Solutions for parking in a narrow garage

cjking · 29-08-2012 03:01pm

Contemplating buying an Evoque next year, wonder what devices I can find to help me park nose-first with mirrors folded in my single garage, where I will have 2 inches of clearance either side as I pass through the door frame.

Solutions so far:-
1. A laser guide of the kind usually sold for helping people to know when to stop (forward/back positioning) could also help with left-right positioning. Maybe if you had one of the dual ones (designed for double garages) and pointed both beams out through the garage door you would have two chances to get your car centred as you approached.
2. Mirrors on the far wall might be a substitute for the folded mirrors for reversing, but I reckon that will still be too difficult a manoeuvre to perform on a daily basis. Anyone tried this? Let me know if it's workable.
3. Rubber guide rails that would work like railway tracks to ensure car wheels could only follow one path within the garage. Although not designed for this purpose, the Kerbstopper product from hazard.co.uk might be suitable for this.
4. The best solution yet, a product from Italian company Parkino that simply loads your car in and out of the garage for you. Anyone know if this is sold in the UK?

http://www.hazard.co.uk/kerbstopper.html

http://www.parkino.com/indexEN.html

Found a german product that looks similar to Parkino, however the PDF says it won't work for 4WD, so maybe Parkino won't work either?

http://www.woehr.de/en/produkte/einparkhilfe/index.php

The german product also caters for a maximum tyre track width of 185cm, which also rules out the Evoque - I assume it's track width (measured to outsides not centres of tyres) is 1965mm.

NightFox · 29-08-2012 03:54pm

Spec the all-round cameras and paint some guidelines on your garage floor?

N1C · 29-08-2012 03:59pm

I have exactly the same problem, I gave up going in forwards and now just reverse in, using the wing mirrors it is quite easy to line the car up straight and reverse in, using the old tennis ball hanging down against the rear screen as a guide when to stop rolling backwards!

cjking · 29-08-2012 04:01pm

(29-08-2012 03:54pm)NightFox Wrote: Spec the all-round cameras and paint some guidelines on your garage floor?

All-round cameras not an option on the Pure, so I think that means something like £8000 extra for Prestige or Dynamic, then add the cost of the cameras on top of that.

(29-08-2012 03:59pm)N1C Wrote: I have exactly the same problem, I gave up going in forwards and now just reverse in, using the wing mirrors it is quite easy to line the car up straight and reverse in, using the old tennis ball hanging down against the rear screen as a guide when to stop rolling backwards!

Reversing in not an option for me, would not be able to get out of the car. If I go in nose first, there is space to exit, but for the driver only. (Theoretically that means I could reverse in, but I'd have to get out of the car via the left back door, which wouldn't be very practical.)

I wonder if one could paint marker lines on the drive, and align the reversing camera lines with those, for guidance reversing out. Not sure that would give you accuracy to within an inch though.

(29-08-2012 03:01pm)cjking Wrote: Found a german product that looks similar to Parkino, however the PDF says it won't work for 4WD, so maybe Parkino won't work either?

The Evoque recovery guide does seem to indicate it can be moved while in Neutral, though one potential problem is that it will automatically switch from neutral to park ten minutes after the engine is turned off. In my case I could sit in the car with the engine running and the transmission in neutral for both loading and unloading from the garage, so if all the germans are worried about is damaging the transmission I think this solution might still work. (If it weren't for the width problem.)

(Actually re-reading the german PDF, the car has to be in park not neutral, so I may have just misunderstood the whole issue. 4WD can't be moved in Park, and if in neutral the device might just slide out from underneath the car. So it looks like this kind of device won't work for 4WD. Unless there's a version that slides under all four wheels instead of just the front two.)

SimonS · 29-08-2012 04:13pm

Hang two tennis balls from the roof. The first one needs to be positioned so it just touches the windscreen directly infront of you eyeline at your stopping point. Hang the second one directly in line with the first but about four feet behind. As long as you keep the two balls in line as you drive in you should miss the walls.

cjking · 29-08-2012 04:21pm

(29-08-2012 04:13pm)SimonS Wrote: Hang two tennis balls from the roof. The first one needs to be positioned so it just touches the windscreen directly infront of you eyeline at your stopping point. Hang the second one directly in line with the first but about four feet behind. As long as you keep the two balls in line as you drive in you should miss the walls.

Now that's an interesting idea. And it's good because it would work for reversing as well, and it's more the going out than the going in that concerns me.

tyke2 · 29-08-2012 04:30pm

I have exactly the same situation.
I fold in the mirrors and drive in forwards. Use the drivers side mirror as a guide - aim to just miss the mirror on the garage side and the passenger side will be 4 inches away - easies.

mark_n · 29-08-2012 04:31pm

Even if you can thread the car through the gap (and I think a mirror hanging on the end wall at the height of the wing mirrors and as wide as possible would help), can you get out of the car once you are there?

N1C · 29-08-2012 04:35pm

(29-08-2012 04:13pm)SimonS Wrote: Hang two tennis balls from the roof. The first one needs to be positioned so it just touches the windscreen directly infront of you eyeline at your stopping point. Hang the second one directly in line with the first but about four feet behind. As long as you keep the two balls in line as you drive in you should miss the walls.

Brilliant Idea, perhaps something rigid dropping down (but not so far to hit the windscreen) would work better to keep a straight line, as I can imagine the two tennis balls swinging slightly which could end in tears.

I have also put some foam padding (pipe insulation cut in half works well) around the corners of my garage door frame so that if I do end of hitting the sides it shouldn't cause any scratches.

cjking · 29-08-2012 04:39pm

(29-08-2012 04:30pm)tyke2 Wrote: I have exactly the same situation.
I fold in the mirrors and drive in forwards. Use the drivers side mirror as a guide - aim to just miss the mirror on the garage side and the passenger side will be 4 inches away - easies.

Yes, I saw similar advice from someone on the web who parked fire engines, as long as you know your car will fit, and how close to one side you need to be, you can afford to monitor only one side.

Two problems in my case though
1. the right hand space widens half way along, so would not be able to track a straight line from there onwards. Not a problem going in, as could always err on the side of veering into the extra space. However that would mean car not perfectly aligned for exiting.
2. When reversing, it is the distance of the rear wheel arches from the metal flanges on the lower part of the door frame that would initially worry me, not sure this method would help with that?

(29-08-2012 04:31pm)mark_n Wrote: Even if you can thread the car through the gap (and I think a mirror hanging on the end wall at the height of the wing mirrors and as wide as possible would help), can you get out of the car once you are there?

Yes, there is a sort of mini-hallway near the drivers door (if parked nose-first) that leads to the door into the house. (Only extends halfway along the garage, so rear right passenger can't exit, but driver can.