my Celica Carlos Sainz (FE/4WD) and one in my E36 325i (FE/RWD). My advice would be not to push any of the pedals and calmly keep the steering pointing where you want to go (a quarter to three grip before the aquaplaning starts will help massively here). These actions will ensure that the car won't do anything dramatic when the aquaplaning stops. Naturally, you wouldn't be using cruise control with standing water around; most de-activate now anyway when the stability control kicks in. The fact that I've only had it twice in 24 years of quite a lot of driving, both on the road and race tracks all over Europe, is comforting - aquaplaning is very rare, especially if you ensure your tyres have the correct tread and you drive at an appropriate speed.
lyonspride said:
IT1GTR said:
Take your feet off everything, just steer. No sudden movements or harsh inputs, just little bits of steering to try and keep car going vaguely in direction you want.
On motorway, make sure you don't sit alongside people, that way if you drift 1/2 lane either way when aquaplaning it shouldn't matter.
Taking your feet off is a sudden movement, it's engine braking.On motorway, make sure you don't sit alongside people, that way if you drift 1/2 lane either way when aquaplaning it shouldn't matter.
Edited by IT1GTR on Thursday 13th December 10:21
The best thing is to either hold the throttle steady or ease off until you regain grip, If the front wheels are allowed to drop below the speed your actually travelling at, then when you regain grip the car will suddenly shift a pile of weight to the front wheels, which could result in lift off oversteer and most likely a crash.
Suddenly going from heavy throttle to none wouldn't be fun!
But on motorway, I tend to be mainly neutral throttle, that said, may depend on the car, the engine braking effect is much stronger on my M5 than my Focus ST for example.
Wiccan of Darkness said:
Having had nothing but trouble with automatics, most notably a jeep cherokee (4.0L petrol) that refused to kick down until I was halfway in to a bend thus propelling me in to a ditch, I can't comment on what to do in an auto, although I presume the N thingy on the shifty-wifty would have the same effect....
Foot off the accelerator in my Cherokee 4L takes the engine to idle and disconnects the torque convertor lockout (if it's connected). There's very little engine breaking through a torque converter anyway. If your box had just kicked down then the lockout would have been disconnected anyway.Cherokees are known for losing the back-end in 2wd. I keep it full time 4x4 for this reason.
Edited by Ed/L152 on Tuesday 18th December 09:45
If were talking about a proper Aquaplaning session....... ie a flooded road whereby all 4 wheels have lifted off the Tarmac and now riding on a cushion of water.... be very carefull about what you do with the steering!!
If the car is off the ground there is no real steering input and turning into a slide is probably only going to make things worse! As your off the ground the car will follow the camber of the road and you'll very likely see yourself drifting towards the verge or the armco. The natural reaction at this point is to steer away from it, and in doing that you are introducing more and more opposite lock as you head for the hedge. You need to fight this urge to correct (it's not going too change your direction anyway) because when the speed of the car drops off and gravity takes over and your wheels hit the tarmac again, you'll find yourself with a lot of lock on and will very quickly end up on the wrong side of the road and in the nearest hedge/armco/car/bus stop/pavement/wall.
Aquaplanning is basically a skid, and with any skid the quickest way to stop it is remove the power. So dip the clutch, get all 4 wheels spinning at the same speed and direction and in the case of aquaplaning keep your steering straight ahead and hope.
If the car is off the ground there is no real steering input and turning into a slide is probably only going to make things worse! As your off the ground the car will follow the camber of the road and you'll very likely see yourself drifting towards the verge or the armco. The natural reaction at this point is to steer away from it, and in doing that you are introducing more and more opposite lock as you head for the hedge. You need to fight this urge to correct (it's not going too change your direction anyway) because when the speed of the car drops off and gravity takes over and your wheels hit the tarmac again, you'll find yourself with a lot of lock on and will very quickly end up on the wrong side of the road and in the nearest hedge/armco/car/bus stop/pavement/wall.
Aquaplanning is basically a skid, and with any skid the quickest way to stop it is remove the power. So dip the clutch, get all 4 wheels spinning at the same speed and direction and in the case of aquaplaning keep your steering straight ahead and hope.
super7 said:
If were talking about a proper Aquaplaning session....... ie a flooded road whereby all 4 wheels have lifted off the Tarmac and now riding on a cushion of water.... be very carefull about what you do with the steering!!
