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?
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.
I was about to comment just right this.
Big tires don’t really help for that though, and lifts like that often have a tighter suspension and a rougher ride. The vehicle you want to drive fast over bumps would be some kind of luxury car that puts a lot of emphasis on having a smooth ride.
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.
As others have said, it’s just not great for the car. Will it damage it if you hit one? Probably not. But if it’s your work route or other commonly taken route, you’re gonna hit it 260x in a year, and you’ll own the car for multiple years. It adds up quick. Plus, they aren’t always smooth to the ground or free of other pot holes and square edges. If you hit it hard enough or if it’s too sharp, jagged, or deep, you can damage the wheel, the suspension, and the tire itself, easily in the thousands of dollars to repair, along with not having a vehicle for up to a few weeks.
Don’t get me wrong, they shouldn’t really be swerving all over the road, but dodging em when you can is nice.
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.
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.
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
Tell me, what alignment is your car?
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.
That’s kind of amusing to me IDK why
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.
When I went to Mexico, none of them had the covers, just holes everywhere on the roads and sidewalks.
I drive a small car with stiff (sport) suspension. In my area manhole covers typically aren’t aligned well with the road surface making them quite bumpy to drive over. This can jarring and even painful for me due to medical issues that I don’t care to get into here. So I routinely avoid driving over manhole covers.
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)_/¯
Why do I feel good when I avoid stepping on the pavement cracks?
I know which ones near me are bad.
