driving in strong wind

Very cool indeed! I sometimes wonder how many TT'ers I cross paths with during the course of a day.

 

There's nothing like teaching if you want to learn something really well. While I was a trainer at Swift I developed The Six Fundamentals of Proper Steering, which I drilled into my trainees. The most difficult trainees to teach were those with prior class A driving experience, in one ear and out the other. Some trainees took my teaching to heart and later after going through a winter of driving might call and thank me for the steering fundamentals, for it saved their bacon many a time.

Part of the reason I developed these fundamentals is because I ran team dedicated, coast to coast, with a partner that had really poor steering habits, starting with improper setup. Every time he ran all day in a hard cross wind through Kansas he ended up in excruciating pain in his neck, shoulders, and arms. I tried to explain to him the concept of how to set up and steer properly, but he wouldn't hear it. I on the other hand can drive all day fighting a broadside wind without pain and without "Yankee Doodle Steering" (reference to the Don't Drive and Jerk thing I wrote a few posts back).

So, if anyone is interested, here's the Six Fundamentals of Proper Steering:

1. SETUP - your seat should be adjusted far enough forward to EASILY press in the clutch completely without getting on tippy toes. The back of your seat should be upright. The steering wheel should be in a position that when you hold the steering wheel at 10 and 2 your arms hang down with approximately a 90º bend in the elbows. GET RID OF THE ARM RESTS (I actually removed them completely on the truck I just bought).

2. GRIP - your control of the vehicle starts at your point of contact. Just as a golfer has control over the golf club or a batter has control over the bat, your grip must be LIGHT. Do NOT over grip the steering wheel. There's absolutely no need for it. Hold the steering wheel as you would a golf club, with your thumbs ON TOP of the wheel and your wrists in line with your hands. Don't hold the wheel with your thumbs inside, for it will cause your wrists to be ####ed in a position that can create carpal tunnel syndrome AND you risk getting your thumbs broken if you have a steer tire blowout or hit a pothole or rut.

3. NOODLE ARMS - after you have a RELAXED grip on the wheel, the next area of relaxation will extend to your arms all the way to the base of your skull. This was the hardest area for me to overcome. The visualization I have for this is my arms should hang like suspension bridges made of wet noodles, from the base of my skull all the way to my relaxed hands. ONLY by having this entire area relaxed will you be able to start feeling and reacting to ruts, potholes, bridge joints, and wind blasts with proficiency.

4. PULL DOWN TO STEER - the next fundamental, and one that is really difficult for many folks to overcome, is to ELIMINATE ANY tendency to steer by PUSHING UP on the wheel. ALWAYS pull down and let the opposite hand simply be along for the ride to stabilize the wheel without any input unless it needs to pull down to react to the road or wind. As I pull down my elbow is pull into my torso. Avoid having "flying elbows" by steering with your elbows away from your body. That body contact lends an incredible amount of control. This is similar to the "Lock Off" move that an expert rock climber does to reach higher for the next hold, you pull down on a hold with your elbow close to your body until you pull as far as you can go and "lock off" by squeezing your arm against your body.

5. FLY NAKED FOR LANE CONTROL - lane control is a huge issue for many drivers, both new and experienced. Countless times you see examples of "Yankee Doodle Steering" out on the highways, often by truckers who are obviously experienced. Every time I pass such a trucker I rarely EVER see them employing any of the first four fundamentals. The visualization I have for maintaining lane control (and it is a RARE event for me to cross the zipper or the fog line even in the wind) is to "Fly Naked".

In skiing there is a saying you need to "See the Line, Ski the Line". If you are skiing through trees you HAVE to be able to visualize the line you will take between them, otherwise you risk skiing without a plan and making a turn right into a pine tree. The same applies to driving a truck.

So here's how to maintain perfect lane control. When you get in your truck look at the center of the truck, like at the dividing seam on the windshield of a Freightliner, and measure how far it is from the center of the truck to the bridge of your nose. The bridge of your nose is the center of YOUR point of reference. Usually that's about two feet from the center of the truck to the bridge of your nose. NOW, look at the lane ahead of you and see the center of the lane, THEN visualize a line that is two feet left of center. THEN, think of yourself flying right on that line, suspended about eight feet in the air, with no truck and no clothes and your natural parts flapping in the breeze. If you do that you will find it much easier to maintain your lane. When you go around a curve to the left that line creeps to the right to account for trailer swing and when you go around a curve to the right that line creeps to the left.

6. STEER TIRE DYNAMICS - a police officer once told me something that he was taught during pursuit phase of training. I had always been taught that taking a corner at high speed in a car meant braking BEFORE the corner and then getting on the throttle through the corner. He said they were taught to brake AS THEY INITIATED THE TURN, then get on the throttle halfway through. The reason for this is that as you brake the weight of the car is thrown forward, onto the steer tires. This causes the rubber in those tires to bend and start SNAPPING you into the turn. You release the brakes at the point just before you threaten to snap around into a spin out and get on the throttle to bring those steer tires back to straight and true.