If the car is off the ground there is no real steering input and turning into a slide is probably only going to make things worse! As your off the ground the car will follow the camber of the road and you'll very likely see yourself drifting towards the verge or the armco. The natural reaction at this point is to steer away from it, and in doing that you are introducing more and more opposite lock as you head for the hedge. You need to fight this urge to correct (it's not going too change your direction anyway) because when the speed of the car drops off and gravity takes over and your wheels hit the tarmac again, you'll find yourself with a lot of lock on and will very quickly end up on the wrong side of the road and in the nearest hedge/armco/car/bus stop/pavement/wall.
Aquaplanning is basically a skid, and with any skid the quickest way to stop it is remove the power. So dip the clutch, get all 4 wheels spinning at the same speed and direction and in the case of aquaplaning keep your steering straight ahead and hope.
I strongly disagree with this. Once the car has lifted, it'll come back down at some point, and you need to have the front wheels pointing in the direction of travel, otherwise the steering angle at the front is going to be suddenly realised, jerking the car into an even bigger problem. In both times that I've aquaplaned, the car has started to rotate a little and I'm jolly glad I kept the steering pointing straight ahead!!If the car is off the ground there is no real steering input and turning into a slide is probably only going to make things worse! As your off the ground the car will follow the camber of the road and you'll very likely see yourself drifting towards the verge or the armco. The natural reaction at this point is to steer away from it, and in doing that you are introducing more and more opposite lock as you head for the hedge. You need to fight this urge to correct (it's not going too change your direction anyway) because when the speed of the car drops off and gravity takes over and your wheels hit the tarmac again, you'll find yourself with a lot of lock on and will very quickly end up on the wrong side of the road and in the nearest hedge/armco/car/bus stop/pavement/wall.
Aquaplanning is basically a skid, and with any skid the quickest way to stop it is remove the power. So dip the clutch, get all 4 wheels spinning at the same speed and direction and in the case of aquaplaning keep your steering straight ahead and hope.
Perhaps the confusion here is the term "opposite lock" or "steering into the slide", which in my experience often ends in tears as drivers guess at the amount and the direction to turn the wheel, inevitably leading to over-correction. Simply and calmly looking where you want to go and keeping the steering wheel pointing where you want to go is the answer.
RobM77 said:
super7 said:
If were talking about a proper Aquaplaning session....... ie a flooded road whereby all 4 wheels have lifted off the Tarmac and now riding on a cushion of water.... be very carefull about what you do with the steering!!
If the car is off the ground there is no real steering input and turning into a slide is probably only going to make things worse! As your off the ground the car will follow the camber of the road and you'll very likely see yourself drifting towards the verge or the armco. The natural reaction at this point is to steer away from it, and in doing that you are introducing more and more opposite lock as you head for the hedge. You need to fight this urge to correct (it's not going too change your direction anyway) because when the speed of the car drops off and gravity takes over and your wheels hit the tarmac again, you'll find yourself with a lot of lock on and will very quickly end up on the wrong side of the road and in the nearest hedge/armco/car/bus stop/pavement/wall.
Aquaplanning is basically a skid, and with any skid the quickest way to stop it is remove the power. So dip the clutch, get all 4 wheels spinning at the same speed and direction and in the case of aquaplaning keep your steering straight ahead and hope.
I strongly disagree with this. Once the car has lifted, it'll come back down at some point, and you need to have the front wheels pointing in the direction of travel, otherwise the steering angle at the front is going to be suddenly realised, jerking the car into an even bigger problem. In both times that I've aquaplaned, the car has started to rotate a little and I'm jolly glad I kept the steering pointing straight ahead!!If the car is off the ground there is no real steering input and turning into a slide is probably only going to make things worse! As your off the ground the car will follow the camber of the road and you'll very likely see yourself drifting towards the verge or the armco. The natural reaction at this point is to steer away from it, and in doing that you are introducing more and more opposite lock as you head for the hedge. You need to fight this urge to correct (it's not going too change your direction anyway) because when the speed of the car drops off and gravity takes over and your wheels hit the tarmac again, you'll find yourself with a lot of lock on and will very quickly end up on the wrong side of the road and in the nearest hedge/armco/car/bus stop/pavement/wall.
