As the UK snow and ice melts people are already warning of shattered road surfaces and huge potholes appearing. The financially-strapped councils will struggle to do repairs, so are we better off driving 4x4s to tackle the inevitable 3rd world roads?! And if we did, the Gubbermint makes even more money from the motorist :-) Any conspiracy theorists out there?!
FWIW my 4x4 has rock hard suspension; they ain't all soft and wallowy :-(
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Once again, it's down to the tyres/wheels.
Put some 175/82x13s on and you'll be fine ;-)
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Any conspiracy theorists out there?! >>
You mean somebody with real power paid God a backhander to divert lots of snow this way?
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Anyone who drives over a pothole is either not looking at the road surface or is so close to the vehicle in front that they don't spot the pothole in time.
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Does this mean that the Range Rovers with ultra low profile wheels ( which in my opinion just look stupid) will havet o stay at home? I can just imagine one being driven at speed, hitting a pothole, and pedestrians picking up the pieces of shattered alloy.
I just hope I'm there to see it and to record it - £250 on You've been framed!
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>>>Anyone who drives over a pothole is either not looking at the road surface or is so close to the vehicle in front that they don't spot the pothole in time.
Agreed.
Sometimes in the dark they come at you quickly but I'm missing them by choice at the moment.
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I know you're on a wind up here L'es, but that's rubbish.
If you're confronted with a pothole which is unavoidable unless you swere on to the other side of the road, stop, or mount the pavement, then you're going to hit it if there's traffic on the other side of the road, a 4x4/BMW (;-)) tailgating you and pedestrians on the pavement. Hardly an unlikely scenario in a built up area in heavy traffic. You may be able to slow down in order to minimise the impact, but you'll still hit it.
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I suggest anyone seeing any large potholes reports them - it's easy to do via Council websites.
I've reported two this month which have been getting larger since I saw them before Christmas. They are both the size of a dustbin lid and deep enough you can see the cobbles the road was laid on.
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My local council (Reading Borough Council) were out filling in potholes in the few days between Christmas and the latest snow when everything had thawed.
So well done them.
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I know you're on a wind up here L'es but that's rubbish. If you're confronted with a pothole which is unavoidable unless you swere on to the other side of the road stop or mount the pavement then you're going to hit it if there's traffic on the other side of the road a 4x4/BMW (;-)) tailgating you and pedestrians on the pavement. Hardly an unlikely scenario in a built up area in heavy traffic. You may be able to slow down in order to minimise the impact but you'll still hit it.
Well, I've been driving for over 50 years and I've always managed to avoid potholes. I've never come across one which was unavoidable. M.M has no problems either.
Incidentally, our local council has a hotline to report potholes etc and they employ a contractor which has a team specifically dedicated to making rapid repairs.
Edited by L'escargot on 14/01/2010 at 10:17
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Come and drive through the villages of Sonning and Soning Eye in the rush hour. There are potholes there this morning which you can't avoid unless you hit the oncoming traffic, swerve into a ditch or stop dead in the road. They're not especially huge (yet), but you can't miss 'em.
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No one avoids every pot hole, whether driving for 50 years or 5, and if you have a audi with sports suspension, along with low profile tyres, believe me you will try.
Speed humps included.
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Come and drive through the villages of Sonning and Soning Eye ..............
Thanks for the invitation, but no thanks!
:-D
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I've only come across one pothole that was unavoidable. Just on the A38 near Selly Oak, where there are two lanes in the physical road-space of little more than one lane.
I was travelling along there one day with a bus squeezed up along side me (mere inches to spare, always the way on this road) when, round a bend, a pothole appeared in front of me the size of a small planet.
No way to avoid it except by braking hard (risking a rear ending) and then trying to get into the next mini lane, which is naturally full of nose-to-tail traffic with folks that would sooner sell their grannies then let someone veer into "their" lane with no warning.
So...bang, thump! Thankfully, no damage done due to the sensible 16" wheels fitted to my C5.
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I don't think 4x4s are likely to give any advantage on potholed tarmac roads. You certainly don't get more comfort - as you'll know if you've driven a Land Rover Defender 90 along a bumpy road. Also, the vehicle is subject to the same shocks and bumps as an ordinary car, so it's likely to suffer wear and tear if driven too fast on a rough surface. If your 4x4 has non-independent suspension, it has a high unsprung weight, which doesn't help with sudden bumps and thumps.
Only if and when the roads deteriorate so much that you need 4-wheel drive and high ground clearance simply to negotiate them without getting stuck, will it become an advantage to have a 4x4 on potholed roads!
Edited by Sofa Spud on 14/01/2010 at 12:46
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Sofa, surely a chunky vehicle is going to have stronger undercarriage than your average saloon in order to handle off-road conditions and bumps, rocks etc?
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Sorry but I disagree. I do tend to hit the pot holes and that's because I generally look so far ahead of the road to be aware of any potential danger. If I spent my whole time looking for pot holes, I will miss what is happening around me.
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Driving on a rainy day doesn't help when puddles are stretching across the width of the road and there's no way of telling if its a half inch deep depression or a mssive pot hole so big it has its own gravity field!
I find the same problem on my bicycle. Yes I could swerve around every puddle but I'd soon nark off the motorists behind me!
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Troll alert !
In Surrey, the only way to avoid the potholes would be to drive on the pavement - there are so many thanks to Surrey County Council's "outsource" deal, there's no way you can miss them all and stay on your side of the road.
One of the reasons we bought our Forester was speedbumps that infested our roads, today I would buy a similar car because of the speedbumps and potholes.
Every action (or lack of in the councils case) causes a reaction !
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Troll alert ! In Surrey the only way to avoid the potholes would be to drive on the pavement - ..............
I've never been to Surrey and I have no intention of doing so!
:-D
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