Keeping your hands on the wheel

[obi_waynne]

Do you keep BOTH hands on your steering wheel when you are not changing gear?

Do you feed the wheel through your hands coming out of the apex of a bend or do you let it freel wheel as forces open up the steering lock?

 

[Prince]

I keep both hands on nowadays...unless I'm driving at very low speeds.

 

[Wcnwzrd]

normal driving i use one hand, even on the turns and let it almost free spin back to stright out of a turn (hand on the top of the wheel but no pressure applied unless needed). on the track i use both but that is a given.

 

[Hansi]

keep both my hands on the wheel when I'm driving in bad conditions or at higher speeds but at longer journies I often have one hand on the bottom part of the wheel.

Going out of turns I let the wheel slide through my hands

 

[Loz]

Both hands on the wheel, but keep my thumbs out the way. A mate hit a tree head on in his rally car & broke both his thumbs... ouch :blink:
I try(!) & feed the wheel through on the road, but use the quarter to & quarter past fixed position when on track

 

[turbonutter69]

Don't really keep my hands on the wheel. But then again i don't always drive with 1 hand I do tend to change quite often. Sometime pass wheel through my hand but nomally just feed it when it pulls.

 

[prevtec]

i cant do it
i need to have 1 free,

 

[HDi fun]

i cant do it
i need to have 1 free,

Yet you, the master of car control finds cruise control to be uncomfortable.

 

[prevtec]

Yet you, the master of car control finds cruise control to be uncomfortable.

not saying im a master, i have my own ways

:toung:

 

[HDi fun]

I generally keep both hands on the wheel. Never at 10 to 2 position that's uncomfortable. quater to 3 is easier.

What I find looks really silly is RH at top dead centre and left gripping the gear shift. Panning the wheel looks even sillier.

It's as if the driver has been involved in a water skiing accident.

 

[obi_waynne]

On a long drive I go with 20 to 4 position, otherwise I get arm ache.

 

[Tex]

Long journeys usually both hands, shorter journeys one hand on the wheel, the other poised on the gear stick

 

[HDi fun]

Long journeys usually both hands, shorter journeys one hand on the wheel, the other poised on the gear stick

You can significantly accelerate gearbox wear by hanging on to the gear stick. It puts pressure on the selector forks.

 

[pgarner]

on long straights ie m/ways. i use one hand most of the time. on B roads both hands on the wheel at quater to 3

 

[obi_waynne]

I guess the question we should all ask is "which is safest?"

We should all remember that a blow out or sudden obstruction could appear and it would take longer to try and steer around it if we only had one hand on the wheel.

I'd be interested to hear your thoughts on this aspect of holding the wheel. It seems that we were all taught to use 2 hands at all times and feed the wheel through but very few people keep this habit up 100% of the time.

 

[obi_waynne]

Pro drivers are trained to keep their hands low on the wheel when on long motorway drives and keep them high when manoevering.

 

[TCJBOLDIE]

Both hands on the wheel, but keep my thumbs out the way. A mate hit a tree head on in his rally car & broke both his thumbs... ouch :blink:
I try(!) & feed the wheel through on the road, but use the quarter to & quarter past fixed position when on track

Me too
Hold on while I mount my trusty hobby horse once again.

Where you have your hands is a product of Muscle Memory that is the direct end result of the drivers good or bad/poor /lazy/sloppy habits get ingrained into your MM and it takes a strong will to reverse them.

I always use the 9 & 3 position all the time on the road or track as IMHO that is the absolute best position for car control and for any driver to respond to an emergency that requires a change of direction.

In an emergency situation where fractions of seconds can be the thing between crashing or not IF you for instance have one hand on the wheel @ 12 & the other on the shifter/handbrake or the girlfriends knee and you need to turn hard left at 60 kph and your reaction takes 1/2 second you will be app 8.4 metres closer to whatever you want to avoid before starting the steering input required to avoid a crash.

If a driver uses the 12 @ gearstick type hand position then as a general rule they are in cruise mode and the reaction time will blow out to over 1 second.

60 KPH = 16.7 metres per second
80 ..... = 22 ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
100.... = 27.8 ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

Gets down off hobby horse/soapbox

 

[HDi fun]

Steering techniques vary widely amongst drivers and amounts cultures. I don't think a relaxed hold on the wheel is a problem at elevated speeds. Many traffic officers concur, you can alter your hold on the wheel in a fraction of a second in anticipation of a developing situation.

Panning the wheel looks cumbersome, as does hand crossing.

I always pull (as opposed to push) to turn in, and it's perfectly safe to start from the far side of the wheel.

 

[TCJBOLDIE]

I guess I was trying to highlight the everyday situations that arise with motorists that are not situationaly aware and have NOT ANTICIPATED events that can and do occur to drivers that are not switched on and how much road/distance covered BEFORE they can react to the unexpected.
I call that perception, the time it takes for one to realise there is a problem and then the brain sending instructions to the foot to get on the brake which is reaction time.

 

[HDi fun]

^^^ Yeah, I think we're making the exact same point ^^^

Perception and anticipation are more important than reactions and reflexes

 

[TCJBOLDIE]

^^^ Yeah, I think we're making the exact same point ^^^

Perception and anticipation are more important than reactions and reflexes

Both generally but not always come with age and or experience and seeing that I am overqualified with the age part they are both important seeing my reflexes are slowing

 

[HDi fun]

I'm going the same way. 44 next birthday !! I do think though that anticipation buys you several seconds whereas sharp reflexes buy you a few tenths of a second.

There's gotta be a reason us middle-aged lot can insure just about any car we fancy for sensible money.

 

[TCJBOLDIE]

I'm going the same way. 44 next birthday !! I do think though that anticipation buys you several seconds whereas sharp reflexes buy you a few tenths of a second.

There's gotta be a reason us middle-aged lot can insure just about any car we fancy for sensible money.

44 ??? you are barely out of your teens. I can't remember back that far.

My age is why I can get my highly modified car fully insured so there are some benefits that come with maturity

 

[HDi fun]

44 ??? you are barely out of your teens. I can't remember back that far.

My age is why I can get my highly modified car fully insured so there are some benefits that come with maturity

I think we are saying the same things.

Barely out of my teens at 43 years of age?? Did you do numbers as school? What's the point of your post?

That you can't remember being 43?

Come on, let's stop the willy contest please, silly old man you :-D

 

[Yugguy]

I'm only 43. You guys are well old. (;->

 

[TCJBOLDIE]

All of my 3 offspring are in their 40's so maybe that's why I think that people of that age are young.

 

[old-git]

They are

 

[old-git]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1cjaheraq8

 

[T9 man]

^^^ Enough said I think