Aquaplaning... how to handle that moment.
Discussion
It seems that the art of aquaplaning is not 'taught' as a matter of course given that we are in the winter months or even in this country the summer months I think I should pass on some knowledge that may be invaluable to you one day.
As aquaplaning happens in wet weather I shall assume you are looking ahead for possible standing water. That means puddles in the daytime or reflections off the road at nightime.
If you aren't looking for the standing water and the conditions are wet then there is no helping you.
as for the rest here are the rules as simply as possible as time will not be on your side.
If you have identified a possible aquaplaning hazard then.
1.In a manual car , declutch. In an automatic feather your throttle (neither accelerating or decelerating).
2.look for a path that is a straight line through the potential deep water from the direction you are travelling.(even if that means you have to cross motorway or dual carriageway lanes.) Aim yourself before hitting the water.
3. Do not steer!... You need to come out the other side with your wheels in a straight line.
4. Aquaplaning is noisy with the deep water filling your wheel arches, you will hear when you have left the danger zone . THEN and only then can you start to steer and gently feed in your clutch.
Congratulations you have just survived an actual or potential aquaplane.
If you steer while in the deep water and you are aquaplaning the steering will have no effect.
However your front wheels which will regain grip first will be pointing the wrong direction and will pitch you into a spin or throw you off the road.
You must straightline the water if at all possible.
Happy driving.
As aquaplaning happens in wet weather I shall assume you are looking ahead for possible standing water. That means puddles in the daytime or reflections off the road at nightime.
If you aren't looking for the standing water and the conditions are wet then there is no helping you.
as for the rest here are the rules as simply as possible as time will not be on your side.
If you have identified a possible aquaplaning hazard then.
1.In a manual car , declutch. In an automatic feather your throttle (neither accelerating or decelerating).
2.look for a path that is a straight line through the potential deep water from the direction you are travelling.(even if that means you have to cross motorway or dual carriageway lanes.) Aim yourself before hitting the water.
3. Do not steer!... You need to come out the other side with your wheels in a straight line.
4. Aquaplaning is noisy with the deep water filling your wheel arches, you will hear when you have left the danger zone . THEN and only then can you start to steer and gently feed in your clutch.
Congratulations you have just survived an actual or potential aquaplane.
If you steer while in the deep water and you are aquaplaning the steering will have no effect.
However your front wheels which will regain grip first will be pointing the wrong direction and will pitch you into a spin or throw you off the road.
You must straightline the water if at all possible.
Happy driving.
Interesting, thanks.
mark69sheer said:
It seems that the art of aquaplaning is not 'taught' as a matter of course given that we are in the winter months or even in this country the summer months I think I should pass on some knowledge that may be invaluable to you one day.
...
4. Aquaplaning is noisy with the deep water filling your wheel arches, you will hear when you have left the danger zone . THEN and only then can you start to steer and gently feed in your clutch.
Errr - it's not noisy, is it? It all goes quiet, because the most noise comes from the wheel noise against the road you get (almost) no noise from the tyre sitting on a layer of water....
4. Aquaplaning is noisy with the deep water filling your wheel arches, you will hear when you have left the danger zone . THEN and only then can you start to steer and gently feed in your clutch.
Joe911 said:
Interesting, thanks.
When you hit water deep enough to aquaplane in you will hear the noise of the increased spray from your tyres drumming against the underside of the car and it's wheel arches.mark69sheer said:
It seems that the art of aquaplaning is not 'taught' as a matter of course given that we are in the winter months or even in this country the summer months I think I should pass on some knowledge that may be invaluable to you one day.
...
4. Aquaplaning is noisy with the deep water filling your wheel arches, you will hear when you have left the danger zone . THEN and only then can you start to steer and gently feed in your clutch.
Errr - it's not noisy, is it? It all goes quiet, because the most noise comes from the wheel noise against the road you get (almost) no noise from the tyre sitting on a layer of water....
4. Aquaplaning is noisy with the deep water filling your wheel arches, you will hear when you have left the danger zone . THEN and only then can you start to steer and gently feed in your clutch.
The declutching is so that your wheels are neither accelerating or braking and are rotating at the speed the conditions dictate. It also means that when you regain your grip the wheels will match your road speed. If you don't declutch and maintain throttle there is a danger your wheels will spin up or that when you leave the deep water your roadspeed and wheelspeed won't match resulting in a driveline baulk and the possibility of a skid caused by another event.
mark69sheer said:
When you hit water deep enough to aquaplane in you will hear the noise of the increased spray from your tyres drumming against the underside of the car and it's wheel arches.
