Driving two wheels over speed bumps

mathie

Not sure if this has been discussed - I can't search in work it gets blocked for some reason!

Anyway is it better/worse/same to drive two wheels over speed bumps?

I see people do it all the time.
Drive out of their way to the left.

M

Tails142

I'd imagine driving half over ramps would be worse for your suspension/tracking as its pushing one of the wheels out more... kind of banana shaping it if you know what I mean. Straight over is just more of an up down action so less wear methinks... not any sort of automobile scientician though.

prospect

I always put all four wheels over the ramp. I find it uncomfortable more than anything to have half the car go over a ramp.

ambro25

It's a good idea if you alternate regularly, i.e. don't always drive with the same two wheels over speed bumps, but also use the other two (provided road & speed bump configurations allow, of course) - to 'spread' the wear and tear evenly. Not good if the same 2 wheels are always used.

Tracking and, never much spoken about but more importantly (because more expensive to fix), shock bushings, suffer from repeated driving over speed bumps at speed - if you care to take your time over speed bumps everytime, then tracking/bushings shouldn't be affected in any worse way by speed bumps than by potholes and any other road irregularities.

Tony Danza

I would say it's bad, but then again, I'd say driving all 4 wheels over a ramp is also bad for your car.

bazz26

I nearly always (where possible) go over speed ramps evenly with the two front wheels. This is in the hope that the effect on the suspension and tracking is spread out evenly rather than one side getting hit all the time.

Creamy Goodness

ambro25 wrote:

It's a good idea if you alternate regularly

wouldn't that be just the same as going over on 4 wheels?

Linford

I'd say it makes fck all difference. What's the difference between it and parking momentarily on a curb.

Is parking up on a curb bad for your car?

Steve

From an NCT point of view:

If you drive on one side you'll end up with one knackered shock and one good one and fail on imbalance.
If you replace the knackered one, it'll then be better than the existing one and still fail. So you need to replace both.:mad:

If you always drive both wheels over the ramps you'll end up with knackered shocks on both sides and pass.

Steve

Linford wrote:

I'd say it makes fck all difference. What's the difference between it and parking momentarily on a curb.

You don't park on a kerb at 20kph:D

endplate

If anything it evens up the wear on the car. The edges of most roads ok country roads are fairly rough so your suspension and joints is working harder anyway on the left side of the car. So only putting the right side over the speed hump will even out the wear only a very little bit tho. But overall I don't think it makes any difference speed bumps are bad for your car no matter what way you cross them

ambro25

Cremo wrote:

wouldn't that be just the same as going over on 4 wheels?

For sure, but it doubles as being somewhat more comfortable for occupants on the side which isn't going over the bump, than all 4 wheels

That's also why I (in my very humble opinion) recommended doing it for both sides, rather than always the same side - else that makes for imbalanced wear and tear, as pointed out in the thread

kikel

Doesn't make a blind bit of difference. The passenger side won't get as much wear over speed bumps. But the passenger side hits more pot holes. so it balances itself out. me thinks

Sandwich

Use both wheels over the bumps. Enables overtaking the brakers/dodge-to-the-left brigade while they're at their quaint maneuver.

Keith186

Cremo wrote:

wouldn't that be just the same as going over on 4 wheels?

If you go over 100 speed bumps with two wheels that's 200 times your wheels go over them. If you go over with 4 wheels that's 400 wheels going over which means more wear and tear. If you alternate that means move even wear and tear.

I'm guessing you didn't do honours maths...

cyclopath2001

Linford wrote:

Is parking up on a curb bad for your car?

It's bad for your Karma as it's illegal. You could get penalty points for doing it.

When I drive a car, I try to have both sets of wheels pass either side of the bump as long as this does not involve being too far over to the left or the right of the road. Slowing to around 35-40kph helps.

When I cycle, I prefer if drivers do not park to the left of bumps as it blocks the channel that's been left to allow cyclists to conveniently bypass the speed bumps. It may actually be illegal to park there on the basis that it forces cyclists to move further out on the road to ride through the other gap and may result in risk or obstruction.

Masada

i aim to get all the wheels on the bumps at the same time, especially with the ramps that are in like 3 sections across the road, they slope near the edges so it you drive right towards it then you only go over the lowest parts of it and dont feel much,. another thing i do is to slow down BEFORE the ramp and gently accellerate over them, a lot of people just brake over then and this causes the the suspention to compress so ya hit it harder where as if you accellerate lightly your expanding the suspention and the car absorbs the bump a lot better.,

its more about comfort really, not weather its bad for the car or not,. suspentions these days are designed for the type of abuse they get and there designed to last for a long time. maybe if you have an older car you could do damage over time but youd have to be hitting the bumps pretty hard.,

hiscan

used to go over with two wheels when i had a car i now have a 4x4 so i just drive over with all 4 wheels now ,its not as bad as the car

Rovi

hiscan wrote:

used to go over with two wheels when i had a car i now have a 4x4 so i just drive over with all 4 wheels now ,its not as bad as the car

Indeed, most reasonably well sorted 4x4s don't even have to slow down for the vast majority of speed bumps. It can be quite amusing if you're being tailgated at the time by some skanger in his low slung 'plastic fantastic'.

Also everybody, don't forget to give a merry toot of the horn as you negotiate each bump so that the local residents association know you appreciate their campaign to have them installed in the first place.

ninty9er

I generally avoid going over on the driver's side if I'm on my own, for my own comfort. Don't reckon it does too much damage though. plus I bang my head on the ceiling if I go over fully instead of half.

cancan

With big anti roll bars, it's better to do all 4.
Without, it doesn;t make much difference