Drive with two hands.
 

Driving the boy back to school for sophomore year.

He is taking his car.

It’s a 4-5 hour ride.

First time he has driven this far and first time i’ve spent this much time with him on a highway.

No idea where he picked this habit up but he’s a two hands driver.

And i don’t mean having a grip on the wheel with one hand and the other there loose.

As in he seems to grip the wheel equally as hard with both hands.

He’s constantly correcting himself, alternating input.

Really annoying.

How does one develop this habit and how do i break it.

Getting seasick driving with him.

Worst part is he doesn’t seem to realize he’s doing it.

10 and 2 o'clock, right?

Two hands. That's a good thing.

Maybe relax a little and not constantly correct.

Suggest he pick a point further ahead to focus on. If one focuses too close you will have a tendency to constantly correct. Easier said than done, but you can catch it early.

Yup.
That said, I had trouble driving modern vehicles with their power steering compared to the heavy steering with my small steering wheel in the 944.

My first time driving a rental suburban I ended up only touching the wheel with a single finger from each hand.

Over time I got used to the need for lighter inputs in modern cars.
I do not like riding with people that keep making lots of corrections.
Some people do not like riding with me as I'll let the vehichle wander a little with the natural pull of the road and incrementally increase correction.
It's a habit from low powered kart racing, tight fisting back and forth scrubs acceleration.
Let it wander a little, keep it free, and get that speed.

No, that's really old advice. But I don't debate the point. If that best suits the driver, it's fine.

3 and 9 is much better hand placement.

And as already mentioned, have him look about 15 seconds ahead. That should address over-correction and it'll also facilitate early braking as well.

I only give younger drivers the following tips.

hands 3-9
look ahead 15 seconds
early braking
check mirrors very often

And having both hands on the wheel at all times is best.

I know, I know. "I drive with my only one wrist draped over 12o'clock. Been doing it for 3000 years, no issue."

Fine, keep doing it. Just don't teach new drivers that technique.

Agreed on all points.

And those who drive with one hand at 12 o'clock? If their car is airbag equipped, that is a very, very bad thing to do. In a head on collision, said hand will eventually become a claw or mechanical hand.

^^^ sshhh.

I've told many, they all know more than me and tell me "phht, that's just dumb, I know how to drive!"

And I say no more.

was he extra nervous or self conscious because you were in the car?

I am told it is 9 and 3 they teach these days, to reduce wrist injuries in air bag deployments.

Yep. By the time you've lived long enough to have learned a few things, the young don't want to hear it.

Never thought of the 9-3 thing because of airbags...makes sense.

The steering wheels on both of my Hondas have the thumb rests at the 9 and 3 spots.
Which makes the hands lower at 8 and 4.

My niece corrected my 9 & 3 driving position and told me it was 8 & 4. She had just finished drivers ed.
I looked it up and that's what they are teaching now. She said it had to do with the airbag.

There is more to it. With your hands at 9 & 3, when you turn, your body is still centered. If you are at 10 and 2, when you turn left, you body will lean left, and thus, your center of gravity will also shift left. You won't be as balanced, and if tings go south, it will be more difficult for you to maintain control of the car.

Not really a big deal on the street, but at the track, you want to keep your body as centered as possible when turning.

Two hands is good. But the alternating bit is weird. I have no idea how to fix that. He'll, I'm not even exactly sure how he's doing it. When I drive with 2 hands, things are more stable, not less.

A friend of mine likes to drive on long straight roads with just his knee keeping the car going straight. Bad habits.

I wouldn't worry about it.
There are a lot of worse driving habits than that. Give him credit for being super vigilant.

I've always felt that 3-9 was much better. I've never used 10-2. Maybe just a tiny bit higher than 3-9, but not nearly as high as 10-2.

These days, because of air bags, I think a lower grip may be the recommended/safer spot.

Good call, don't look at the car ahead, look way up.even in traffic, I'm looking at cars 3-5 cars up, even if I have to look at cars in other lanes, so I can see brake lights come on that much earlier.

I haven't driven with my wrist in a long time. And these days, in cars with air bags, that's a great way to get hurt really badly. When that air bag goes off and causes you to punch yourself in the face at 200mph, Ouch!

Exactly. Lots of modern steering wheels are setup to get you a little lower than 9-3.