I think maybe the noise issue will depend on the car, however, none of the cars I've aquaplaned in (most that I've owned) make more noise, in fact, the opposite.Joe911 said:
mark69sheer said:
When you hit water deep enough to aquaplane in you will hear the noise of the increased spray from your tyres drumming against the underside of the car and it's wheel arches.
I think maybe the noise issue will depend on the car, however, none of the cars I've aquaplaned in (most that I've owned) make more noise, in fact, the opposite.There is a skid-pan exercise, which is a fairly ruthless eye/bowel opener.
After a few uneventfull laps @ 70mph, the instructor wets a small section of the curve, which you then hit unawares.
The front-end then fires itself of at a tangent to the curve.
The instinctive reaction to this(without exception) is to snap on more steering lock, which, as mentioned in the posts above, then develops into snap oversteer as you regain dry track, followed by a spin, or a masive fight to contain the slide.
The correct response is counter intuitive, and requires you to wind OFF steering lock, so that the front wheels are pointing straight when you regain grip. You still have to steer back into your lane, but it is possible.
One of the most deeply impressive exercises I've ever experienced. In the real world, I'm not sure I could make it stick.
After a few uneventfull laps @ 70mph, the instructor wets a small section of the curve, which you then hit unawares.
The front-end then fires itself of at a tangent to the curve.
The instinctive reaction to this(without exception) is to snap on more steering lock, which, as mentioned in the posts above, then develops into snap oversteer as you regain dry track, followed by a spin, or a masive fight to contain the slide.
The correct response is counter intuitive, and requires you to wind OFF steering lock, so that the front wheels are pointing straight when you regain grip. You still have to steer back into your lane, but it is possible.
One of the most deeply impressive exercises I've ever experienced. In the real world, I'm not sure I could make it stick.
When you hit the water, be prepared for the steering to pull sharply. Also be prepared for the vehicle as a whole to be pulled sideways as a result. You must resist the temptation to counteract this with the steering, since it won't work but would leave the steering off center when the wheels touch down again.
In all the cars I've ever hit standing water in, it has been extremely loud due to the water spray from the wheels hitting the underside of the car.
In all the cars I've ever hit standing water in, it has been extremely loud due to the water spray from the wheels hitting the underside of the car.
I'm not sure that I agree with the advice to not steer. I've only aquaplaned twice in my life, but both times the car started to gently rotate whilst I was aquaplaning. I instinctively kept the steering pointing the way I wanted to go, and when the car stopped aquaplaning, the steering lock provided the front tyres with the least rolling resistance possible for a smooth transition back to normal grip. Surely if I hadn't steered the front tyres would have bitten suddenly as they were dropped back onto the tarmac at an angle to the direction of travel?
crisisjez said:
If ever there was a time when the comment driving within the limits of the conditions applied...this is is.
Thing is though, one can suddenly come across standing water when it's just not expected. It can be hard to spot as well. Admittedly, though, I've only aquaplaned twice in 15 years of driving 10-20k miles a year.RobM77 said:
crisisjez said:
If ever there was a time when the comment driving within the limits of the conditions applied...this is is.
Thing is though, one can suddenly come across standing water when it's just not expected. It can be hard to spot as well. Admittedly, though, I've only aquaplaned twice in 15 years of driving 10-20k miles a year.I've aquaplaned thousands of times. Thankfully I have not run out of pavement before regaining control, although there have been some hairy moments.
Just like on black ice, you have to accept that you are a passenger until such time as your speed scrubs off or you have traversed the standing water.
Just like on black ice, you have to accept that you are a passenger until such time as your speed scrubs off or you have traversed the standing water.
crisisjez said:
RobM77 said:
crisisjez said:
If ever there was a time when the comment driving within the limits of the conditions applied...this is is.
Thing is though, one can suddenly come across standing water when it's just not expected. It can be hard to spot as well. Admittedly, though, I've only aquaplaned twice in 15 years of driving 10-20k miles a year.RobM77 said:
crisisjez said:
RobM77 said:
crisisjez said:
If ever there was a time when the comment driving within the limits of the conditions applied...this is is.
