Hydroplane/RWD

[kltye]

What brand/version of tire did you change over to?

Vredestein Quatrac Pro. 235/60/18.

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[tuminatr]

Vredestein Quatrac Pro. 235/60/18.

Those are known for excellent wet weather performance. I have them too in a 225/60/18 and they are much better than the factory Michelin tires in the wet and in the snow.

 

[Hdscreens]

The select tires are too narrow for weight of vehicle and for slippery conditions. The day I bought mine it was very cold and wet out and it didn’t feel happy driving in that. Briefly, had gt wheels and tires before I sold it and seemed to handle better with those.

 

[daverp]

How fast were you driving? How hard was it raining? How much water was standing on the roadway? What was the road like? (straight, turning, banked..)


This might be an issue of mixing terms. Hydroplaning is the car rising up on a layer of water, this only occurs when more water is going under the tire than the tread (sipes) can remove. This can happen on any drive type. It's simply a function of speed and amount of water.


Skidding / Sliding happens when the tires break traction. The force being applied to the road by the tire exceeds the amount of grip the tire has on the road. Many things factor into this, surface condition, tire conditions, drive train, and the driver. EV's have more torque so can more easily break traction, if the computers let them. However modern traction control system do a really good job of preventing that.

Ultimately the cause of a spin for both of these is driving too fast for conditions, it just sucks is sometime you don't know you're going to fast until it's too late, because condition quickly change or you hit a spot of standing water. .

 

[TD1273]

I have had my Mach-E for 10 months now. I absolutely love it but noticed during rain that I would sometimes feel as though I was hydroplaning. Unfortunately I am now finding out that living in south Florida + RWD was possibly a bad combo for me. On Sunday my car spun out and landed in a ditch. Thankfully I was not injured and neither was anyone else. The car however is likely totaled. Has anyone else experienced this? Is this a Mach-e issue? A tire issue? Or a RWD issue? Or just purely bad luck? I was not speeding. The tires were not worn (14,000 miles). In fact I moved to the center lane several minutes before to stay away from puddles because I felt as though I was sliding a bit. I have to make a decision as to order another mach-e or to move on to a different car so any input would be appreciated. Thanks!

Southeast gets heavy enough rain storms that I’ve had my semi hydroplane in Florida number 1 culprit is speed to fast for conditions unless you’re running bald tires

 

[Avenger]

Agreed with what several others here have said... I had RWD (SR/Premium) Job 1 Mach E for 18 months including a Boston winter with no issues due to RWD (I prefer the slightly tail happy feel, and really loved turning traction control off to do smooth, quiet donuts in snow covered parking lots). Might have occasionally preferred the better acceleration of AWD or GT but liked the fact RWD had better range for smaller battery and was lighter (plus I had cars better handling and quicker than GT anyway so that wasn't the purpose here for me).

I did have RWD cars I spun out when I was new to New England and had summer performance tires in a snow storm (luckily never hurt or significant damage but a couple of 360s), and have had a few scary moments hydroplaning but RWD with good weight distribution, appropriate tires, and appropriate speed/acceleration/braking is as safe as AWD IMO and maybe safer as I know sooner of limits as loss of traction accelerating will tell me before it would in AWD.

Just wild guesses here : (1) perhaps speed was too high for conditions, (2) perhaps rear tires were balding if this car was driven spiritedly, (3) perhaps too heavy (acceleration) or light (deceleration if single pedal enabled) use of accelerator contributed to loss of traction.

The latter may be an edge case where RWD could hydroplane worse than AWD if single pedal mode is on (moreso if unbridled), as you DO NOT want to brake/decelerate/... when approaching hydroplaning limits. Best is manual transmission car to slam in the clutch and let the car decelerate optimally without any engine acceleration/braking to aid in loss of traction. Next best is just to let off the throttle hoping your car isn't in a sport mode (which it shouldn't be in slippery conditions unless you want to spin) in an automatic. For EVs, turning off single pedal (or explicity going to snow/slippery mode if available) will help and might help RWD more than AWD.

Southeast gets heavy enough rain storms that I’ve had my semi hydroplane in Florida number 1 culprit is speed to fast for conditions unless you’re running bald tires

I was in a 50. Slowed down to 40 and had moved to center lane to avoid possible puddles. But I had been noticing fishtailing since I bought the car in the slightest of conditions. I’ve lived in Florida my whole life and am used to driving in tropical storm-like conditions. I’ve never been in an accident and never had a speeding ticket. Tread is good bc that was our first thought. I think the RWD + conditions just worked against me on this one. There wasn’t even puddles. Just slick road. It was drizzling. Not even bad rain. It’s my first and last RWD vehicle. Between my husband and myself we have owned six or seven different makes and models. Never an issue. So not sure what the deal was here. But I have gotten a lot of useful feedback. Praying this doesn’t happen to anyone else. Could’ve been way worse!!