This tendency of tires to bend under sideways stress applies in driving a big rig, and you should be aware of it and anticipate it. For example, suppose you are taking a curve on the freeway at 60 mph and come to a pothole or bridge joint. When you hit that pothole or bridge joint if you have a death grip on the steering wheel and the wheel doesn't move at all, then the steer tires are going to flex and throw you into a new direction.

I anticipate ruts, bumps, and bridge joints and will often actively COUNTER STEER to maintain my line. For example, on a 60 mph curve to the left I will make a quick counter steer to the right as I hit a bridge joint. It's just a fraction of a second and only a small 1-2" of movement of the steering wheel to the right and back in the blink of an eye, but it's quite an eye opener for a rookie to apply this technique and have rock solid lane control through a bumpy curve. This may be similar to the "Chop The Wheel" technique that is taught during skid pad training as you make a high speed curve in slick conditions. I think we may be talking about the same thing: application of awareness of steer tire dynamics.

One other thing about coming into an especially bumpy patch is that is NOT the time to tighten up your grip or your arms. If anything that is the time to LOOSEN YOUR GRIP. I normally hold the steering wheel with the palms of my hands providing friction contact with very LITTLE finger pressure. If I approach a really rough patch that I can't steer around I will actually lift the palms of my hands off the steering wheel and only hold it in my fingers very lightly. The reason I do this is to ALLOW THE STEER TIRES TO BOUNCE LEFT AND RIGHT ON THEIR OWN. I know this may sound like the wrong thing to do, but when you are under speed the steer tires will seek their own line in those ruts and potholes and return back to your line on their own. Don't fight their need to follow their own line for a moment. This technique has been especially helpful for me running on some incredibly bad dirt roads getting to and from oil rigs or other work sites in my current job. If I fought the wheel, believe me the wheel is going to win every single time and I risk running into a ditch or worse.

I hope this may be helpful. I know many driver's may feel that some or all of these fundamentals are either useless or wrong. However, I think that my constant awareness of these have really helped my own driving. Again, for me to cross a fog line or zipper is a rare event nowadays. All these fundamentals apply in big broadside winds, and I run a lot of narrow country roads with absolutely no shoulder in those winds. I can't imagine driving the "old way" anymore. I'm pain free, relaxed, and really enjoy the challenge. I'm having fun.

 

Start with the setup. Make sure you have your arms hanging down. It may at first feel that you are too close to the steering wheel, but bear with that "unusualness" until you get used to it.

After that make sure your hands are REALLY relaxed with your hands and wrists in line, not ####ed to the side. The hardest part for me to overcome was the noodle arms. Whenever I feel ANY tension developing in my arms, shoulders, or neck I visualize my arms getting heavy, then swing my elbows back and forth towards each other. That releases the tension. Now I have ingrained the habit of relaxation to the point I rarely have to do that anymore.

And yes, I also started to develop symptoms of carpal tunnel and chronic neck and upper back pain before really concentrating on creating these fundamentals. I have a degree in psychology, part of my course and lab work was in techniques of relaxation and hypnosis. Together with my sports and using these techniques to create motion efficiency in manufacturing, and it all comes together.

 

With all due respect I don't agree with some of your point in regard to experienced drivers. These drivers are too busy playing with their go pro camera's, texting or putting sugar and cream in their coffee to actually take the time to sit still and drive that #### truck. I actually saw a driver reading a newspaper one day on I-285 in Atlanta. An intense telephone conversation EVEN with a headset takes your mind off the task at hand. EVEN having another person in the right seat and having a conversation with them takes some of your attention off your mirror and instrument scan. I have told young drivers in truck stops and terminals for years now. Make your coffee before you start the trip. Keep your phone conversations short and do your best to avoid them in bad rush hour type of traffic. Because you won't see that car that just came into your path until you hit it. This is a very contentious issue anyway, but I am happy to see the Feds ask the Cell phone carriers to develop a driver mode that will automatically block calls and texts when the phone is used in a moving vehicle. This is in my opinion 5 years too late and I hope they all do it.

 

Yes, many a time I see Yankee Doodle steering from "professional drivers" playing with cell phones, Qualcomm or GPS, or otherwise distracted. However, there's also numerous times I pass a driver weaving around and see him/her with one hand on the steering wheel at 12 o'clock or with the seat so far back their arms are almost straight. Invariably their thumbs are wrapped around the steering wheel, begging to get broken.

 

Yep, get that thumb in the right place and if everything gets right it gets broken. Until you experience just how quick and violent that jerk is you will just keep right on keeping it in there. Once you get that jerk and spend several weeks in pain from a broke thumb you wont do it again.