Aquaplanning is basically a skid, and with any skid the quickest way to stop it is remove the power. So dip the clutch, get all 4 wheels spinning at the same speed and direction and in the case of aquaplaning keep your steering straight ahead and hope.
Perhaps the confusion here is the term "opposite lock" or "steering into the slide", which in my experience often ends in tears as drivers guess at the amount and the direction to turn the wheel, inevitably leading to over-correction. Simply and calmly looking where you want to go and keeping the steering wheel pointing where you want to go is the answer.
Pica-Pica said:
RobM77 said:
super7 said:
If were talking about a proper Aquaplaning session....... ie a flooded road whereby all 4 wheels have lifted off the Tarmac and now riding on a cushion of water.... be very carefull about what you do with the steering!!
If the car is off the ground there is no real steering input and turning into a slide is probably only going to make things worse! As your off the ground the car will follow the camber of the road and you'll very likely see yourself drifting towards the verge or the armco. The natural reaction at this point is to steer away from it, and in doing that you are introducing more and more opposite lock as you head for the hedge. You need to fight this urge to correct (it's not going too change your direction anyway) because when the speed of the car drops off and gravity takes over and your wheels hit the tarmac again, you'll find yourself with a lot of lock on and will very quickly end up on the wrong side of the road and in the nearest hedge/armco/car/bus stop/pavement/wall.
Aquaplanning is basically a skid, and with any skid the quickest way to stop it is remove the power. So dip the clutch, get all 4 wheels spinning at the same speed and direction and in the case of aquaplaning keep your steering straight ahead and hope.
I strongly disagree with this. Once the car has lifted, it'll come back down at some point, and you need to have the front wheels pointing in the direction of travel, otherwise the steering angle at the front is going to be suddenly realised, jerking the car into an even bigger problem. In both times that I've aquaplaned, the car has started to rotate a little and I'm jolly glad I kept the steering pointing straight ahead!!If the car is off the ground there is no real steering input and turning into a slide is probably only going to make things worse! As your off the ground the car will follow the camber of the road and you'll very likely see yourself drifting towards the verge or the armco. The natural reaction at this point is to steer away from it, and in doing that you are introducing more and more opposite lock as you head for the hedge. You need to fight this urge to correct (it's not going too change your direction anyway) because when the speed of the car drops off and gravity takes over and your wheels hit the tarmac again, you'll find yourself with a lot of lock on and will very quickly end up on the wrong side of the road and in the nearest hedge/armco/car/bus stop/pavement/wall.
Aquaplanning is basically a skid, and with any skid the quickest way to stop it is remove the power. So dip the clutch, get all 4 wheels spinning at the same speed and direction and in the case of aquaplaning keep your steering straight ahead and hope.
Perhaps the confusion here is the term "opposite lock" or "steering into the slide", which in my experience often ends in tears as drivers guess at the amount and the direction to turn the wheel, inevitably leading to over-correction. Simply and calmly looking where you want to go and keeping the steering wheel pointing where you want to go is the answer.
A light grip at the wheel at quarter to three brings huge benefits. This leaves you free to link steering with vision.Pica-Pica said:
Essentially; fixed grip steering, look where you want to go and your hands, and the wheel will naturally follow (with a smidgeon of luck).
I guess if you have started spinning you have more issues than straight aquaplaning..... but.....If you start heaving loads of opposite lock on whilst off the ground, you better be bloody quick at catching it when it touches down!!! Steering in the direction your looking in is not always the best choice.
When the car is off the ground, steering has no effect. You can be on full lock and it won't change your line, your tyres have no grip! So if you start to put opposite lock in your basically betting on where the wheels need to be when you regain contact with th tarmac. If you have too much lock on you will have a big change in the dynamics and balance of the car... bring on overreactions and tank slappers. The problem is how much lock have you actually subconsciously applied..... probably a damn site more than you think...
The situation I was refering too above is when your on straight road and you aquaplane. At this point the car is going to follow the camber of the road. If youre heading for a verge and you start to put opposite lock or steer away from the verge, your wheels will not be pointing straight ahead, they will be pointing to the other side of the road.
Feel free to go along to a skid school and try it......... I did when I was on a skid car instructors course... and overwhelmingly the thing that came out that is that on a skidcar who have a large amount of space to play in. You don't on the road!
