Reply With QuoteMuppets - You'd think the line of people with their phones out to film might ring alarm bells.
There are literally loads of these videos on Youtube - it seems to be a well established spectator sport.
This one is with the ford clearly marked at three feet, yet amazing how people attempt it (and fail), often in expensive cars:
Many years ago I had a Jag S-Type R - and unfortunately got caught in a flood with it. I would say the water was about eighteen inches deep. There was a dull thud, and £16k of damage was done to the engine...
Anyone else had similar, or just enjoy the vids!
So clever my foot fell off.
Muppets - You'd think the line of people with their phones out to film might ring alarm bells.
Last edited by andy tims; 23rd November 2022 at 11:24.
Andy
Wanted - Damasko DC57
I’ve played golf a number of times at Rufford Park which is about a mile the other side of the ford.
I always drive the long way round to avoid it. The sat nav from Mansfield will try and take you through it.
The police have been know to be there as well, giving tickets to 4x4 drivers for speeding through.
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watched a few of the videos, the stupidity of people never surprise me !its a real spectator sport it seems sometimes with huge crowds ?with some really expensive cars trying & failing , course the range rover . disco brigade think there invincible and plough through , seen one or two get stuck and then drive away but theses tend to generally be older cars, most will hydraulic the engine and be fecked, most will be insurance claims ( no exclusion clause in most policies for stupid ) and most will be total losses as a result due to repair costs / parts/ engine supplies, also when cars have been sat in water even for a short time electrical problems down the road will plague the cars in time . i can think of less than 3 cars i authorised repairs to after water ingress/ engine flood in 30 years , suspect less so now with electrics ,
i did see one smart guy successfully go backwards through !
That’s the worst I’ve seen it. Why people even attempt it I have no idea.
One of the surprising benefits of electric cars is the depth of water they can wade through. The Nissan Leaf's wading depth, for example, is 700mm - a Mercedes GLC (same sort of size) is only 300mm
One of life's little pleasures.
"Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. The third time it's enemy action."
'Populism, the last refuge of a Tory scoundrel'.
The issue isn't how watertight your car is, or that you've got a diesel with very few electrics to bother it, but that the air intake is often quite low and will suck water into the engine until it locks.
Even as a land rover owner I managed to do this in my Saab 900 in a different ford.
Its testimony to how bullet proof the Saab 900 was that the RAC towed the car out, pulled the plugs, cranked the engine to spit the water out, refitted the plugs and it fired into life and off I went again.
An amazing car I genuinely do miss.
The driver of the Land Rover at the end was an inconsiderate prat.
Last edited by barreti; 23rd November 2022 at 12:37.
You'd think...but no, alas world beating muppetsOriginally Posted by andy tims
I’ve seen loads of these, it’s crazy, I’ve even seen Police cars attempt it, and failing, the insurance angle always intrigued me. Surprised to hear you are probably covered. The road should surely be closed.
Cheers..
Jase
I have to confess to whiling a bit of time away watching these videos over the years. Takeaways for me.
If you have a BMW dont do it
Most folk dont realise they lose the undertrays and trims
Small cars seem to fare better as they go slower
The four wheel drives with snorkels are probably the reason the police are there!
Just remember…..these people share the roads with us…
The thing with Rufford Ford is that you can avoid it by taking a 1 mile detour.
Many yeas ago I was driving home from IBM Hursley along Green Lane in Ampfield. https://streetmap.co.uk/map?x=435431...p=ids&mapp=map
It was raining hard and as usual the spot under the railway bridge was flooded. It was deeper than usual instead of the normal inch or so there was a bout a 8" of water. But despite the bridge being on a dogleg, I could see dry road. I guesstimated the depth and drove through with no problems.
50 to 100 yards later, approaching the next bend the road was flooded again. I'd never seen it flooded here and I couldn't see the end of the floodwater because fo the bend. But, it was a long detour and if the bridge flooded regularly and this bit didn't then (I thought) the road at the bridge must be lower than here and therefore the water here must be shallower. So I drove round. It wasn't deep, but it was pitch black and I couldn't see the ditches at the side of the single track road.
