[Driving through puddle - LAUGHING] Playing in puddles and
driving in the rain.
The first two things that you're gonna have to learn
on for the secondary controls is the windshield wipers and
the defrost because the windows are gonna fog up when
you're driving in the rain.
And for the purposes of a road test, you're gonna
have to be able to know how to do those
two things.
So practice that if you have a practice that already.
And as well to help assist defrosting the windows in
the vehicle turn your air conditioning on.
You have rolled one of the windows down just a
little touch so you've got some circulation through the cabin
of your vehicle.
So driving in the rain, you're gonna have to turn
your windshield wipers on, intermittent, low or high.
It's gonna be a really, really hard if you're turning
them on high.
So figure that out as well.
And I'll put a card up in the corner for
you, on secondary controls of the vehicle.
Now obviously most of the time it's gonna be overcast
when it's raining.
So you want to put your headlights on, which, you
want to present headlights on if they don't come on
automatically as they do on most vehicles.
Then turn your headlights on.
Now as well here, you can see the tracks, the
cruts for the vehicles drive.
The ruts are road used by heavy vehicles, the ruts
and the water sits in those ruts.
If you don't have good tires on your vehicle, you're
going to hydroplaning. Hydroplaning means that the tire rides up
on top of the water and you lose control.
And the first time that happens to you, that could
be a bit daunting.
So, know that.
And basically you don't want to be using cruise control.
If it's raining that heavily or there's water sitting in
the troughs.
And you simply want to let off the throttle, take
the foot off the gas pedal.
And be able to slow down and it will sit
back in there.
Now you just stuff that in the dash, damn there.
There is water pooling on the roadway if you had
a lot of rain here.
So, know that if you hit that, you could potentially
lose control if you're going at a high speed.
Because the tires will just ride up on top of
the pool of water.
And you have zero control.
So know that when it's raining heavily.
Now, when it's overcast, it's going to be more difficult
to see in the rain.
So, follow the other traffic…most of the time.
And at least we hope that the traffic is going
to be on the roadway.
So, know that, have your windshield wipers on.
The other thing that you can do is use rain X
on your windshield, especially if you're driving a lot
in the rain.
Or you're letting on Vancouver Island or in Seattle or places
like that, where they have a lot of rain.
So, what I'm going to do here is I'm going
to go up on the highway and I'll show you
how to drive in the rain on the highway.
If you're new to smart drive test, my name’s Rick
I'm a licensed driving instructor. I teach cars, truck,
buses, and air brakes, and I’ve also authored the book
Air Brakes Explained Simply.
You can find all that over at the smart drive test website.
over that, the website here.
And talking about larger vehicles, know that once you get
out onto the highway, there's going to be a lot
of spray coming off back of these larger vehicles, so
you want to stay back in increase your following distance
when you're driving in the rain.
You probably want to increase your distance out to 3 to
5 seconds when you're driving in the rain.
So that you have clear revisions going down the roadway.
If you get right up behind the tractor trailer, & I'll
actually show you that when I get out of here.
I'll get up behind the larger vehicle.
You can see the spray coming off back of the
vehicle, which is going to impede your vision.
and make it difficult to see.
Now the other thing you want to do in combination
with increasing your following distance is you want to break
earlier because no one is going to be slippery.
So this is going to be driving like in the
winter time.
So you're going to brake early, creep up to where
you actually want to stop, and then stop where you
want to stop.
You can see as well when you're following other driving,
you can see the spray coming off. There’s water sitting
on the roadway here.
That's your other indicators.
The spray coming off the other vehicles.
You can see the water sitting on the roadway and
that will prevent you from hydroplaning.
That is your danger when it's raining a lot.
And I can tell you right now, here it
is raining a lot.
And you can see that I have a really big
following distance behind this vehicle.
We're going to show you the amount of spray coming
off the back of this tractor here.
And you're going to get it going here.
And the wheels are exposed on the back of this
tractor because it doesn't have a trailer sitting on top
of the tires. So there's a lot of spray coming off the back
of that bobtail truck.
As well, you have no idea what experience that driver
in that bobtail has.
And that bobtail is probably one of the most
dangerous vehicles on the roadway.
And you can see now that it's raining a lot,
there's a lot of spray coming off the traffic.
And I'm going to turn my windshield wipers
on high and try to give you better view
in the dashcam.
But you can see there's a lot of spray coming
off that tractor. That road tractor is called a bobtail
when there’s no trailer on the back.
You also saw the water spray up over the embuttment
in the middle there.
And that tells you that there's water lying on the
roadway.
And again, the hazard that we talked about before was
hydroplaning when there’s water sitting on the roadway.
