In some parking lots where they want to ensure one-way traffic, they will have a long strip of steel spikes at the exit, pointed at an angle of approximately 30 degrees from the horizon. When you drive out, the weight of the vehicle pushes the spikes down until they are submerged below the pavement. When you drive in, supposedly, the spikes gouge into your tires, causing ‘severe tire damage’, according to the warning signs.
What really happens if you drive over the spikes the wrong way? I inspected some of these spikes, and they didn’t appear to be very sharp at all. I seriously doubt that they could actually puncture a set of steel-belted radials.
Furthermore, even if you drove over them the wrong way there would still be a downward force on the spikes, which would act to submerge them beneath the pavement, where they cannot damage your tires.
How likely is it that driving over one of these devices the wrong way would result in a blowout?
The steel belts are just in the tread area. The sidewalls of a radial tire are very tender and can easily be holed. Performance radials have even softer sidewalls than a “normal” radial.
Radials sidewalls bulge and flex to keep the tread flat on the ground. This is why radial tires handle better than bias tires. If a spike were to contact the sidewall, it would probably tear a hole in it. A damaged sidewall is usually considered unrepairable due to the flex involved.
So yes I would agree that severe tire damage could occur if you drove over the spikes in the wrong direction.
You know those metal edges the put along storm drains? I blew a tire once on one. I got out of the car, looked at it and just couldn’t believe my eyes. My clenched fist has sharper edges than this thing did.
(Just so y’all can have a good chuckle, I changed the tire and as I pulled away I drove over it again some how :smack: That just wasn’t my day)
In the end, it’s the weight of your car that does the damage.
As for the Tiger Teeth, look at this close-up picture you’ll see how easily the teeth would sink down when pressure is applied to the hypotenuse (think of a tooth as a triangle) but not so easily when pressure is apllied to the opposite edge. This is especially true if the teeth are hindged at the point where the hypotenuse meets the opposite edge.
Did it once by accident. I won’t go into the details of circumstances and gross stupidity on my part, but the end result was 2 out of 4 tires blown. :smack: I don’t remember if it was sidewalls or tread area, but they were damaged beyond repair and had to be replaced.
If one ogf those spikes catches your sidewalls you’re dead. I, too, have been a (albeit self-inflicted) victim of scraping curbs while parking, getting out and hearing “pssssssssssssssst”. (For the record, they were Michilens on a Miata. The guy at the tire place showed me how he could push his thumb though the sidewall of the tires on my car, and how regular tires he couldn’t.
I was behind a genius once backing up over those spikes. It almost shredded the 2 tires that whent over the spikes. It didn’t just puncture the sidewalls, it ripped the thread.
I witnessed someone driving out the wrong way with the 3/8 in. or so diameter spikes, not the angular, pointy things. Even with no point on the ends of the rods, she lost three out of four tires.
Many years ago, the consumer advocate David Horwitz had a show called “Fight Back!” in which he tested claims of manufacturers and such. I don’t recall the circumstances of why he was doing it, but he did at one point drive a car over these spikes. I don’t remember if he was testing a claim that the tires would survive it, or testing (on a lark or as a joke) the claim that they would, indeed, cause severe tire damage.
The result that I recall was that 3 or 4 of the tires were blown, although the leaks were slow. That was enough for me.
What if you took a four wheel drive car (Subaru or something), stopped just before the spikes, revved the guts out of the motor, and dropped the clutch so that the four wheels burned rubber over the spikes?
I’m guessing this would take the car successfully the wrong way over the spikes, because the tread surface of your wheels would be spinning the right way, relative to the spikes.
My aunt blew out all 4 tires. She never really did have a good explanation of why she drove over the strip in the first place, or why she didn’t stop after it blew the first two tires.
I saw that, it was just a letter sent in from someone saying just once I would like to drive in ‘backwards’ against the spikes, the show ponyed up the money to replace the tires.
You might have to do it 2x, once for the front wheels then stop then rev again for the back. I’m assumng you are talking about spinning the wheels in an attempt to push down the spikes. THe high speed rotation may cut come groves in the tire.
Just do what I do and carry 2 pieces of wood about 2x10x24 in. And just drive right up to the spikes, lay it on top, drive in over your wood, pick up you wood and park for free
I’ve never had any doubt about the ability of these things to damage my tires, but I have had a related question:
In today’s litigious society, has there ever been a case where someone’s tires did get damaged, and then he tried to sue claiming that the signs were too vague?
my uncle marky did in one of his “get rich quick” schemes…then again he is also the same man who sewed himself for sexual harassment just to impress som chick… o well.:rolleyes:
