3, 2, 1 CONTACT…….................”patch” that is.

I have already talked a bit about tires and how important they are and how they should be monitored. Now let’s dig a little deeper into the tire and talk specifically about that palm sized “contact patch”, You know, where the “rubber meets the road”. In order to discuss the contact patch, we will also be talking about weight transfer, how the vehicles weight moves around as we drive.

Tires are way more complex than most people give them credit for, but we’re not going to get into the construction of the tire but more the function of the tire on the surface of the road, as well as how you as a driver effect that function.

An average tire, as I have said a few times, has a contact patch about the size of the palm of your hand. Another way to consider the contact patch size is to take a standard size sheet of paper and fold it in half and then half again. The rectangle shape you now have is about the size of the average contact patch. So as you are driving down the road, the only thing keeping you connected to the surface of the road, is a patch of rubber that totals to be about the size of a sheet of paper! Yea, keep thinking about that for too long and it just might scare you away from driving all together. Now let’s add to the fact of this relatively small contact patch, that as we brake, accelerate and turn the steering wheel left and right, we are constantly changing the distribution of the contact patch on the road surface. 

Cars move on three basic axis, Vertical, transverse and longitudinal.  (Fig. 1)

The vertical axis is the axis the vehicle rotates on if its spinning, also called the “yaw” axis. The transverse axis comes in to play when braking and/or accelerating. And lastly, the longitudinal axis is what the car moves on when cornering. 

                                                                               Fig. 1

 

And let's say we are starting with a vehicle that has equal weight distribution across both axles. This is to say that half of the vehicles weight is supported by the front axle, and the other half by the rear axle. This set up provides four equal contact patches on the road.  (Fig. 2)

           

                                                                           Fig.2

 

As long as the vehicle is either sitting still or if it’s driving in a straight line at a constant speed, the four contact patches will remain equal. But lets say that we press the brake pedal. When we do this the weight of the vehicle shifts to the front. You know, when the smelly little pine tree hanging from the rear-view mirror swings toward the windshield. This shift of weight to the front applies more weight to the front axle therefore making the front contact patches a little bigger. Much in the same way that if you had a beach ball sitting on the ground it would have a certain portion of the ball touching the ground, but if you sat on it, more of the ball would be touching the ground. Same concept. 

But, because a vehicle moves the way that it does on these axis, the weight that was added to the front, came from the rear. This means the rear axle now has less weight on it therefore the rear contact patches become a bit smaller.  (Fig. 3)

                                                                          Fig. 3

  

Obviously the above figure is an exaduration, but I think you get the point. So with that said, then obviously when we accelerate in a vehicle just the opposite happens. Weight moves to the rear axel and increases the rear contact patch and the weight came from the front and reduced the contact patch size on the front tires.

The same happens when you turn the steering wheel except it’s a left to right thing rather than a front to rear.

So this is how the “vehicle dynamics" effects the contact patch, and I’ll talk more about the importance of contact patch "management" later. Probably in a post about skid control. For now I’m going to talk a bit about the contact patch itself. 

There is a way of looking at the contact patch called the “friction circle”. It’s a simple way of looking at a tires grip on the surface.

I’m all about simplicity, so I will explain this as simply as I know how. Well, simple is actually the ONLY way I know how to explain it, so its more about my ability than yours.

The circle below will represent the “limit” of the tires contact patch on a dry road. (Fig. 4) This means that if you go outside of that black circle, the tire starts to slip at a high rate. So if accelerating, it means wheel spin. If cornering it means the tire is sliding sideways. And if braking it means you have locked the tires and it’s skidding.

                                                                                         Fig. 4

 

 

Now,  If its raining and the road is wet, the “limit” becomes smaller because the surface is more slippery. (the blue line Fig. 5)

                                                                                           Fig. 5

 

And of course if you were driving on snow or ice, that circle would be even smaller yet.

