Best hand positioning for steering
 

I just bought myself a new car, and the problem is that I haven't driven since I got my license 6 years ago. Well actually I have driven since then, but it was rare.

Anyhow, now that I have a car, and have been driving for roughly a month, I feel like my steering technique needs works. What is the proper way to hold the steering wheel? What technique is best for turning, either the hand over hand technique or push-pull technique?

IMO keep your hands at about the 10 and 2 o'clock positions while cruising; when I'm driving as hard and fast as I can on the track, I try to never cross/tangle my two arms up and I keep both hands on the wheel as much as possible. If making a turn that requires multiple turns of the steering wheel you will have to let go and then the hand-over-hand technique seems better to me than the push-pull. However, I think that the required steering response during normal street driving is almost always slow enough that there is a lot of room for personal preference; but it's good to have your technique developed by time and experience so when you have to react very fast and on instinct, you are likely to do the best thing.

10 and 2 or 9 and 3, whichever is most comfortable for the steering wheel.

Hand-over-hand is for long smooth corners (most).

Arm lock arm (where you move your arms until they're about to cross without moving your hands) should be used for emergency evasion of obstacles, as it is much faster.

anything above 9 and 3 is going to destroy your arms and hands if the airbag goes off, and hand over hand is going to send chunks of your arm into your face. Someone introduced me to the concept of shuffle steering (Google it) about a year ago, and I never looked back.

I steer with my left hand with the right on the shifter (I have an automatic, but it's comfortable and feels natural). It is usually between the 9 and 10 position. When turning, I use my right hand and just circle the wheel in the direction of the turn. However, I started driving like this after about a year of everyday driving, after I was 100% comfortable. My hands were in the 1 and 7 position before that.

For cruising, I keep my left hand between 7 and 8 o'clock.

It's something that carries over from drag racing. If you don't have both hands on the wheel, keeping your left hand high not only will increase fatigue, but hitting a bump/pothole will cause the weight of your arm to drop and steer left. In drag racing, the arm wants to drop when launching, so the same principle applies.

I do 10 and 4 so my right hand can be closer to the shifter. And no, that's not an innuendo.

10 and 2 is actually really stupid because it puts your arms in a less natural position and can cause fatigue over long periods of time. Even though it may seem to provide a better range of motion for turning the wheel, most end up going hand over hand or do the palm spin anyway, so it really doesn't matter.

I usually lean on my right arm on the center armrest and my left wrist hangs on the wheel at the 12 o'clock position. I call it the IROC-Z driving position (although I don't drive one). ;)

I'm sure in normal street driving there is a lot of room for preference. Years ago when girls would even ride with me I used to like using a "suicide" knob on the wheel so I can just hold the knob and turn the wheel as needed, keeping one hand on the girl or shifter or whatever.

But for comparison, all performance driving instructions that I ever got without exception say 10 & 2 o'clock, you only reach for the shifter when needed and then right back to the wheel, and you don't crisscross you arms when you turn more degrees than you can by keeping your hands on the wheel. Your arms should be slightly bent not straight out, though this depends on preference since some like it real cramped in (like most NASCAR drivers) while others like arms stretched out. I like sort of about a 120 deg angle at my elbow between my upper arm and forearm.

If you use push/pull technique, 9 and 3. Push/pull takes time to master, but it will help with precision turns. Advantages lie with having both hands on the wheel at all time.

You're absolutely right, but if you ask they can't give a definitive answer. Sometimes they'll give you a "it's the most efficient grip for turing", but that's incorrect. The most efficient grip for turning is 9 and 3. For me, it's about two things: proximity to the shifter and equilibrium. In order for my right hand to be a few inches from the shifter, it needs to be at about 4 o'clock. As such, my left hand needs to be at about 10 o'clock. The only way you'd see me using 10 and 2 would be in a driver's test or if I needed to use paddle shifters (which I don't particularly care for.

11 & 3 o'clock.

BTW, if you have a steering wheel airbag, do not do 10 and 2. During an airbag deployment, your arms can be between you and the massively powerful airbag (100 mph deployment is usual). Do at least 9 and 3.

Most schools and instructors DO say 10 and 2 positions. Personally I like 9:45 and 2:15 positions....It gives me an extra half hour to get where I am going....:thumbsup:

:lol: Well played.

BTW, if your instructor tells you 10 and 2, ask them if they've ever been involved in an accident where the steering wheel air bag has deployed.

shuffle steering.....imagine a line down the middle of the wheel...hands on each side of the wheel...never ever cross that line with your hands....feed the wheel through the hands, always have at least one hand on the wheel...this way, you get the maximum turning radius.

if you combine this with threshold braking, you can take turns faster, but that's another technique...

Do they still say that, or was that just "way back when" before airbags were standard? Or have the instructors not updated their manuals since the time that they were students?

I stay around 4 & 8, because there are posts in the steering wheel at those spots.

I generally do it the easy way. My thumbs hover next to the horn buttons (my friends and I double-honk at just about every pedestrian we see,) so my hands are just above 9 and 3 and well out of the way of the airbag.

10 & 2 for a non-airbag wheel and 9 & 3 for a wheel with an airbag....For using proper procedure it's scientifically the best hand location. I see alot here like the 4 & 8 or something along the same lines but do you really use proper two hand steering all the time even when you have to be fast on the wheel? I know I don't/can't, I myself usually end up having to change hand position, some one hand steering, or some whatever works type stuff and the airbag in front of me is usually the farthest thing on my mind so I don't take it into consideration.

Wow, never knew so many peopled actually used two hands.

I have my left hand at 12 o clock, with my right hand sitting on the manual shifter. I only start using two hands when I go over 90 mph or so.

none highway: left at 12 & right at 3 (i know, i know, but it's comfortable for me
on highway (meaning not to much turning): 5 & 7 or left hand on 6

(i don't know how much help this can be for ya, i've only been driving a month)

Hands?!? I used to have a contest with a buddy of mine on long trips - who could travel the farthest while steering with their knee...

The farthest I made it was 132 miles on I-90 in New York (Thurway).

i have a friend that does that. . . it's only scary when she does it on turns

9 and 3 (more often, just 9)

Anywhere else, and I can't hit my paddle shifters.

In the MR2 (manual), I do more like 10 and shifter when I'm turning, 7:30 and shifter when I'm not. 7:30 and 4:30 when I'm just cruising, because then both elbows can be resting (door and center console)

In all vehicles, knees or elbows when I need to use the blackberry :thumbsup: jk

Actually I know this dates me, but When I went to driving school, we didnt even have to wear seatbelts, and an "airbag" was that whining girlfriend in the passenger seat that wouldnt stop telling us to slow down...:thumbsup: