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Driving in Heavy Rain

CCO

Old Timer
Aug 5, 2011
7,854
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Cambridge ON
VetteCoins
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2006 vert, 1994 vert
Got this today and had to share. I figure it's worth a try:

Not sure if our 'vettes can be driven with cruise on along with the wipers but my Taurus you cannot......and it makes a lot of sense.

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GOOD VISION IN A DOWNPOUR

How to achieve good vision while driving during a heavy downpour.

We are not sure why it is so effective; just try this method when it rains heavily. This method was given me by a Police friend who had experienced and confirmed it. It is useful....even driving at night. One method used by Canadian Military Drivers for years.

Most of the motorists would turn on HIGH or FASTEST SPEED of the wipers during heavy downpour, yet the visibility in front of the windshield is still bad......

In the event you face such a situation, just try your SUN GLASSES (any model will do), and miracle! All of a sudden, your visibility in front of your windshield is perfectly clear, as if there is no rain.

Make sure you always have a pair of SUN GLASSES in your car, as you are not only helping yourself to drive safely with good vision, but also might save your friend's life by giving him this idea..

Try it yourself and share it with your friends! Amazing, you still see the drops on the windshield, but not the sheet of rain falling.

You can see where the rain bounces off the road. It works to eliminate the "blindness" from passing semi's spraying you too.

Or the "kickup" if you are following a semi or car in the rain. They ought to teach that little tip in driver's training. It really does work...

This next warning is a another good one! I wonder how many people know about this:

A 36 year old female had an accident several weeks ago and totaled her car. A resident of Kinburn , Ontario was traveling between Kinburn & Ottawa. It was raining, though not excessively, when her car suddenly began to hydro-plane and literally flew through the air.. She was not seriously injured but very stunned at the sudden occurrence!

When she explained to the OPP Officer what had happened he told her something that every driver should know - NEVER DRIVE IN THE RAIN WITH YOUR CRUISE CONTROL ON . She thought she was being cautious by setting the cruise control and maintaining a safe consistent speed in the rain. But the Officer told her that if the cruise control is on when your car begins to hydro-plane and your tires lose contact with the pavement, your car will accelerate to a higher rate of speed making you take off like an airplane. She told the OPP Officer that was exactly what had occurred.

The Officer said this warning should be listed, on the driver's seat
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 cruise control only when the pavement is dry.

The only person the accident victim found, who knew this (besides the officer), was a man who had a similar accident, totaled his car and sustained severe injuries.

NOTE: Some vehicles (like the Toyota Sienna Limited XLE) will not allow you to set the cruise control when the windshield wipers are on. If you send this to 15 people and only one of them doesn't know about this, then it was all worth it. You might have saved a life.
 
not sure

tried it the other day although it was not in heavy rain and it did not work all that well - may try again in heavy rain to see if this is Urban Legend or not


was in the VW, not the vette of course, she is sleeping under the covers
 
I find that wearing s-glasses helps when its foggy out. The glasses seem to
cut back on the light reflection, so you can see better.
No....you can't go any faster, but I find I see more easily.

Tony
 
Very interesting. I will have to try some sunglasses next rain. Also I don't like cruise control very often. My Vibe doesn't even have it and I don't care at all. I find you pay more attension to whats going on aroound you when you have to focus on what your speed is.

T
 

I feel you on the cruise, tho sometimes it's handy when my (old) right leg get tired or my foot gets hot or naps.
C.
 
In the wet I'll use cruise, in a heavy downpour, I won't. It also depends on the condition of the road if there are ruts or anything that can hold water, I won't use it but if it's a smooth road, I will. It also depends on the condition of the tires I am running. I don't use cruise in winter unless it is obviously dry. I'm quite sure I've had the wipers on while using cruise in the Vette.

I don't believe that the car would accelerate if it hydroplanes. The tires may spin faster for a second but the cruise is only trying to maintain a set speed. The problem is when the car is slowing down and the cruise tries to speed the car up to the set speed. It's doesn't care if you're going sideways or backwards, it's trying to keep those back tires going and this is where you would lose control. (I hope the driver would have touched (not jammed) the brakes at the first sign of the car going sideways or hydroplaning).

What they should teach in driver's ed is how to counter steer a car. Two times I've been with friends in the city who have "lost control" because their cars started going sideways and hit snowbanks. They stated there was nothing they could do but I was watching their steering wheel and they didn't even try to counter steer out of it.

I am looking forward to trying the sunglasses in the rain to see if that works. That would be awesome.
 
One Sat this fall in the pouring rain, I'm driving down the Island Highway minding my own business at 100 k speed limit 110k. As this car passes me, I glance over to suddenly see his front wheel slow to a stop. My immediate reaction was to let my foot off the gas, probably saved my life. You could hear the engine of the car go wide open and in a blink he was doing donuts down the road. He was lucky and the car stayed on the road and no one was hurt, just scared.
I asked if the cruse was on and you know the answer, Yep!!
Turns out that on newer cars they take the cruise signal from the ABS module, it's all ready monitoring the wheel speed anyway. Now it all depends which wheel they use for the signal, and I'm told it's usually one of the fronts depending on make and model.
The mechanic said the said with the way cars are set up with electronic throttle body it's not like days of old with the slow reaction time of the vacuum pot.
At least with the old method you had time to react, not now it's instant.
For those of you who are not believers some time with the cruise on, Push down and hold the the speed up button and be prepared for all hell to break loose. It will shift back all the way to low if your at the right speed and in a Vette that's just about anything below 40 MPH.
Point I'm trying to make is please, please don't drive with cruise if the roads are even damp, It's not worth it, The life you save may be your own.
Thanks for reading
Rob
 

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