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-   -   Safe Driving in the Rains (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/road-safety/41953-safe-driving-rains-34.html)

Thank you for sharing this great post. I felt I knew everything there is to know about driving in rainy season until I read your post.

TNSTC bus roof falls off due to winds

What? :Shockked:

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=EjE2TYPuqbM

"Falls off" should be in the English-language thread! :Frustrati

Surprised to see this is current/recent news. Didn't think we had had much wind recently. A graphic illustration of the power of wind. Once it gets underneath something, that something may soon be flying.

Parag, this particular stretch around Dharmapuri is quite notorious for thunderstorms don’t know why. I regularly ply on this stretch and have encountered similar situations. Sometimes the storms were so strong and scary as if it’s a tornado. On a broad day light the visibility can get reduced to few meters. Thanks for reminding, monsoons are beautiful but need to exercise caution when we are on road.

Rains and fog conditions put the efficiency of the lights to the ultimate test. When the heavy rain overwhelms the OEM lighting, with my light bar mounted, I had been able to maintain the best pace possible given the road surface condition with the visibility remaining unaffected. They help me sight the waterlogging in advance.

This brings up the problem of tailgating from certain other vehicles. I had caught myself leading a convoy of upto five vehicles(mostly SUVs) in those conditions. This is a dangerous situation because the heavy raining keep springing up instances when I might be required to brake hard especially due to waterlogging looming up after bends. I has to slow down to a pace where they feel too insulted to follow to tide over the trouble.

I had avoided the LED/HID options till date particularly with these extreme rain or fog scenarios in mind even though they offer a huge increase in lumens at much lesser electrical loads over halogens.

Can anyone share how their LED/HID lighting perform under heavy raining?

I was driving back from Chidambaram to Chennai on Wednesday. It seems like there was a cloud burst accompanied by powerful winds. Even with the wipers at their highest setting, it was impossible to see anything. Almost everyone pulled over to the side of the highway, but of course there were some idiots who used that as an opportunity to race down the road completely blind. :Frustrati

If I may add to this already exhaustive post - One must stay away from the reflective road studs. These studs are made of plastic and tend to throw your car completely off balance even at low speeds. I have seen such road studs also installed in living societies in Mumbai typically in car parks. Long time back in 2004 I ran over one of these road studs and totally lost control of my car. Luckily it was late night and I was unharmed.

Can any of the members comment on what to do if we are driving an automatic transmission car and have to stop in flooded area(due to bumper to bumper traffic). How to keep revs high and also make a stop for an automatic car.

One option I see is using break and accelerator at the same time.
Other option could be to keep the transmission in 'N' mode(non-drive mode) and press accelerator.
Will there be any problem with above two ways?
What extra methods can be used in such condition?

With Automatic cars one would have to activate the manual mode and move to 1st gear before entering the flooded area and keep the car in 1st gear till the car is out of water. Keep the revs high all the time you are in water to prevent water entering the exhaust. I would wait for car in front to wade through water completely before entering the water to avoid getting stuck behind a car in standing water. Pressing the brake and accelerator together as you mentioned in an automatic I guess may activate the brake throttle override system which is active in most cars today for safety. This will result in car cutting off throttle and reducing the power which may subsequently lead to car stalling in water.

I personally prefer to work from home during days it pours heavily or wait for the rains to subside in case I am already at work.

Note you must read your car manual for the safe height of water your car is built to tolerate. Better be safe than sorry :)

I for one fail to see why the great fear of water ingress into engine from exhaust. As long as engine is kept running even at normal RPM I do not see water entering or being sucked up into engine.

Agree with keeping engine at steady - not inordinately high - RPM while crossing water accumulation. Keeping constant speed may or may not be possible due to traffic but as long as there no sudden speeding it should be okay.

Check the post below where I posted the video from my Dashcam while driving under heavy rains.

This was the most basic set-up : 100/90w H4 Halogen bulbs (Philips) and a Relay Kit. I use this for both my cars and thankfully I have faced zero issues with its functioning or fading or blackening of reflectors. This set-up is easily 175,000 Kms with couple of bulb replacements while the reflector stays stock.

Additionally, the white patch that you see around the bumper area is the output from OSRAM LEDriving Fog lights that I had installed 2 years before and they seem to be doing a decent job.

I too had gone for LEDs as they give brighter light at lower load, but they do not work so well in rain & fog.
The two floods and one spot in the middle, upper light-bar, are perfect for country roads and forest trails, with nobody to blind coming from the opposite direction, and no ambient illumination, but cannot penetrate fog or heavy rain.
The two yellow LED fogs lower down can tackle mist, but get swallowed in rain. My OSRAM Night Breaker 55/60 HLs' lower yellowish beams are more reliable.

On my Nissan Jonga I have a single 5" round old-style yellow halogen fog lamp, which works better in both fog & rain.
Have you gone in for LEDs yet ? Please share photos and specs ?

I am currently using 55/60 H4 bulbs in my New Figo OEM reflectors which are mediocre.

I have a detachable Aux light bar with 4 Hella 500FF lights each of which are running 100W H3 bulbs. This setup had proved adequate while driving in the rains.

This lightbar is left lying in the boot and I mount it myself during challenging night drives only. I chose this setup after first considering Philip Ultinons then the projectors which were more expensive and complex with questionable improvement.

I use Wolo RC100 remote switches that enable me to flick them on and off without taking my hands off the steering wheel. WOLO RC-100

I have been wanting to try LED bulbs in my OEM headlights and HIDs in my Hella 500ffs for long while now.

But I don't want to defeat the purpose of having aux lamps in the first place and have left them running halogens which have proved adequate for now.

Thanks. NEVER go for LEDs in OEM HLs. Too little penetration power, among other things. Instead can upgrade to Philips 100/90 with extra relay/ wiring harness. My Gypsy King is full-LED (meter/cabin/tail/stop/indicators/numberplate etc.) but I have kept halogens for the OEM headlights. You may use LEDs in auxiliaries. Certainly less load than your Hellas !

Thanks for the WOLO link. Might come useful in future, as I already have too many switches to grope for, and sometimes forget which is for what !

Pouring rain that overwhelms the wipers might force us all to pull over inspite of any upgrade to lights though.

For all other situations, an upgrade to lighting goes a long way in tackling the showers more confidently.

It will be interesting to see how the cars with OEM LED lights like Baleno fare under a heavy downpour.