The Safe Driver

What is hydroplaning and how you can control it?

I’m sure we can all agree that rain is something we all need. We need it to grow our food, to replenish our lakes, rivers, streams and oceans. We also need it to drink and bathe. So with all the needs of having rain and water in general, I still don’t need it while I’m driving. For some drivers, it can seriously affect the control of their vehicle by causing the vehicle to hydroplane.

So what exactly is hydroplaning? Hydroplaning – or aquaplaning – happens when your tires lose contact with the road surface because a layer of water gets between the road and your tires. This layer of water causes the driver to temporarily lose steering and braking ability. You may be asking, how can that happen when you weren’t accelerating or braking at the time? It’s easy actually.

When water is pooling on the road surface it can cause the tires of your vehicle to float or surf on top of the water, thus causing a loss of traction. You don’t really need a lot of water on the road for this to happen. Hydroplaning can happen if the tread depth of the tires are low or if the water level is deeper than the depth of the tread. This means the tread of the tire can’t move the water out of the way quickly enough to help you maintain traction with the road surface.

You’ll notice this quite often if you’re changing your driving actions or if you’re driving too fast for the conditions. For example, a sudden acceleration or a jerking of the steering may cause you to feel the vehicle is not responding to the braking of steering input. If this happens, there are things you can do to regain traction once again.

If the hydroplaning was caused by too much speed, ease off the accelerator to allow the engine slow the speed of the vehicle naturally. Applying the brakes to wheels that have no traction won’t do much for you and may cause you to panic. If you’ve steered toward a curve or turn and felt the vehicle not respond, gently steer back to allow the wheels to remain straight while easing off the accelerator. This will allow the wheels to rotate better and help the water to be channeled through the tread patterns to help you regain traction once again. Once you feel you’ve regained some traction, gently apply the brakes to help you maintain control of the vehicle. You may need to abandon the turn and go around the block.

There are a few proactive ways you can prevent your vehicle from hydroplaning. First, inspect your tires. Having adequate tread depth is a big factor to maintaining traction on the road. Check your tires in more places than one to ensure you have even wear patterns and have a minimum of 1/16th of an inch or 1.5 mm for the rear tires and 1/8th of an inch or 3 mm on the front tires. Less than that and the tire can’t disperse the water quickly enough. Remember, those are minimum depths and we should never keep our standards to only minimums.

Properly inflated tires can also make a difference. Under or over inflated tires may mean that not all the tread pattern is touching the road surface. It’s tough for the tread to do it’s job when only two thirds of the tread is actually making contact with the road surface. Make it a habit of checking your tire pressure regularly on a cold tire – a tire that has not been driven for a few hours.

The last reminder is to drive according to the conditions. Reduce speed early for turns and curves and drop your speed slightly when you notice a lot of standing or pooling water on the road. If you notice a lot of excess water being sprayed by vehicles ahead of you, reduce speed early. You have to admit, avoiding hydroplaning altogether is far safer than regaining control after it happens.