Guide for steering techniques

[Astraist]

Do you know how to steer your car? Do you think using a specific steering technique actually makes a difference? Do you know other techniques besides the rotational and shuffle methods? If you have no answer (or even if you do have answers) than read on, and you just might learn a thing or two. I will present the different methods for steering in road driving and in motorsport driving, and eventually present my favorite. At the end of this, I hope, the more devoted readers will find out that thus far they have turned the steering wheel too much and with excessive affort. You will be surprised how little of a movement you need to make, when you know how to steer.

Fixed-input Steering
This is a simple enough technique. It involves putting both hands on the wheel and swinging it with both hands. This is the best steering method in terms of control and accuracy, but it has very limited leverage, particularly in the popular 10 to-2 or 8 to-4 positions. Many people would settle for the 10 to-2 position (which is more comfortable) and some would maintain the 8 to-4 position (which is alledgly safer), saying that it is enough, but in each of the position, not only is you leverage limited, but you control, feedback, balance and turning force are also damaged and you are in peril of hitting an inflating airbag (which deploys at more than 300mph) with your hands (in the 10 to-2 position) or braking your thumbs (in both position).
Conclusion: When driving in the open road, hold the wheel in 9 and 3. This way you have full control, 270 degrees of leverage, and easy access to lights, blinkers and etc. You can also put you thumbs in the designated positions on the crossbrace (unless you go off road) below the "bumps" on the inside of the rim. Plus, you are safe from the airbag.
For steering through actual turns and bends, however, a more complex hand work must be applied:

Hand over-Hand steering
This method is the simple and traditional method, of rotating the wheel by crossing your hands one over the other for quick and powerfull turning. The result is, however, that even for very slight turn-in amplitudes, you find yourself pulling and pushing endlessly, thus making the action un-smooth, tiresome, and inaccurate, especially if you hook the hands inside the wheel.

Some driver refine this style by relocating the pushing hand lower before sharp corners (Ari Vatanan), or by using it in conjungtion with a fixed-input style, where the pulling hand cross over before the forearms touch, and is than used in support of the pushing hand as it is pushing all way round. Still, it least preferable.

Hand to-Hand steering
This is a newer practice, which I am sure that many of you use and adore as the favorite technique. Indeed, if perfected, this practice is easier and smoother than rotational steering, because you are pulling more than pushing, and you are making larger, smoother movements, without leaving the wheel. Still, you are making several pulling and pushing movements, so it's not ideal. Moreover, in this method it's hard to turn the wheel very quickly, and the wrist gets twisted as you pull down.

Push and Support steering
This is a method some race drivers use. In this method, you are not pulling and pushing, but instead, you only make one long pushing movement. You move the hand in the direction of the bend above the stationary hand, and push with both of them. This method gives you great force for quick turn-in with a steady wrist, but you lose feedback and smoothness, and you can find youself at the edge of the leverage quite quickly, even in a race car, and much more on a road car.

The claim brought for pushing is that the wrist stays firm, unlike pulling. This is only true, however, when refering top pulling down to 6O'Clock in the hand to-hand method.

Dual-movement steering
This is another method popular in race driving. This time, however, the whole movement is done with both hands, in two movements. The idea is to increase the leverage you have in the fixed-input steering from the 9 to-3 position, by sliding both hands on the wheel, opposite to the direction of the turn, and than swinging the wheel back to 9 to-3 with both hands, so the car is turning, but now you are again holding the wheel on both sides in 9 to-3, so you can quickly and easily make large adjustments and correction to the steering input.

This method, however, requires two movements. And by the end of the first movement, you still haven't moved the wheel at all, so you make the action slower, and you lose the "center" of the wheel so you need to "feed" it back, shuffle steering style, and you lose information about the direction in which the front wheels are pointing. You also don't have much leverage from this method, so it's only useful for wider corners.

Pull steering
This method is classic for rally driving. Like the dual movement method, this technique also involves a steering movement that is done so that after the car turns into the corner, you are again in the 9 to-3 position. In this method, unlike the dual-movement method and the push and-control method, you are making this adjustment not by pushing and not by swinging with both hands, but by pulling with one hand, under the "supervision" of the other hand, which stays stationary. When you pull, you are utilizing much more muscles, in you palm, arm, shoulder and back, so that the action is less about brute strengh (like pushing), but is about sensitivity and accuracy, with minimal affort.

