Loss of Control Accidents

Graphing single vehicle loss of control accidents                                 How important is Rear traction Your chances of having an Accident There are no recognized tire authorities that make the statement " the best traction tires on a front wheel drive should be on the fron t " Film footage has shown that in adverse conditions the rear tires on a front wheel drive are more important than the front. Rotating the best tires to the front for winter driving is not a good idea ! Less weight on the back or less traction is the leading cause of loss of control accidents. By increasing rear traction by 10% you can dramatically improve handling. The larger the variation in weight difference front to rear the harder it is for the driver to predict a safe speed and the harder it is to ...

There is much debate over why so many loss of control accidents, with many varying opinions from experts and the public.   But what if we take everything out of the equation but the car? The most common scenario involving loss of control is a vehicle traveling on an icy road and a front wheel coming into contact with a ridge of slush or hard snow and the vehicle starting to pivot out of control. We know the point at which the vehicle will start to pivot and that is when one front wheel has more traction than both rear wheels combined. 67% front weight to 33% rear weight.     To understand how a vehicle will get to this point we need to understand that upon impact with the slush or snow weight is shifted to the front of the vehicle making the front of the vehicle heavier and the rear of the vehicle lighter. The calculation for weight shift is (G force, percentage weight of the car x height of centre of gravity) divided by the wheelbase. So a half G force on an...