suspension settings affect on hydroplaning

[carnage1]

I am familiar with how many suspension settings affect a cars handleing on dry pavement, and while cornering, but how do the settings affect hydroplaning? I recently replaced the struts on my car (96 dodge neon) and set my camber to max negative (7deg ish)till I get an alignment (next weekend) and have noticed that I seem to be hydroplaning worse than before. this has me wonderning how various suspension attributes (such as camber, caster, toe, scrub radius, bound, and rebound) affect hydroplaning.

 

[patprimmer]

I don't see an effect unless it alters the weight on the wheel, or the effective width of the contact patch, neither of which seems probable to any noticeable degree.

Regards

eng-tips, by professional engineers for professional engineers
Please see FAQ731-376 for tips on how to make the best use of Eng-Tips Fora.

 

[michael2]

7 degrees of negative camber? Wow.

Hydroplaning...dunno. Technically, 7 degrees ought to reduce the size of the contact patch thereby reducing hydroplaing. However, this condition might not allow the tire to work as designed.

I suggest a more reasonable camber value...1.5 degrees feels better to me. This is still a bit aggressive if driven daily on the street...unless you do not care about tire wear?

Michael

 

[carnage1]

Im headed for -1 deg but when I replaced the struts I needed a way to make them nearly ballanced side to side and max negative was the easiest way to do it. the tires were already nearly shot so I just need them to last till I get new tires and an alignment wednesday. I may not be hydroplaning worse it may just pull more noticeably because my suspension is set so oddly at the moment.

 

[michael2]

I wouldn't expect any suspension improvements to compensate for "nearly shot tires".

 

[NormPeterson]

If you've suddenly obtained several degrees of negative camber, you've also picked up a considerable change in toe (and I'll guess that it's hugely out of the mfr range in the toe-in direction). Sideways slippage, even if balanced left vs right, has to be detracting from overall grip whether you're accelerating, braking, cornering, or just beginning to unload the contact with the pavement.

Norm

 

[carnage1]

so the larger tendancy to pull is probibly that once one tire loses traction the angle of the other tire becomes all that is steering. with propper toe settings both tires track nearly evenly, and the problem is less noticeable.
I'll buy that.

yes I know the alignment won't fix my bald tires. Im changing my alignment from factory settings and wanted to be sure I wasn't missing something important for wet weather traction.
In western Oregon the weather man comes on the news in October to inform everyone that it will rain till mid June and that he will be on vacation somewhere sunny till then.