 

[bosbruce]

I was in a 50. Slowed down to 40 and had moved to center lane to avoid possible puddles. But I had been noticing fishtailing since I bought the car in the slightest of conditions. I’ve lived in Florida my whole life and am used to driving in tropical storm-like conditions. I’ve never been in an accident and never had a speeding ticket. Tread is good bc that was our first thought. I think the RWD + conditions just worked against me on this one. There wasn’t even puddles. Just slick road. It was drizzling. Not even bad rain. It’s my first and last RWD vehicle. Between my husband and myself we have owned six or seven different makes and models. Never an issue. So not sure what the deal was here. But I have gotten a lot of useful feedback. Praying this doesn’t happen to anyone else. Could’ve been way worse!!

Sorry this happened to you but glad no one was hurt. If your Mach E was fishtailing since you bought it in the slightest of conditions, something must be wrong with it (unless you have a heavy foot in tight turns, which it certainly doesn't sound like is the case, or maybe you initially have a quick/heavy foot but then back off causing a bit of a loss of traction first from accelerating and then more loss from decelerating). Even in unbridled mode, unless you have turned off traction/stability, Ford erred on the side of safety vs. fun from my experience of Mach E RWD... But they still allowed a little bit of fun before kicking in the nannies that prevent a spin given 2 door Mustang is a historically tail happy sports car... Even many AWD performance vehicles from the likes of Porsche (I now have a Taycan 4S AWD I would have much rather had RWD if they could have put a bigger motor in the rear, but the car is only quick enough to be an electric sports car with two motors), when you put them in their most sporty settings, let you steer with the accelerator as well as the steering wheel, but when you put them in normal mode they will be far more tame just like my Mach E RWD. Again not sure why your Mach E seemed squirrelly in general if traction control was on, even if you had one pedal and unbridled modes set (different tires left/right? different tire pressures?). Don't blame you to not want to get another of the same vehicle you had such a scary experience with for sure... I'd probably go for AWD after that experience too if I was getting the same model... In any case, keeping speed down, keeping car in lowest settings to mimic it being in neutral the moment it starts to lose traction (which means whisper, disabled one pedal for Mach E) whether AWD or RWD would help avoid another such spin if situations are slick.

 

[bosbruce]

Skidding / Sliding happens when the tires break traction. The force being applied to the road by the tire exceeds the amount of grip the tire has on the road. Many things factor into this, surface condition, tire conditions, drive train, and the driver. EV's have more torque so can more easily break traction, if the computers let them. However modern traction control system do a really good job of preventing that.

Ultimately the cause of a spin for both of these is driving too fast for conditions, it just sucks is sometime you don't know you're going to fast until it's too late, because condition quickly change or you hit a spot of standing water. .

Or possibly hit a damp section of road that has dirt / mud on it as OP said no puddles where she spun ...Can be as bad as ice in some situations...

 

[daverp]

But I had been noticing fishtailing since I bought the car in the slightest of conditions.

Honestly sounds like you had something more wrong with the car. That is not normal behavior for any car, even if you were daily driving in Unbridled mode. Did you ever have the dealer check it out before this happened?

One of the slickest times on a road is just after it start to rain or drizzle. All the dirt and oil starts to come up but it's not enough water to wash it away yet. One thing that will get Texas drivers a lot is our our draining edges of roads. Please will fly buy at speed in the rain and then catch standing water with just one sides tires, this in terns causes the car to hook and spin.

 

[bosbruce]

Honestly sounds like you had something more wrong with the car. That is not normal behavior for any car, even if you were daily driving in Unbridled mode. Did you ever have the dealer check it out before this happened?

One of the slickest times on a road is just after it start to rain or drizzle. All the dirt and oil starts to come up but it's not enough water to wash it away yet. One thing that will get Texas drivers a lot is our our draining edges of roads. Please will fly buy at speed in the rain and then catch standing water with just one sides tires, this in terns causes the car to hook and spin.

I experienced this in Texas in a rental Corolla once.... Light rain had just started after apparently a dry/dusty spell and I hit the brakes like normal before a stop sign and skidded right through it like I was on ice... Luckily nobody going the other way so I just slowed down and learned a lesson there!

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