Dirt road ruts

[Doug G]

Why do little ruts/ridges form on dirt tracks/roads running perpendicular from side of the road to the other and not parallel with the road ?

The ridges form about 6" to 10" apart.

[spider]

Doug, do you mean Corrugations? Bit like this;-

[Tim]

They form so that drivers can experience the excitement of driving over them.

I once caught a bus in Far North Queensland, which travelled down a road called the Bloomfield Track. Its only about 30km long, but corrugated all the way and extremely steep in places. At one point it fords the Bloomfield River.

The driver had been a tour guide in the area all his life. He had a tight schedule, so drove like a man possessed so that he could stop and show the tourists on the bus the scenic spots. I've never experienced driving like it. This guy could drift a mini bus towing a luggage trailer. Absolutely incredible driving. At one stage he had all the aboriginal locals screaming, I think they would have preferred a more sedate local bus ride to the shops. They weren't all impressed when he stopped the bus to catch a snake to show us.

I asked him how he deals with the corrugations and he just said, you have to go fast enough to glide over the top of them. It works quite well, but means that your wheels aren't actually touching the ground for most of the time.

Tim

[spider]

Sorry, OT here;-

and extremely steep in places.

Tim

That is a serious understatement.

There were so steep in places, on one (in the Moke) I was actually back to 1st!

Any steeper and I was going to look for a ladder!

OK, resume topic.

[Doug G]

Doug, do you mean Corrugations? Bit like this;-

Those are a bit big and further apart from what I'm dealing with here.

[spider]

Those are a bit big and further apart from what I'm dealing with here.

(those were the smaller ones)

A fellow travels talked of them on a trip many years ago. He claimed that until the advent of the shock absorber, corrugation didn't form in dirt roads / tracks. I really can't say how correct this may or may not be. I tend to think weathering plays it's part too, however, I'm not too quick to discount the shocker theory either as they always seem to be at the same interval apart.