Genius winter driving hack for truck owners

[85_Ranger4x4]

I like to do donuts.

It is a lot harder to do that in a FWD big wheel. I tried.

 

[8thTon]

I wasn't knocking your post 8thTon, but actually trying to put it together in a way I could understand. It looks like someone made some sense of it somehow and I was hoping to grasp at least a bit of it. I did some architectural engineering in my early years and to this day have a collection of books full of formulas, but I'm not in tune with a lot of the newer ones. Sines, cosines, and tangents were mostly what were used in building design, basic trigonometry, but I've also tinkered with many others since then, mostly just out of curiosity, a simple tendency to try and figure things out, which for some reason seems to lean towards mathematical terms(or at least in the physical realm)

I apologize if I came across as flippant, it was not my intent.

The idea is that your total available traction limit is a circle, with the friction force vector swinging around as you accelerate, decelerate or corner, and the length changing depending on how hard your pushing it. When the length of the vector grows to the diameter limit of the circle you've broken traction and are sliding. If you get on a low traction surface, you can visualize that as the circle having shrunk.

So if you are at the limit of traction while cornering, you don't want to have any acceleration or deceleration forces reducing what's available. In the picture below if you need 1.4g to corner, you can't be doing 0.8g acceleration like is shown.

This one is a bit of a brain teaser:

 

[Josh B]

Thanks 8thTon, that does simplify it enough to where even I can understand, though the example shows what I've always done, brake into a turn and accelerate out. That path should only be used on a race track though, I wouldn't want to use it on a blind corner.

It's best in driving not to try and push the limits, and always maintain complete control, as opposed to a racetrack where they're constantly pushing the limits of every component. Once losing control(for whatever reason, slipped on ice or deer in road) we must rapidly switch to survival and recovery modes, leaving all textbook maneuvers behind.

That is where only experience and conscientious driving will get us through.

One of the primary causes of one vehicle wrecks was someone not paying complete attention and wandering off course, then panicking and over-correcting. I've seen that scenario in too many sad situations

Especially until I get to really know a vehicle I hardly even listen to the radio unless I'm cruising on a highway, instead listening to the engine and transmission, and most of the other parts, and of course watching the road

 

[8thTon]

Especially until I get to really know a vehicle I hardly even listen to the radio unless I'm cruising on a highway, instead listening to the engine and transmission, and most of the other parts, and of course watching the road

Me too! Not to mention I’ve usually had old vehicles and have to listen for what is failing next - hmm, I never heard that before, what’s that sound connected with????

I’ve been driving my new little Fiat Abarth for about a month and still don’t use the sound system much, and it feels like I’m only starting to get to know the car.

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

I agree, I’ll often leave the radio off when I’m getting to learn a new vehicle or adjust to new modifications, and once I’m comfortable with it I will typically push to the limits once so I know where they are, then 99% of my driving is way below the limits, but I am then comfortable with what I can do. I will also turn the radio off when road conditions are bad.

Case in point, last winter I went to work, I took my Ranger and only made it to the neighbors before turning around, I was in 4x4 and struggling with driving more than 20mph, slipping and sliding. I could have made it, but I had options. Switched out to my F-150 and went bombing down the road at 35mph and still under the limits of control. I built the F-150 to handle those weather conditions. The Ranger is not yet built to handle that and the F-150 may always have an edge just being a heavier truck with a manual.