Speed Bump Techniques

stevenmu

I was driving behind a guy/girl the other day who had an interesting technique for dealing with speed bumps. He/she would pull way out to the right, crossing the white line even, before darting back left to hit the speed bump at about 45 degrees, then pulling back out to the right etc.

Personally I tend to go fully over to the left, slowing down then accelerating as I come up to it, then just as I hit it I give the steering wheel a little flick to the right. Most of them are sloped at the sides, so this usually gets me over them much more smoothly.

It got me wondering do others have particular techniques for taking speed bumps or do they just slow down and drive over them ?

Also is trying to take them at an angle, and thus hitting it one wheel at a time putting extra stresses on the suspension causing additional wear and tear, if not damage ?


(edit: just in case anybody thinks it, I'm not talking about getting over speed bumps without slowing down appropriately, just with as much comfort and the minimum of wear and tear possible)

ando

I take them at an angle in the car as I'm so sensitive over my oil sump, but in the van I take them head on

stevenmu

ando wrote:

I take them at an angle in the car as I'm so sensitive over my oil sump

Yeah, I remember seeing the pictures of that, that'd make me think long and hard before driving over anything. It worried me for a while too, I've the 1.4 petrol, but it looks a bit higher off the ground than yours.

unkel

My car is lowered, the suspension stiffened and I have 18" wheels with *very* expensive tyres. So I take 'em head on. Slowly.

Imagine driving a supercar like an Enzo or a Murcielago in Ireland. It would be a right pain in the hole

BrianD3

I would have thought taking them at an angle or with one wheel off the footpath side of the ramp puts the sump in more danger?

Personally I take them straight on at slow speed obviously. I like to take them with my foot off the brake and very light steady thottle input, the idea being to keep the car as level as possible as I go over the ramp.

dahamsta

Prod the brakes just beforehand, you don't get jostled about so much.

stevenmu

Ken Shabby wrote:

Prod the brakes just beforehand, you don't get jostled about so much.

I've tried that alright, it works quiet well in some cases, but I found that on the narrower bumps you can come down harder on the other side.

dahamsta

stevenmu wrote:

I've tried that alright, it works quiet well in some cases, but I found that on the narrower bumps you can come down harder on the other side.

Adjust your timing. All you're doing by prodding the brakes is rocking the car forward to counteract/cancel rocking that will be caused by the speedbump. Braking at different times or for a different lengths of time should (theoretically) minimise any kind of speedbump. There's very little you can do about the really small plastic ones in car parks though. Those things should be outlawed, cars aren't built to handle that kind of jolting.

_Kaiser_

I just slow right down and coast over them

Not like the woman I saw earlier who tried slamming over one.. only slam was the sound of her exhaust hitting the ground!

Turner

Would taking them side on not upset your tracking. It would be like mounting a kerb

RicardoSmith

I prod the brakes before it. Depends on the car really. Some seem to be able to manage them at 30mph. I suppose it just depends on how the suspension is set up

mike65

It depends on cirumstances but I usually try to take the bump with one wheel going past the outside edge, the ones I hate are the sort you can't really see! They should be made of a different colour material..

Mike.

celica140bhp

I usualy do all my braking before the speed bump and coast over them head on - surely coming at an angle is not the best option.
So many people seem to think that going right in to the kerb so that the left wheels avoid the bump is good - don't think so!

Funkstard

I just take them head on, slowly, or slow down and accelerate just a tad as I'm about to hit it to raise the front of the car up

Seth Brundle

There are speed bumps in my estate. In fairness they are not as bad as some others.
I was in Lucan yesterday (near Superquinn) and about six or seven ramps have be installed on a small road (Esker Drive). They are absolutely terrible even when taking them slowly. They do slow down the cars be to the point that you need to be almost stopped to be sure you are not doing much damage to the cars.
As Mike said, some ramps (like some near my parents) are hidden (the ones Im thinking of are black and white on a tarmac road - the white however has worn off!). The only way of knowing they are there is by a discreet sign at them. These ones are also about 2 foot wide compared to the ones in my estate which are a couple of metres.

Is there no standard for ramps? Im going to contact the DoE tomorrow about it but if anyone knows in the meantime, do let me know.

dahamsta

I'm going to start complaining politely about particularly nasty ones, starting with the small plastic ones in Mahon Point S/C in Cork.

http://boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=310841

AlienGav

Has anyone seen the ones just off the Walkinstown roundabout, on the Bunting Road?

I'd seriously reckon they're highest in the country! Wish i had a jeep! :eek:

spockety

unkel wrote:

My car is lowered, the suspension stiffened and I have 18" wheels with *very* expensive tyres. So I take 'em head on. Slowly.

Imagine driving a supercar like an Enzo or a Murcielago in Ireland. It would be a right pain in the hole

You say that like Ireland is the only country in the world to deploy speedbumps.

J.

