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Re: For those LBC owners who have cruise controls

To: "Rick Fisk" <refisk@chartermi.net>
Subject: Re: For those LBC owners who have cruise controls
From: Tab Julius <tab@penworks.com>
Date: Sat, 01 Feb 2003 15:54:31 -0500
PLUS, the fact that you're hydroplaning means that your wheels don't have 
any significant contact with the road.  They're basically floating on 
water.  If you were able to "accelerate to a high rate of speed" then you 
weren't hydroplaning to begin with.  If perchance you were able to end the 
hydroplaning effect and "accelerate" then you'd have a grip on the road 
again, so you would be right back to driving on pavement, so it ought to 
correct itself.  You can't accelerate while hydroplaning unless someone's 
pushing you or you've got sliding momentum.

That said, in weather bad enough to have risk of hydroplaning you'd be 
foolish to be using cruise control anyway because you wouldn't be able to 
adjust your speed quickly.  If anything, I'd argue that you'd be more 
likely to hydroplane with cruise control on because you wouldn't be able to 
quickly decrease your speed and avoid it.  But that's very different than 
accelerating while hydroplaning, which is a bit of a contradiction (unless 
of course the drive wheels were in contact and the non-drive were 
hydroplaning, but that would still avoid the cruise-control scenario anyway).

- Tab

At 12:44 PM 2/1/03, Rick Fisk wrote:
>Maybe I'm wrong (it's happened before <g>), but this doesn't make any sense
>at all and sounds like another urban myth.
>
>The cruise control uses the speed of the wheels (drivetrain) to determine
>the speed of the car.  If the car hydroplanes the cruise system would not
>"know" this and would maintain the same engine speed - not speed up.  If
>anything the car would probably slow down a little since the drive wheels
>are not in contact with the road.
>
>Rick

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