Thing is though, one can suddenly come across standing water when it's just not expected. It can be hard to spot as well. Admittedly, though, I've only aquaplaned twice in 15 years of driving 10-20k miles a year.(Bit OT as I was`nt even close to a car but I guess it proves it`s never read `Roadcraft`
)RobM77 said:
I'm not sure that I agree with the advice to not steer. I've only aquaplaned twice in my life, but both times the car started to gently rotate whilst I was aquaplaning. I instinctively kept the steering pointing the way I wanted to go, and when the car stopped aquaplaning, the steering lock provided the front tyres with the least rolling resistance possible for a smooth transition back to normal grip. Surely if I hadn't steered the front tyres would have bitten suddenly as they were dropped back onto the tarmac at an angle to the direction of travel?
I agree with your sceptisism re not steering, if the puddle is only affecting the nearside wheels then the puddle will slow down the car on that side whilst the offside will want to carry on at the same speed causing the car to want to spin to the left, what I do is de clutch and hold "resistance" against the wheel naturally trying to go left as opposed to actually steering right, if no counter steering is done you are at a very high risk of spinning,Gary
I did a track day at Silverstone a few years back at which it pissed down unmercifully. And I mean PISSED DOWN. The track was covered in a thick layer of water which slowly decreased into large puddles.
Nearly everyone left early. It wasn't much fun to be honest.
But I got a HUGE amount of aquaplaning experience in a short time. I have never actually suffered an aquaplane on the road so that you would notice. But at Silverstone I was doing it tens of times each lap.
And the key lesson is - don't steer.
Nearly everyone left early. It wasn't much fun to be honest.
But I got a HUGE amount of aquaplaning experience in a short time. I have never actually suffered an aquaplane on the road so that you would notice. But at Silverstone I was doing it tens of times each lap.
And the key lesson is - don't steer.
I'm another one in the 'steer if you have to' camp on this question - though it does depend in the situation, if the water is even enough depth (likely on race track or skid pan) that all 4 wheels aquaplane together then I agree no point steering, but in the real world its often not like that - ie with only 2 wheels aquaplaning (or just much deeper on one side) correction is usually required to stay on the road.
Edited by GravelBen on Monday 16th February 09:29
I've done loads of stage and road rallying over the years, often in appalling conditions, and have experienced quite a lot of aquaplaning as a result!
I really don't agree with an all-encompassing 'no steering' rule. When aquaplaning at speed you'll usually find the car drifts or tries to spin, or sods-law dictates that you're half-way around a corner and need to arrest your convergence with the armco or trees. I don't think anyone's daft enough to wind on full-lock whilst out of control at 80mph, but small corrections will help to keep you out of trouble and will not cause too many problems when grip is regained. Even if those actions do result in a spin that's probably a nice fast way of stopping and a lot better than head-butting something hard... It all depends on the situation, which is why it seems wrong to be very descriptive.
Similarly, I don't agree with de-clutching either, I'd much rather feather the throttle. Maintaining drive gives stability and a greater element of control, which you'll need when grip is restored.
I really don't agree with an all-encompassing 'no steering' rule. When aquaplaning at speed you'll usually find the car drifts or tries to spin, or sods-law dictates that you're half-way around a corner and need to arrest your convergence with the armco or trees. I don't think anyone's daft enough to wind on full-lock whilst out of control at 80mph, but small corrections will help to keep you out of trouble and will not cause too many problems when grip is regained. Even if those actions do result in a spin that's probably a nice fast way of stopping and a lot better than head-butting something hard... It all depends on the situation, which is why it seems wrong to be very descriptive.
Similarly, I don't agree with de-clutching either, I'd much rather feather the throttle. Maintaining drive gives stability and a greater element of control, which you'll need when grip is restored.
There are definitely two schools of thought on teaching declutching. It is received wisdom to teach declutching in all skids, but I only teach it when on ice and snow. In all other skids including aquaplaning it carries more risks than benefits.
The risks include:
Adding an other action which distracts from taking other more vital actions if if these actions are more like inactions.
You can easily have a problem when it comes to lifting the clutch up with a big difference between road speed and engine revs.
Whereas, not declutching may cause the skid to last a fraction longer, but will smooth out the sometimes violent return of grip, and the subsequent easy loss of control particularly with oversteer, when the opposite lock must be taken off exactly as the car straightens.
The risks include:
Adding an other action which distracts from taking other more vital actions if if these actions are more like inactions.
You can easily have a problem when it comes to lifting the clutch up with a big difference between road speed and engine revs.
Whereas, not declutching may cause the skid to last a fraction longer, but will smooth out the sometimes violent return of grip, and the subsequent easy loss of control particularly with oversteer, when the opposite lock must be taken off exactly as the car straightens.
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