As for the question, I have no idea. Either I don't notice potholes, or I have lived in places that kept up with them, because i can't remember the last time I drove through a pothole.
Posts: 26077 | Registered: Mar 2000
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Existence and constitution of any liquid enclosed is a critical factor, IMHO.
I prefer wide to narrow, but deep to shallow. If I'm going to hit a pothole at speed, I feel I should get my money's worth.
Posts: 14017 | Registered: May 2000
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High speed? I would assume anything shallow would be better. Though I guess it depends on how narrow. If it is narrower then the wheel I would much rather hit that one even if it is deep. I'm guessing my wheel would just go right over it.
Posts: 3134 | Registered: Mar 2005
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quote:As for the question, I have no idea. Either I don't notice potholes, or I have lived in places that kept up with them, because i can't remember the last time I drove through a pothole.
Does that mean you haven't driven into the District since you moved here?
quote:I prefer wide to narrow, but deep to shallow. If I'm going to hit a pothole at speed, I feel I should get my money's worth.
Your mechanic must love you. Posts: 26071 | Registered: Oct 2003
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I think the bigger question is, fast or slow?
Do you go through the pot-hole slowly, feeling each and every jarring bump and stress, or do you go fast, jumping over most of the whole in what my mechanic calls "The Duke Boys way of avoiding pot-holes"
Yeah, both my mechanic and the guy who sells me tires really push "Them Duke Boys" method.
Posts: 11895 | Registered: Apr 2002
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If the hole is narrow enough that the entirety of the tire is able to roll over it without getting inside, then narrow is much better.
If it is wide enough that your tire is hitting the bottom of the hole instead of just rolling over the top, then shallow is better, because your undercarriage doesn't get scraped.
Worst is after a rain, when the potholes are disguised as innocuous puddles. I've blown out a tire riding through a "puddle" that was really a wicked big deep hole.
Posts: 10397 | Registered: Jun 2005
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I prefer driving over wide/shallow over narrow/deep. I'm always so scared I'm going to get stuck in the deep ones. But my experience is limited since I spent 14 years on the smooth roads of Texas and only three years so far in Louisiana where there are often more holes than road.
Wasn't there a Mythbusters episode about bumpy roads and speed?
Posts: 1733 | Registered: Apr 2005
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see, the somewhat wide and deep potholes with jagged edges are why the hummer's capability to deflate and inflate the tires while driving is so critical... now I understand why so many people in SoCal have them...
Posts: 1038 | Registered: Feb 2006
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If a pothole is substantially narrower (in the direction of travel) than the radius of the tire, then the distance you will drop into the hole will be limited by the radius of curvature of the tire rather than the depth of the pothole. Once the hole gets wide enough, the tire will hit the bottom of the hole which will change the dynamics0.
So for example: consider hitting a pot hole that is 12 inches long and 12 inches deep with a 24 inch diameter tire. When you hit the leading of the pot hole your wheel will begin to drop into the hole. After you have dropped 1.6 inches, your tire will hit the trailing edge of the hole and you won't sink any further. In this case, there will be little load placed on the shocks but the tire may take a significant impact.
On the other hand, consider hitting a hole that is 20 inches long and 4 inches deep with the same 24 inch diamter tire. Once again when you hit the leading edge of the hole, your car is going to start dropping but in this case, the tire will hit the bottom of the hole before it hits the trailing edge of the hole so you will drop the full 4 inches into the hole. This will put more of a load onto the the shocks as well as the passengers of the car but possibly be easier on the tire.
All this of course assumes that the speed of the car is low enough that you don't "fly" over the hole which is a pretty good assumption for any rational driver on a pothole filled road.
Now consider for moment the width of the hole perpedicular to the direction of travel. The narrower the hole is, the easier it will be for the driver to steer around the hole and miss it all together. I vastly prefer a deep hole that I can easily avoid over a shallow one that I have to go through.
Posts: 12591 | Registered: Jan 2000
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I knew when I posted this someone would do the math.
I love Hatrack.
I would guess that the first situation is more likely to lead to a blow out, the second more likely to lead bottoming out and damaging the undercarriage.
