Icy road slide correction (turn into slide?)

Uh, thinking?

 

No matter which way you are sliding, you will be steering into the skid if you are trying to keep where you want to go. Why are YOU so daft about this? It is really the same thing you said about steering where you want the vehicle to go.
If your back end is swinging to the right and pointing you to the left, you steer right - INTO the skid!

The main point is to not panic and over steer in the correction, or to hit the brakes.

 

You reiterated my point. People are stupid, and tend to panic. If they've had "steer into the skid" drilled into their head, they do that...and KEEP doing that until they can't do that anymore. Problem then, is, they steered TOO FAR into the skid, and when the car begins to come back around it does so quickly...TOO quickly...and then they're completely out of control trying to figure out which way to steer for it to be "into the skid" as they're spinning. Rather than preach "steer into the skid", I prefer "keep your front tires pointed where you want to go". Yes, if you do that you ARE steering into the skid...but you're controlling the situation rather than exacerbating it.

 

Ive spun some of my cars a few times in different situations. I just apply full lock and wait. (Steering wheel all the way over full) Usually after the first 360 shes back to going straight right quick without too much trouble as long the tires are quality etc. There is a tape on my wheel up top where it will tell me real fast when I reach center to catch it.

 

I call that skid going to the left. Steer away from the skid. Opposite of the skid. Against the skid.

Whichever way that vehicle needs to be turned to go straight again. Steer opposite of the skid direction to go straight.

Turning in to the skid with the skid would be trouble.

That's how i call it. I guess you all call it opposite.

 

OK.
So if your back end is skidding to the right and pointing you to the left...
Which way would you turn the wheel?

The skid is defined by which tires have no traction.
If your rear tires slide on a right hand turn, you will be skidding to the right - with the back tires sliding that way and pointing you to the left.
In that case you would need to steer to the right to keep your proper direction.
Yes? No?

If you view it the exact opposite of that, it is the same. You are just viewing it from the direction of travel and not the direction of the slipping tires.

 

When you get in to a skid. You don't think about which way the back tires are losing traction. You think about which direction your steers are going.

That's how it was taught in drivers ed. . And that's the way it thinks for me, anyways. But in my day. Cars were rear wheel drive. So, technically you would be correct in back tires losing traction.

BUT, let's imagine you're in your car.

In todays world of the front wheel drive car. The back tires won't lose traction. Because it's the front tires that provide the traction. The back tires just simply follow along. So, the back won't come out from around you. Instead. The front will get away from you. So you'd be turning AGAINST the direction of the front. NOT the direction of the back.

 

I don't have anything that's front wheel drive. Why? Because they are dangerous. Tires only have so much traction, and that traction is required for tasks such as accelerating, braking, and cornering. If you're trying to accelerate in the snow, it is not uncommon to exceed the available traction and spin your wheels. When that happens, gravity takes over if there is any slope to the road. Whereas on a rear wheel drive vehicle, you can maintain directional control by steering the vehicle as the rear squirms around, a front wheel drive vehicle will point itself downhill (towards the ditch).

I also keep my tires opposite of what is "recommended". Walk into any tire shop, and you'll see a poster on where to put your best tires. They say to put them on the rear, because you have the weight of the engine helping the front with traction and if the rear hydroplanes or loses traction around a curve, you'll spin. Personally, I like my traction up front...where 70% of my braking occurs and 100% of my steering is controlled. The back end can do whatever it wants, and as long as the steer tires are pointed where I want to go that's the direction I'm going. That and if I can't get traction to GO, that seems like less of a problem than if I can't get traction to STOP or STEER.

At the end of the day, though, it doesn't matter whether you're driving a front wheel drive car or rear...you have to keep your steer tires pointed in the direction you want to go. If you don't, you're out of control with no hope for recovering from the skid.

 

Fwd isn't dangerous.

Not with traction control and anti skid control.

I used to want awd. Not anymore. My fwd handles just as good. I LOVE my fwd.

Keep tires matched and aligned. Even the older cars would work to an extent. Without traction control.

I wouldn't want to go back in time though..I prefer today's technology.

 

Only truck drivers could take something so simple and complicate it so much.