The road infront was flooded for as far as I could see. I couldn't reverse, there's no way I'd get back round the bend with only reversing lights to see, so I had to keep going. The road was flooded for about 200m. I think it must have been about 18" deep at the worst point, my poor Golf had a bow wave.
His 'T-Shirt' has a fabulous touch of irony
we used to get cars recovered to dealership on AA / RAC trucks with the notes 'It just stopped dead' or 'wont turn over' no mention of taking it for a swim.
once in workshop we could tell pretty quickly and removal of sump was always an eye opener the incredible force of hydraulic pressure and water not compressing very well would destroy rods and often leave a nice collection of bits in the sump.
Initially customers would either deny any water being involved then say well 'it was only a small puddle' then when told it's not Warranty and insurers wont pay they would go incandescent blaming the car for not being fit for purpose.
often a complete new engine at 4k + or often scrapped if in wiring loom as the wires rust after event
Its mind blowing watching these videos a split second decision costing £ '000's and the pain of getting recovered and having no car for days or weeks.
most have no clue their cars air intake can be low down in front bumper like a reverse snorkel
but great sport for the youtubers
I like the Landies with the raised air intakes, pity that they all think they’re there to increase their wading depth. Easy mistake to make I guess
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Does it not mean that? Mind blown!
I do recall an S2000 owner on the S2KI forum opened their bonnet, unbolted the air intake to rotate upwards & then drove through a ford with the bonnet open and airbox clear of the water.
Madness given the other damage water can do with electric bits.
Apparently there are signs saying "don't go this way" or words to that effect.
But people still do, even when it's way too deep.
No, it’s purpose is to raise the fresh air intake out the way of dust and crap on dusty roads so the the air filter doesn’t get choked. It’s only the off road guys who think it’s raised their wading height. Reality is it stays the same, the “”snorkel”” joints aren’t water tight
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Last edited by Franky Four Fingers; 23rd November 2022 at 17:16.
I had to look the place up a few weeks ago, then look at the extent of a detour - I forget the exact mileage but think it was less than 10miles - compare that to £thousands in damage - only a complete donkey would take that chance!
They still do it in the dark, when there is a chance that they cannot be recovered ……………. Then what?
Surprised the onlookers don’t start chanting:
“You’re not driving! You’re not driving! YOU’RE NOT DRIVING ANY-MORE!”
I understand why the engine dies due to hydraulic lock but why doesn`t the air filter provide some sort of protection before destruction of the engine occurs?
If the water gets drawn into the airbox the paper filter material provides a barrier of some degree and it`d also get sopping wet first preventing the through-flow of air through it strangling the engine of air and stopping it before catastrophic damage happens?
I`m surprised engine failure occurs so quickly.
There are other entry routes - breathers/vents etc.
When you look long into an abyss, the abyss looks long into you.........
As Chris said, there are other entry points as its not entirely a sealed system from the air box however, the air filter provides little protection and would normally be the main reason
Most failures are due to the paper intake filters ‘clogging’ with water. The engine struggles to breathe.
There aren’t so many which end up locked.
Strangely I watched this before you had posted this morning.
Over the past couple of weeks I have found them quite addictive. My wife has forbidden me to say 'you've got to see this one. I promise it really is the last one' because it never is.
I had just not realised how many stupid people are about. My current favourites are the ones that sail off upstream.
scooter
Last edited by scooter; 23rd November 2022 at 20:00.
The recovery of the red taxi didn’t end well
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I watched this one last night and all I could think was why would you put your car through that ordeal if no need to ? I was going to say its mind boggling but knowing what idiots are at large then I suppose its not that unexpected.
What’s the problem? It is just a video of a red boat floating down a river.
The water will literally stop the engine in seconds that normally results in bent rods.
There is a lot of air going through a combustion engine, I know because I have sucked steel air filters into carb throats on lowly 250cc single. I found this article on air flow through an engine revving at 6k. My point being any water around the base or gaps in the air filter will be dragged in as an aerosol with a fair old force
Internet quote>>>>>>>>>
The amount of air entering a vehicle’s engine every minute can largely be calculated as follows (for a normally aspirated, gasoline engine):
0.5 * engine capacity * rpm * throttle opening %.
