- Hi there, smart drivers, Rick with Smart Drive Test.
I am licensed driving instructor
teaching cars, trucks, buses and air brakes.
And I've authored the book "Air Brakes Explained Simply".
You can find that over at the website there: www.smartdrivetest.com
Today, we're talking about primary controls.
The steering wheel, the throttle and the brake.
And the throttle can also be called the gas pedal
or the accelerator.
For those of you driving manual transmissions,
you're also gonna be working with the clutch.
Now, if you don't have any previous experience driving,
you didn't grow up driving the lawn tractor
cutting the grass, home,
didn't grow up on a farm driving equipment
and those types of things,
or you haven't ridden a bicycle in traffic,
this is the place to start.
(chuckles)
If you drop me a question down in the comment
asking me how much to turn the steering wheel
when you go around a corner or your corners are too wide
and those types of things,
these are the exercises that you need to do.
These are the fundamentals of learning how to drive.
These are comparable to drills in sports
and they're comparable to scales in music.
When learning how to sing or play a musical instrument.
These are the fundamentals of learning how to drive.
It will make you a better driver overall.
And accelerate your learning in preparation
for taking a road test and earning your license.
So, do these.
And for a handout of the exercises done here,
click the link down in the description.
And, as well, when you get about halfway through
your driving lessons, come back to these fundamentals
and practice them again to get mastery
of the primary controls in preparation
for your road test and earning your license.
So without further ado, let's get started.
First thing you wanna do is just drive
straight forward and backwards.
So, set your cones up at a fair distance apart,
probably six or eight car lengths,
and then just drive forward.
So, we're just gonna drive down the parking lot.
Seatbelt on, both hands on the steering wheel,
(engine roaring)
and we drive up to the pylon,
and just a little bit a throttle,
and then just brake so you can see the top of the cone.
Don't worry about driving into it,
that's what the next lesson is for.
So, reversing, looking out the back,
hand over the back of this,
looking out the back window, and driving straight back,
(engine whirring)
to the other pylon,
(computer beeps)
and then just a little bit of throttle,
see what it feels like,
push down, let up, push down.
Okay.
And then come to a stop.
Do that three or four times.
You can see, I'm not in line,
so I'm moving the steering wheel, okay.
So just back and forth a couple of times,
get used to that, get used to reversing,
(gear shifts)
into reverse, looking out the back window,
because you have to do that for the purposes of a road test.
(engine whirring)
And again, I'll put, and all this,
the videos down in the description
about what you need to do to pass your road test.
Okay, so we've done that a couple of times,
now we're gonna work the steering wheel a little bit.
And what I want you to do is just go down
and drive around the one pylon and figure out
what the steering radius is on the vehicle.
(engine roaring)
So, we just turn the steering wheel
hand over hand for most of you.
Some of you are gonna be hand to hand.
(asphalt crunching under wheels)
But for most of you, you're going to be,
hand over hand.
All right, hand over hand and we're just working
the steering wheel here, a little bit a throttle.
You can let down, push down on the throttle a little bit,
and then let up on the throttle.
And just see what the response is on the throttle.
Driving around in circles here.
(engine whirring)
Okay.
And it's not that complicated,
just get used to the steering wheel.
Get used to the throttle, throttle up a little bit,
drive around the other cone up here,
and then let off the throttle.
All right.
Now, next one I want you to get used to the brake.
So, race down the parking lot,
give it some throttle,
(engine accelerating)
And then push the brake in really hard.
See how it feels, okay, get used to that.
So, another one.
Up the parking lot, hit the brake, and see how it responds.
(engine roaring loudly)
You can see in throttling up quite a bit,
on the tachometer there, it's going up to 4000 R.P.M.
Okay, so now, you've,
steering wheel, the throttle, and the brake,
and I would suggest you work on that for half an hour
to an hour and you get really comfortable
with what the pylons are, sorry,
what the primary controls are doing.
You don't really have to worry about hitting the pylons
and those types of things.
And then the last exercises we're gonna do,
we're gonna do figure eights, my favorite.
For figure eights, you're gonna need the pylons
about three car lengths apart.
And as you get better and better at it
you can move the pylons closer together.
Essentially, you just drive forward,
(tires crunching on asphalt)
cross the pylons like this,
and then come back around the other way.
And remember, the slower you go,
the sharper the vehicle turns.
So, know that when your trying to go around the pylons.
As you get the pylons closer together,
you're gonna have to go slower in order
for the vehicle to turn.
Okay.
It's a, when you see cars in the parking lot
and they're backing up and you watch the driver
and it's a really tight space,
they're close to the other vehicles and they go,
(gasps quickly)
(laughs)
The car doesn't get smaller, that's the,
not the car getting smaller mechanism.
What happens is, is they suck in their breath,
they let their foot off the throttle, the car slows down,
and it actually turns sharper. So that's what happens.
So, nice and slow, do that a few times.
Forward figure eights,
when you get comfortable with doing forward figure eights,
and the fun part begins.
You're gonna do reverse figure eights.
And this is gonna mess with your head a little bit, as well.
It'll also make you a much better driver.
So, nice figure eights.
And the other thing is, is don't, you know,
you're gonna be looking around,
you're gonna be moving your head around a lot
as you're doing this exercise.
And it's really good for combining the primary controls,
combining the steering wheel, combining the throttle,
and if you're working in a manual transmission,
it's also combining the clutch as well.
A little bit a brake because we're going down hill here
so we're gonna have to brake a little bit.
So, those are the exercises that I want you to do.
Straight back and forth.
Work the throttle, work the brake.
Be aggressive with the throttle and the brake.
And then go around in circles,
and get used to,
turning the vehicle,
feel what the steering wheel does,
throttle up a little bit in the corners as well,
and feel it break loose a little bit.
What it's called over steering or under steering, as well,
when you're going around corners,
and then finally do your figure eights,
forward figure eights and reverse figure eights,
and you can see I'm doing reverse figure eights here.
And I'm not going very fast.
(engine roaring)
and this exercises, these three exercises,
straight forward, around in circles,
and forward and reverse figure eights
is going to teach you mastery of the primary controls.
And you need to have mastery of the primary controls
before you head out into traffic.
Please do not head out into traffic
if you don't know how far to turn the steering wheel
when you're making a right or left turn.
Because you are not ready to be in traffic yet.
You need to do this by yourself
without any other vehicles around so you can focus
just on doing this, because you can see,
I'm a veteran driver and I can talk to you
at the same time while I'm driving around the parking lot
doing reverse figure eights.
I've got enough experience that I'm able to do that.
But you as a new driver, a learning driver,
are gonna have to give your complete concentration to this.
So, do that.
For another video, click here.
And remember, pick the best answer,
not necessarily the right answer.
Have a great day. Bye now.