Let's take a wide left turn in an intersection. Fot this turn you don't need to steer a lot, 90 degrees of rotation are enough. So you take the left hand, put it ontop of the wheel, release the grip of the left hand, so it lets the rim slide under it controlably, and pull down with the left hand untill it again reachs the 9O'Clock position. Now we are in the 9 to-3 position, although the car is turning. To bring it back straight, the right hand goes ontop of the wheel and pulls back to 3O'Clock. (For this turn, the dual-movement method also works)

If the corner is sharper, than you will need to rotate the wheel 180 degrees, so the leading hand (left hand to turn left) goes just above the stationary hand and pulls back to it's point of origin. A realy sharp corner is engaged by turning the wheel 270 degrees, so you put the ;eading hand on the bottom of the wheel, pull under the stationary hand (it lift up momentarly) and back to where it started, in 9 or 3 accordingly. Two such movement are enough for a tight U-Turn!

You might notice that the turn-in action should be quick and decisive, and not progressive like in the "traditional" rotational or shuffle steering. Smooth and decisive turn-in movements make the car turn much better, especially in the wet. When you make the opposite movement, to bring it straight, you should me slower and move subtle.

My reconmendation is a combination of three methods: The fixed-input steering (when you are traveling in a generally straight line), the dual-movement method (for wide turns in intersections, which require up to 90 degrees of steering wheel rotation) and the pull method (for most corners). In parking manouvering, the pull method works best in conjuction with "palming", that is, pressing the palm of the pulling hand on the wheel to allow an infinite leverage.

Every one makes his own balance between the three methods, but if you use them, eventually your driving will become smoother, easier and faster.

Here the pull style is being demonstrated:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lLw4N5V7DrQ&hl=iw

Here it's being used more quickly to overtake an autocross:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8128919036513002319#http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lLw4N5V7DrQ&hl=iw

 

[obi_waynne]

Sorry Astraist, we mistook your post for copyright material and removed it. Having investigated further we apologise for this and have approved your post. Sorry about this, we get quite a bit of copyright material posted by new users.

Although I applaud you for taking the time to write a steering guide I cannot agree with many of the points made.

Palming is prone to slippage and you are not fully in control of the car. If you hit the kerb then the wheel will spin.

Push and pull maintains constant contact with the steering wheel, is within your "strength" zone and is by far the smoothest steering control around allowing a complete unbroken lock to lock steering action.

You also can't assume that 90degrees of steering is enough? What if the car skids? Or you need to take dramatic action to avoid a colission or if a wheel falls off. Your arms are in the wrong position to correct it/recover.

 

[Astraist]

No harm done.

However, palming is a method I encouraged only when making manouvers in an extremlly slow speed (or even when doing "Dry steering).

Through most of your driving, it's best to use the pull method:
1. It allows for an ideal grip: always alteast one hand firmly gripping the wheel, always both hands in some sort of contact with the wheel. The action is done in one long movement, which is better. Pulling and pushing, and alternating grip is not smooth.
2. Ideal use of muscles, unlike in the Push-pull method where you also use the brute strengh of shoulder muscles as you push, and also bend the wrist as you pull down. Yes, the single advantage of pull-push is that each hand stays in it's respectable side, but that's also the thing that causes the wrists to twist and the action to be slower.
3. you are able to perform one handed if nessecary (gearshifting, handbrake turns).
4. You always have a very good idea on where the wheels are pointing, and you can easily, symetrically and ellegantly bring it back.
5. It is quicker. The same autocross would have been done much slower, less accurate, and with far more hand-movements, if shuffle steering was used, and should the car begin to slide (which occured intentionally at the hairpin), the ability to recover would have been close to zero.
6. The whole concept of the pull technique is to allow to maintain the 9:15 position, allowing to turn the wheel an extra 270 degrees each way after it has been turned. This should be enough to control every skid, to correct every steering error, or get through any bend that sharply and suddenly tightens, or across a surprising obstacle.
7. As I said, a good turn-in, is a quick turn-in, almost a sharp one. It makes the suspension to help the car to change it's direction of travel, and it creates friction between the tires and road, creating a slow-down, thus shifting weight forward and increasing traction. In the pull-push method, everything is much slower.
8. It's easier to pull the wheel in one accurate movement. It makes for a more accurate steering, and helps you to always maintain the 9:15 position.