And it's going to be like that at the bottom of
hill and whatnot
out here on the highway.
I want to show you how much spray is coming
off that truck.
You can probably see that in the other camera there.
This is why you need to increase your following distance
coming past these trucks.
And the other thing with this big truck behind me
here, I'm also staying over to the right side of
my lane. And you probably heard the beeping there a couple of
times.
I have a new dashcam.
And it's telling me lane departure.
And it can actually see the lines on the roadway.
And it tells me when I’m departing out of my
lane.
Which maybe a good thing for those of you driving a lot!?
And see, you can see the amount of spray coming
off that truck there.
This is why you need to give these vehicles a really
wide berth
when you're learning how to drive.
And these big trucks go by you.
I've got my windshield wipers on
high. And there's just a huge amount of spray.
The other reason that there's so much spray coming off
that truck is because he's out in the passing lane.
There aren't as many vehicles in there.
So water tends to sit in that lane more.
So know that when you're driving that when you get
out into the passing lane.
There's a higher probability that you could potentially aquaplane because
there's more water sitting in that lane.
Because the cars aren't driving on it
and pushing it out of the lane onto the shoulder and
what not.
Okay, even the pickup truck.
You can see a lot of spray coming off that
pickup truck.
And this is what you want to do.
You want to stay back.
And that way you're not going to get caught into
the spray.
And that guy just deviated into my lane.
So I just let off.
Let him go.
And the other thing you'll want to do is for
of you you're going to be able to turn on the
rear window to defrost.
All new vehicles are going to have rear window defrost.
So you want to put that on as well.
So you can see it back.
Some of them will have windshield wipers.
My windshield wipers on the back doesn't work.
But with my wing (side) mirrors
I can see out the back.
really clearly.
The other thing about driving in the rain is the
increased amount of road noise that you're going to have
because the water.
So know that that if you're driving a long time
it's going to contribute to your fatigue.
It's about noise and the windshield wipers and whatnot.
So there's going to be a lot of increased noise
when you're driving in the rain.
And I'm driving in the mountains.
You can see the clouds hanging on the mountains.
Know that that's going to happen and at higher elevations
you're going to get into fog.
It's not actually fog.
It's actually clouds that you're driving through.
Which is kind of a weird idea for those of
us from the east.
And again, there's definitely water lying on the road.
Here you can probably see that in the camera.
And it's pushing me around a little bit.
But it's not a lot.
Because it got fairly good tires on. And if you have
good tires on your vehicle you're going to be okay.
Good tires,
the tread will actually pump up to one gallon of
water per second away from underneath the tire.
So the tire continues to maintain contact with the road
surface.
That's the purpose of tread is to pump water out
from underneath the tire.
At least good rain tires, as opposed
to winter tires and whatnot.
Theses tires obviously have different purposes.
So tires are kind of like cars.
They have different purposes depending on what
you want the tires to do.
If you're driving in a rain climate
You might want to consider putting specific rain tires on
your vehicle. And watch that the traffic coming up behind me as
well. Because I've been in the passing lane.
And as soon as I get past this truck--you
can see the amount of spray coming off the tires
on this truck here.
Just know that when you're driving out on the highway.
There's going to be trucks - bigger vehicle and whatnot.
There's going to be a lot of spray.
I got water on the roadway right here.
Lots of water.
So I want to just let off the accelerator.
Hold the steering wheel with two hands and drive through the
water. I can actually see it on the roadway.
And at night driving in the rain is going to be a bit more
challenging.
You will get some glare off the roadway.
The water surface reflecting the light from the traffic.
But know there's going to be water on the
roadway.
This is why this person in front of me is
braking.
When you've got water on the roadway, you do not
want to be on the brakes.
I've just off the accelerator.
I just got my foot off the accelerator.
I'm getting a good full load of distance.
When you're braking and the vehicle is potentially aquaplaning
on top of that water.
You could lose control.
Get your foot off the brake.
Think of it like driving on ice and snow.
It's exactly the same thing.
You want the tires to roll.
The tires are rolling.
You could potentially lose control.
If the vehicle is hydroplaning, just work the accelerator to regain control.
Don't work the brake. The brake is going to get you into trouble
Just work the throttle to prevent hydroplaining.
If you've got these other vehicles in front of you,
that are on the brake.
Just give them lots & lots of room.
That way you're not going to get into trouble.
There we saw the puddle of water on the side
of the road there.
Again, just off the accelerator.
Hold the steering wheel with both hands - nice and easy.
And go through the puddle of water so you don't
lose control.
For another video, click here.
And remember, pick the best answer,
not necessarily the right answer. Have a great day.
Bye now.