So a 2 litre engine at half throttle at 6,000 rpm would be taking in 3,000 litres of air every minute - or at least trying to. In practice, an engine will struggle to get as much air as this especially at high engine speeds.
This happens with two stroke motorcycles if they have faulty fuel taps / needle valves. After a period of no operation, owners have started their bikes up only for them to hydraulic lock virtually instantly:(
Cheers…i was literally in the process of trying to work that out.
Reminds me of a village in the Midlands I used to live near. The small river would flood just in front of the bridge it ran under. Following heavy rain the local 'lads' would sit on the bridge wall waiting for cars to come along - and then charge 50p to push them out when they stalled.
Worked well. The kids got money and the drivers didn't have to get wet climbing out.
Best Regards - Peter
I'd hate to be with you when you're on your own.
On one of the episodes a driver a stranded Audi A7 chuckled as said he had done the same thing before in a previous car in the same Ford that had then been written off!
Rufford ford is a gateway drug into watching youtube road madness. It can lead to watching hours of 'Russian road rage' suka,blyad.
That's hilarious!
I kinda assumed that the alternative must be a very long way around, not a paltry mile!
I am quite tempted to give it a go - my RR Sport supposedly has a wading depth of three feet and is fitted with sonar (I kid you not) to advise how deep the water is.
So clever my foot fell off.
I watched quite a recent one where some old, white dreadlocked gent was moaning about how the farmer upstream was apparently diverting water away from the Ford thereby making it a lot more shallower. He said this was unsafe because people drove through faster.
He much preferred the Ford to be a lot deeper due to the fact that people would drive through slower. He seemed to gloss over the fact that the deeper water meant that a lot more people would be stranded and would have engine problems.
I’ve also seen the spectators egging people on to drive through the Ford when they know full well it was too deep to drive through safely without causing damage to vehicles.
That's hilarious !
Apart from being amazed at drivers ignoring the depth of water, I always find it funny how some seem to think speed is the answer. Most end up stranded, with the front of their cars ripped off.
The new Range Rover reviewed on Top Gear two weeks ago had an underbody cam!That's hilarious !
I don’t suppose modern turbo chargers like having an ingress of water to try and compress either.
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Why haven't the appropriate Authorities placed barriers to limit access to the ford at times of a high water line?
There was an instance of that in the video: "Go on mate, don't stop now!". I don't get grumpy old man syndrome too often, but that rather annoyed me.
Probably due to them having place a clear sign showing the current depth in the middle of the ford and thereafter relying on road-users using common sense...
R
Ignorance breeds Fear. Fear breeds Hatred. Hatred breeds Ignorance. Break the chain.
Probably because unlike a train track, it's not a massive risk to life nor is the state picking up a bill for any of this therefore the cost isn't worth it.
I am genuinely amazed at how stupid people can be. It's almost as if some of the drivers in the video are purposely trying to write off their vehicles. On some of the videos, I've seen drivers watch other drivers get stranded then continue to try and cross like lemmings.
R
Ignorance breeds Fear. Fear breeds Hatred. Hatred breeds Ignorance. Break the chain.
3 minutes of fame via Youtube? Herding behaviour in action? World class muppetry? Who cares, as you note, it´s an amazing spectacle, truly.
I’ve driven through it a couple of times, in standard road cars, but only in low water levels.
In the summer when it hasn’t been raining it’s not very deep at all, but I’d give it a wide berth if there’s been any rain.
If you get to it and there’s folks on the footbridge cameras out, you know it’s too deep, when it’s passable usually nobody is there.
can't resist
Because:
(a) It's not always 3 feet deep. Usually it's much shallower and most cars (driven sensibly) can wade it. (Less so BMWs though, it seems).
(b) There are signs warning of a deep ford.
(c) It is used by farm vehicles (which can wade 3+ feet) and being forced to go the other way would, for them, become a major cost and time issue over time.
In truth, there's no need to close the road or even build a bridge. It's fine as it is. It is some drivers who are the problem.
Last edited by markrlondon; 24th November 2022 at 14:27.
Fast becoming one of my favourite sites.can't resist
"Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. The third time it's enemy action."
'Populism, the last refuge of a Tory scoundrel'.
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