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.
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
JM
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