The right way to drive cottage roads without harm
Rutted streets can cause expensive damage to a vehicle if you’re careless
Vehicle repair shops can get particularly busy this time of year with damage caused by grounding out a variety of front-end and lower-engine parts when travelling down cottage lanes. It seems to get more prevalent every year, as passengercar ground clearances seem to get lower than the return on your RRSPs.
The most common problem can be simply cosmetic, with scraped and broken front bumper air dams or under-carriage shields.
But major and very expensive damage can occur when engine-oil pans are punctured or dented, or front suspension and steering components take a hard hit against exposed rocks or other hard surfaces.
If your friends invite you and the clan to their cottage for the weekend and say the last few kilometres on the road in may be a little rough, be warned: that’s a code phrase that really means you should be considering a monster truck to make the trek.
But if you really want to risk the family sedan, here are a few tips to keep everything, including your sanity, intact. Watch your weight: A rutted and rocky cottage lane can do enough damage to the average car sitting at normal ride height, but you’re almost guaranteed to do some serious undercarriage scraping with a heavily loaded family hauler.
If you have a utility trailer and hitch, use them. The more ground clearance you can achieve, the better.
If not, pack only the necessities and if the roughest portion of your trip down to the lake is short, ask your passengers to consider a nature hike instead of weighing down the vehicle. Adjust your trailer’s height: Most trailer hitches today use a receiver that the trailer ball-mount slides into. These ball-mounts come in a variety of designs to help achieve a level hook-up so the trailer’s tongue isn’t sitting too low or too high.
The ball-mounts that have a drop or rise position can be reversed, and if you carry a suitable wrench you can position the ball to achieve its highest mounting point. While this isn’t appropriate for highway driving, it can eliminate the scraping of the trailer’s mounting point to the vehicle for short low-speed drives on rougher roads. Watch your angles and levels: If the road is deeply rutted, try to keep at least one side of the vehicle on the high side by staying out of the ruts. This may cause a few branch scratches to doors, fenders and mirrors, but it’s better than getting stuck or damaging the engine and transmission pans as well as low-hanging exhaust components.
Long front and rear body overhangs can mean the lower part of the bumper covers will contact any sharp inclines before the wheels have a chance to climb or descend them. These are best approached on a diagonal angle if possible. Use a spotter: Remember those passengers you asked to walk the last few hundred metres? If they’re still talking to you, and the terrain is particularly rough and unfamiliar, get one or two to watch the lower parts of the vehicle as you slowly navigate the wild. Watch where you park: Parking spaces around cottages always seem to be at a premium, so many visitors end up putting their vehicles on the forest floor. Keep in mind that exhaust components can get hot enough to ignite dry grass or any other organic material that comes into contact.
If you can’t find a clear spot to park, let your vehicle cool down for an hour or so before moving it to a grassy area.