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?
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.
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.
Huge tires, not rims. I get the big rim idiots babying their purchases. I’m talking about regular SUV tires.
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.
I was about to comment just right this.
When I went to Mexico, none of them had the covers, just holes everywhere on the roads and sidewalks.
When I was a kid, I biked on a manhole cover. Right after I passed it, the manhole cover collapsed into the street.
That Final Destination fear never left me.
Your tire usually drops into them and this shortens the lifespan of struts, ball joints, sway bar links, control arm bushings, and potentially throws off your alignment.
i unconsciously avoid sidewalk grates also. fear of falling forever ig
I would try to avoid driving over them when safely possible, because they make an annoying noise, which I wanted to spare folks living nearby from. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
As someone who opens them regularly, because so many of the chimneys are collapsing and I regularly wonder how some haven’t caved in yet.
Around here the chimneys are fine and the road around them has sunk so they stick up a couple inches above the road surface.
Maybe you and they are on opposite sides of the world so, when the chimneys sink on their side, the counterparts on your side are pushed out.
I’ve witnessed a failure like this once but it took a sunken brick crosswalk where we get frost heave into a U-shape with a flat manhole cover in the middle of one lane to get driven over for a couple years until one day the lip under the cover was so busted up it flipped the lid right out when my mom drove over it lol.
I was in Oklahoma one time and I opened a lid on a road and the whole lid fell in because the frame broke as I opened it. City was just kinda like “yeah that happens” and I’m like wtf do you mean that happens?!?! Their system was very very fucked though lol
Because it feels horrible to drive over and if they’re bad enough you can crack your rim on them
Why do I feel good when I avoid stepping on the pavement cracks?
After freezing temperatures, construction, and deferred maintenance, manhole covers can be a damaging obstruction
My car is only two years old, and the one time it needed work …. I hit one of the smaller pieces of road infrastructure - a gas valve maybe. But the pavement was broken up around it so it was a deep hole with a sharp metal edge. It destroyed my tire, a damn expensive tire
Edit to add: for my older car I just had to spend $1,500 replacing a control arm and ball joint. While there’s no way to identify a specific cause, trying to avoid obstructions is a possibility I can control
The manhole covers are lava!
They’re hella loud when you hit them.
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.
It’s fun to do on a motorcycle.
The forces on your suspension can be tremendous. Repeated impacts cause faster wear. Large impacts can cause immediate damage and/or loss of control. The popularity of large wheels means the capacity of the tyres to absorb an impact is reduced, and even with larger sidewalks, tyres can be damaged by impacting a sharp edge. A single OEM rim can cost over $1000; a suspension repair is probably in the same cost range. At this time of year in frosty countries with failing infrastructure, manholes aren’t typically even close to level with the road surface and may be a significant road hazard.
Jeeps have the handling characteristics of a jeep, and hitting bumps in them is uncomfortable. “Off road capabilities” is not the same as Baja.
