[apocalypse]

DIY: A Parking Fuse

This is a story of a DIY done to enhance our parking experience at home – sharing a solution of a very “first-world” problem, in case it provides joy to any other member to do a weekend DIY themselves. This is a DIY which helped me make it easy to park our cars with very tight clearances, everyday, without risk of bumping our own car - causing ourselves double loss.

Avoiding Parking on the road

My and my significant other both commute to our respective workplaces in separate cars, and often come back late in the evening, especially if there is a situation at work. It is uncertain who reaches home first.

We recently moved to a new house, a rented one, after weeks of looking for a place. Although the house had most of what we would want, it was lacking two parking slots. Although it is possible to park one car on the road, we would rather keep both parked inside the safety of the compound.

One long slot – tight clearances

What we did have, though, was a long parking slot – although it was designed for only one car, we could fit two cars one behind the other. Whoever comes first parks further forward, whoever comes second parks behind.

Unfortunately, clearances on all sides are very tight. I have tried to express this in the diagram below.




On the north side, there needs to be enough clearance for the security guard to access the washroom, especially while carrying a bucket. After a consultation with our kind and accommodating security guard, it was easy and risk-free to ensure that the front car left adequate space to access the washroom.

With this space for the access path kept on the north side, the gate has a very tight clearance with the rear of the Honda City on the south side. This is a little more tricky – the clearance is very tight – within a couple of inches.

Risk of Collision

Now this leads to a situation where every time the Honda City is brought home, we need to squeeze the cars as close as possible to ensure that the gate closes.

Although we are both experienced drivers, the hoods of both of our cars are not easily visible, and although we should be incident free 99 out of 100 times, the one incident happening where one of us bumps the car in front is going to be an expensive one. The risk is especially higher if one is tired and in a hurry to go home.

Because this is something we do everyday, the probability that we get at least one incident in a year is quite high. Toss a dice a hundred times, you’re almost certain to get a 6 atleast once. The below math shows that even with a 0.5% chance of an accident in one parking event, the chances that we have atleast one accident in a year is 83%.



With this knowledge, there is some anxiety every time one comes home last, having to be super careful, at a heightened state of alertness to park. Not the best experience for coming home.

Sometimes, the security guard is there to help guide while parking, though often not.

What now?

We now had two options:

1. Park one car outside on a daily basis – very likely should be okay, but we have never done this. Park both cars inside only during times we are travelling.
2. Park both cars inside while being super careful – perhaps getting down to double check clearance in the absence of a security guard
3. Is there an option 3?

Enter Option 3: My DIY Parking Fuse

The idea struck from the inspiration that electrical devices are connected via a fuse – a very low tolerance object which gets fried with excess current, blocking further flow – better to fry a 100 rupee object than an expensive electronic appliance connected downstream.

Using PVC pipes, I built a thin lightweight structure – our Parking “Fuse” which could be placed behind the front car. Whoever arrives home first parks, and places the Fuse a few inches behind the front car. Whoever arrives second, drives straight into the Fuse at a slow speed until the fuse shakes.




The structure is made using 0.5 inch thick (inner diameter) PVC pipes, with additional L and T joints, attached with PVC sealant. The entire project costed a few hundred rupees, purchased from the first hardware shop I walked into. I could have used some fancy, less easily available joints to make the design simpler, but stuck to using T and L joints which were the only ones the good fellow had. I used smaller pipe sections to make the stand.




The width is approximately 3 feet, and the height is approximately 4 feet (to allow easy visibility above the hood and the increased height makes it sway more when bumped). The critical part is the vertical pipe in the middle – because the middle of the front grille is the first to touch (all cars have a curved front grille).



With the slightest contact between the incoming car and the fuse, the fuse shakes violently, and is easily visible to the driver of the incoming car – this is when you know you need to stop.



Built using ultra light and flimsy PVC pipes, even if the fuse shakes and hits the car in front, it causes no damage.

With this, parking into our slot for both cars became effortless and de-risked, while ensuring a precise and small gap between both cars, every time we park, consistently.

Although this has improved our experience of parking both cars inside, I anticipate that we may run into issues when our parking slot neighbours get bigger vehicles, our rear vehicle is going to obstruct them, and we will be forced to park outside. When that day comes, I will need to keep one car outside. We will cross that bridge when it comes; after all nothing is permanent.

On a separate note, would love to hear other member’s thoughts - how has your experience been to park on the road? Has it been safe? How have you de-risked it?

Note to mods: Hope this is not too simple / irrelevant to add as an independent post. If it is, please request you to delete / merge it.

[NomadSK]

Originally Posted by apocalypse

DIY: A Parking Fuse

This is a story of a DIY done to enhance our parking experience at home – sharing a solution of a very “first-world” problem, in case it provides joy to any other member to do a weekend DIY themselves. This is a DIY which helped me make it easy to park our cars with very tight clearances, everyday, without risk of bumping our own car - causing ourselves double loss.

Nice “out of the box” thinking type DIY.

However, if I would have been in your situation, I would have installed/anchored a plastic speed breaker, at the extreme max location where you needed the second car to come to a standstill position (as tight clearance as you want), definitely after marking the extreme point.

Would have saved you the daily effort of putting the “fuse” in-situ. Also there won’t be any infraction or physical touch with the PVC pipes. Something like this.

[anandhsub]

Nice thinking. Am assuming the clearance needed is even lower than what is allowed by parking sensors and hence the need for this.

What about breeze though? Wouldn't that result in the pipes shaking?

Originally Posted by NomadSK

However, if I would have been in your situation, I would have installed/anchored a plastic speed breaker, at the extreme max location where you needed the second car to come to a standstill position (as tight clearance as you want), definitely after marking the extreme point.

