This week on Car Talk, Tom and Ray pondered one of rural America’s great head-scratchers: How best to drive on an unpaved, washboarded dirt road? That is, those country roads that feature annoying cross-wise ruts. [Washboard road] (Flickr/christoph.G.) Should you go very slowly, so as to…

I usually just try to put my wheels on the smoothest part of the road, sometimes the shoulder and the middle has smooth dirt. What I want to know is what causes the washboard effect. It always seems to happen, sort of like moguls on ski slopes. they aren’t artificially created, they just eventuall…

Country roads, nothing! That looks just like the highway running from where I live at least the first 4 or 5 miles of it. After putting up with this for several decades I’ve come to the conclusion there is no “best method” as both lanes are like that. It’s mostly wallow around, hoping to hit less of…

You can sometimes go fast enough to stop the suspension from bouncing you around in every single valley. The speed you need varies with the size of the washboarding. The problem is, the size varies constantly. Also, you’re essentially floating on just the peaks of each bump, at speed, so it’s not …

I understand that even if you start off with a perfectly smooth road, wheels rolling over it will eventually cause the washboarding. Smooth gravel and sand is the worst. Crushed gravel that’s a mix of coarse and fine will interlock and resist this effect. It even occurs on railroad tracks, calle…

Asked and answered by the geeks from Mythbusters [image] Bumpy Ride The Mythbusters asked: Can you make a bumpy drive smoother by driving faster? Find out if you can make a bumpy drive smoother by driving faster. Driving faster can make it smoother. Let the susp…

@B.L.E . IMHO, I would be a little wary of dropping to 15 psi to let the tires absorb the bumps. They share that function with the suspension now. Letting air out takes that away from the shocks and springs. The springs can take it. Shocks are cheaper than tires, 4 struts however…

I used to take my pickup truck tires down to about 15 psi before driving in deep sand. That way, the tires float on top of the sand instead of sinking in and I don’t get stuck. Naturally, I reinflated them back to normal before hitting the paved roads. Most tires don’t even begin to look like the…

The best speed is dependent on the stiffness of your springs mostly. I grew up in the country with those washboard roads. With a normal US sedan, 30 mph was a livable speed, although 50 mph gave a smoother ride, but that would be 20 mph over the speed limit. Here in the mountains we have open ran…

For washboard roads there is only one way to drive on them. There is one speed that is optimum. You have to go fast enough not to jar your molars, but not too fast that you fishtail and lose control. It’s a balancing act that is a lot of fun (like a demolition derby) unless you have a nice car and n…

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begp September 28, 2013, 6:34pm 6

I drive very slowly OR very fast! Nothing in-between. In the 60’s (gasp) that was my theory driving my British racing green MG until the day an axel broke and I ended up in a field. Now I am in a mini-van and slow is the way to go. Plus there is a lot more traffic.

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Paging Physicists, Bubbas... and everyone in between

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