Edited by super7 on Tuesday 18th December 17:05
super7 said:
RobM77 said:
super7 said:
If were talking about a proper Aquaplaning session....... ie a flooded road whereby all 4 wheels have lifted off the Tarmac and now riding on a cushion of water.... be very carefull about what you do with the steering!!
If the car is off the ground there is no real steering input and turning into a slide is probably only going to make things worse! As your off the ground the car will follow the camber of the road and you'll very likely see yourself drifting towards the verge or the armco. The natural reaction at this point is to steer away from it, and in doing that you are introducing more and more opposite lock as you head for the hedge. You need to fight this urge to correct (it's not going too change your direction anyway) because when the speed of the car drops off and gravity takes over and your wheels hit the tarmac again, you'll find yourself with a lot of lock on and will very quickly end up on the wrong side of the road and in the nearest hedge/armco/car/bus stop/pavement/wall.
Aquaplanning is basically a skid, and with any skid the quickest way to stop it is remove the power. So dip the clutch, get all 4 wheels spinning at the same speed and direction and in the case of aquaplaning keep your steering straight ahead and hope.
I strongly disagree with this. Once the car has lifted, it'll come back down at some point, and you need to have the front wheels pointing in the direction of travel, otherwise the steering angle at the front is going to be suddenly realised, jerking the car into an even bigger problem. In both times that I've aquaplaned, the car has started to rotate a little and I'm jolly glad I kept the steering pointing straight ahead!!If the car is off the ground there is no real steering input and turning into a slide is probably only going to make things worse! As your off the ground the car will follow the camber of the road and you'll very likely see yourself drifting towards the verge or the armco. The natural reaction at this point is to steer away from it, and in doing that you are introducing more and more opposite lock as you head for the hedge. You need to fight this urge to correct (it's not going too change your direction anyway) because when the speed of the car drops off and gravity takes over and your wheels hit the tarmac again, you'll find yourself with a lot of lock on and will very quickly end up on the wrong side of the road and in the nearest hedge/armco/car/bus stop/pavement/wall.
Aquaplanning is basically a skid, and with any skid the quickest way to stop it is remove the power. So dip the clutch, get all 4 wheels spinning at the same speed and direction and in the case of aquaplaning keep your steering straight ahead and hope.
Perhaps the confusion here is the term "opposite lock" or "steering into the slide", which in my experience often ends in tears as drivers guess at the amount and the direction to turn the wheel, inevitably leading to over-correction. Simply and calmly looking where you want to go and keeping the steering wheel pointing where you want to go is the answer.
At what point did I say steer into it or apply opposite lock????
For sure, as you state above, if the driver doesn't adjust the steering once the car has finished aquaplaning then they'll be over-correction problems in some proportion of cases, but that's still going to produce better results than having the steering pointing away from the direction of travel, which is going to cause an undesirable effect 100% of the time.
RobM77 said:
super7 said:
RobM77 said:
super7 said:
If were talking about a proper Aquaplaning session....... ie a flooded road whereby all 4 wheels have lifted off the Tarmac and now riding on a cushion of water.... be very carefull about what you do with the steering!!
If the car is off the ground there is no real steering input and turning into a slide is probably only going to make things worse! As your off the ground the car will follow the camber of the road and you'll very likely see yourself drifting towards the verge or the armco. The natural reaction at this point is to steer away from it, and in doing that you are introducing more and more opposite lock as you head for the hedge. You need to fight this urge to correct (it's not going too change your direction anyway) because when the speed of the car drops off and gravity takes over and your wheels hit the tarmac again, you'll find yourself with a lot of lock on and will very quickly end up on the wrong side of the road and in the nearest hedge/armco/car/bus stop/pavement/wall.
Aquaplanning is basically a skid, and with any skid the quickest way to stop it is remove the power. So dip the clutch, get all 4 wheels spinning at the same speed and direction and in the case of aquaplaning keep your steering straight ahead and hope.
I strongly disagree with this. Once the car has lifted, it'll come back down at some point, and you need to have the front wheels pointing in the direction of travel, otherwise the steering angle at the front is going to be suddenly realised, jerking the car into an even bigger problem. In both times that I've aquaplaned, the car has started to rotate a little and I'm jolly glad I kept the steering pointing straight ahead!!If the car is off the ground there is no real steering input and turning into a slide is probably only going to make things worse! As your off the ground the car will follow the camber of the road and you'll very likely see yourself drifting towards the verge or the armco. The natural reaction at this point is to steer away from it, and in doing that you are introducing more and more opposite lock as you head for the hedge. You need to fight this urge to correct (it's not going too change your direction anyway) because when the speed of the car drops off and gravity takes over and your wheels hit the tarmac again, you'll find yourself with a lot of lock on and will very quickly end up on the wrong side of the road and in the nearest hedge/armco/car/bus stop/pavement/wall.
