Well, my Z is now grounded at home thanks to new speed bumps
#1
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?
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; 11-13-2012 at 02:25 PM.
#3
Registered User
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.
#4
New Member
It's not entirely clear in your post. Who put the speed bumps in? The city? The county? The development board?
#6
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; 11-13-2012 at 02:52 PM.
#7
New Member
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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#8
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.
#10
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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?
#12
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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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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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#16
Registered User
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.
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