On a serious note these winter pot holes and cracks are starting to really me off. One of the great pleasures of the Range Rover is the smooth stately ride and the pot holes are not helping at all!

Apart from the ride pot holes can do serious damage to Tyres, Rims & Suspension parts but the Councils seem to be doing very little to repair them other than the occasional fill with soft wet tar or gravel that is gone the next day.

Are things as bad around the rest of the UK?

Last edited by Gazellio @ Prestige Cars on 24th Mar 2010 10:30am. Edited 2 times in total

Where can I buy this option? NOW!!!!

ETA - You changed the original post!

Now my reply doesn't make sense.  Java with Ivory 2006 4.2 Supercharged. 23.5k miles - NOW SOLD!

Last edited by jayzee on 24th Mar 2010 11:19am. Edited 1 time in total

It's just as bad around here in Preston.

They do appear to finally be resurfacing and filling holes however it's already cost me a tyre!! TDV8 HST Sport **Current**

4.4 V8 Autobiography and 22" wheels **Gone**

You should see our roads after this loong winter...

Yeah same up here , Local council not even interested when you make them aware of the pot holes ........

You are very lucky to have pot holes....lol. We have fecking Creators on the roads in Ireland. Some of the roads were so bad. It had been broken up completely. Only passable with a 4x4. that is main roads not B class roads. Here in the south of Ireland we don't get snow and frost like UK.

Here, last year, holes in the tarmac cost me 3 tyres for the other car, a merc fitted with low profile tyres.

Luckily the Range as been unscathed....

We've seen the lead up to this for years.

When I was a child when a road was resurfaced it was scalped a couple of inches and then actual new tarmac was laid.
Now the top surface is lightly scored, a layer of tar spread on and then a later of chippings spread over that.

This creates lots of thin layers of tarmac that when the water penetrates it just lifts and separates like wet chipboard.

Round here there are some streets where the center of the road is 4" higher than the kerb because they just keep sticking new tarmac on old. There are drain grates that are 2" below their surrounding tarmac, same goes for manhole covers, it's like driving into a ravine.

The only place where this seems to be different is North Yorkshire & Cornwall where all of the roads are flat, well surfaced and evenly coated. 

I'm off to Cornwall followed by North Yorkshire then

Gazellio wrote:

I'm off to Cornwall followed by North Yorkshire then

In Cornwall it's easy to get caught out on corners going a bit too fast because it just doesnt feel fast, then you realise you're doing 70 along a country road and it feels like 50.

Yorkshire has the benefit of no hedges, just low stone walls or out on the moors nothing at all so you can judge all the corners and set yourself up for the racing line! It used to be great before the council closed all the green lanes if you got bored of going fast you could drive for miles and miles off road and see things that you'd otherwise not see. 

Split a 17" Alloy wheel and a tyre on a Mini Cooper on a pothole on the North Circular - Not impressed

This is a definite vote winner for the motorist as Government extracts billions from the motorist in tax on fuel and car tax and VAT on purchases etc and has failed to reinvest anywhere near enough back in and just blames the recent bad weather but i think roads have been getting worse for years !

Well, the badger has decided to invest some money onto repairing our roads today... God knows where the money is coming from!  Java with Ivory 2006 4.2 Supercharged. 23.5k miles - NOW SOLD!

jayzee wrote:

God knows where the money is coming from!

You! 

I've never known the general state of the roads to be so bad in so many places in the UK. We have a sign up by our village road just saying "Frost Damage", it's only just been put up mind you, like it's a great catch-all excuse for the attrocious state of the road.

Councils, full of paper pushers and busy-bodies. I hate them. Discovery 4 HSE
1998 110 TUM HS FFR Hard Top XD WOLF
1982 Series 3 Hard Top

*Gone:L462 D5 HSE LUX, L663 Defender 110 HSE, Discovery 3 HSE, 2014MY Range Rover Sport 5.0 Supercharged AB Dynamic; L405 Exec Vogue SE 4.4, 5.0 Supercharged Autobiography, Defender TDCi XS CSW, Defender TD5 HT, Vogue SE TDV8, Vogue TD6, RRSport SC 4.2V8, Classic 3.9 Vogue Auto, Land Rover Series 3 SWB

dan_uk_1984 wrote:

We've seen the lead up to this for years.

When I was a child when a road was resurfaced it was scalped a couple of inches and then actual new tarmac was laid.
Now the top surface is lightly scored, a layer of tar spread on and then a later of chippings spread over that.

A good surface is dependent on a sound foundation. The main problem is that the weight of the traffic is breaking up the base, the surface cracks and then water gets in and then freezes, expands and breaks the surface up.

Proper asphalt (2"+) is good if the foundation is sound but only has a typical lifespan of 5yrs. If you want to extend it significantly, the best investment is to surface dress it (layer of emulsion plus spread chips) which seals the asphalt and prevents water ingress. Asphalt is 5x the cost of surface dressing.

Problem is a lack of cash and experience. It may seem a waste of money to surface dres a freshly asphalted road but in reality it extends its life significantly.

PS some of the liquids used are now water based emulsions and no longer traditional "hydrocarbon based" tars. Makes for an interesting time if it rains before the product goes off...