Aquaplanning is basically a skid, and with any skid the quickest way to stop it is remove the power. So dip the clutch, get all 4 wheels spinning at the same speed and direction and in the case of aquaplaning keep your steering straight ahead and hope.
Perhaps the confusion here is the term "opposite lock" or "steering into the slide", which in my experience often ends in tears as drivers guess at the amount and the direction to turn the wheel, inevitably leading to over-correction. Simply and calmly looking where you want to go and keeping the steering wheel pointing where you want to go is the answer.
At what point did I say steer into it or apply opposite lock????
For sure, as you state above, if the driver doesn't adjust the steering once the car has finished aquaplaning then they'll be over-correction problems in some proportion of cases, but that's still going to produce better results than having the steering pointing away from the direction of travel, which is going to cause an undesirable effect 100% of the time.
In all fairness, people are just going to s
t themselves when it happens and do all the wrong things anyway, and they're certainly not going to remember anything written on here, so it's all crap anyway....The best thing is too make sure you don't "PROPERLY" aquaplane with all 4 wheels of the ground anyway... ie Good tyres and slow down!
super7 said:
RobM77 said:
super7 said:
RobM77 said:
super7 said:
If were talking about a proper Aquaplaning session....... ie a flooded road whereby all 4 wheels have lifted off the Tarmac and now riding on a cushion of water.... be very carefull about what you do with the steering!!
If the car is off the ground there is no real steering input and turning into a slide is probably only going to make things worse! As your off the ground the car will follow the camber of the road and you'll very likely see yourself drifting towards the verge or the armco. The natural reaction at this point is to steer away from it, and in doing that you are introducing more and more opposite lock as you head for the hedge. You need to fight this urge to correct (it's not going too change your direction anyway) because when the speed of the car drops off and gravity takes over and your wheels hit the tarmac again, you'll find yourself with a lot of lock on and will very quickly end up on the wrong side of the road and in the nearest hedge/armco/car/bus stop/pavement/wall.
Aquaplanning is basically a skid, and with any skid the quickest way to stop it is remove the power. So dip the clutch, get all 4 wheels spinning at the same speed and direction and in the case of aquaplaning keep your steering straight ahead and hope.
I strongly disagree with this. Once the car has lifted, it'll come back down at some point, and you need to have the front wheels pointing in the direction of travel, otherwise the steering angle at the front is going to be suddenly realised, jerking the car into an even bigger problem. In both times that I've aquaplaned, the car has started to rotate a little and I'm jolly glad I kept the steering pointing straight ahead!!If the car is off the ground there is no real steering input and turning into a slide is probably only going to make things worse! As your off the ground the car will follow the camber of the road and you'll very likely see yourself drifting towards the verge or the armco. The natural reaction at this point is to steer away from it, and in doing that you are introducing more and more opposite lock as you head for the hedge. You need to fight this urge to correct (it's not going too change your direction anyway) because when the speed of the car drops off and gravity takes over and your wheels hit the tarmac again, you'll find yourself with a lot of lock on and will very quickly end up on the wrong side of the road and in the nearest hedge/armco/car/bus stop/pavement/wall.
Aquaplanning is basically a skid, and with any skid the quickest way to stop it is remove the power. So dip the clutch, get all 4 wheels spinning at the same speed and direction and in the case of aquaplaning keep your steering straight ahead and hope.
Perhaps the confusion here is the term "opposite lock" or "steering into the slide", which in my experience often ends in tears as drivers guess at the amount and the direction to turn the wheel, inevitably leading to over-correction. Simply and calmly looking where you want to go and keeping the steering wheel pointing where you want to go is the answer.
At what point did I say steer into it or apply opposite lock????
For sure, as you state above, if the driver doesn't adjust the steering once the car has finished aquaplaning then they'll be over-correction problems in some proportion of cases, but that's still going to produce better results than having the steering pointing away from the direction of travel, which is going to cause an undesirable effect 100% of the time.
