why do cars swerve to the right when starting from standstill on slippery road?

Question

There was a sudden huge snowfall during afternoon rush hour and a lot of roads became slippery and full of slush. Traffic slowed to a crawl. Everytime I started moving my car, it would swerve to the right. Same thing happens even when I point my steering wheel to the left before starting to move. I noticed a few other cars around me doing the same thing. Is there something about how cars are designed nowadays?

Answer 1

Most roads are designed with something called a 'crown'. This is basically an arch with the high point in the center. They are most likely designed this way to keep standing water out of the roads and off to the side, but due to simple laws of gravity, it drags you down...Either that, or your alignment is off...

Answer 2

Hi
Actually , they always did this but when the drive wheels were in the rear it didn't affect steering as much.

What happens is one or both of two things.
One, the car is designed to deliver power through a set of gears called a differential. This device allows you to make turns without tearing up the drivetrain or scrubbing your tires (because when going around a corner, the outside wheel has to turn faster than the inside wheel because it has a slightly longer distance to travel.) The overall effect of a non-locking (normal) differential, is that power is transmitted to the wheel with the LEAST traction.

On a snowy road the area towards the left of the lane often has less slushy stuff than the area near the edge so the right side has less traction. When you apply power, the right wheel spins causing the car to drift to the right.

Another thing that is happening is that the application of power to the wheels tends to cause the engine/transaxle to lift the right side of the vehicle and push down on the left side. Although slight, this effect will further reduce traction on the right side.

Turning your wheels to the left won't help much since the spinning wheel (right) still spins and the left wheel still stays put!

Some 4 wheel drive vehicles don't address this and so actually drive one wheel on the front and one on the rear - the two wheels with the least traction, yet!

Locking differentials take care of the problem by comparing the relative speeds of the two axles and when one starts to spin too much, some of the power is transmitted to the other wheel.

Electronic traction control has a similar effect by applying the brake to the overspinning wheel causing the power to shift to the other wheel ( and costs a lot less than 4 wheel drive and/or locking differentials!).

Any help??

Answer 3

Not all cars will swerve to the right, but their are a few reasons a car will slide when on wet pavement or slick pavement. Roads are usually slightly banked, therefore when the tires spin, gravity comes into play and the car will slide with the crown towards the edge of the road.
Another factor, in front wheel drive vehicles, is a phenomenon called "torque steer" which means that the shafts that run from the wheels to the transmission are of unequal length. The wheel attached to the shorter shaft will usually pull more than the other.

Answer 4

It doesn't swerve at all if you don't give it too much gas. In slippery conditions, you don't give it any gas at all until the transmission is engaged and there is power at the wheels. If you know how to drive you should be able to start straight even on a skating rink, unless you are on a hill, or 1 or 2 wheels are off the pavement. I learned to drive in winter, and never since have I lived in a city that did not have winter, with snow, ice, and severe cold. It was the same on the old Volks van and Chevy that I started out on, as it it is in newer cars, just that there is even better control now with modern tyres and front wheel drive.

Answer 5

The engine torques to the right. Some cars have a short axle on the right. The Differential if not posi track or lima slip, will cause this axle to turn first on slick surfaces or under hard acceleration. Tips for driving in snow or ice. If you car is an automatic, it will move on it's own when releasing the brake. Let it start moving before accelerating. When turning a corner shift transmission to neutral turn corner strighten out and shift back to drive.Remember on snow or ice it will take you up to 20 times the distance to stop as on dry pavement.

Answer 6

The right tire is generally the lead tire. That is the way most transmissions are set up .If they pulled to the left taking off it could pull you into the line of oncoming traffic.The road angle has nothing to do with acceleration steer . That's a built in safety factor.That is why when you let go of the steering wheel most cars will veer to the right. That is to keep you from running head on with a oncoming car

Answer 7

Its not the cars, its the road. Many roads are not flat as you might imagine, but crowned. The highest point is in the center and the edges are slightly lower. This is so water will run off the roadway during heavy rains. Under very slippery conditions, the crown is just enough to cause vehicles without good traction to slide toward the edge of the roadway.

Answer 8

I comprehend that you probably did not favor to hit the rabbit, yet I only needed to assert that on your human being safe practices, that's a ways more suitable constructive to hit the brakes yet no longer swerve, regardless of if it skill hitting the animal. honestly, this style of number of people were killed on the roads because of people swerving. that's a perilous element to do, and in the scheme of issues, one animal isn't nicely worth dropping your existence over.

Answer 9

It's called torque steer and it is caused in most front drive vehicles by the axle on the passenger side being longer than the axle on the drivers side.

Answer 10

Hello =)

It has to do with the torque vector of engines.......

Since most engines spin in the same way, they create the same forces...

You will find the occasional car that has an engine that spins in another direction, that will swerve the opposite way, as in older volkswagens and so forth, and some mazdas with their rotary engines, but for the most part.....all engines create the same vector of force, and slide to the right......

Namaste,

--Tom