I knew someone who went into a narrow pothole that basically clamped the side of his tires when it narrowed at the end. Instant and total blow out.
Posts: 26071 | Registered: Oct 2003
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quote:Originally posted by twinky: One would think narrow, deep potholes would be harder on your car's shocks.
You have to continually keep your vehicle guessing. Drive fast, take chances, use the reverse gear as a break... change things up a bit! Personally I drive a ranger 4x4, so I take pride in going over speed bumps and potholes, as well as parking curbs, all at speed. Is it good? Well whatever doesn't kill your car makes it stronger right? RIGHT?
Posts: 9912 | Registered: Nov 2005
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Using google, I found a Mythbusters episode that investigated whether hitting a pothole with the drive shaft can cause the car to pole vault end over end. They failed. I could not find any other episodes involving potholes.
Posts: 12591 | Registered: Jan 2000
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The episode of mythbusters actually tested the myth that it was a smoother ride if you drove faster on a corrugated road like the ones sometimes found in Australian outback. The answer is two-fold.
First the actual impact is more severe at speed, but they found that the PERCEIVED impact is lessened over a fairly regular but choppy road. Basically you don't notice the choppiness if it is faster, even when it does more damage. I believe they also found a sweet spot on a regular corrugated road that will actually allow you to "skip" from one peak to the next with less impact time.
SOOO, if you were driving over some VERY thin potholes that were deep, it might be like a corrugated road with a sweet spot, but then you might do some serious damage. I would personally prefer flat wide potholes because that's what my car is built for, but that's not everybody.
Posts: 9912 | Registered: Nov 2005
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They JUST did one, about driving on a road that has a "washboard" style of potholes, and the results were a bit inconclusive.
They measured the ride in three ways. First, they put a tower of champagne glasses in the passenger seat filled with water and measured how much water was lost. Second, they measured data from the shocks. Third, they measured the subjective feel of it from the drivers perspective.
They also had a slow motion camera record visual data.
At high speeds it seemed to be smoother, although you had less control overall. It depended on how fast, and what type of road conditions over all....but they agreed that it seemed smoother, and at higher speeds that data supported the claims.
However, at mediums speeds the ride was MORE bumpy, as measured by the water loss and slow motion compareson the shocks.
The initial conflicting data was so inconclusive that they moved from using a dirt road to making a test track with a specific man-made "washboard" condition.
Posts: 15082 | Registered: Jul 2001
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3. I, as an American, would never pay the taxes necessary to maintain a perfect road
4. Only a European could possibly decide to pay the taxes necessary to build the perfect road
5. A perfect road would not be perfect if it were not mantained
6. Someone in Europe maintains the perfect road. We're looking very hard at Germany. They had Nietzsche as well, and they're due.
Posts: 9912 | Registered: Nov 2005
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The worst potholes are the ones which are round,jagged-edged, and deep, so the tire sort of drops in, jars you out of your senses, and leaves you with the certainty that death is imminent for your poor car.
Dag, what about frost heaves? They can be worse, you know.
Posts: 10890 | Registered: May 2003
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I live on the border between two cities... my side of the street is residential, but across the street, in another city, it's industrial. Result: constant stream of semis barrelling down the street. Result: potholes galore.
Me, I've got a Jeep, so I don't slow down. The really big deep ones I try to dodge, but otherwise I just go over them.
I prefer shallow potholes.
Posts: 454 | Registered: Mar 2005
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quote:Dag, what about frost heaves? They can be worse, you know.
Those so uncivilized as to live in a place where water does not remain in it's proper liquid form deserve to have bad shocks.
Posts: 26071 | Registered: Oct 2003
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Well, Dag, if this warming of the globe which is not global warming continues, I will never experience a frost heave again.
Posts: 10890 | Registered: May 2003
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If a hole reaches a certain depth and circumference does it behoove us to stop calling it a POThole? If it's shaped more like a wok can we call it a wokhole? (Sounds better to me) how about a basinhole? Cauldronhole? How deep must it be before it stops being a pothole and it becomes simply a shaft?
Posts: 14316 | Registered: Jul 2005
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