Hydroplane and wipeout in the 100

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate
links, including eBay, Amazon, Skimlinks, and others.

truggier

truggier

Joined
Oct 18, 2005
Threads
41
Messages
289
Location
Camp Verde, AZ
So my wife was heading to the university with my two teenage boys and their friend last Friday morning, and there was a torrential downpour in northern Arizona. Next thing she knew she hydroplaned at 70 mph, did a complete 360 on I17, and then went off the road sideways (passenger side first). They narrowly missed a tree and went bumping over some big boulders before coming to a stop. Amazingly, they didn't roll.

Both passenger side tires lost their beads but look ok otherwise. The front brush guard took a boulder impact low and bent, and the driver's side step has a good sized dent as well. Otherwise, there's no body damage. We've yet to put it on a lift and see if anything is hosed underneath - the skid plate looks pretty chewed up. I'm hoping insurance isn't going to want to total it if something's wrong under there.

I'm damn glad my family was in the 100 though. What a tank.

Picture 022 - small.webp


Picture 023 - small.webp
 
Wow thank god on this one for sure. Taking-out both PS tire beads at that speed and not rolling is a miracle.
 
Glad no one was hurt truggier.

Interested in the LC's tire situation - what tires, tread depth does it have?
 
In 2000, I hydroplaned my 1999 LX, rolled onto passenger side, and then completely flipped back upright. I was able to drive away but truck ended up being totaled.

Lesson learned - slow down in the rain.
 
Momentum is a bitch..,.hundy is like a fat girl on ice skates ..... Unfortunate cost of a sturdy and very heavy vehicle is the inability to correct trajectory and avoid an accident once you lose traction. Other than mpg, this is my gripe with such a ponderous vehicle ( of course this not unique to just the hundy)
 
From a tread standpoint I've been very impressed with the NTGs. We're no stranger to rain here. I can roll through almost anything with the NTGs and stay secure, even with 25k of wear on them. In contrast, the narrower and heavily siped Grabbers on the LX want to float. Would have expected the opposite. The LC has more mass, but it also has a larger cross section - 295 vs 275. On snow, however, the NTGs aren't the best. Not horrible but less stable than I'd hoped they'd be.
 
Had a similar situation last year, got about 45* sideways and VSC pulled it together before I could, fortunately never left the road. Drove on. Not the first time I had "Silver Thunder" sideways :) Though the limits are very high with the Duratrac tires.

One thing I took away from that was the LC has very interesting roll dynamics - it seems to always feel planted even when its way out of shape.
 
Handling any vehicle whether hydroplaning, pack snow or ice condition is similar, any sudden change and control is lost.

A thread was started that I think is worth posting here for reviewing: Tips for driving on snowy roads.

I wish I could have spent more time with my children on this issue years ago, may have saved some deductibles, lucky that's all it came to.
 
Good to hear that nobody's hurt.

Even with the best tire on, you have to expect hydroplaning at speeds over 50 mph. Even down to 45 in some cases.
 
NTG = Nitto Trail Grappler or Terra Grabber? One is an MT one is an AT.

In General, MT's will be quicker to hydroplane because of the large flat surfaces on their lugs.
 
I had this happen a few years ago. Hit a deep puddle from a clogged storm drain. Was only doing about 55 mph. Back end slid out to the left hard, but within 1 second I heard all of this banging on and off at each wheel. Scared the crap out of me. It wasn't untill I stopped to check my shorts that I realized it was the VSC braking each wheel as needed to straigten us out. Glad it worked. Had it not, I feel like I would have barrel rolled that thing down the highway.
 
Last edited:
Glad everyone is ok. Having rolled one of these things at 60 mph on black ice, I too can attest to the safety of these tanks. Didn't hesitate to replace it with another 100.
 
Sure glad everyone was okay. :)
 
I recently Hydroplaned going 70MPH. Thankfully traffic was minimal and it was on a 8 lane highway (I-75N in Atlanta). The truck started to float and ABS/VSC grabbed the front wheel and spun me. If ABS/VSC didn't intervene I would not of spun. I didn't hit anything, but I was certainly close to a few cars that also spun. Standing water isn't fun. My BFG A/T's can handle a lot of water (5,000 miles on them). I guess standing water at 70MPH is a bit much.
 
Wow, what a huge response. I checked back and see 18 replies...

The tires are Michelin LTX M/S, with about 10k miles on them. I didn't get the tread depth but there is plenty of tread left - they are supposed to be good for 60k. We picked them up from Costco for about $1k.

My wife takes the 100 in bad weather - her normal car is a Prius. Can anyone make any recommendations for a good radial snow / rain tire?

About the speed, yeah it was fast, but that's what everyone else was doing. In traffic situations, sometimes it's safer to be going fast than slow.

Insurance cut a check for about $2500 for the initial damages and it gets towed to the body shop tomorrow. We have full coverage but the $500 deductible will hurt. Once they get it in the shop, we'll see if anything else is broken.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Back
Top Bottom