So lets say that we are driving on a dry asphalt surface and we end up in a moment where we have to break pretty hard. Maybe we didn’t have our “eyes up” and we were caught by surprise by a stopped vehicle in front of us. So we apply the brakes hard. (Fig. 6)

                                      Fig. 6

 

 

As you can see I added the directional forces that are applied to the contact patch. Yes, I do know my right from my left. Again I am showing forces applied. So for example, when you turn the wheel to the right, the force on the contact patch pushes left.

You can see that in figure six we are braking close to the limit of the tires ability, but still inside of the tires capability. All is good. 

Now let’s say that we realize that we are closing in on the car in front of us too fast and we are not going to be able to stop before making impact. This means we are going to have to swerve to avoid. We find an opening to the left and we turn the wheel. (Fig. 7)

                                 Fig. 7

 

 

Again, you can see that the red line shows that the forces to the left are still within the limits of the tires grip., therefore we successfully avoid the incident without any loss of traction right? …………..WRONG!

When you vector the two lines, they meet OUTSIDE of the limit of grip. This is because you are utilizing both forces on the tire at the same time. (Fig. 8)

 

                                            Fig. 8

 

So, as i said, you see that when you vector the lines, the two points meet OUTSIDE of the tires limit of grip and now you have a tire that has lost traction. A tire can only do 100% of one thing. This means you can use the brakes all the way to the limit or you can accelerate to the limit and you can corner to the limit. But of you are braking at the limit and then you try to corner at the limit, the tire is not going to be able to handle both of those inputs at 100% and it will lose traction.

Does this mean that we were not able to avoid the incident? Not necessarily, it simply means that the tire is sliding and now you have to "manage" it. You have to get the tire to function back within its limits. You can do this by reducing your braking or reducing the steering input or both. And, provided you have the time to do this, you could still avoid the incident.

Also, these days we now have vehicles with systems that can recognize when you have gotten yourself beyond the tires limit and they can assist you in getting the vehicle on your intended path. Some of these systems are known as; traction control, stability control and ABS. I will do a separate post on how these systems work. In the situation in this example, the systems would have come into play.     (Fig. 9)

                                     Fig. 9

 

The yellow line shows that the systems would operate to keep you near the limit to try and maximize both of the requests you have made, within the tires ability. All you really need to do is stay on the brake and steer the vehicle, the systems will do the rest.

So that’s a quick and dirty way of showing you how inputs to the vehicles control systems affect the contact patch. In a more complicated but realistic picture you would see that a real contact patch is not a circle, it’s more of an oval type shape. (Fig. 10) below is a picture taken by a camera mounted under a glass plate as a vehicle drove over the plate. This shows an actual contact patch. The patch and its size will also vary dependent on tire pressure. I talked a little about that in the post about preparing to drive.

                                                                             Fig. 10

The reality is, the example I have discussed, no matter how detailed (or simplified) is only for one specific moment in time. Its what the tire is capable of at that moment, at that time, on that specific piece of asphalt, at that speed, with that steering angle. As the vehicle moves, the tire (contact patch) is constantly changing the surface that it is in contact with. Maybe it started out on a perfectly clean dry spot of asphalt, but then transitioned to a spot that had a little sand or oil on it. Whatever the case may be, its an ever changing scenario. 

A lot of race cars have data acquisition on them and its really cool to look at data and look at the plot points from the G-meter. They use these meters to show where the car can be faster and where it had more or less grip. It can also show the driver where he can gain time/speed by utilizing the vehicle a bit more to its limits in some areas. And where he/she may be losing time/speed due to going beyond the tires grip level in some places. It’s a cool science, and although you may not be into racing and you feel you may never take a tire to it’s "limit of grip". The reality is, the tire has no idea if it has gotten to its limit or gone beyond its limit because its on a race track and the driver is trying to get the most out of his/her contact patch in an effort to go fast, or if its on a highway trying to avoid a head on collision with another vehicle. All the tire knows is that it has been taken to or beyond it’s limit and it will react accordingly. It’s now up to you as a driver to manage the rest. 

What?......................you mean they didn’t explain that to you in Driver’s Ed?..................... I’m shocked!

Now give you're sixteen year old the keys and send him/her on there way. Scary isn't it?  It's no wonder the leading cause of death for teens is auto accidents.

JM

 

 

The EYES have it!

        Other than your common sense, there is one of your senses that you bring into a vehicle that is a bit more important than the others, and often times it’s not discussed enough. The sense I am referring to is vision. Your eyes are a major factor when it comes to driving of course, it doesn't take a genius to figure that out. However, the manner in which we USE our eyes when driving is where the importance lies.

        I’ll explain this just like I would in a school. Let’s say you’re walking down the sidewalk, its ok to look kind of low in front of you because you’re walking, so the information is coming at you pretty slowly. Now let’s say you’re skiing. You’re going to have to look a little further ahead than the tips of the skis as you race down the slope. Te information is coming at you way to fast to look that short of a distance in front of you. Well now let’s put yourself in a vehicle traveling at 50, 60, or 70 miles per hour. Now you have to be looking WAY ahead. Think of it like this.........

        As driver’s we are processors of information. The primary way in which we take in the information is through vision. Of course feel is involved and it too is important, as I discussed in my prior post, your posture behind the wheel is vital to your success in having the ability to make the car do what you want it to. All athletic events have a certain posture that the athlete must be in prior to executing whatever the athletic maneuver is, baseball, basketball, golf, tennis etc. Well driving can too be considered an “athletic event” at times. If you don’t believe me, try to make the car shoot across a three-lane highway at 70 miles per hours as you swerve to avoid a potential accident. I assure, it’s an athletic maneuver. But I digress, back to the eyes.

        So if our primary way of retrieving information is through vision, then we need to make sure that we are getting the information soon enough so that we can react appropriately. Most drivers have a tendency to not look far enough ahead. The faster you’re going, the further ahead you should be panning. So first and foremost, GET YOUR EYES UP! There’s really no need to see the hood of your own car while you’re driving down the road. This is not to say that you just stare meaninglessly way down the road ahead of you, it’s more of a constant scan. You have to glance in all of your mirrors every few seconds and when you look ahead, make sure you take a look as far ahead as you can. This will allow you to asses information well ahead of time.

        Next, when it comes to cornering, the eyes play a vital role. See, the information that you take in effects your hands. The eyes tell the hands what they should be doing with the steering wheel. If you haven’t looked INTO the corner BEFORE you start steering, how do you know how much to steer? Most drivers just get by on dumb luck when it comes to this. Why? Well, because we were not taught things like “Turn your head” and “look through the turn”. But again, this is what happens when you have the uneducated teaching the uneducated. I mean, do you realize that Drivers Ed teachers don’t actually have to pass a specific “driving” course other than the same one that the rest of us take. But they do get “classes” in how to teach driving………………..Really? Again, I digress.

        So when you are approaching a corner you should always LOOK into the corner BEFORE you turn the wheel. It’s called “having a plan”. If you don’t look before you turn, then it’s just kind of a guess isn’t it? I mean, what else are you basing the steering input quantity on? This is kind of like expecting a batter to hit the ball being pitched to him, while he looks at the first baseman. It just doesn’t make good sense does it?  If you haven’t looked into the corner you have no real idea how much steering you will need. This too could lead into an even more serious problem……speed. If you haven’t looked ahead, into the corner, then how do you know how sharp the corner is or isn’t? If it’s a really sharp corner and you didn’t look far enough ahead to plan for it i.e. slow down, then you could be faced with a bigger problem very soon. This is what happens on off ramps quite often. 

        A driver will get off the exit after traveling 70+ mph on the highway and sail it into the off ramp. They don’t plan far enough ahead to realize just how sharp the decreasing radius turn (typical off ramp) ahead is,. They don’t realize it until its too late, and then they panic when they realize they are going to fast, they apply the brakes and turn more. This combination tends to leave bits of headlight glass on the side of the road after they have smashed the front of the vehicle into the outside concrete barrier. We’ll talk more about this when I discuss cornering.

