Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Morgan Three Wheeler & Super 3 France and “Sleeping Policemen”

Hello,
I’ve just been to France and noticed the proliferation of sleeping policemen in the Normandy towns and villages. Our original idea was to go in the M3W, however, the fuel tank and another issue from its repair scuppered that plan and luckily we went in a Landy. The number of Sleeping Policemen and their hight gave me a lot of concern about ever using the M3W in that region without grounding it every couple of miles.

I’ve never noticed the issue in Southern France but wasn’t thinking M3W when last there. You have all confirmed that the Shuttle has no grounding issues for the car but do you have grounding issues with these Sleeping Policemen when driving around France? Or is there a way to avoid them.

I don't understand this expression "sleeping policeman"
Are you talking about speed bumps?

Never had a problem with sleeping policemen (speed bumps) in the M3W. The Super3 however is lower and several owners have caught the sideboards.

Gendarme couche.

Exactly that Nestor

We have done thousands of miles in France and the "gendarme couche" are particularly effective at forcing M3W drivers to slow down to preserve one's vertebrae etc - suspect the relatively short wheelbase and the (by today's standards) small diameter rear wheel amplify the effect of speed bumps. Never had a ground clearance problem despite the low ride height.

I would think the "sleeping Policemen" would only be an issue if you went over them at speed. And again, once I fitted the Ohlin shocks those things were less of a problem.

Sleeping policemen are a horrible solution to speeding, crappy bangers and yummy mummies in SUVs fly over them with gay abandon while careful drivers risk being rammed up the rudder by the very same fools.

You just have to slow right down. I prefer to go to the centre of the road, if clear and take two of the pads with my front wheels and leave the rear in the gap between the pads. My 2012 car has been in France all of its life, notwithstanding UK reg and I have never had any real problem with sleeping policemen, more with awake ones, when I had a 911 Turbo. The bumps at the sides of the narrow roads from intrusive tree roots are more of a problem and may have lead to the demise of my original chassis after just 4K km. The back road from La Garde Freinet direct to Vidauban is particularly bad with some vicious bumps on the edges. If I was going to keep the M3W longer, I would switch from Spax shocks to ATR shocks.

Wilson

The term "sleeping policeman" is sometimes used for "silent policeman" or "silent cop" in NSW Australia so I found the term somewhat confusing at first.



Silent cop from Wikipedia

Wth our 2012 Plus 4 it was one of the models with the infamous sagging springs and it was grounding out on things even before it left the factory. You can imagine how many times we "touched down" once loaded with luggage and on the way home.

A bit of study revealed that the current recommendations for speed humps is a height of 8cm plus or minus 1 cm. This was reduced from a previous standard of a maximum of 10cm which means that many older speed humps can be as high as 10 cm.

Our Plus 4, as delivered, had an unloaded ground clearance under the gearbox crossmember of 9cm!!!!!!

There was one speedhump that we could not cross at all and we had to back up and go the wrong way up the exit road to get around it.

Since then the problem has been largely resolved by fitting 5 link rear suspension and the taller 195/65 R15 tyres which are about 1 cm taller than the original 195/60 R15 tyres.