Capt'n Midnight

generally slowing down gradually before the bump rather than Brake Bump Accelerate -

clutch in as you "hit" it so you are freewheeling over the bump.

left wheel past the edge if there is room

if it's one of those where there are three bumps then try to get the wheels either side of the bump - or sometimes have the centre of the car in the gap so each wheel goes on a seperate bump - it's all about the getting lowest height change.

dahamsta

I've never understood the "keep one wheel off the bump" method. What's the point?

First of all, you're going to get jolted from side to side as well as front to back. Secondly, it's possible you're saving wear and tear on the suspension on one side of your car, but given that you're going to need to replace both at the same time anyway, why bother? And finally, if you are in fact saving one side, that means you're running suspension that's wearing unevenly, which is not good.

I think I'd prefer load my suspension evenly if it's all the same to everyone...

DubTony

AlienGav wrote:

Has anyone seen the ones just off the Walkinstown roundabout, on the Bunting Road?

I'd seriously reckon they're highest in the country! Wish i had a jeep! :eek:

The ramps on the Cromwellsfort Rd end of Bunting Rd were put in place years ago. I haven't been down there for a long time but (unless they've done something to them) they are, in fact, how all speed ramps should be built. The car is swept up gently to the centre and eased back down to the road without jarring or severe bumping. ALthough they obviously don't slow traffic as much as the - "here's the number of a chiropractor" - bumps we're more used to.

The ramps on the Crumlin Village end of Bunting Rd, however, were designed to cause permanent skeletal damage. After driving down the road over smooth sloping ramps you're suddenly assaulted by a mountain. The engineers (?) had no interest in making these ones as smooth as the others. Keep both hands on the wheel, your seat back perfectly straight, your tongue in your mouth and your teeth firmly clenched.

Seth Brundle

DubTony wrote:

The ramps on the Crumlin Village end of Bunting Rd, however, were designed to cause permanent skeletal damage. After driving down the road over smooth sloping ramps you're suddenly assaulted by a mountain. The engineers (?) had no interest in making these ones as smooth as the others. Keep both hands on the wheel, your seat back perfectly straight, your tongue in your mouth and your teeth firmly clenched.

But why are they made differently?
Is their role to make traffic slow down to the speed limit or to below the speed limit. If the latter then why isn't that limit reduced?

mike65

I wonder what the emergency services think about the proliferation of obstacles in the path of smooth, free flowing traffic?

Mike.

Capt'n Midnight

mike65 wrote:

I wonder what the emergency services think about the proliferation of obstacles in the path of smooth, free flowing traffic?

Mike.

Wasn't there a little fuss in London a while back where they reckoned that 400 lives were lost because of Ambulance delays. Far more lives than they saved.

RicardoSmith

In fairness a speed bumb is only severe if you choose to go over it too fast. So there should a speed limit posted beside them.

stratos

A good way to hasten your journey over a speed bump is, as you approach it at normal road speed, brake quite hard, this compresses the front suspension.
Just as you hit to the bump let the brakes off, this unloads the front supension, and stretches it for the impending compression of the bump.

KoNiT

I usually hit the "turbo boost" just before the Bump..... the only downside is the landing can be pretty tough, ain't that right Kitt?...Kitt?!

stevenmu

mike65 wrote:

the ones I hate are the sort you can't really see! They should be made of a different colour material..

Yeah, they put new ones in up the road from me about a year ago that were practically invisible at night, my mother hit one at 30mph and the car lifted full off the road, we didn't know what had happened.

unkel wrote:

Imagine driving a supercar like an Enzo or a Murcielago in Ireland. It would be a right pain in the hole

I think the Enzo and a few of the others can lift up a few inches to go over them, I saw a guy in an MR2 rip his front bumper off on one before, I hope he got a good claim in against the council for it.

kbannon wrote:

There are speed bumps in my estate. In fairness they are not as bad as some others.
I was in Lucan yesterday (near Superquinn) and about six or seven ramps have be installed on a small road (Esker Drive). They are absolutely terrible even when taking them slowly. They do slow down the cars be to the point that you need to be almost stopped to be sure you are not doing much damage to the cars.
As Mike said, some ramps (like some near my parents) are hidden (the ones Im thinking of are black and white on a tarmac road - the white however has worn off!). The only way of knowing they are there is by a discreet sign at them. These ones are also about 2 foot wide compared to the ones in my estate which are a couple of metres.

Is there no standard for ramps? Im going to contact the DoE tomorrow about it but if anyone knows in the meantime, do let me know.

I've never seen or heard of any standards, but I've always if some of them could be deemed illegal as an obstruction on the road, or even a safety hazard. Many of them, like the ones in Lucan, can't be safely negotiated at the speed limit on the road in question. If nothing else, I'm sure there's a bit of legislation somewhere that says councils are responsible for ensuring roads are safe to be driven at the designated speed limits. The thing is, if somebody brought that up they'd probably just drop all the speed limits instead of removing the speed bumps.