Hydroplaning is real

Road trip!!! I saw a 345 on a SS this weekend....all I can say is "Baby Got Back"!! Just say NO to hydro........planing!!!

I want to thank everyone for the information supplied.. And we from motorcycle riding in rain and driving a SS better slow way down !
This will be hard on me for I push myself driving in rain like it is something I have to prove and not sitting looking out a window.
So hope weather to Maggie Valley is a dry one or it will be some long days of driving slow.

The bottom line is bringing this information all out for keeping SS family safe in driving these fairly new machines and changes we are making to them!

I would be sweet if someone could figure out that adding an air foil or wing or even different tires could eliminate or reduce hydroplaning. With all the engineers, developers, and just plain smart people on this forum, I'm surprised someone hasn't come up with something already.

I swapped the stock tires for Goodyear eagle f1s. Better in the wet. Not perfect, but better. If you get fluttering at speed, it is the suspension, not tires - probably.

Ponding water, I park.

Quote from ethermion

I swapped the stock tires for Goodyear eagle f1s. Better in the wet. Not perfect, but better. If you get fluttering at speed, it is the suspension, not tires - probably.

Ponding water, I park.

Agree with your assessment..I just ordered BFG Sport Comp 2s (summer compound not the A/S). Better in wet than stock.

I have been looking at a way to make me a rear diffuse (see post #75) for this reason. Like @MACAWS stated regarding his front splitter we don't really have a way to prove it works except by our Butt-O-Meters. I'm reworking my front splitter as well. Lost one of my vertical wing-lets in some spirited driving and needed to beef them up a little.

If the airflow under and out the back (just in front of the rear tire) is similar to a standard car it's possible to produce some additional down force with a diffuse. It even looks to be more than a rear wing. This year the Daytona GTs in the IMSA race series were allowed some really extreme aerodynamic add-on's. The rear diffuser being the biggest and most pronounced. Now this also requires that I add aluminum belly covers to help smooth the air flow to the diffuser as well. I have some scrap aluminum so it want cost me much but a production piece (if made by someone) would not be cheap.

Many are happy with the stock tires. I was not. My goodyears are nice and sticky if you let them warm up, which takes a bit. Excellent if you have a hard day of spirited driving.

Not what I had hoped at track day this past Sunday. Sessions were 15 minutes per hour. Just never got there.

Please post a review of the bfg after you have some miles on them.

Last year on the way to SSITS I drove 8 or 9 hours in flooding rains. Even had hail bouncing off of my helmet at one point and it was a brutal day. Most of this was interstate travel with not one instance of hydroplanning. Then on one of the group rides in heavy rain at about 40 mph the rear tire lifted and I missed a guardrail by inches. Two of the 5 of us in the group hydroplaned while the other 3 didn't. We were all riding very carefully and luckily neither of us crashed. I could see no reason why 2 of us in a line had an issue other than the luck of the draw.

After that my belief was that I needed to park and wait out heavy rain and to be extremely cautious of puddles or water running across the road.

This is one of the areas where 2 wheel experience did cross over. Pull over, wait it out is correct, at least for me.

Quote from ethermion

This is one of the areas where 2 wheel experience did cross over. Pull over, wait it out is correct, at least for me.

In the rain, I'll take two wheels over three. On two wheels the contact patch changes with lean angle, on three you have what you are dealt.

Quote from Cape Sling

In the rain, I'll take two wheels over three. On two wheels the contact patch changes with lean angle, on three you have what you are dealt.

That is certainly not what I wanted to hear. One of the reasons I got the SS was because of a close call, on a curve, in the rain with my Harley. I guess I'll be one of those pulling over and waiting the rain out.

Retrogressing - I've never hydroplaned on two wheels. Been stupid but that was not the water's fault.

I posted this on another thread about tires but worth putting here as it concerns tire pressure and hydroplaning. It's from National Highway Traffic Safety Administration website:

Skidding and/or loss of control from hydroplaning
The conditions that influence hydroplaning include speed, tire design,tread depth, water depth on the road, load on the tires, and inflation pressure. At low speeds (less than about 50 mph), if your tires are under-inflated, youactually have more tire touching the road. However, hydroplaning does notoccur very often at speeds below 50 mph, unless there is deep water (usuallystanding water) on the road. As you get to about 55 mph and the water pressuregoing under the tire increases, an under-inflated tire has less pressure init pushing down on the road and you have less tire-to-road contact than aproperly inflated tire as the center portion of the tread gets lifted outof contact with the road. As speed increases to 70 mph and above and waterdepth increases due to a severe local storm with poor drainage, the under-inflatedtire could lose 40 percent of the tire-to-road contact area compared to aproperly inflated tire. The higher the speed (above 50 mph) and the moreunder-inflated the tire is, then the lower the tire-to-road contact and thehigher is the chance of hydroplaning.
Tread depth has a substantial impact on the probability of hydroplaning. Ifyou make a simplifying assumption that the water depth exceeds the capabilityof the tread design to remove water (which most likely would occur with veryworn tires), then an approximation of the speed at which hydroplaning canoccur can be estimated by the following formula:
Hydroplaning speed� = 10.35 x inflation pressure ^[25]
Under this assumption of water depth exceeding the capability of the treaddesign to remove water:
At 30 psi, hydroplaning could occur at 56.7 mph
At 25 psi, hydroplaning could occur at 51.8 mph
At 20 psi, hydroplaning could occur at 46.3 mph.

[/quote]This is presented to show the relative effect of inflation pressure onthe possibility of hydroplaning.

Excellent explanation. I prefer to think of it like snowshoes. The larger the footprint, the more you stay on top of the snow.

Here on the suburban east coast, it is hard to be alone on the road. If the teen in front, or the granny next to you, hydroplanes or panics or floods you with a splash, it affects you too. Your Tires don't help with that.

Hard rain, ponding, I park. Usually not for long. Lived to tell my tale.

Well, my new tires didn't have to wait long for the rain. Got stuck in a good downpour on way home tonight. Unfortunately I live off a 9 mile long, 2 lane curvy road with no where to pull over. Stuck in the middle of a dozen vehicles going 55 or better. Anyway, tires did good on both the wet road and the interstate, glad I swapped out of the OEMs.

Quote from Flybuddy

Well, my new tires didn't have to wait long for the rain. Got stuck in a good downpour on way home tonight. Unfortunately I live off a 9 mile long, 2 lane curvy road with no where to pull over. Stuck in the middle of a dozen vehicles going 55 or better. Anyway, tires did good on both the wet road and the interstate, glad I swapped out of the OEMs.

TG we had just a short storm. I was on two wheels today. At least the rain was warm! I'll be following your assessment Fly.

Quote from Canoehead

Ok Has anyone else run during hydro conditions with the trac. cont. off? I have done it once and I never felt as if she was going to loose it.

Anyone ever respond to this? Didn't see it, didn't know if you got a PM.

Shutting down traction control was the first thing I thought of. Well, second, after "Slow the f$%& down, dummy." Guess I'll be finding out soon...impossible to avoid the rain around here.

I always run with the traction control 'on'....don't know if that is good or bad.


Couple of years ago hit 'black ice' when driving my Lincoln TC and using the
cruse control --- lost it. Learned after the accident that you should NEVER
use cruse if weather conditions are not very good. never in rain, snow, cold/black ice. We walked away just shaken up a little but took out a great car.

Ok all my SS buddies. I just left discount tire and they set my tire pressure at 32psi for all three tires. Tires were hot and at 35-36psi each.

I am running:
Front 245/35/19 Nitto 555
Back 345/25/20 Proxie T1R

My question to youins is what pressure should I be running???

Thanks a million!