Hydro planing Is this True????

[Lilith]

***A 36 year old female had an accident several weeks ago and totaled

her car. It was raining, though not excessively, when her car suddenly

began to hydroplane and literally flew through the air. When she explained

to the highway patrolman what had happened he told her something that every

driver should know - NEVER DRIVE IN THE RAIN WITH YOUR CRUISE CONTROL ON.

She had thought she was being cautious by setting the cruise control and

maintaining a safe consistent speed in the rain.

But the highway patrolman told her that if the cruise control is on

and your car begins to hydroplane - when your tires lose contact with the

pavement, your car will accelerate to a higher rate of speed and you take off

like an airplane. We all know you have little or no control over a car when it begins to hydroplane. The highway patrolman estimated her car was actually traveling through the air at 10 to 15 miles per hour faster than the speed set on the cruise control. The patrolman said this warning should be listed, on the driver's side sun-visor -NEVER USE THE CRUISE CONTROL WHEN THE PAVEMENT IS WET OR ICY, along with the airbag warning. We tell our teenagers to set the cruise control and drive a safe-speed - but we don't tell them to use the speed control only when the pavement is dry.***

So i get this in my email, i edited some of it out. I am not to worried if the story itself is true but the message it sends. Can This really happen if you have cuirse control on and you Hydro Plane can you take off liek a jet? It seems if it really could happen that there would have already been a warning label on the car being this is the era of stupid warnings so people dont get sued. (Caution HOT COPHEE )

What are you thoughts?

[Onyx]

I believe this is true since the tires need contact with the road for the cruise control to detect the speed, correct?

[soothsayer]

This is very true. You tires will lose contact with the road from time to time anyway depending on the amount of oil/water mix on the surface of the road. It also depends on car speed and tire tread. A car can though easily lift off the ground under the right conditions. That's why when the roads are icy or wet it's better to drive with more caution because hydroplaning is real. I have had it happen to me and it is freaky as all hell.

[cptdeath]

i never heard that before but it makes sense.

yes i know about how to cause a hydroplane but i never factored in the cruise control before. I'm going to have to try that sometime

should scare the hell out of who ever i'm driving with

[Lilith]

Ya i knew about Hydro planing too but as well never thought about cruise control being a factor in making it worse.

See my mother in law ( the same one who called my sone a devil worshiper over the iron cross) sent it to me and well i have this THing with anything she sends me must be total BULL SHIT casue well that what normally come out of her mouth *cough* any how It makes sense which i why i question it and thus psoted about it here. But if cruise control is not really a huge factor then i guess iwould rather know so when she Spews trash from her mouth at my kids i can counter react it.

Over all it seems to make sense but then again I only use crusie control when i am on a long trip, and i was never told to use cruise control when i was taking drivers ed to "keep a safe speed"

Maybe when i was in driver ed cruise control was a new concept?

[soothsayer]

The only way I can see cruise control being a factor is if the roads are oily wet and you have cruise on and use your brakes to slow a little - then when you let off the brake the car will automatically get back to the set speed. At that point I can see a person possibly losing control of a car. I don't believe for a moment that that is the total reason for it happenning. But it could contribute to it.

[ZhukovCodeslinger]

its full of bullshit... your car cant fly faster than it was driving..... sure you can hydroplane but your car will not fly...

the cruise control will cause you trouble if you are hydroplaning and you dont bother to tap the brake and turn of the cruise control...

I think someone probably got in a wreck and had their cruise control on and some moron made up the flying part.... cars dont fly (except in Blade runner and Back to the future)

[ZhukovCodeslinger]

See my mother in law sent it to me and well i have this THing with anything she sends me must be total BULL SHIT casue well that what normally come out of her mouth *cough* any how It makes sense which i why i question it and thus psoted about it here.

you are wise beyond your years... noticing that your mother in law is an idiot that gets her news from forwarded emails etc. dont believe this kind of crap any more than you would believe you could get a HUGE PENISfrom a pill or that you might have just won $XXXXXXXXX or that they can help you refinance....

p.s. you should send her lots of emails relating all the people who are killed for flashing their lights at cars with their headlights off and about the people who hide under cars and stab you with knives... oh and tell her to look out for the excaped psychopath with the "hook for a hand" he hangs around deserted areas where kids park to make out (and around stupid mother in laws homes).

