There are a lot of manhole covers on the first section of my drive to work, and I commknly see people swerving all over the road just so their tires won’t touch them, even jeeps. Why?
At least up north around where I live manhole covers are often also either holes or bumps in the road due to things shifting around from the freeze/thaw cycles. Basically potholes with a purpose. Hitting bumps is bad for your car, so that’s a pretty good reason to avoid them. Though I’d never swerve around a bump if I was going to come close to someone else, since that’s much more dangerous.
Around me, they’re either 2 inches below the road surface, so a giant pothole, or 2 inches above the road surface, so a giant speed bump.
Because I drive the same way every day. I know which ones to avoid and which ones are fine. I also have to pay to do maintenance on my car. If I can move the steering wheel a few inches for certain covers rather than spend a weekend replacing suspension, I’ll do that.
In my city, they just keep paving over the old asphalt, so the manhole covers are like 6 inches deep in some places. Hitting one of those in my sedan is not pleasant.
My favorite people are those who drive giant SUVs with huge tires lifted way off the ground who do this and also slow down to 2MPH to go over train tracks.
Huge tyres? Or huge rims.
Skinny tires on huge rims and a lift kit will self destruct pretty quickly. Pavement princess trucks are considerably less capable, ironically.
The funny part is that going slower makes the bump worse. Your shocks need to compress to work.
No. Slowing may make the bump feel worse to you )unless you do it right) while still being less strain on your suspension
No, you want your suspension to compress. That’s it’s job. But you want it to start compressing as it’s hitting the bump so it drops down on the other side instead of the whole car dipping.
And I’m not talking about going over it at 50mph. A lot of speed bumps will have a suggested speed posted near or are designed for the posted speed limit. And I’m talking about the people who are basically idling over the bump.
The smoothest transition with least chance of damaging suspension is ….
Mostly stop long enough for the car to stop leaning forward. Then gently accelerate of the bump. No dip, no damage
Meanwhile I’ve paid to enough suspension repairs to not want to hurry up another.
