Thread: Do not like! Side effects of owning Defender

Originally Posted by cuppabillytea

A trolly jack under the diff is a simple and effective way of repositioning an inconveniently parked vehicle.

This is also some sage advice...

Originally Posted by El Rey

This is not Defender-related but I have to get it off my chest.

Some people around my way park like real a-holes.

For example:

- Parked on the inside curve of a busy suburban road, so people using that side have to veer out into the other lane going around the corner to get by.

- Parking half on the verge and half on the road so their 4x4 takes up half a lane near the top of a hill. This means that if there's oncoming traffic and you can't veer out into the oncoming lane, you have to slow right down and gear down right when you least want to.

- Parking outside our house for days on end. There's some work going on at a nearby property, and for some reason one or two of the tradies seem to want to leave a ute on our street for up to a week at a time, day and night. The issue is that we live on a Close, with limited parking, and on top of that the way our drive works, the back of the ute intrudes slightly across the driveway making entry and exit for us just that little bit more of a pain in the ass.

A story to finish: I was volunteering at the parking for a suburban sports event a few years ago. Only people with a tag could use the parking, and I'd open the boom for them.
Some guy rocks up, does a loop and sees there's no street parking - and just parks right across someone's driveway and walks off. 5 minutes later the homeowner appears and discovers he can't get his vehicle out to go wherever he was going. He ends up walking off down the road and his wife comes out to have a look and ask me if I know anything about it. Then she wanders off.

A few minutes later my replacement volunteer at the parking took over. At the same time some police rocked up who must have been assigned duty keeping an eye on the event. So on my way out I went over and explained the situation and pointed right at the offending vehicle. The cops rolled their eyes at each other and one of them reluctantly strolled in that direction. But he was obviously just waiting for me to go, because when I turned around a few seconds later he'd rejoined his mate and they were both standing hands in pockets, gazing out over the sports field.

In some places in Thailand when we lived there when you parked in a parking station the attendants would ask you to leave your vehicle out of gear with the handbrake off. Then they could just push the vehicles around to get particular vehicles out. They got twice as many vehicles in and you could still get out. Quite smart really. Of course, you got the odd bump, but it's only very low speed so no major damage. Should be tried here.

Originally Posted by DiscoMick

In some places in Thailand when we lived there when you parked in a parking station the attendants would ask you to leave your vehicle out of gear with the handbrake off. Then they could just push the vehicles around to get particular vehicles out. They got twice as many vehicles in and you could still get out. Quite smart really. Of course, you got the odd bump, but it's only very low speed so no major damage. Should be tried here.

Same thing in tight Paris streets. Everyone leaves their handbrake off and all bumpers are touching.

Every time I opened the back door I wondered why the handle was so badly designed that I had to use two motions - one most of the way up, and then adjust my hand position/wrist angle to finish.

This morning I realized it's because I'm a left hander.

Using your left hand with a knuckles up grip doesn't work. You're obviously meant to use your right hand with palm up.

It's funny how the differences in our physiology make such a difference with defenders. For example, I have never ever caught my pants on the door striker because my legs are so long.

Originally Posted by Plutei

It's funny how the differences in our physiology make such a difference with defenders. For example, I have never ever caught my pants on the door striker because my legs are so long.

Same here but I couldn't resist changing the strikes anyway! But I do have to drive bent over so I can see outside.

Originally Posted by Plutei

It's funny how the differences in our physiology make such a difference with defenders. For example, I have never ever caught my pants on the door striker because my legs are so long.

I hadn't either until I went in bum first from a raised platform.

Do not like: When I look to my right all I see is a B-Pillar.