Feeding it through or crossing over.

[Miniman]

Ok so when your taught to drive its hands at ten to and ten past, and your taught to feed the steering wheel through but who actually still does this?

Did you keep to your strict lesson ways or did you soon develop your own style or bad habits?.

 

[hemingway]

yes got a few bad habits.Havent driven with my hands at them points since i passed.Its either 20-25 past or 12 with my right hand.As for feeding through the hands it would be or feel to slow for going round corners now.

 

[HDi fun]

I'm a quarter to three driver. And I do feed the wheel unless parking or other very low speed operation.

Feeding the wheel is quite effective if you take your first 'bite' at the bend by bringing your hand up and well past midday to start the turn in.

As can what the police call rotational steering. This is where you position both hands before the bend so that you keep both in place on the wheel throughout the turn.

The current test is, frankly, ridiculously prescriptive in some ways and far too liberal in others.

Who really cares if the test candidate hooks their hand inside the wheel to start a reversing move? No-one is EVER going to need to swerve or control a blowout whilst moving at 0.3mph.

 

[hemingway]

if im coming up to a tight bend il position my hands 10 to and 20-25 past before hand that feels more effective for the turn than just holding with 1 hand,then revert back to 20-25 past or sometimes just quater past but thats 1 of my bad habits then.

 

[HDi fun]

if im coming up to a tight bend il position my hands 10 to and 20-25 past before hand that feels more effective for the turn than just holding with 1 hand,then revert back to 20-25 past or sometimes just quater past but thats 1 of my bad habits then.

That's not a bad habit at all. That's exactly what the rotational steering is that I've described. It's unofficial for UK Police to use such a technique within the System Of Car Control to which they're trained. It's commonplace in many European Countries though. Germany is one such subscriber.

The worst two steering techniques in my opinion are:

1: panning the wheel with one hand whilst the other is superglued permanently on the gear shift. It makes the driver look like he's been injured and lost a limb as a result of a waterskiing accident. Surely this must be very tiring on even a short journey. I cannot imagine keeping this up for 100 miles plus on demanding roads.

2: The yacht helmsman who leans into every corner and crosses hands repeatedly at the extremities of the limits of each arm's respective travel. This also makes the simple act of steering accurately very tiring and cumbersome.


Rotational steering is very useful when stringing a series of bends together on less than ideal surfaces. It allows far quicker reaction to minor deviations in intended course without the need to keep shuffling the wheel.

When negotiating very low speed parking moves then anything goes as far as I'm concerned. So long as you know which way the front wheels are pointing it really is not a safety issue at all. Far better to spend your efforts looking around outside the car than buggering about with the steering needlessly.

 

[obi_waynne]

I am pretty good and always feed the wheel through my hands. I feel a lot more in control. I've been caught out a few tiems palm steering.

For a long drive I'm more of a 8/4 o'clock driver, I believe that the police also use a lower hand position for motorway driving as it saves fatigue.

I do tend to let go and let the wheel auto correct coming out of a bend. This is a bad habit I'm currently trying to work on.