Pot holed roads and speedhumps

[jvr]

Now i've got a thousand and one speed humps one way out of my new house estate and the other way out is a very poor condition road via/next to the north hants hospital,so i'm b5ggered either way.The only way I attack it is nice and slowly over bumps and pick the best way/smoothist i can find through the hospital way so I don't damage tyres,suspension,bushes etc apart from the fact it will loosen trim.As I was locating this was the only house that we could part ex on so it wasn't by choice!

So how do you guys tackle this types of roads and what damage has it done.
thoughts
P

[Fleckers]

time for a big 4X4 from the sounds of it

[Cotty]

I have to park in a different car part when I go shopping, as the local supermarket put a huge speedhump and the enterance to one of the car parks and it catches my spoiler whatever I do.

[jbi]

high profile tyres, steel wheels and better/longer suspension are what you need to protect yourself from crap roads.

[RV8]

There are a few 20 mph speed limit with a shed load of speed bumps around some of my local roads I guess they are there to stop people from creeping up to 30 mph or whatever, because of the constant stop starting all it does is concertina the traffic up - well if it's 20 mph I'll do that (if it's safe that's what I'm doing) and In the Defender I get over these without reducing my speed, as an added luxury if I need to bump up a curb for an emergency vehicle it's like running over a small stone. Trouble comes when I'm back in an ordinary car and have to force myself to have some mechanical sympathy.

Now't much you can do. The technique in my mx5 where there was a series of nasty sleeping policeman leading up to my workplace (if there was no one behind me) was to drive up to them then stab the brake right before touching them and then release, the inertia of the car would almost hop the front end over them without the crash, then the rear just followed.

Pot holes are another thing entirely - not much fun in any vehicle. Just be grateful you are not riding a motorcycle or pushbike - at this time of year, getting blinded by morons who've forgotten where their dip switch is, cant see anything other than two big stars and BANG front wheel right down an unseen pothole nearly putting you into oncoming traffic.

Edited by RV8 on Friday 16th December 14:55

[Classic Grad 98]

Wheels/tyres are the most vulnerable, and the more 'suspension' you can get the tyre to provide, the less work your bushes, shocks, springs etc have to do.
Plus with steels, you can just hit 'em with hammers if you buckle one.

[jamei303]

Going up speed bumps diagonally can sometimes help, as it increases the distance your front wheels travel up the slope and so reduces the gradient.

[Roadru77er]

When approaching large speed humps I brake until the front wheels are about to mount the speed hump. Releasing them at this point the front suspension decompresses and has the effect of raising the car over the hump.

Sounds odd but works for me in the tin top. Whole different ball game in the Caterham!

[vit4]

Roadru77er said:

When approaching large speed humps I brake until the front wheels are about to mount the speed hump. Releasing them at this point the front suspension decompresses and has the effect of raising the car over the hump.

Sounds odd but works for me in the tin top. Whole different ball game in the Caterham!

I do this whenever I'm driving.
A technique learnt in Colin McRae Rally when I was about 10 for going over jumps, only toned down a bit

[hesnotthemessiah]

Try moving to Sheffield. Then you'll really have something to complain about. The roads haven't been repaired since Karl Benz and Gottlieb Daimler were around.








Sorry not very helpful.

[David87]

I visited some relatives last weekend in Corby and literally every housing estate there had roads that were [i]full[/] of speed humps. It would drive me completely mental living there because of it and it can't do much good for the cars either, for the locals don't seem to slow down at all for them.

[jvr]

its just that some of the humps are not smooth,there're not built properly,they have ridges on them,the builders making them look pretty but send a jolt up the steering column resulting in a slight rattle,a new car probably doesn't suffer this but when the mileage builds up these issues arise unless you replace every bush and clamp
P

[jbi]

David87 said:

I visited some relatives last weekend in Corby and literally every housing estate there had roads that were full of speed humps. It would drive me completely mental living there because of it and it can't do much good for the cars either, for the locals don't seem to slow down at all for them.

they recently go rid of all the speed humps around here due to the damage traffic was causing to the road surface with all the thumping.

The tenants of the local houses also complained about the vibrations passing through their homes