Ok folks flame me later but can someone answer with an eye toward engineering if the excessive weight of snow on a car can damage suspension on passenger cars like our RL? I cleared mine finally yesterday but wondered if my suspicions are founded in any engineering logic.

I live in VA and some might have heard we got a blizzard recently and my town was the recipient of 3 feet of snow now perched on the car. Is this weight detrimental to the suspension components (shocks/struts) if not cleared in a timely manner? I have a number of vehicles and was just curious peoples thoughts.

 

The suspension is able to withstand a certain amount of weight on each axle. The manual says the maximum load for the RL is 850 lbs for the whole vehicle (385 kg) including passengers and cargo. I would think that it would be fine to have up to that weight on the car temporarily, but i would think that if you sustained that weight for a long time you may damage the springs.

 

I would always be more worried about struts over springs. Does the RL have stop bumps?

I agree about the time though. As long as it's cleared within a week, you should be okay.

 

Yeah my concern was on the struts and I did clear everything off a couple days after just in case.

 

I calculate that wet snow (7 lbs per cubic foot) might weigh over 1000 lbs on you car at 3 feet deep. (7 lbs per cubic foot X 3 feet deep x 5 feet wide X 15 feet long) However, I think your snow was fluffier and the load came on the car slowly, which would VERY slowly compress the springs and struts. So I doubt that any damage was done. You could check the struts after a few months and see if they are leaking and you could measure the height of the car to see if the springs had been damaged.