         So it’s a short topic, but one of the most important lessons you can learn as a driver.  Eyes up, plan ahead and look into turns before you steer. Just doing this will greatly improve your driving. 

EYES UP!  

JM

The OTHER most important wheel on the car.......

Not much thought typically goes into steering technique. Most of us just do it and don't really consider the manner in which we do it. However, I would dare say that learning how to master the steering wheel is probably one of the most important car control skills that a person can learn. I'm pretty sure its going to be a challenge to describe steering technique in text, but I will do my best.

The importance of the steering wheel is way under-rated. The effect that a steering wheel has on a vehicle is quite profound. If you were to ask someone "what does the steering wheel in a car "do"? you may likely get the answer "it makes the car change direction." True enough.  But there are other factors that come into play. Weight shift would be one of the biggest effects that happens to the car when you turn the wheel when traveling down the road. Of course if you are maneuvering around in your driveway or the local shopping center, weight shift is likely not a huge side effect from steering the car. There again, this is also not the environment where people find themselves in a significant accident. 

When you're driving down the road and you turn the wheel left, the weight transfer of the vehicle moves to the right. When you steer to the right, the opposite happens, weight shifts to the left. Now, I am going to try to primarily stay on the topic of steering technique and get into vehicle dynamics at a later time. But the fact of the matter is, the steering wheel seriously effects the vehicles dynamics. When handled improperly, its quite realistic that a bad steering technique, or misunderstanding of the effects of the steering wheel on the vehicle, can lead to a significant accident.

Back in the day we were taught, typically through driver's ed, to keep our hands at 10 and 2 as we drove. Over the years the "starting point" for hand placement on the steering wheel has changed depending on where you get trained. Some still teach 10 and 2, some teach 9 and 3 and others teach 8 and 4. And if you listened to those that teach each of these various starting points, they will all have what seems to be good merit as to why they recommend their particular position. I am not going to necessarily try to say why certain positions may be wrong, I am simply going to tell you what I recommend and why.

Most of us, no matter what we were taught, typically default to some type of steering position that is most "comfortable" for us. I would dare say the most common is the left or right hand draped over the wheel at the 12 o'clock position. You know, just chillin'. I would also say that for guys it is a matter of what looks "cool". I mean hey, the need to look cool as you drive your ride is quite an important thing to the average teen. And there again, roughly 5000 teens a year are killed in car accidents. So the price to pay for looking "cool" is a bit steep in my opinion, but maybe that's just me..................I doubt it.

Even in drivers Ed, most kids are taught a starting point but not much after that. Heck, if the car went into a massive skid, most of the driver ed instructors wouldn't likely know how to REALLY deal with the situation. I would lay exception to the teachers in the North that deal with snowy icy conditions on a regular basis. I may do a rant on the Drivers Ed system at some point, but not right now. 

I'll just go ahead and put my technique out there right now and follow up with the why. 

I use the 9 and 3 starting position, and for steering I use a couple of methods in my daily driving but the base method is hand over hand. 

Now there will be some that say oooooh, hand over hand, that's not good. You're crossing your hands over the airbag and if you crash that's going to be a problem. Well to that I say, I do not use a technique that will adequately prepare me for a crash. I base everything I do behind the wheel of a vehicle in a pretty simple manner......control then safety. See, I would rather put myself in a position behind the wheel of a vehicle that gives me the control I need to AVOID and accident rather than prepare for the accident. Now of course if the accident is unavoidable you do want to be sitting in the car in a position that allows all the safety systems in the vehicle to do their jobs. And I do, read my previous post. And to my recollection I have yet to hear of a person who was killed in a car accident because their arms were across the airbag when they crashed.

