Aha, hand over hand, now I get to wax poetic about that.
Hand over hand steering was useful up until maybe the mid 1960s. Later, too, but after about 1967, power steering was becoming more the norm. Cars were far more likely to not have power steering. Instead, they employed lower range steering gear boxes and giant trash can lid steering wheels. In order to make a regular old 90 degree turn, you’d have to crank the wheel over way more than you do on a modern car, and the car was heavier, had steel wheels (more mass to move).
They continue to teach it today, because if your car loses power and/or shuts off (ICE cars especially, not impossible with EVs) or the power steering otherwise fails while you’re moving, you’re really going to want to know how to hand over hand steer. It’s much more difficult to steer a car with power steering that’s dead/broken than a car that just doesn’t have power steering at all. Why they still demand it for drivers’ tests on every turn, I don’t know. You should be able to demonstrate that you can do it, but hand over hand steering on essentially every car today is more clumsy, as long as everything is working properly.
e:
If you mime driving a car, do you put your hands at 10 and 2? No, you’ll probably do 9 and 3.
Only if that’s the standard you were taught, and the cars that you learned to drive were ones where that made more sense. I mean, just look where Toonces puts his paws.
I had a Chevy S10 without power steering and man steering that thing at low speeds was such a bitch (such as when you’re trying to do a three point turn). You get a real workout every time you drive. So grateful power steering is in all cars nowadays.
I’m also pretty sure if your car had power steering but its not working then turning is harder than on a car designed not using power steering. Pretty sure they change up some great ratios.
We had a 70s F-350 flatbed with no power steering for hauling stuff around the farm. Actually driving the truck was as much of a workout as loading the bed
Yeah … There was a weird in between time where there were still some small vehicles without p/s, but they were still using similar steering boxes or racks, and the same smaller steering wheel. I’m pretty sure that rack and pinion steering is more difficult without power assist, too, or because a different enough gearing would change the packaging, need too much room, increase design/production/manufacture costs too much - they just went fuck it and removed p/s without changing anything else because “good enough”.
I don’t remember whether the S10 had rack and pinion or pitman arm style.
Hand over hand is better for ensuring you have a grip that can go either direction if something pulls on your wheels suddenly, like in slippery conditions. It isn’t necessary to pull it like climbing the rope in gym class with power steering, but awkward hand positions can lead to loss of control.
Aha, hand over hand, now I get to wax poetic about that.
Hand over hand steering was useful up until maybe the mid 1960s. Later, too, but after about 1967, power steering was becoming more the norm. Cars were far more likely to not have power steering. Instead, they employed lower range steering gear boxes and giant trash can lid steering wheels. In order to make a regular old 90 degree turn, you’d have to crank the wheel over way more than you do on a modern car, and the car was heavier, had steel wheels (more mass to move).
They continue to teach it today, because if your car loses power and/or shuts off (ICE cars especially, not impossible with EVs) or the power steering otherwise fails while you’re moving, you’re really going to want to know how to hand over hand steer. It’s much more difficult to steer a car with power steering that’s dead/broken than a car that just doesn’t have power steering at all. Why they still demand it for drivers’ tests on every turn, I don’t know. You should be able to demonstrate that you can do it, but hand over hand steering on essentially every car today is more clumsy, as long as everything is working properly.
e:
Only if that’s the standard you were taught, and the cars that you learned to drive were ones where that made more sense. I mean, just look where Toonces puts his paws.
I had a Chevy S10 without power steering and man steering that thing at low speeds was such a bitch (such as when you’re trying to do a three point turn). You get a real workout every time you drive. So grateful power steering is in all cars nowadays.
Why didn’t you fix the power steering? I’m pretty sure they were all built with it.
I’m also pretty sure if your car had power steering but its not working then turning is harder than on a car designed not using power steering. Pretty sure they change up some great ratios.
We had a 70s F-350 flatbed with no power steering for hauling stuff around the farm. Actually driving the truck was as much of a workout as loading the bed
Yeah … There was a weird in between time where there were still some small vehicles without p/s, but they were still using similar steering boxes or racks, and the same smaller steering wheel. I’m pretty sure that rack and pinion steering is more difficult without power assist, too, or because a different enough gearing would change the packaging, need too much room, increase design/production/manufacture costs too much - they just went fuck it and removed p/s without changing anything else because “good enough”.
I don’t remember whether the S10 had rack and pinion or pitman arm style.
Nothing like a technical discussion of automotive steering history without a reference to Toonces.
If we’re going there, let me tell you about tillers.
Hand over hand is better for ensuring you have a grip that can go either direction if something pulls on your wheels suddenly, like in slippery conditions. It isn’t necessary to pull it like climbing the rope in gym class with power steering, but awkward hand positions can lead to loss of control.
This is the kind of excited spew of hyperfixated knowledge that only those touched by the tism could produce.
My wife is the NT in a house full of NDs, so she has some inkling of what it’s like to be us.