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Oh hi. In Safety Checks and Skills today we're going to look at some basic driving techniques.
Brian, can we start with the hand positions on the wheel - where should they be?
Jess, imagine the steering wheel is a clock face. There's two schools of thought here.
You can place your left hand at the 10 o'clock position and your right hand at the 2 o'clock position. That's called 10 to 2 steering.
If you drop your hand lower to the 9 o'clock position on the left, put your right hand to the 3 o'clock position on your right. That's called quarter to three steering.
Okay, that makes sense - now what about turning the wheel?
Where should our hands be when we're going around a corner for example?
Well there's lots of ways of doing this, but the best thing to remember here is when you do turn the steering wheel make sure your hands are used in a tidy fashion
but make sure that when you release the steering wheel you don't let it slip through your grip.
Okay. Now another thing that can be a bit tricky to get is the clutch.
Any pointers for all the manual learner drivers out there?
Jess, the clutch can be a tricky thing to get right.
Just remember though that the clutch is operated by the left foot only.
And is used only when you're starting, changing gears and stopping.
For smooth clutch operation the pedal should be released smoothly to the "point of balance" or friction.
And you feel this or hear it with the speed of the engine and once you've reached that friction point at that point you then release the clutch fully.
Remember though, don't ride the clutch pedal, that's not a good plan.
Okay, so what happens when you stall? It can be so embarrassing.
Any pointers on why it happens and how to stop it happening?
Yeah it's not just embarrassing, but quite unsafe in traffic.
So, with a clutch stall, the reason for that is the driver has let the clutch out too quickly.
In other words, they've jumped off the clutch pedal and they haven't matched the engine revs with the right foot on the accelerator.
So basically it's a balance between the clutch and the accelerator?
Yes, very much so. It's a very fine line between the accelerator and the clutch.
Okay great, thanks Brian.
That's a wrap.