9 and 3 as a starting point is going to give you the best balance on the steering wheel. After all, the steering wheel is a circle and the bst way to balance a circle is to hold it at opposing points. It's not realistic to say that you should keep both hands at this position at all times. That's unrealistic and people don't do it. However, for a new driver it is something that they should do as they are learning to drive. I made my sons keep their hands at 9 and 3 all the time as they were learning to drive. So much of what we do is based on muscle memory and you need to train both sides equally so you know what it should feel like. But after time, its ok to drop one of the hands off the wheel, but always keep either the left hand at 9 o'clock or the right hand at 3 o'clock. The hand off of the wheel should remain close enough so that should you need to "get up on the wheel and drive" it is ready to go. 

So, for most of your driving your hands will stay at 9 and 3, even when negotiating most corners you will be able to leave your hands in this position. But what to do when you have to steer more than 9 and 3 will allow?

For normal cornering I tend to use predictive steering or "shuffle" steering. This basically means that as I prepare to enter the corner I may reposition my hands on the wheel in a position that I feel is adequate to get me through the corner (this starts with the eyes, (that's another post in itself) and if more steering is needed, I pass the wheel through my hands without crossing hand over hand. This works good and its easy for anyone to do. My personal issue with this technique is that most drivers, when its time to come out of the corner, will just let the wheel slide through their hands until it is straight again. It works, but its not very precise. Most drivers will never realize the fact that it is not precise until they have an issue such at hitting a slippery patch as they exit the corner or if they drop a wheel off the edge of the road at the exit of the corner. Then it can get interesting. 

Should "car control" become an issue, lets say on a snowy road or maybe a rainy road that you were traveling too fast on and you lost traction. In this situation I use hand over hand. Hand over hand steering is going to give you the fastest most precise steering technique, without letting go of the wheel. Even those that preach die hard shuffle steering will most always rely on hand over hand when the wheel has to be moved fast. Or worse yet, they will simply let go of the wheel. This is because they cannot "shuffle" the wheel fast enough to get ahead of the car and they are at a loss of what to do. I have done many many hours of right seat instruction with guys and girls that are die hard shuffle steer users and teachers, and I have yet to find one that will not either let go of the wheel or use hand over hand when things get fast.  Letting go of the wheel is not something I would EVER recommend, especially for new drivers. Now some of you may watch "drifting" and see that a lot of these guys "throw the wheel" or let go. I will explain why they can get away with that in a little bit.

Now, when I say hand over hand steering I don't just mean randomly grabbing the wheel hand over hand. There is a specific technique that I use and teach. I always grab the wheel at the half way point. I have a video of me practicing this technique several years ago. I will say, this was when I was first starting to practice this technique, I did get better and more precise as I continued to train. But this is a decent representation of what I am talking about.

Hand over hand steering practice

Ill do my best to explain how I do this....

Basically, if I am going to steer to the left, I will push up on the wheel with my right hand until it ends up over in the 9 o'clock spot. As the right hand is pushing the wheel, the left hand is coming over the top of the wheel and grabs the wheel at the 3 o'clock position. The left hand then pulls the wheel as the right hand repositions itself in the same spot on the wheel and then again begins to push up on the wheel. This is one of the most precise and fastest ways to get to full lock on the wheel, without letting go. 

Now, as I said a minute ago, you can watch videos of guys doing drifting that are constantly letting go of the wheel. There are a couple of reasons that many of them can get away with this. First and foremost is a complete understanding of where the wheels are pointed at all times. The more you understand your vehicle, the more you can get away with certain things. Another reason is years of experience. This kind of goes hand in hand with the previous sentence. I too can get behind the wheel and throw it around and not use hand over hand and still be fine, but that comes with time and practice, It's not for the average driver. What I am trying to teach are lessons that will get you started with proper technique. You dont typically see a baby that takes off running before it learned how to walk upright. 