In all fairness, people are just going to s
t themselves when it happens and do all the wrong things anyway, and they're certainly not going to remember anything written on here, so it's all crap anyway....The best thing is too make sure you don't "PROPERLY" aquaplane with all 4 wheels of the ground anyway... ie Good tyres and slow down!
You're right though, keep good tyres and drive at an appropriate speed. Mind you, aquaplaning normally occurs with hidden patches of water, so you can be at an appropriate speed for miles and then suddenly hit something. Thankfully, it is rare; normally the tyre ploughs straight down into the water and the car just gets tugged to that side.
On the road, I have rarely had a situation where the car aquaplanes that is generally through good tyres, looking ahead, directing the car away from deep puddles also the weight of a car keeps the tyres in contact with the road.
Generally aquaplaning happens on a race track where there are large areas of standing water and very little camber to allow the water to drain away.
The times I have encountered issues have been large puddles. Puddles on a straight road can be dealt with a careful lift or a steady throttle and hold the steering wheel in a firm but relaxed grip to stop, otherwise if the steering wheel moves the car starts turn, you panic, brake, you'll get a huge weight change and the back of the car will start to rotate.
Finding a puddle mid corner first of all don't brake, you will find the car will pull itself into the puddles. This will need strong arms to pull the car out of the puddle and keep it aimed in the direction your travelling. If you're car rotates because of the sudden weight transfer, then you will still need to correct.
Generally aquaplaning happens on a race track where there are large areas of standing water and very little camber to allow the water to drain away.
The times I have encountered issues have been large puddles. Puddles on a straight road can be dealt with a careful lift or a steady throttle and hold the steering wheel in a firm but relaxed grip to stop, otherwise if the steering wheel moves the car starts turn, you panic, brake, you'll get a huge weight change and the back of the car will start to rotate.
Finding a puddle mid corner first of all don't brake, you will find the car will pull itself into the puddles. This will need strong arms to pull the car out of the puddle and keep it aimed in the direction your travelling. If you're car rotates because of the sudden weight transfer, then you will still need to correct.
Two points , no three points where I agree. First try and avoid the situation arising in the first place, obvious comment which was an afterthought, doh!
Main two are declutch and try and keep front wheels pointing in the direction you want to go.
Generally I've managed to avoid it mainly by slowing down. Big puddles on unlit country roads at night faced with oncoming bright headlights can be an issue to spot if the oncoming traffic is heavy, but you can sometimes spot reflections. Helping to take notice of lie of the land, cambers, dips etc helps, which is difficult at night at speed, which brings us back to the slow down boring answer.
Fortunately never experienced problems with the classic motorway covered in a sheet of water scenario, though in Scandinavia during snow melt you get these water filled troughs from localised wear by thousands upon thousands of studded tyres. Fortunately there's a simple solution.
Main two are declutch and try and keep front wheels pointing in the direction you want to go.
Generally I've managed to avoid it mainly by slowing down. Big puddles on unlit country roads at night faced with oncoming bright headlights can be an issue to spot if the oncoming traffic is heavy, but you can sometimes spot reflections. Helping to take notice of lie of the land, cambers, dips etc helps, which is difficult at night at speed, which brings us back to the slow down boring answer.
Fortunately never experienced problems with the classic motorway covered in a sheet of water scenario, though in Scandinavia during snow melt you get these water filled troughs from localised wear by thousands upon thousands of studded tyres. Fortunately there's a simple solution.
Not exactly acquaplaning but when cruising on a very wet M40 last night with cruise control set at just under 70, as the road started to climb and the cruise control opened the throttle to compensate, the power suddenly cut and the traction control warning flickered. This on a 3 litre Mondeo fitted with Michelin Cross Climates with about 4mm of tread. Not a problem but a reminder that traction is limited in the wet!
gdaybruce said:
Not exactly acquaplaning but when cruising on a very wet M40 last night with cruise control set at just under 70, as the road started to climb and the cruise control opened the throttle to compensate, the power suddenly cut and the traction control warning flickered. This on a 3 litre Mondeo fitted with Michelin Cross Climates with about 4mm of tread. Not a problem but a reminder that traction is limited in the wet!
That’s blasphemy! You know you cannot say anything bad about Michelin CCs! (It goes along with my view that V treads are not as effective as longitudinal grooves for aquaplaning resistance).
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