Understanding Washboard Roads...interesting read!

[Thai]

Link: http://perso.ens-lyon.fr/nicolas.taberlet/washboard/

Excerpt:
"What is a washboard road?

When a car rides on an unpaved road (made of sand or gravel for instance) a wavy pattern develops. Initially, tiny ripples appear periodically (i.e. roughly equally spaced) and then grow bigger and bigger as cars pass on the road.

This phenomenon known as washboard road is not only extremely aggravating for the drivers but also represents a real danger since the adherence on the road is considerably reduced."

 

[SportRunner]

I hate when this happens.....one of my ex-girlfriends had a dirt road to her house, this happened, and it always sucked driving to her house after that....felt like my truck was gonna fall apart, just seemed to always get worse and worse.....bet you get a lot of this out in Texas, huh Thai??....

 

[Thai]

I hate when this happens.....one of my ex-girlfriends had a dirt road to her house, this happened, and it always sucked driving to her house after that....felt like my truck was gonna fall apart, just seemed to always get worse and worse.....bet you get a lot of this out in Texas, huh Thai??....

Well, not really...i live in the city...so, i am a city slicker! But, yeah, like you, i hate washboards. The problem is that you usually get these roads BEFORE reaching your off-road destination...therefore, i usually go over these roads before i get the chance to air down. So, highway air pressures + washboards = not a very pleasant ride.

 

[K2Runner]

I also hate washboard roads. Last april we drove to the coast to watch the olympus rally and one of the spectating areas was up this 8 mile logging road and the first mile or two was a serious washboard surface, plus the road was really angled on each side. Driving 30 on a washboard gravel road swerving around potholes wasn't fun, it felt like the rear of the runner was gonna come around on me. But that's a interesting article.

 

[Pikeman]

Well there are two ways to go down a washboard road and not get beat to death.
1. at about 5-10 mph
2. 40+ and it gets smooth by floating over the top, desert racers and MX'rs use then when going through the big whoops on the trail or track. Of course this requires knowledge of the road and also traffic potential.