I've had my 98 OBS for a few months now, just curious about others experience with traction on wet pavement/hydroplaning. I've been playing around a little bit trying to break the wheels loose on wet pavement and can't do it, curious how it does at highway speeds.

I've had my 98 OBS for a few months now, just curious about others experience with traction on wet pavement/hydroplaning. I've been playing around a little bit trying to break the wheels loose on wet pavement and can't do it, curious how it does at highway speeds.

 

Thats the advantage of AWD, it doesnt break loose, If you have an automatic, put the FWD fuse in the holder under the hood. This disables the AWD and you will see the differnce.

 

 

The other factor is the tires. Blu needs tires this year, so he is hydroplaning a bit. Tires will be in the spring.

 

nipper

i agree

 

my legacy had only fwd till recently when i had the awd fixed, OMG what a difference!

Thats the advantage of AWD, it doesnt break loose, If you have an automatic, put the FWD fuse in the holder under the hood. This disables the AWD and you will see the differnce.

 

 

The other factor is the tires. Blu needs tires this year, so he is hydroplaning a bit. Tires will be in the spring.

 

nipper

 

Agreed tires make all the difference.

Was amazed at the spraying sound that the eskimos make as they churn and pump their way through slush and water, achieving much down-force like contact from what is yet a very dynamic element.

So the AWD really doesn't address hydroplaning, if you hit standing water you'll still be in trouble (not factoring in tread or anything).

So the AWD really doesn't address hydroplaning, if you hit standing water you'll still be in trouble (not factoring in tread or anything).

 

Sort of, depending upon the situation.

 

With any car tires are a major part of it. With HP (im not typing it out anymore) on a 2wd car, you get the HP tire loosing traction and spinning. That can cause the car to drift towards the source of the water (lets do a puddle). With Awd, you still have three tires pulling (two depending upon the axle) pushing the car forward in a straight line. It minimizes it.

 

 

Now on a wet road, It all comes down to the tires. Once the tires lift up off the road way, its as bad as ice.

 

nipper

Just don't hit the brakes. Not convinced awd makes any difference in a (hp) situation.

Try never to brake when HP'ing. Fastest way to lose control, let the engine slow you down. Like nipper said HP is like ice and brakeing on ice ain't too cool:rolleyes:

Seems like back in the early 1900's when I took drivers ed we were given a rule of thumb that the onset of hydroplaning speed was approximately nine times the square root of the tire pressure. Hence, 36psi would yield an onset speed of 54mph. Of course, tread depth, water depth, day of the week and currency of your insurance all play an important part in this equation.

 

 

 

 

 

I've had my 98 OBS for a few months now, just curious about others experience with traction on wet pavement/hydroplaning. I've been playing around a little bit trying to break the wheels loose on wet pavement and can't do it, curious how it does at highway speeds.

Seems like back in the early 1900's when I took drivers ed we were given a rule of thumb that the onset of hydroplaning speed was approximately nine times the square root of the tire pressure.

 

Too much math for us young'ins

Too much math for us young'ins

 

of for any of us

 

nipper

Hotdarn

"Seems like back in the early 1900's when I took drivers ed"

 

There were not even calculators then!!

oh yea, not too many cars either???

But man cars were complicated back then, no wonder you had to know all that math. Though i didnt think anything back then went fast enough to hydroplane.

 

 

nipper

I bet you would have trouble

finding 60 series tires then too??

 

Is it not true that the width of the tire

comes into play?

 

Water sking on a large flat board is much easier than

trying it on one's bare piggies.

 

From the Wiki

"(Narrower tires are less vulnerable to hydroplaning as all of the vehicle weight is placed on a smaller amount of rubber, thus more effectively pushing out the water to allow pavement contact)."

Actually it the ratio of the surface tred to the tire channel. The old rule of thumb was Motorcycles, Bicycles and tractor trailers with good tires dont hydroplane. With the wider motorcycle tires, that may have changed.

 

http://www.safemotorist.com/articles/Hydroplaning_Basics.aspx

 

Cars have very small channels in the treads to reduce noise. If you use that formula you can see mathmatically why the average motorcycle, bicycle (cant go fast enough) and semi's usually wont hydroplane. Air planes will hydroplane, but they land at a high rate of speed.

 

More math

7.95 * √(Tire Pressure) * (contact patch width/contact patch length) = safe speed.

 

All best are off when we are talking about slush.

 

SImple rule of thumb, slow down in the rain. Keep away from edges of the raod that tend to collect water.

 

nipper

The answer to my questions is: Avoid a false sense of confidence from AWD, at highway speeds your driving should be no different from a 2wd car.

another good thing to remember

is as the tire wears

 

and the tread depth gets less and less

 

The ability to channel the water out also becomes

less and less.

 

Worn tires in the rain can be dangerous.

 

Ever see a F-1 race where it starts to rain

before they have changed to rain tires?

 

It looks like they are ice racing without studs

or good snows.

Hotdarn

"Seems like back in the early 1900's when I took drivers ed"

 

There were not even calculators then!!

oh yea, not too many cars either???

 

Slide rule. The one that got us to the moon. And back. Safely.

 

First automobile fatality, 1899 in New York. 1913 saw 14,000 auto fatalities. 1940 about 30,000 fatalities.

My 97 OBS has much less tendency to pull in the direction of deeper water/slush then my previous FWD car. I assume (with all the dangers that go with that) that when one front tire starts to spin power is transfered to the rear which probably isn't hydroplaning because it's running in the grove made by the front tires.

I've had my 98 OBS for a few months now, just curious about others experience with traction on wet pavement/hydroplaning. I've been playing around a little bit trying to break the wheels loose on wet pavement and can't do it, curious how it does at highway speeds.

 

One advantage of awd over 2wd is, after wheel lock up, any driven wheel is sped up quicker than it would be by mere drag alone.

Remember: Win/Lose, Tight/Loose

 

All I know is with my AWD subies, especially the SVX, I can smoke things on wet pavement that I can't smoke on dry pavement