Ways Travellers can make Driving on Rough Roads Manageable

Bad roads are sadly a common sight in India. Although we have showcased relentless growth rates in the past few decades, due to our vast size and the different conditions present across the nation, bad roads are a common problem for the people. Keeping this in mind, we have created this list of ways through which you can easily drive your cars and bikes through patches of bad roads without any issues or problems.

These 8 measures that we have devised here would help you understand how you can manage to drive along bad roads with ease. These measures have been shared by some of the most trained and well-experienced travellers who have travelled across the length and breadth of the nation.

One of the biggest challenges that travellers face while driving is the unexpected arrival of bad parts of the roads; hence, our first measure would be

Know About the Road Conditions from the Get-Go

It's only apparent that it's hard to analyse and understand the road quality of different areas you are travelling to. Until and unless you have travelled to the same location before, it's hard to understand the road conditions fully. For all such issues, applications like Map My India and Google Maps can help you. They can provide you with a clearer, real-time image of the quality of the road with ease.  In the Google Maps application, if you choose the option of layers that are mostly present at the top right corner of the application, then you can choose the map type you want to see as well as the details you want the application to showcase.

Then, you would be able to witness information such as Transit, Traffic, Bicycling, streetview, and buildings in 3D.  

Adjustments to the Vehicle

Now that you have gained a cognizance about the road conditions of the place you would be travelling to here are a few of the changes that you can adjust so that the vehicle can reach its destination with ease.  Check the tyre pressure on all your tyres, and maintain the levels per manufacturer guidelines. We would also recommend that you ensure that there is no unladen mass in direct contact with the chassis. As it can cause harm to the chassis while being driven in different terrain's.  Further, most vehicles often have space for suspension adjustments; various elements, such as caster and camber, as well as the toe of the tyre, can be adjusted to favour bad patches of the road. Every manufacturer provides a leeway in the suspension system which can be adjusted to suit bad road patches.

For two-wheelers, if your vehicle has a mono-shock suspension setup, you can adjust the rebound and the adjustability of the vehicle suspension. If your vehicle has a dual rear suspension setup, we recommend that you adjust it for a more rigid setup for highway rides and a softer setup with higher rebounds for bad roads.  Adjusting your suspension can be difficult; hence, we recommend that you take your vehicle to the designated service centres for the adjustment.

Tire Pressure

Monitoring the tyre pressure is another important aspect of having a smooth drive. If you are driving a car or even a bike you would have to constantly monitor the tyre pressure while riding. Its important to ensure that you do not over fill your tyres and keep the pressure psi as per the guidelines issued by the manufacturer.

while riding through sandy terrain, deflating the tyres to increase the footprint of the vehicle is another tactic that would help your easily drive across any sand dune with ease.

Speed Modulation

This might seem like one of the most obvious measures to control the vehicle while passing through rough roads. But in essence, we would recommend that you try to pass over bad road conditions gently. Suspensions have to work harder if you pass through bad road patches a faster. Beyond the overworking of suspension, the suspension mounting points, as well as struts, face the most consequences.  If a vehicle continually passes through rough roads at higher speeds from the differential, Suspension Mounting Points,  strut towers, and wheel hubs face the most issues.

Bad Road Conditions with a Heavy payload

In some instances, driving around with heavy payload often puts the chassis at risk of cracks. Since most cars these days have a monocoque construction, we would recommend that if you have a CNG vehicle, keep the cylinder fixed as otherwise, the car might witness the effects of driving a round with unsprung weight, which might affect the chassis, and suspension as well as the engine mounting brackets. If you live in an area with bad roads we would recommend that you try to fasten the CNG Cylinder in the boot.

These are some of the most convenient ways to adjust your vehicle to drive around bad patches of road better. If in case you reside in a area where road conditions have over the time remained obliterated due to maybe the weather or any other deterrent we would recommend changes such as going for all-terrain tyres and other addons that would help your drives on such roads. Keeping unsprung weight to a minimum and ensuring the right tyres and right pressure would help you travel with ease without any major issues.