Hydroplaning

[ccdanby]

Ive got a 99 v6 3L 2wd manual ranger with a 3inch fabtech suspension lift setting on 32’s and I was wonder what ya’ll do to help prevent your truck from hydroplaning or spinning out when it rains. It really sucks to take a turn and having to go extra slow because the backend will always swing out. If your wonder I have about 70% tred left on all my tires.

 

[Surrey]

Ive got a 99 v6 3L 2wd manual ranger with a 3inch fabtech suspension lift setting on 32’s and I was wonder what ya’ll do to help prevent your truck from hydroplaning or spinning out when it rains. It really sucks to take a turn and having to go extra slow because the backend will always swing out. If your wonder I have about 70% tred left on all my tires.

You say you have 32s. what kind of tire? If they are a mud, or an agressive AT without a whole lot of siping then spinning out aught to be expected in the rain.

 

[bigmark303]

SLOW DOWN! its a truck. If you have M/T tires SLOW DOWN even more.

 

[straycat]

I never have or ever had this issue. I drive at highway speeds in the pouring rain with 33x12.5 BFG KO tires. I take corners at the road limit speed and never have an issue. I have had a lot of different trucks and never had an issue taking curves in the rain....snow.....maybe then but not rain slick roads.
You must be running some really crap tires or slicks, Bro. What is your tire pressure set to and are the tires in good shape and not old?

 

[RonD]

Friction/traction is a function of contact area and weight.
Loss of friction is what causes sliding and spinning.

If there is enough water on the road and the tires can not force it out of the treads then the tire lifts off the road(hydroplanes) so contact area with the road is reduced and so friction is reduced.
The more weight there is the longer you will stay in contact with the road, the rear tires of a truck have less weight on them so will have less friction to start with, so will lose friction before the front tires, even on bone dry pavement.

You can add more weight to the rear tires, by adding weight behind the rear axle, sand or salt bags in the back of the bed, but they need to be secured, because if you do lose traction in the form of a sideways slide the added weight can shift making the slide hard to correct, you also don't want them coming thru the back window in a sudden stop .

Tires that are made for heavy water conditions have straight grooves and treads that channel the water to these grooves to move the water out from under the tire.

"traction tires", ATs, do the opposite, they try to trap water, mud, snow, or any loose surface debris in the treads, that's what increases their traction, that's also what makes them noisy, they trap air too, lol.

Tire tread is always a trade off, wet/dry, loose/firm.
Then there are rubber compounds, cold/hot, lol.

 

[LIMA BEAN]

You have a locker in it?

 

[RangerSVT]

Get different tires, period.


SVT