So now your saying, "well that's great, but I don't have a place to practice like that." To that I say, sure you do. I actually started to learn this technique by sitting in the car and simply steering lock to lock over and over again with the car sitting still, in order to develop the muscle memory.  I have had my kids do the same thing. They will take a few minutes just sitting in the driveway and steer the vehicle lock to lock. In most cases, most drivers, unless you live in a snowy climate, will never likely need this technique, but its good to know. Also, having a good knowledge of how to utilize the steering wheel and having control of the vehicle via the wheel can give you a confidence in knowing that should you need to, you now have a skill-set that will help. This is true for most of what I will teach in this blog. These are tools for your tool bag. Some of these tools you will use on a regular basis, and some are specialty tools that only get used as needed.

With all of that said, I will summarize by saying that I personally don't think there is one specific steering technique that is the best one technique for everything, I think that would be naive.

What I will say is that you should know how to manage the steering wheel so that no matter the situation you find yourself in, you know how to properly utilize the steering wheel in order to keep the vehicle under control and on your intended path. 




JM

Prepairing to drive!

        All good drivers are more than just people behind the wheel of a machine that takes them from point A to B. A good driver is aware of his/her machine and their surroundings. They are involved with the act of driving mentally as much as physically.

All pilots do whats called a "pre-flight" check prior to taking flight. As drivers its a good idea for us to get into a habit of checking a few things before we take to the streets. 

Lets start outside the car. Its a good idea to make it a habit to walk around your car before you get into it. As you walk up to and around your car, you will look for a few things; 

Fluid spots on the ground

A small spot or spots may be the start of a leak that you can catch early and save yourself from a costly repair. If the spots under the car are more like a puddle, it may not be safe to drive the vehicle and you should have it checked out by someone before you drive. 

Objects on the ground

It may be something as simple as seeing a nail on the ground or it could be a a kids bicycle or toy. Whatever the case may be, its a good idea to look around the car for objects before you take off. 

Next its a good idea to check your tires. Tires tend to get overlooked by most driver's, but the fact is, your tires are one of the most important components of your vehicle. 

Tires

Tire technology has come a long way over the years. Its not nearly as common now a days to have a flat tire, and with the invention of the run-flat, even having a flat tire has become safer. However, all these advances in tire technology has increased our lack of attention to the tires themselves over the term of their life on our cars. 

Tires are one item you certainly need to pay attention to on a regular basis. I mean think about it. Once you get in your vehicle, the tires are the only thing that touches the ground. Each of these tires create a "contact patch" on the surface of the road. Each of these contact patches is only slightly larger than the size of the palm of your hand. That's right, its that small. Most of us never consider that. We are driving around several thousand pounds of machinery and the only thing keeping the vehicle stuck to the road are these four rubber contact patches. We will talk more about "contact patch" management at a later time, right now we are simply focusing on checking the condition of the tires. 

Its a good idea to check the tires about every month. I look at mine while I am filing the car with fuel. It only takes a minute to walk around the car and look at a few things. 

Tire pressure is very important. Most vehicle manufacturer's will have a couple of recommended pressure settings. You can typically find these setting either in the owner's manual or in the door jam and there will be settings for your specific tire size. The two pressures are usually one for normal driving and another that's a little higher in case you are carrying a load. 


 Under-inflation: a tire with low air pressure can be very dangerous. This situation can cause a variety of problems. When a tire is under inflated it cups in the middle. This cupped area can trap water when driving in the rain and make the tire more susceptible to aquaplaning. An even bigger issue can be sidewall flex. With the sidewalls being so soft due to the under inflation they will flex a lot more. This flex generates heat and can result in a sidewall blow-out. Its sometime hard to visually notice that a tire is low on air, especially if it is a low profile performance tire. You may notice that the edges of the tire is more worn than the center. However, the best thing to do is check the pressure with a gauge.