I'm not saying it's not a good technique, but it's not close to ideal.

 

[Lewis]

I dont really think about it when im steering. i might even do all of them at one point.

 

[Astraist]

In generall, all styles are legitimite (yes, even palming).

However, trying to pull the wheel and maintain the 9:15 position while doing so, will provide ultimite control and maximal comfortability. It can take some practice and getting used to, since it is advanced, but it is quite rewarding, as you can see in the autocross.

It will also work for cars without power steering or with a large steering lock ratio (where the wheel needs to be turned a lot). In combination with other techniques, it's ideal. Use the dual-movement method for small curves, like a highway access ramp, or a wide turn at an intersection. Palm the wheel (in the same pulling style, with the opposite hand sliding the rim under it) when making slow speed or "dry" steering manouvering in the parking space. In fast curves, lane changing, or evasive manouvering, just hold at 9:15 and steer.

 

[HDi fun]

3 and 9 is generally considered to be the single best way to hold the wheel for road use if you don't want to consider any others.

4 and 8 can offer a more relaxed posture for long distance steady state driving which can reduce fatigue without removing control as the driver can re assume a different hold in anticipation of the need to make mild or moderate steering input.

When manoeuvering at low speeds anything goes - whatever gives you best feedback as to overall applied steering lock and the speed with which it can be applied (who needs to swerve when reversing at 0.75mph in reverse?).

On my previous point, swerving should be a last resort. Brake early and steer late is the general best practice for unforeseen emergencies. If you find yourself in these situations more than very rarely then you perhaps need to consider other aspects of your driving: attitude, attention, observation, and dare I say it, speed?

I am a strong advocate of pull/push (which is, as noted in previous posts very very different to push pull) as it allows optimal control of applied lock and vehicle balance.

However, I do not see there's a particular problem when commiting to a change of direction to move the pulling hand past 12 o'clock in order to get a steady yet swift initial turn in. In allows you to have your hands placed optimally on the wheel throughout the turn should it be necessary to make a sudden change of direction. It also reduces the amount of time when you don't have both hands on the wheel.

I hate wheel palming, it's fatiguing and looks silly at best. It can lead to total loss of control at worst.

Also, consider this: Control input overlap. - Do you really need to brake, steer and change simulataneously? Probably not. So, why sit there poised like a dressed mannequin with right hand at 12 on the wheel, right toe on accelerator, left hand gripping gearstick for dear life and left foot hovering over the clutch all the time.

It's possible to move faster and exert yourself less.

 

[Astraist]

8 to-4 is not comfortable in the long run, because gravity is pulling your arms lower. It has minimal control, zero feedback, almost no additional safety from the airbag deployment, and you are in the greatest risk of breaking your thumb, so it should not be used.

From time to time, in long drives, you can move to the 10 to-2 position to relax the shoulders.

In regards to braking before swerving, I couldn't agree more, and if and when I publish a thread on emergency braking (why, are you going to be surprised), I will refer to it.

As far as pull-push. Yes, it's a good method, but it involves too much sliding up and down, making the action needlesly tiresome. The advantage of this method is the ability to keep each hand on it's respectable side of the wheel, but than, your wrist gets twisted as you get to 7 O'Clock or so. Also, the combination of constantly pulling down and pushing up, alternating grip and sliding, will not provide such a smooth control. It's better to make one long movement, preferably a pull. This pulling action is done from ontop the wheel or from it's "wrong side", allowing to make the action with arm and back muscles, which are both sensitive and strong, and therefore making less wrist movement, while still having the palm muscles brought into use. It is easier for the driver (in terms of fatigue), more accurate, and quicker by far. The autocross is a good example of this method being used. I can hardly see it done even close to that performance, with pull-push being applied.

When refering to pull-push, I mean both the smaller radius style most people use, and also the proper way, where you pull and push and larger movements. However, you almost never really make a full 180 in each movement.

Also, in the pull method, after the pulling action is complete, both hand are magically again in 9 to-3, ready to put-in or out much more steering, for small corrections, or emergency cases. So you are able to react mid-corner better than you would in pull-push.