Thread: How accurate are car park height barriers?

From past experience, the accuracy varies a lot......

I bet you will find 2m barriers you can drive straight under and 2.1's that you hit...

I'd just choose 2.1's and enter slowly.

And keep an eye out as you cross the bottom and top of ramps, and also for plumbing or obstructions into the roof spaces.

From experience getting stuck under a bar at the Convention Centre car park in perth not very accurate. I have a sticker on my windscreen with highest point of roof rack and should have been clear by an easy 10cm, yet got stuck under the bar. What annoyed me was hotel I was supposed to be staying at advised they had an external bay that my car could be valet parked in as was flying back in for a meeting and then back out so staying in the city overnight. On arrival they had no space, so had to park in the closest car park that it should have fitted. Took me 10 minutes to get it back out and a nice couple of chunks out of my roof rack. Could not find any suitable car park near by, so ended up driving back home so another hours drive. There are a couple of open air car parks around, but not any that I would want to leave my car at over night (poor security). What annoyed me the most is that the convention centre car park does have an outdoor area that would be more than suitable for 4x4s with roof racks but you have to get under the bar just to turn right 20 metres up to get out to and all the way to it has very adequate clearance.

My apartments one is fine on the way out, but on the way in I clip the rear due to the angles coming down the ramp.

Slowly does it is the way to go!

Originally Posted by JoeFriend

My apartments one is fine on the way out, but on the way in I clip the rear due to the angles coming down the ramp.

Slowly does it is the way to go!

Yeah had this in a local safeway carpark, got in no problem but the angle of the ramp coming out meant i scraped my newly powder coated roof rack .

This is the entrance to the carpark at the office down in Perth where I was working for the past few years and now occasionally on contract.

Because of the slope of the ground, nobody with a full size 4WD with roof rack fitted can enter on the left side (with the arrow), and many cannot get in there at all. Once you are past the entrance, there's plenty of clearance.

My D4 with roofrack would just get in on the right hand side (against the arrow) at "normal" height, and with no problem at all when at "access" height. In fact, at access height, I did not have to move all the way across, and could comfortably fit in there driving the centre of the entrance.

I did have a bit of a mishap one day though when I came off Stirling Hwy and was about to enter the carpark when the girl upstairs in the office called me on the phone, and for some silly reason I raised the suspension instead of lowering it - then attempted to drive the centre-line of the entrance. Came to a rather sudden stop when the roof rack slammed into the concrete, and knocked a larg-ish chunk of concrete out. Fortunately, it's a solid roof rack and no real damage done (but the scrapes in the paintwork are still there to remind me).

It seems to depend a lot on where the height is actually measured. I reckon it is not always the lowest point. Also, if its on a ramp the vehicle height can be higher than normal. And low-hanging plumbing can be a trap.
I wonder what the insurance issues are. If the building has a sign saying its a certain height and a vehicle lower than that scrapes, is the building owner liable for an insurance claim for repairs?

Height gauge accuracy only relates to the design vehicle dimensions as it varies depending on the length of each individual vehicle's wheelbase. In the Australian Standard, heights are all calculated on a 99th percentile vehicle with a nominal wheelbase of 3050mm. If your wheelbase is longer (or the designer fudged the transition at the base of a ramp), then you could hit the roof.

Where the car park is located down a ramp, if the gauge is installed over the base of the ramp where the ground levels out, then a longer wheelbase vehicle may hit the gauge where a shorter one won't. We hit the height gauge entering the Mater Private Hospital car park in Brisbane because of this arrangement. I claimed the damage from the car park owner & operator and they paid for paint touching up on the roof of the vehicle. I came out and met with the car park representative and we measured the gauge. When the ramp under was taken into account the gauge was actually 200mm lower than the indicated direct vertical measurement to the ground.