 

                                                                                                      Over-inflation: an over inflated tire may not be as susceptible to things like sidewall blow out or aquaplaning, but it does have its own set of problems. And over inflated tire is going to bow out in the middle. This will reduce the side of the contact patch on the ground. The reduced contact patch can result in a tire that breaks traction sooner than it normally would. This traction loss may come while cornering, accelerating or braking. Also, your vehicles ride quality will likely suffer from a tire that is inflated too much. Again, it may prove to be difficult to notice an over inflated tire visually. The most common thing you will see in an over inflated tire will be excessive wear on the center part of the tread. Its best to confirm the tires pressure with a gauge.

                                                                                                     
Its best to check your tire pressure before you start driving. Driving can build up heat in the tire and give an inaccurate reading. Check the pressure when the tires are cool, for example, first thing in the morning after the car has been sitting in the garage all night.  


Tread wear: Checking tread wear is pretty easy these days. Tire manufacturer's have what are called "wear bars" on the tires. These bars indicate when a tire has gotten to its least acceptable tread depth and they should be replaced

 

A lot of vehicle manufacturer's are now installing TPM (Tire Pressure Monitor) systems in vehicle's. These systems will warn you when one or more of your tires are out of the preset specifications. There is typically a reset process for these systems if you should happen to need to replace a tire. If you do get a TPM warning, you should safely pull to an area where you can double check the pressure of your tires with a gauge. A good tire pressure gauge is a worthwhile investment.

Seating Position

another crucial part of your pre-flight inspection and adjustments should be getting a proper seating position. Most people sit in a vehicle more for comfort than anything. The fact is, control should be your first motive behind your seat adjustment. If you are not sitting in the car properly, it's not as easy to control the car, especially in an emergency situation in which you may have to "get up on the wheel" and drive the car in a more assertive manner than normal.

For general setting it is recommended that you adjust the seat in the following ways:

Height: If your vehicle has this adjustment, you should adjust the height of the seat so that the top of your head is roughly 4-5 inches from the headliner of the vehicle. What you are looking for is making sure you have a clear path of vision through the middle of the windshield.

Distance to the pedals: Place your right foot on the brake pedal and your left foot on the floor to the left. (a lot of vehicles have a pedal on the left floor board referred to as a dead pedal) once your feet are in place, press on the brake pedal as if you are braking in an emergency. When you have your maximum pressure, make sure you have a slight bend in your knees. This insures two things. 1. that you are getting maximum brake pressure and 2. should there be an impact, your bent leg will act as a built in crumple zone. If your leg was locked fully extended it could cause more injury in the event of impact. 

Seat back/steering wheel: Although they may not seem to go together at first, the seat back and steering wheel should get adjusted together. First off, back when you were pressing the brake hard in order to adjust your distance to the pedal, make sure that you don't slide up the seat back. If you do, adjust the seat back in a more vertical position. Now, with your back flush against the seat back, extend your arms out in front of you and put your hands over the wheel. You should be able to bend your wrists over the wheel at the 12 o'clock position. You may need to adjust the telescoping of the steering wheel if your vehicle has that adjustment. As far as the steering wheel height, just make sure you can see your speedometer and other gauges. 

 

Head restraint/head rest: This adjustment is often over looked. Its an easy adjustment to make. Simply make sure that the center of the back of your head is aligned with the center or the head restraint.

Mirrors: Adjustment of the side view and rear view mirrors  has been being taught incorrectly for years. Most of us were taught to adjust the side view mirrors so that we could just barely see the side of our vehicle. Then, when its time to make a lane change, we are taught to turn our head and check the "blind spot". Well, this blind spot was created due to the mirror adjustment we were taught. Most schools are now adapting the adjustment of stepping out the mirrors. The way you do this is simple. First adjust the rear view mirror, its simple. Center the rear view mirror so you can see out of the middle of the rear window. For the drivers side side-view mirror, adjust the mirror out until you can NOT see the side of your car. Then lean your head left toward the window and again adjust the mirror out so that you can barely see the side of the car. When you come back to the normal seating position, you should no longer be able to see the side of your car. For the passenger side do the same thing except lean to the right. Now, with the mirrors adjusted out like this, you will have 360˚ of vision around your vehicle. If your need to change lanes, if there is a vehicle in a position in which you could hit it, you will see the vehicle in one of your mirrors of in your primary vision. There is no "blind spot". It does take some time to get used to this position and get it fine tuned, but I assure you, it works. 

