>ObVW: Has anyone ever done any hydroplaning in a bus?  Somehow I'm
>glad I've never had that experience.  A bit of purposeful fishtailing
>on wet pavement certainly, but no hydroplaning.  Knock on wood.

Yup, lots, thanks to heavy trucks pressing the highways down into water 
filled dips/ruts.  In a bus the first indication is that the steering gets 
very light, try to resist the temptation to turn the wheel to see what's 
wrong =:O.  Then the speedo drops to zero, once the left tire has stopped 
rotating and is just waterskiiing.  If both wheels are waterborne you have 
no control, sidewinds and transports are deadly.  Let off the gas peddle, 
the wheels will sink and start to spin again.  Apply more gas and lift them 
to check out what just happened :). Nasty things happen when you reach the 
end of a water filled rut with the wheels planing.  The sudden grab of 
pavement on the stationary tires really yanks on the steering wheel, be 
ready for it if one side hits dry land before the other. I've planed a '71 
Wesy often in the above conditions, never a vanagon.  I have planed a 
vanagon in slushy snow while passing, got sideways in that one. Never again. Tim