washboard

[dalehileman]

In the High Desert section of the Victorville, CA Daily Press Oct 29, in his column "A Dry Heat" my journo buddy Stuart Kellogg is "...reminded of a nagging question: What is the secret to driving on 'washboard roads' without destroying your alignment and suspension?"

To reduce this effect, my old desert-exploring and beer-drinking companion John Chitwood recommends weaving as if intoxicated, thereby skewing the plane of the tire to that of the ribbing. When Laverne is with, however, I’m not allowed to do this because my continual rocking of the helm bothered her

It is of course unnecessary to actually be drunk; although I concede that once John and I were off the highway and on the back roads...

[dparsons]

I always thought the secret was to go faster. Then your tires ride on the tops of the bumps. If you hit a curve and are going a bit too fast, just skid your rear wheel. Of course, I picked this up on a Mountain Bike. The implementation may not be exactly the same in a car, but the principals still apply. There is a worst speed to go over bumps at. It is smoother below and above this speed.

Weaving is not effective on a mountain bike. On a car weaving also modulates the movement of the suspension. It reduces its tendency to "lock up" which tends to happen with lots of fast hits. The reason washboard is so hard is that your suspension stops moving so well.

[dalehileman]

d: Thank you for that scholarly analysis. However Stuart claims that driving faster--or slower either--doesn't help

[Quin]

The Mythbusters team tested the faster/slower issue on washboard roads. Faster was smoother.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MythBusters_(season_4)#Rough_Road_Driving

[dalehileman]

As you can see, the best bet is probably both to go fast as you can and weave at the same time

[dparsons]

I tested this on a mountain bicycle through several years of racing and discussing it with other people doing the same. I applied some things to driving off road after the fact. It isn't obvious initially, but if you are really motivated to go faster you are likely to discover the tops of the bumps effect. Its probably more important on a bicycle because being able to hold on to the bike makes a big difference. In addition to the tops of the bumps effect, I found that bouncing your suspension broke up its tendency to lock up. Weaving in a car accomplishes this too. The jarring dissipates.

Man those were fun years. :cool:

[Halgarmeister]

Originally posted by dparsons
I always thought the secret was to go faster. Then your tires ride on the tops of the bumps.

This works great going downhill, but going up is another matter, generally you can't go fast enough to stay on top of the bumps, and it is the spinning of the tires that creates the washboard in the first place (most of the time ). Growing up in the sticks and driving hilly gravel roads for half my life, one finds it's usually better to go uphill on the opposite side of the road.

And rough roads take their toll on vehicles rather quickly. We had a full-sized Dodge van that we purchased new in 1974. By the time we sold it 10 years later, we had replaced the entire steering linkage system 3 times, and the ball joints once. This was the toll of the rough gravel roads in BFE.

[fatboy570]

I live in southwest MO where a lot of our roads are still dirt. Ive been plagued with the washboard effect for years now, and still havent found a good way to drive thru the damn stuff