Why does she have a computer anyway?

[soothsayer]

Cars can become airborn, I was in a car with some friends on a icy road, my friend who was driving hit the gas pedal to speed up and the car hit a pot hole and spun around once, hit the same hole again and became airborn and we landed over a ditch. I don't know where you get your info from but I lived it.

[soothsayer]

Btw I forgot to add - the car hit the ground so hard the muffler came off.

[Head Wreck]

only time i went airbourne was an old humpback bridge over a stream to deep to ford, in a car that used to tear the exhaust pipe of its mounting plate

[Msterbeau]

OK... Let the race car driver explain this.

First. Lets establish what hydroplaning is shall we? The rubber of your tires is the only thing touching the road surface They provide grip to accelerate, corner and stop. This traction is finite and as they use traction in one direction that traction is no longer available for the other two. Add water and this overall grip goes down. Why? Because concrete/asphault have a lower coeffiecient of friction for one. More importantly, for this discussion, the water can build up under the tire.(Either puddles or heavy downpour) When the grooves of the tire can no longer channel the water THROUGH the tire, the water (Being and uncompressible liquid) finds it's way UNDER the rubber. When this happens, you effectively have a zero coefficient of friction. Hydroplaning. Your car is now out of control.

I've never heard the cruise-control thing before but it makes sense for a couple reasons. One. your foot is not on the accelerator pedal... you can't sense what's going on at the drive wheels without it. thus you've lost some precious reaction time. Two. If you let the cruise control stay on, you're effectively letting it continue under power. Not a good idea if the car's out of control right? Also, if you do try to deactivate it in a panic... using the brake... now you've introduced another possible destabilizing action. Also not good.

As for flying? I'm scepticle. Technically you are riding on a film of water, so it sure seems like flying. Up in the air flying? Ahhhh... not without some external force. (like a large bump/pothole.) it takes a lot to get a car that weighs 1 -2 tons to get airborne....

Lesson done.... Any questions kids? :whistling

[Msterbeau]

Cars can become airborn, I was in a car with some friends on a icy road, my friend who was driving hit the gas pedal to speed up and the car hit a pot hole and spun around once, hit the same hole again and became airborn and we landed over a ditch. I don't know where you get your info from but I lived it.

What evidence do you have that you actually were in the air? Sliding on ice can feel like that but unless you have gaps between tire marks on the ice/snow/pavement... I'm scepticle. On the other hand... going over a ditch at high speeds is a good way to get in the air easily...

[Rayne]

Yeah, common sense, don't use cruise control in the rain...or the snow.

[Msterbeau]

Yeah, common sense, don't use cruise control in the rain...or the snow.

That's not standard equipment on some humans.... :whistling

Plus most people really don't take the time to learn this stuff... They think driving's like operating a washing machine or something....

[Homicidalheathen]

I spun out in a snow storm once on I75 actually it was a blizzard.

I don't believe in divine intervention or angles really but......my car spun and stalled out and this big huge semi was headed streight for me.

Something pushed my car off the road.

I started it up after my heart stopped pounding and drove on but......

I guess it wasn't my time to go?

I have no idea what happened as when I stopped spinning it came to a complete stop and my motor was off. And that truck would have creamed me.

[Rayne]

I spun out in a snow storm once on I75 actually it was a blizzard.

I don't believe in divine intervention or angles really but......my car spun and stalled out and this big huge semi was headed streight for me.

Something pushed my car off the road.

I started it up after my heart stopped pounding and drove on but......

I guess it wasn't my time to go?

I have no idea what happened as when I stopped spinning it came to a complete stop and my motor was off.  And that truck would have creamed me.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I did get hit by a semi once. M-59 and Gratiot. Stopped at a red light. I wasn't driving...

I saw traffic in the turn around lane stopping, and thought how odd, because they had a green light. Glanced in my side view....fully loaded semi doing 45 (estimated) wasn't stopping. Before I could say anything it hit us and I had braced myself.

