|
just to add my two cents, when i had to take
courses in school for driver ed in the text book and even the instructor said
that most hydroplanning occures at/around 35 mph, but of course over 60 mph
would tend to hyroplan too, tread designs & depths, and narrow vs wide tires
make the most difference, and it makes sense... which is why your not
gonna see hoosier race tires on street cars (unless the owner is a complete
idiot) the water has no where to go
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Wednesday, January 29, 2003 4:21
PM
Subject: Re: CRX: hydroplaining...little
more...
On 01:24 PM 01/29/03 +0000, [EMAIL PROTECTED]
said...
From my own experience during
monsoon rain storms here in Florida, the stock
13" steelies did an
"okay" job keeping the car planted on the road. After I
lowered
the suspension on Eibach Pro Kit springs and put the 205/50 R-15
Koenig
rims on, the car had a horrible time driving through any slicks of
water
at high speed- felt like a crazy crabwalk.
Back in 2001
when I was out in Orlando (the week of the 9/11 - as some of you recalled, I
was actually stuck out in Orlando because of it), the sudden and random(?)
down pours dumped a ton of water on the streets.
Our rental car (a
Pontiac Grand Prix) didn't experience any hydroplaning but we did see one car
that did spin off the highway (the 14) and into the middle grassy
section. Like the 9/11 events that took place, watching that car glide
off the freeway was surreal.
As we drove further down the freeway, we
saw at least two other cars that had *spun* off the road into the marshy
middle area.
Willy- you're right on the money
'cause it turned out to be the alignment.
Once I had a 4-wheel
alignment done, the car now tracks straighter than ever,
*but* if I fly
through standing water at speeds above 55mph (not that I ever
go faster
than 55mph :P) the car loses traction like it's floating on the
wider
tires and starts going diagonally towards the lower
shoulder.
My neighbor's kids has a "Slip-n-Slide" mat that
they had setup last weekend and let me tell you... if anyone has any thoughts
of running and then diving head first in an attempt to slide along on your
belly, keep an close watch of your shorts! :^) My neighbor's kid
tried this and about half way down the mat, he kept on going but his shorts
decided that it wasn't going to have none of that and stayed put!
:^D
What does this have to do with alignments? Nada-damn thing...
but it does sort of have something in common with hydroplane...
:^) And I thought it was kinda funny... Only wished we had video
taped it and sent it to "Funniest Video's" or some other show like
that...
Here's the interesting point- all
I have to do to recover is a series of quick
tap-tap-tap's on the brake
pedal and the car corrects back to a straight path
almost
instantly. This is George's home-brew anti-lock brakes
:).
(* snip *)
The one and only time I have ever
experienced hydroplane to a large degree was when I hit a body of water while
on the freeway at around 50 MPH. It was under an underpass and it was
still dark out (around 5:30am). It was raining lightly - a drizzle -
since it had rained earlier and had left some water on the freeway
still.
I sort of saw the puddle but I couldn't tell how large it really
was and it didn't look as if it had gone all that much past the shoulder (this
is the left lane). I guess there was a larger body of water in the
general area that I just did not see because the CRX (aka: Jiggy) felt *light*
and I saw the RPM actually go up and then back down and then up again before
it settled back down. I also noticed that I had *floated* into the next
lane (right) just a bit.
Fortunate for me it was still early and there
was no real traffic out on the freeway.
The whole event took place in
about 2 seconds and it did shake me up just a bit.. I pulled off at the next
off ramp to calm my nerves and to do a quick check by walking around the
car.
But the one thing I did remember, which I thought kinda odd, was
that I did not lift my foot off the throttle. I also did not try to do
any sudden movements with the steering wheel but kept it pointed
straight. But then again, it happened so fast that I probably just
didn't have time to react or think about what was happening (which in it's own
right is spooky....
Since then (this was back in 2001), I've never
experienced anything like it again.
Although later in that year
(December) there was some pretty decent rain fall that I had to drive through
(from San Diego to Central California) ... most of which was in the San Diego
and L.A. area (up to the Grape Vine, after that, it was just
cloudy).
Was in the Volvo and the AWD probably made most of the
difference. For a good 2 hours, we were driving in down pours that just
would not let up.. There were times where we were doing no more than 40
MPH because it was so bad.
The Volvo is also a heavier car than my CRX
but I did not experience a hint of hydroplane (although I was getting ready
for it in the event that it did happen... not really sure what I would
have done... someone once told me not to brake but to try and drive straight
through it and to try and shift down to a lower gear if
possible...).
Now days, when we get any sort of measurable rain, I take
surface streets to work which is perhaps worse since they tend to puddle up
more but then speeds are also kept down to under 40 MPH.
Robert K. Kuhn
CRX Owners Group President (http://www.crx.org/southcal)
1990 Honda CRXsi (http://www.hooligan.cc)
ICQ # 3714283 (nickname:
godzilla)
Alpine Drive (San Diego County) -
February 8, 2003
http://www.crx.org/southcal/events.html
|
