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Well, my Z is now grounded at home thanks to new speed bumps

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Old Nov 13, 2012 | 02:22 PM
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Default Well, my Z is now grounded at home thanks to new speed bumps

Come home from work tonight (in my daily) and notice two brand new, obnoxious speed bumps in my development. I'm immediately pissed off because my Z will bottom out on speed bumps unless they are on the subtle side. I can tell just from driving over them that the Z wouldn't make it. Went home, grabbed a tape measure and a level, and took some measurements to verify. The peak of the speed bumps is just over 3 inches off the surface of the street with a pretty steep incline leading up to it. Well, 3 inches doesn't work for my car.

All the body pieces of the car (front bumper/sides/etc) seem like they would just make it as I measured them to be about 3.25-3.5 inches high at the lowest areas. The problem is the exhaust canisters of my injen exhaust right in the middle of the car after the Y pipe. These are about 2.5 inches off the ground at the lowest point. So pretty much, I'm not dealing with "*scrape* oh no my paint", I'm dealing with crap being critically damaged or ripped off the car if I try negotiating these speed bumps.

My Z isn't even that low. It's lowered on coilovers to the point that I have slight wheel gap (half a finger) in the rear and I'm just barely tucking tire in the front. Certainly not "slammed." My coilovers are adjustable so worst case I don't need to have my damn car flat bedded out of here, but raising the car is not the route I would prefer to take. Nothing sucks more than having to raise your car once you've already managed to get your stance dialed in perfect to your liking.

The community didn't warn the residents that these were going in. So if I took my Z to work today I would have been screwed. Anyone have any ideas as to what I can do here? I want to propose a solution where either the bumps are removed completely (ideal), the peak of them is reduced to about 2 inches, they are reduced in length so that they only span half of the road way, or a cutout (maybe a two foot portion) is made where the speed bump will be removed. There are no signs or warnings that the speed bumps are there, which I believe is necessary if this were public streets (not sure if private communities must follow the same restrictions) and I'm sure these are violating some other speed bump guidelines (for example they are about 75 feet apart from each other at certain points). So I wonder if bringing this up to the board of directors will help me get these things out of here.

Any advice here fellas?

Last edited by Phenom; Nov 13, 2012 at 02:25 PM.
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Old Nov 13, 2012 | 02:38 PM
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sledge hammer
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Old Nov 13, 2012 | 02:42 PM
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im sure there was a petition to put them in. i wish you the best of luck trying to get them out. telling them" i cant even get my sports car over them" might be a good argument. i wouldn't even mention that its a lowered car, just sport car.
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Old Nov 13, 2012 | 02:44 PM
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It's not entirely clear in your post. Who put the speed bumps in? The city? The county? The development board?
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Old Nov 13, 2012 | 02:46 PM
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I know this is different but when my company put in speed bumps in the parking garage I couldn't clear them without bottoming out. I sent in a complaint and they shaved them down the next day (they didn't look too happy about it). Perhaps that could work.
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Old Nov 13, 2012 | 02:48 PM
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Originally Posted by zakmartin
It's not entirely clear in your post. Who put the speed bumps in? The city? The county? The development board?
The board of directors of the community decided to put them in. There was no petition to have them installed, just multiple complaints from the people that live on that particular street who want their kids to be able to play in the street safely. But somehow I was never notified that the primary funtion of roadways was to serve as a playground for these little chits. I grew up playing in the street, the key is when you see a 3000 pound object coming, you move the fck out of the way. And if there's too much traffic on your street, you keep your *** on your lawn. Simple really. I don't understand why these kids need these over the top measures.

