Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game Wash boarding

Not the type to get information but the type that occurs on well used dirt roads. I was up on the Uncompaghre this weekend for the final scouting trip, Divide Rd. will rattle your teeth out right now. It wasn't so bad going up Saturday but rain set in toady and just worsend this phenomena. Of couse this is not an isolated condition, it happens all over, in fact every dirt road in Colorado is affected by it but was causes it? I know these roads are graded every year and they don't do it on purpose or do they? Just curious if anyone has an answer.

Spent many an hour debating this in front of campfires deep in Baja.

Yes there are scientific answers..

http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview/id/435184.html

But it won't stop the beer and tequila fueled debates in fron of the fire.

I've noticed it feels a lot worse going uphill than it does downhill.... theories?

I always thought washboardy gravel roads were the result of excessive acceleration and braking.

I refuse to click on your link Johnny...

And like a Mythbuster...

I refuse to believe your reality...and subsitute my own...




I'm goin' with the beer and tequila theories....


Ingwe

Beer and tequila is better than science!

I was watching the Discovery Channel...theres a LOT of science that goes into beer and tequila...
Ingwe

I once lived near the Army's Yuma Proving Ground. The local paper printed an article about their tests trying to prevent washboard roads. IIRC, they said it could not be formed below 18 MPH. Above 18 MPH, nothing they did could prevent it. I believe they even tried solid suspension and it still happened, due to oscillations in the tire itself.

Bruce

The more they grade here the more it happens. But they have to grade to even out the washout areas and ruts....

A heavily loaded truck going faster than normal on a washboard road seems to minimize the teeth jarring....However I'm pretty sure it also adds to more washboarding.

Darn. I thought this another Git-mo thread proposing, perhaps, to Giv-Mo. Wash boarding would be more for sure.

Around here fast driving and heavy vehicles (think overloaded grain trucks in a hurry to get to the elevator before it closes) will washboard a road FAST! Particularly when bouncing around curves. Once a pattern is started, it gets worse at a faster and faster rate. Also sometimes the townships don't grade down far enough to dig through the compaction so the starting pattern doesn't get erased.

Kids like to drive fast on some of the BIA roads I use and they get torn up quickly, particularly in the curves. Really fun dragging a boat trailer, sometimes you wonder if you're not going to just bounce off into the ditch.

But, yes, we have them here also.

http://www.gi.alaska.edu/ScienceForum/ASF6/619.html

It only takes 1 bump to start a washboard forming. When the 1st truck hits it and bounces, it makes a slight depression that will grow fast as more trucks hit it. No amount of grading will stop it. Only a permanent surface that won't dent can do that.

One of the worst I've ever seen is the 60 miles of road along the Middle Fork of the Boise River in SW Idaho. For years, the Forest Service and the county both claimed that the road belonged to the other so neither maintained it. I've traveled it at 10 mph and could hardly keep the truck on the road. I don't live in that area any more and I don't know if the maintenance problem has been resolved.

I worked for 31 years in a highway Engineering Office. A Wash Boarding Study of Gravel Roads-- Cause and Effect-- would be done once a year. We always came out with the same results. Wash Boarding of gravel roads was caused by the constant pounding of the wave action of the large bodies of water( Oceans , seas, large lakes) on the shoreline. Thus sending the ripple effect into dry land. It's the nature of the beast. Global warming will cause more water,thus more wash boarding. -- Web

That's what I thought, too. I just didn't feel comfortable telling everyone else they were stupid.

Hmmm?.....so the inability to walk straight after a few more than enough beers has more to do with the waves of liquid sloshing around inside......?

I've heard that the "washboard effect" was good for making hash browns-peel the potatos and put in the glove box with an open knife and drive about 10mph. Don't drive too long, it makes potato flakes...

I'll second the Middle Fork of the Boise as the champion washboard road of the west. I have driven four wheeling in seven western states and some of Vietnam. The MF Boise Road is the worst I've seen. There are bad spots in Death Valley but Idaho wins hands down.

A lot of it is caused by braking and acceleration. Witness that it is worse near each end of a curve. People come in to the curve fast and hit their brakes. Even a small bump causes the wheels to raise up and stop turning and gouge a hole when they hit. Then they accelerate coming out of the curve and a bump causes the wheels to raise and spin causing a hole when they hit. Each bump makes the next vehicle do one as bad or worse and it keeps on. miles

I have found that on the steeper uphill washboards, slipping the truck into 4WD helps reduce the hop.