Now that you have inspected the vehicle and its surroundings and adjusted yourself to an optimal driving position, put your seat-belt on and you are ready to go.

Keep in mind that the adjustments are "general settings", some of these positions may have to be tweaked to fit your specific body type. Also, not all vehicles have ALL of the adjustments described, so once again, you will have to get as close as you can within the parameters of what your vehicle will allow.

Next I will get into steering technique and vehicle dynamics. 

JM

Introduction

This blog is designed to help you learn more about driving. I'm going tell you things about driving that you may or may not already know. My intent is to convince you that what I am sharing can be valuable if you will apply the information to your daily driving.

This information is for anyone who drives – young, old, new drivers or experienced, mom’s, dad’s, kid’s, everyone. The techniques I will talk about come from years of experience as a professional driver, as well as years of experience BEFORE I was a “professional driver”.

I will explain situations that you may have already experienced. Maybe you were not adequately educated as to how to deal with that particular situation and as a result, you had an accident. Or maybe you made it out of the situation without damage or injury, but your not really sure why or how. In any case, I will explain to you many of the "whys", and do my best to educate you on the "hows", so that should you be faced with another potentially dangerous situation, you will be better prepaired. The truth of the matter is, if you will employ the proactive measures I talk about to your daily driving, you will be less likely to need the “emergency situation” techniques.

As drivers, it’s a safe bet to say that we only utilize a vehicle to about 45 maybe 50 percent of a vehicles capability, and likewise the driver’s. What I want to educate you on is two fold; what can you do to PREVENT yourself from a potential accident or dangerous situation. And secondly, if you find yourself in one of these potentially dangerous situations, what should you, as a driver, do? You see, its one thing to drive a car when it’s well within it’s limits and you are likewise within yours. But, what happens when the car gets pushed to 100% of its ability? What will the car do? At this same time, you as the driver will likely be at your limit of driving skill. How will you behave? What inputs will you give to the car? My goal is that you can learn these answers here, rather than in the moment.

The things I will talk about in this blog are things like, preparing to drive, vehicle dynamics, skid control, braking techniques, accident avoidance and more. I have no intention of trying to teach you how to be a “racecar driver”. However, some of these very same techniques are what make racers fast on the track. Just for the sake of information, I will cover some “performance oriented” driving techniques within the blog. 

Now, one thing that I cannot do in a blog is teach you how to drive simply by having you read the material. It just doesn’t work that way. However, as the old adage goes, “knowing is half the battle”. So I am here to equip you with knowledge that will give you a better understanding of how a vehicle works (vehicle dynamics) and things you can do to make yourself a better, safer and more aware driver. 

In order to practice some of the driving techniques, you may think you would need your own private track or test facility. Not true. There are plenty of ways and places to experience many of these techniques without having to own your own track. With that said, there are a lot of very good driving school throughout the country that offer excellent training for these very same techniques. I encourage you to look one up and get some time behind the wheel and practice with a trained professional watching you or riding with you. There’s nothing quite like getting that immediate feedback from an instructor who knows what your trying to learn. 

           

I am not sure how long it will take me to write this blog, but I will try to be timely about it. If you find the information useful, please don't hesitate to pass around a link to the blog, especially if you have a teenager who is just starting to drive. Teens are the highest risk drivers for deadly auto accidents. Anything that I can do to help reduce that risk I will. As I said earlier, knowledge is half the battle. So if you know a teen who is driving, please have them follow the blog. I know there will be information in here that can help save their life. And in this case, the knowledge is free. So what have you got to lose other than a little time? I'm sure you've wasted time on lesser things :-)