This would work only if the cars are identical or have fixed positions

[apocalypse]

Originally Posted by NomadSK

However, if I would have been in your situation, I would have installed/anchored a plastic speed breaker, at the extreme max location where you needed the second car to come to a standstill position (as tight clearance as you want), definitely after marking the extreme point.

Would have saved you the daily effort of putting the “fuse” in-situ. Also there won’t be any infraction or physical touch with the PVC pipes. Something like this.

Hey, thanks for sharing! Yes, evaluated this, but we are not sure which car is behind, also there's a risk of collision if the car in front is parked wrongly (not forward enough), and moreover we don't have permission to drill the tiles.

Overall seemed much more expensive and still left room for judgement error, did not fit our use case.

Still, other readers may find it is a fantastic idea for other situations, like say, one car and a wall.

There is no effort to place the fuse - you can lift the entire frame with a finger. We just keep it on the side and move it to place after removing our bags from the boot.

Originally Posted by anandhsub

Nice thinking. Am assuming the clearance needed is even lower than what is allowed by parking sensors and hence the need for this.

What about breeze though? Wouldn't that result in the pipes shaking?

Thanks! Neither car has front parking sensors. It is a 2010 City and a 2017 Corolla. I thought of installing front sensors, but didn't want to modify two vehicles for this. Losing the stock look of the interior, cost, etc, multiplied by 2 for 2 cars. This got done in less than 1/10th of the cost with no modifications.

Breeze doesn't make it shake. The pipes are very thin and barely have wind resistance. Besides it is a covered parking, only exposed from 2 sides.

[zteg]

I use my TV packaging box as a parking fuse. It is placed against my Garage wall. I need to go as close to the wall to be able to open the boot when the garage door is closed.

[PaddleShifter]

Very nice and clean DIY solution.

Originally Posted by apocalypse

On a separate note, would love to hear other member’s thoughts - how has your experience been to park on the road? Has it been safe? How have you de-risked it?

1. Our place has a M800 parking space only. We have been squeezing our Punto in that space using a marker on the beam beneath the stairs that is the most risky structure in the parking and can damage the headlamps. We tirn on the headlamps and once the headlamps light levels goes just below the level of the marking we stop.

2. I am parking our S-Cross on the road, behind our other, old Punto. I need to get as close as possible. Again, I turn on the headlamps and once the lights are just above the level of the bonnet, I stop. Allows me to go fairly close to the car. Initially, one of my family member used to stand close to the old car to guide me.

[commander.sri]

A funky thought, brilliantly executed!

Kudos to your creativity resulting in a simple yet amazing idea which in the end turned out to be a convenient, practical and hassle free solution to a problem experienced in the modern/tight car parking spaces at condos these days. Great work!

[vimalgk]

A very nice innovative and cheap idea. I should also try and do this for my parking where I have to park my car too close to a wall so that I get space for our second car.

[Reality]

Originally Posted by apocalypse

DIY: A Parking Fuse

This is a story of a DIY done to enhance our parking experience at home – sharing a solution of a very “first-world” problem, in case it provides joy to any other member to do a weekend DIY themselves. This is a DIY which helped me make it easy to park our cars with very tight clearances, everyday, without risk of bumping our own car - causing ourselves double loss.

Attachment 2488324

Avoiding Parking on the road

Note to mods: Hope this is not too simple / irrelevant to add as an independent post. If it is, please request you to delete / merge it.

That is a good idea however you could make it better by wrapping sponge or rubber on the pipes at bumper's level. A good way to avoid scratches from the plastic pipes.

[rohan_iitr]

I find it more convenient to reverse into the parking slot. It has many benefits:
1. You can use the parking aids (camera and sensors) to stop the car precisely before it touches anything
2. You can save a minute or two in the morning if your car is already pointing towards the exit (can also ve very useful in emergency situations)
3. It is easier to manoeuvre the car into a parking slot while reversing, as compared to driving into a parking slot nose first

[RGK]

Originally Posted by NomadSK

However, if I would have been in your situation, I would have installed/anchored a plastic speed breaker

This isn't applicable if the car is changed (due to the change in length of the bonnet) for another. The speed breaker necessitates a new installation, which is not necessary in the case of a fuse.

@apocalypse - A bell can be hung to make it chime.

[satish.gawai]

Wow. They say "innovation comes through the problem". and you answered it well.
I am also facing the same problem to park my two cars in the same parking. Right now I am parking my wife's car in the neighbour's parking since there is no car with him. But one day I definitely need something like this (how long will I motivate my neighbour not to buy a car).

It is really hard to park two cars in one parking (even with this kind of tool) for someone like me who lives in multistory apartments where they allot only one parking for you and that is just enough for one big SUV. On top of it, we also have a two-wheeler (Activa).

I asked the builder when I bought the second car, for an extra parking lot and he asked me for 5 Lac. So I and my neighbor are good friends now.

[Jaguar]

Originally Posted by apocalypse

[h3][u]

Enter Option 3: My DIY Parking Fuse

Good thought but a simpler out of the box solution could be to use one of those plastic traffic cones instead. That would be easier to move around and transport as well.

[NomadSK]

Originally Posted by RGK

This isn't applicable if the car is changed (due to the change in length of the bonnet) for another. The speed breaker necessitates a new installation, which is not necessary in the case of a fuse.

True, in that case the OP has to find the best possible location for installing this unit which will cater to both the cars in any scenario (considering both are sedans), depending on the length of the car, length of the bonnet and wheel base of the car, my point was that it would have been a one time activity and then forget it. A permanent thing in my opinion and would have reduced the hassle of everytime to get down put the fuse in place and then park the car. I guess, I’m getting lazy with age

And as mentioned by OP, it would have damaged the tiles. So it’s all about priorities.

[Oppanna]

Did you think of this idea?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5c3P...%26E%27sGarage