Driving on three wheels
Moderator: RichardW
Driving on three wheels
No, I don't mean Morgans, Bonds, Reliants, Scott sociables, and other odd cycle-cars, I mean hydraulic Citroens.
Idly watching "Chips" on Bravo the other day, the dynamic duo pulled over a DS for driving with only three wheels fitted- is this possible? God knows what it had to do with the plot but it was most entertaining, and I am sure there was some film of it being done on a Citroen special on "men and motors" channel, and, no, I wasn't waiting for the soft p**n to start!
I know from experience that you can have a tyre blow out and still stop in a straight line with no drama as the hydraulics compensate, but a wheel completely missing?
Has anyone tried this- I haven't had the nerve!!!!!
Idly watching "Chips" on Bravo the other day, the dynamic duo pulled over a DS for driving with only three wheels fitted- is this possible? God knows what it had to do with the plot but it was most entertaining, and I am sure there was some film of it being done on a Citroen special on "men and motors" channel, and, no, I wasn't waiting for the soft p**n to start!
I know from experience that you can have a tyre blow out and still stop in a straight line with no drama as the hydraulics compensate, but a wheel completely missing?
Has anyone tried this- I haven't had the nerve!!!!!
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But has anyone actually tried it and can confirm that its possible, because surely it defies the laws of physics!
If you take a leg off your kitchen table it will fall over, as no doubt my BX will if I remove a wheel- when a tyre goes you still have contact with the ground, even though the tyre can be shredded and not exactly round any more, and the arm/strut will go up and down to compensate.
I wonder if the DS on chips had a hell of a lot of ballast added to the opposite corner,and self-levelling would just make it <u>appear</u>to be unloaded in which case it would drive on 3 wheels, and the corner with no wheel was definately not in contact with the road.
After all, if I take my table leg off after putting an engine block on the opposite corner then the table will still stand.....
If you take a leg off your kitchen table it will fall over, as no doubt my BX will if I remove a wheel- when a tyre goes you still have contact with the ground, even though the tyre can be shredded and not exactly round any more, and the arm/strut will go up and down to compensate.
I wonder if the DS on chips had a hell of a lot of ballast added to the opposite corner,and self-levelling would just make it <u>appear</u>to be unloaded in which case it would drive on 3 wheels, and the corner with no wheel was definately not in contact with the road.
After all, if I take my table leg off after putting an engine block on the opposite corner then the table will still stand.....
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I can certainly vouch for driving with a blow out.2 years ago my wife and i took our caravan to Italy for our honey moon.Driving along on the auto route doing 65mph,38c outside.Started to here a funny noise.Thought it was just the tyres on the hot sticky tarmac.Didn`t think anything of it.10 miles later!! still doing 65mph decided to pull over as the noise was unbearable.To my amazement,one of the back tyres on the Xantia had let go.A big hole in the side wall!God knows what would have happened with a normal car.But the Xantia kept going at 65mph.Didn`t feel a thing or affect the car in any way.The tyre was nearly off the rim!Once stopped though,had to drive 1/4m along hard shoulder to a wider bit to change it.Could only do 5mph as the car was undriverable,but could do 65mph before we stopped!!!
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Hi Guys,
I DS will do it quite easily I imagine due to the sheer strength and rigidity of the subframe. I wouldn't like to do it with a CX (the bodys on them are very weak compared to a DS, you can't even jack up a CX without the doors being hard to open and close). The BX I have driven about 5kms home on 3wheels after the rear wheel bearing died. It was NOT nice, I needed the car on high which meant the car would bounce whenever I hit a bump in the road. Speed was limited to about 20km/h.
strength/engineering wise the Citroen DS stands head and tails above all else. Engineers not bean counters built them [:D]
seeya,
Shane L.
I DS will do it quite easily I imagine due to the sheer strength and rigidity of the subframe. I wouldn't like to do it with a CX (the bodys on them are very weak compared to a DS, you can't even jack up a CX without the doors being hard to open and close). The BX I have driven about 5kms home on 3wheels after the rear wheel bearing died. It was NOT nice, I needed the car on high which meant the car would bounce whenever I hit a bump in the road. Speed was limited to about 20km/h.
strength/engineering wise the Citroen DS stands head and tails above all else. Engineers not bean counters built them [:D]
seeya,
Shane L.
Sods law really.2 mths before we went i was speaking to another Xantia owner on a site,he told me about the blowout business,that you wouldn`t know it if you had one.Look what happend!!!
If we didn`t have a Xantia,i think we would have crashed.I missed out the fact that we were towing the caravan at the time!!!
If we didn`t have a Xantia,i think we would have crashed.I missed out the fact that we were towing the caravan at the time!!!
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Hi Guys,
The problem is BX's and Xantias are just another car. The DS, SM, GS and apparantly the CX (though I can't fathom how) have center point steering. This means if you shred any tire no matter what the speed, the car will NOT swerve. Someone on the CX list (I forget who) ran over something on the road at speed instantly shredding both front tires. The car continued to track straight and he gently braked to a halt on the shoulder of the road.
BX's and Xantias will swerve as they don't have centerpoint steering, they also extremely annoyingly follow road cambers and require constant correction at speed. There not half the car the earlier cars are. In my CX I could safely take my hands off the steering wheel at 200km/h, the BX and Xantia I certainly would NOT do the same with, not even at 40km/h as it would immediatly vear off into the direction of the road camber.
seeya,
Shane L.
The problem is BX's and Xantias are just another car. The DS, SM, GS and apparantly the CX (though I can't fathom how) have center point steering. This means if you shred any tire no matter what the speed, the car will NOT swerve. Someone on the CX list (I forget who) ran over something on the road at speed instantly shredding both front tires. The car continued to track straight and he gently braked to a halt on the shoulder of the road.
BX's and Xantias will swerve as they don't have centerpoint steering, they also extremely annoyingly follow road cambers and require constant correction at speed. There not half the car the earlier cars are. In my CX I could safely take my hands off the steering wheel at 200km/h, the BX and Xantia I certainly would NOT do the same with, not even at 40km/h as it would immediatly vear off into the direction of the road camber.
seeya,
Shane L.
Thats quite right Shane
The GS, CX etc had a very well located double wishbone front suspension set up which gave almost perfect geometry. The Xantia and BX did away with this fine arrangement on cost/simplicity grounds and were fitted with Macpherson type front struts clamped to a lower arm, a much more "wobbly" arrangement I guess.
The GS, CX etc had a very well located double wishbone front suspension set up which gave almost perfect geometry. The Xantia and BX did away with this fine arrangement on cost/simplicity grounds and were fitted with Macpherson type front struts clamped to a lower arm, a much more "wobbly" arrangement I guess.