I spent a week in Mt. Clemens General with back and neck injuries that will never heal, that was 4 years ago and I still have trouble sometimes.

Driver was not injured (still swears to this day he was never taught to check his rearview when stopping until trucker's school!!!!), and what's even more amazing, my little car was SMASHED something fierce (I have pics). But my two infant daughters, in the backseat were completely unharmed.

[Homicidalheathen]

I got hit by one too. I was sleeping and on my way to CA from AZ when the guy that was driving noticed the truck behind him getting too close well it was too late we were going 45 and she was going like 75. I woke up to tossing and turning.....we bounced over and over.....I had some minor injuries and some knee damage nothing too bad really.

It ruined all my clothes though I was moving and we had a open oil can........it flug that crap all over EVERYTHING I got 15 thousand dollars. How much did you get?

[Rayne]

I got hit by one too.  I was sleeping and on my way to CA from AZ when the guy that was driving noticed the truck behind him getting too close well it was too late we were going 45 and she was going like 75.  I woke up to tossing and turning.....we bounced over and over.....I had some minor injuries and some knee damage nothing too bad really.

It ruined all my clothes though I was moving and we had a open oil can........it flug that crap all over EVERYTHING  I got 15 thousand dollars.  How much did you get?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Absolutely nothing. Guy owned his own truck and gave the police false info.

[Ginevra]

First, let me just say www.snopes.com This one of the best, if not the very, in debunking a potential urban legend that comes in the form of a "concered, I should pass this on to others" e-mail.

As a kind of afterthought to the other ideas posted in this thread, many of today's cars come equipped with a traction feature which if it decides that your wheels are spinning needlessly (IE icy conditions, etc) or are not in contact with the pavement enough, it will automatically turn off the cruise control.

[JaneDead]

you are wise beyond your years... noticing that your mother in law is an idiot that gets her news from forwarded emails etc.  dont believe this kind of crap any more than you would believe you could get a HUGE PENISfrom a pill or that you might have just won $XXXXXXXXX or that they can help you refinance....

p.s. you should send her lots of emails relating all the people who are killed for flashing their lights at cars with their headlights off and about the people who hide under cars and stab you with knives... oh and tell her to look out for the excaped psychopath with the "hook for a hand" he hangs around deserted areas where kids park to make out (and around stupid mother in laws homes).

Why does she have a computer anyway?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

ok so after i read your first post i was going to make a huge penis post... and then i read on and realized you beat me to it!

[Guest Game of Chance]

I never became airborne, but I did a 720 in the rain on I-94 one Saturday night. Went from the far right lane to the far left lane and then back again. Scary as shit. Luckily, the semi behind me (in the far right lane) slowed down just enough for me to get by safely.

[Rayne]

As a kind of afterthought to the other ideas posted in this thread, many of today's cars come equipped with a traction feature which if it decides that your wheels are spinning needlessly (IE icy conditions, etc) or are not in contact with the pavement enough, it will automatically turn off the cruise control.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I love Traction Control.....I had that on one of my cars..... :erm I also paid over $37k for that car in 2002 ..... :doh

I hear though it is becoming a more popular feature. I know if I ever buy another brand new car, I will get it, it rocks in these Michigan winters.

[Msterbeau]

I love Traction Control.....I had that on one of my cars..... :erm  I also paid over $37k for that car in 2002 .....  :doh

I hear though it is becoming a more popular feature. I know if I ever buy another brand new car, I will get it, it rocks in these Michigan winters.

Traction control, ABS, airbags etc... All good stuff i suppose, but a lot of people seem to think they're a panacea for learning to drive properly and decent car control skills.

Read what I wrote about tire adhesion. Traction aids can't manufacture grip ...mearly redistributute it.

[Rayne]

Traction control, ABS, airbags etc...  All good stuff i suppose, but a lot of people seem to think they're a panacea  for learning to drive properly and decent car control skills.

Read what I wrote about tire adhesion.  Traction aids can't manufacture grip ...mearly redistributute it.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I agree. Just because I have airbags, ABS and traction control doesn't mean I'd be perfectly safe to use cruise control in 3 inches of rain.

...it all hinges on common sense and basic driving skills.