It could be worse....

https://www.awesomeinventions.com/wp...ivel-tray1.jpg

Drove from Northern VA to Texas twice in the past few years with my son. He scared the bejezuz out of me. Way too fast for conditions and tended to get up close to car in front before deciding what to do.

The wife is an entire other bag of problems. Even our kids complain to me about her texting while driving. She will claim it's talk to text but we all know better.

Also her hands are at 12 and 6 and sometimes just 6 ONLY. Nice high center of gravity Land Rover. One day she's going to over correct because of the F'ed up hand position and flip that thing. But she can't be told.

Haha!

Sorry for laughing SM!

Yep, the waiting until you're on the ass of the car in front of you before you decide what to do bugs the carp out of me.

The hold the wheel at 6 thing bugs me a lot. I've seen people that hold the wheel with 2 fingers down there.

My gf drives one handed at 2:00, with her left hand.

That's how we rolled joints back in the day. How we survived is a mystery to this day.

That's WEIRD!

Her seating position is reclined. I tried explaining to her it was dangerous, but you know how it goes.

Oh man, that reminds me of a case I had about 15 years ago. Dude was pleading to rubbing on his GF that was under age, even though he was only 18 or 19.

Judge thought they were parked and getting it on. Guy says, no your honor I was driving.

Judge says, so let me get this straight... you had one hand on the steering wheel and the other on her hooha (not the word he used).

It was all I could do to keep from laughing. Judge had never been married so I'm not sure he knew that this sort of thing was possible.

That's another one that bugs me.

My son did that when he was in his teens, seat way back, then I think he drove with his hand at 6 o'clock.

Fortunately, he grew out of it.

[QUOTE=matthewb0051;11773944Way too fast for conditions and tended to get up close to car in front before deciding what to do[/QUOTE]

My dad said if you ever had the brakes fail you will learn, I did and luckily I didn't hit anything.

Our daughter used to drive with one hand at the bottom of the wheel. I told her multiple times, 3 o’clock and 9 o’clock. Being out of the house years ago, I don’t know what she does now.

10 and 2, but save weight first and ditch the air bags

This was the only way I could drive my Z06 for much of the year.
Most of my left arm wasn't working for me, could get it on the 6 and keep the car straightish while taking my right hand off 12 to shift with my right.
Needless to say, I wasn't burning rubber like that.

Prior to that, not sure I've ever done 12 and 6.
The off center four spoke design in the C5 does make the 6 an easy grab.
What surprised me is I had an easier time in the manual 'Vette than the auto Jag for the first few months.

Been a long day.

So when i said he drove with both hands i didn’t mean just hands at 10-2 I meant actively using both hands at the same time controlling the wheel with equal force.

We were at his apt moving him in and went out to dinner so I drove.

I think i figured it out.

I tried driving the same as him and oddly enough the car feels like it has lobe like a cam in the steering rack.

Kind of hard to explain but there is a resistance change dead center at the top of the lobe.

There’s no flat spot if that makes sense.

It’s impossible to keep the car dead center exerting equal pressure on both sides simultaneously.

There’s nothing wrong with the car, i think that’s just they way it is.

2019 Kia Soul with 40k on it.

It almost feels like it’s intentionally there to help mitigate FWD torque steer.

It’ll just fall over to the other side no matter what leading to the constant correction

That sounds like an issue to be fixed. Are the car’s tires shot?

As for bad habits, I rode in a taxi from downtown Kona to the airport on the lava flow and the driver pedaled the accelerator like she was riding a bike the entire way. Wtf?

Tires are fine.

I don’t let my family drive janky ****.

Could be an alignment issue, incorrect camber. That’s a thing to check.

But it doesn’t do it when using only one hand, right or left, as the main steering input.

It really does feel like it’s intentional to mitigate that tiny bit of bias you get from torque steer by reducing resistance at the steering pump.

Back in the day had a buddy with a tricked out MX6. It was leased so he disconnected the speedo to avoid going over contract mileage.

But that car had a variable pump that used speed as one of its metrics to calculate resistance feedback.

The car was a nightmare to drive. Totally unpredictable.

Your son should take it in as it should still be under warranty.

Sounds like insufficient positive caster to me. I guess really out of spec camber could have some effect, but caster angle is the dimension that is associated with tracking.

Did you tell him to keep the car in the centre of the lane or give other instruction first? Maybe the over vigilant steering was a response to you being in the car monitoring him.

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