Last edited by Phenom; Nov 13, 2012 at 02:52 PM.
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Old Nov 13, 2012 | 02:52 PM
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Ahhh... in that case, it couldn't hurt to get the city/county involved. You can tell them that the development created a safety hazard and they need to get the bumps shaved to comply with legal requirements. That'd be a really good place to start. Be sure to emphasize that it's a safety hazard and that it prohibits ingress/egress to your place of residence. Be sure to go straight to the top of your Roads Department and cc: your elected official.
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Old Nov 13, 2012 | 02:58 PM
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Originally Posted by AroundMyHorn
I know this is different but when my company put in speed bumps in the parking garage I couldn't clear them without bottoming out. I sent in a complaint and they shaved them down the next day (they didn't look too happy about it). Perhaps that could work.
I'm going to talk to the president of the board and calmly suggest that they do this. There are other speed bumps in the development that aren't as high so logically it doesn't seem unreasonable.

If they refuse and I end up having to raise the car up, best believe I'm going to be awfully liberal on the throttle while inching over them. I used to be able to completely coast in neutral past this stretch these houses (which I did late at night because of how loud my car is and I didn't want to disturb the people living there), but now I have no choice but to finally give them a nice sample of my injen/no cat combo...each and every time I have to crawl over these things.
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Old Nov 13, 2012 | 03:04 PM
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Old Nov 13, 2012 | 03:20 PM
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I feel you about getting your ride height dialed in. My height is based on unavoidable speed bumps in my neighborhood (around 4" w/ no body kit; similar to yours, finger-gap height). I have to drive in the middle of the road so my resonator, which is lowest point under my car, goes through the middle of the speed bumps. As for complaining, I don't see much coming out of it. How does it look that someone is complaining about a safety precaution for children because he can't drive his modified car through the neighborhood faster?
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Old Nov 13, 2012 | 03:47 PM
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Drive on the sidewalks.
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Old Nov 13, 2012 | 04:58 PM
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That sucks OP. My current neighborhood just put in speed humps instead of bumps and I couldn't be more thankful. In your case, hopefully they missed some ordinance or at least they're not dicks about it and are willing to shave them down a bit. But if they don't do anything...rev that ish!
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Old Nov 13, 2012 | 05:23 PM
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That sucks, Id be pissed. Could be worse though.

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Old Nov 13, 2012 | 05:25 PM
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Lengthening the speed bump so it's a bit longer than your wheel base should solve your issue. By lengthening I mean when you pull up to it, you can climb up with your front wheels, then your rear wheels, still with your fronts on it like your on a mini elevated platform, then the front drops, then rear and your off. That's if they are willing to do that of course.
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Old Nov 13, 2012 | 05:36 PM
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Flat shovel and sledge
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Old Nov 13, 2012 | 05:59 PM
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Originally Posted by Phenom
The board of directors of the community decided to put them in. There was no petition to have them installed, just multiple complaints from the people that live on that particular street who want their kids to be able to play in the street safely. But somehow I was never notified that the primary funtion of roadways was to serve as a playground for these little chits. I grew up playing in the street, the key is when you see a 3000 pound object coming, you move the fck out of the way. And if there's too much traffic on your street, you keep your *** on your lawn. Simple really. I don't understand why these kids need these over the top measures.
It pisses me off that people think the streets are for people. I had a someone come to my house and tell me my Z is too loud and that 25 MPH is too fast because his 5 year old boys play in the street. Who the hell lets their 5 year old kids play in a area designed for 3 ton objects?
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Old Nov 13, 2012 | 06:08 PM
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Originally Posted by SR71
That sucks, Id be pissed. Could be worse though.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UB9gA9Af5Tw
LOL this is every Z owners nightmare.
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Old Nov 13, 2012 | 07:02 PM
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Originally Posted by SR71
That sucks, Id be pissed. Could be worse though.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UB9gA9Af5Tw
they had this speed bump at one of the entrance at the hotel i stayed at when i was in vegas last month...thank god i didn't drive, my car wouldve gotten stuck or flatten out the bottom
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Old Nov 13, 2012 | 07:21 PM
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Time for bags, or make some ramps from wood.
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Old Nov 13, 2012 | 07:23 PM
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Why are people's fck trophies playing in the road to begin with???
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