Driving and smoking

[joshb83]

So after a recent deployment to Afghanistan, I've decided to take the family for a little trip within the state. The issue is, driving while smoking. I know this is a normal thing for most of you guys, but my question is, any issues with having to re-light while driving, or a way to rest the pipe as opposed to a constant clench? Just looking for ideas and reccomendations. Thanks again guys.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

If you don't clench, then your holding it and having to fiddle with it while driving. I wouldn't recommend this as it makes the pipe a distraction. I drive while clenching all of the time, but at this point in my smoking, I could be doing anything while smoking, brain surgery even, ha. I never have to think about the pipe at all.

 

[joshb83]

Any issues with having to re-light or tamping during the drive?

 

[cosmicfolklore]

For me? Not at all. Clenching I never have to relight, unless my kids or girlfriend gets all chatty, and I have to take my pipe out to answer inquisitions. I rarely tamp after the char light, so no issue there either, for me. YMMV

 

[phil67]

I don't smoke a pipe while driving, but for me tamping is part and parcel of keeping a pipe lit, as well as the occasional need to relight.

 

[smeigs]

I don't have any issues while driving and smoking. It stays lit just fine. And if I have to tamp, I just wait till I'm at a stop. I usually clench the whole time, sometimes I hold the pipe in my hand on the steering wheel as well. I never have any issues.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

It's really not that complicated. I probably tamp while driving, but like packing the bowl, i just do it in subconscious mode. It's not something that requires any thought, so I don't remember doing it. Like pressing the gas peddle and using turn signals, i just do it automatically without having to give it any thought.

 

[mso489]

I don't like to divide my attention from smoking a pipe, so I don't smoke when I drive. I think it makes for safer

driving too, but my initial concern is that I want a pipe to be sacrosanct. I don't want conversation, the car

sound system, the engine noise which I enjoy, or anything else to get into the act. I puff a little in conversation

with my wife at home, and I am on Forums sometimes when I smoke, but otherwise it's a sort of meditation.

I don't want other drivers or crazy action on the roadways to interfere. But that's just me. Outlier as always.

 

[joshb83]

All great inputs, and I appreciate the help as always. But i do agree with MSO489, it should be relished and I feel I may miss the nuance of why I smoke to the focus of driving. I guess I'll just give it a try and make my decision.

 

[brass]

I smoke only clinchers in the car, mostly cobs. And I keep two nested cups in my cupholder to use as a pipe caddy. I dump ash in the bottom cup, and use the top of the nested cups as the caddy. The ashtray holds my pipe tools. Some of today's vehicle no longer have ashtrays. In this case, you can use one cupholder for the pipe caddy, the second cup holder for your pipe tools, then put your beer between your knees. 8)

 

[12pups]

I didn't think it was a problem until I hit a deer last Thursday. Pipe, of course, flew into the dash out of my mouth on impact and sent an explosion of embers everywhere.
Reconsidering smoking while driving... (As I chomp on fresh venison jerky).

 

[freakiefrog]

I use to smoke my cigars while driving but never my pipes. I've see what an air bag can do with a baseball cap to your head I'd never want a pipe in my mouth when that thing goes off.

 

[joshb83]

Very true on all accounts,probably not the best idea especially with the family in the car. Thanks for all the input.

 

[oldtoby]

Nothing like driving whilst smoking a pipe or cigar. One of the best things in this life, imho. YMMV.
I gauge distances by how many bowls it takes to get there..... ;-)

 

[lordofthepiperings]

I smoke and drive, as Mike Posner and Big Sean so eloquently put it, a lot. Obviously I get the bowl going before I start the car. I always have the windows cracked and the sunroof open so it doesn't smell up the car. I'm a clencher, so no problems there for me. I keep my tamper and lighter in the little cubby in the door, so if I need to I wait for a red light or a stop sign and quickly tamp or relight.
What I love the most is the weird stares I get at red lights. People see a 30yr old puffing on a tobacco pipe while Seether or Rammstein is blaring.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

Adding to what I had previously posted, the coolest part of the area that I live is that there are lots of other pipe smokers. And, it's an awesome thing to look over next to you and realize that the guy in the car next to you is smoking a pipe also. I've even had someone hold up their tin to show me what they were smoking, which evokes an extra little giggle from me and a smile for my day. Like walking the dog, some things I just don't do without a pipe in my jaw. But, I've removed the pipe on some dangerous switchbacks on the mountain or while merging into heavy traffic. But, for most of where I have to drive, it's just country roads or slow and easy traffic.

 

[saltedplug]

The only way to do something else while also driving seems to me to shorten the amount of time my eyes are off the road, doing the other thing, including pipe smoking. Because of the attention required pipe management is the worst activity of pipe smoking: filling, tamping, lighting. But if I rapidly glance up at the road and down at the pipe, back and forth, then if I need to attend only to the road, the time during which I am not reacting to the hazard, because I'm tending the pipe, amounts to a perceptual gap of perhaps only 10-20%. But also to be managed, which management is impossible in the flash of handling the obstacle, is that the pipe is in my hands and the pouch in my lap, and thus it seems to me that added to the perceptual gap above is the motor gap of bringing hands to the wheel and feet to the proper pedal.
What seems true to me, then, is that even if I manage the pipe well, if an obstacle on the road needs to be handled, I'm still at about a 20-30% disadvantage of handling it well if I'm smoking and doing pipe management. Once the pipe is lit then probably more like 5%.
These are rough estimations, mind you.

 

[gloucesterman]

Been doing it for years with only one rule; let traffic/road conditions be your guide. If conditions demand your attention, that's probably not the best time to smoke. Knowing were the tamp and lighter are always found makes the whole process a lot less distracting. Every military guy knows "everything has it place and that's where it should be". It also makes smoking on the road a lot easier.

 

[rigmedic1]

Full bent pipes fit really well in cup holders. Pack a couple of pipes, and wrap the bowls in Saran wrap until you are ready for a smoke. If straight pipes are your thing, there are cigar ashtrays that fit in the cup holders that are worthy pipe rests, and easy to dump into while driving. If you worry about spillage, get a wind cap. Lighting at stop lights is ok, but best to pull over, light up, tamp and relight, then get back on the road.

My children being grown, and New Orleans traffic being what it is, I smoke every time I drive. Depending on where you are traveling, however, be aware that many jurisdictions have laws against smoking with children in the vehicle.

 

[samanden]

I really like driving while having a pipe, listening to NPR, and enjoying a to-go-cup of coffee on my morning commute. For me, it isn't distracting at all. I've been doing it so long I don't even think about it. However, I try to prep before I take off. I get the false light and true light going before I hit the road. I use the empty cup holder for my lighter and tamper. Luckily I don't have to relight as often as I use to. If I do, I just wait for a stoplight; although I realize this is impossible on long trips along the interstate.
When I do enjoy a pipe on road trips, I do so for as long as I can. But when the pipe goes out, so does the fun.