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