Title says it all
Trying to reverse into a dark and crowded garage is never fun – but it can be so much easier with a Dual Laser Garage Parking Guide.
Is anything necessary?
I bought one of this last month. Its good when you have a small garage like me an a car so low you can't see the front and I tend to have to turn on reverse camera to see if my rear has passed the garage door.
You can draw a line on the wall against your door. It will be a marker on when to stop. Thanks to that I park with 10 cm accuracy:)
@AFOS: Instead of using tennis ball, f you going forward instead of reverse, turn on your headlight and mark the wall where the light touch, this way you park at the same spot.
@tinx: Or, instead of marking up your wall, and instead of hanging a tennis ball in your garage (stay with me here), you could buy a laser guiding system that saves you doing any of this.
I find my breathing is necessary. Other people's breathing though, I find unnecessary.
Ok Adolf Hitler, I knew you ain't dead in that bunker
@capslock janitor: Nah, Eva and I are just hiding down here. Has all the Nazi hating calmed down yet?
Yeah sure nothing is necessary…no stop breathing.
No. Just dangle a tennis ball from a string that touches your window when you are at the correct spot.
Any deals going on tennis balls atm?
walk around your local park / tennis courts
Don’t forget deals on strings
And/or put a bit of 4x2 or a brick on the concrete where your front driver's side tyre should come to rest.
Even better, attach it to the garage door mechanism by a pulley so it retracts once the door closes. It’s a fun weekend project.
Is it necessary that I drink my own urine? No, but it's sterile and I like the taste.
Oh, so that's why stuff covered in wee never ever smells bad. RIIIIGHT.
Urine sterility is obviously a myth. I cant' believe that people believe it.
Just because it smells doesn't mean it isn't sterile. Sterility means the lack of microorganisms. Hydrogen sulfide is a sterile chemical but still doesn't smell pleasant (think fart bombs). If I open a can of soup, that is sterile but it still has odour / aroma.
Yes urine is not technically sterile, but that is not what causes the odour of urine.
@justtoreply: Relax dude, it's a Dodgeball quote.
The laser will guide you to the bottle before you then place it into the recycle bin.
Are you sure you should be driving if you need this
yep this, anything that makes your life easier just makes no sense
/s?
Yep, some people don't know how to park properly, like my dad.
Garages these days are tiny! With the newer builds they're usually a couple centimetres either side clearance. Plus if you have storage on the sides and back, it can be very tight. Even to get in and out of the car. There's plenty of people who don't have a reverse camera either. Put all that together with people who can barely park in the lines at a car park and it's a smash waiting to happen
I know what you mean. But we have a custom built house and the garage is huge. My dad is just lazy/being an arse and parks too close to my car, swings the door open and thud.
Cars are also getting wider. Compare your average car these days to a couple of decades ago and it’s insane.
A “compact” Toyota RAV4 was 1,695 mm wide in the 1990s, it’s now 1,855 mm. A VS Commodore was only 1,794 mm.
Parking spaces and garages may be shrinking slightly, but cars are getting a whole lot fatter. That’s the main reason everyone keeps complaining that “parking spaces seem smaller and smaller”. Your average car is 150-200mm wider than it was 25 years ago. Yet the standard parking space and garage size hasn’t grown to match.
:-)
I just bought one for my cat - thank you.
My wife just gave me a smack on the head and asked why I draw all the marks on the wall after all.
@superforever, My thoughts exactly.
If you can't park your car in your own garage without hitting something, I wouldnt want to park next to you at the shopping centre!
I wouldnt want to park next to you at the shopping centre!
They should put that at the shopping centre instead.
It's not about hitting something - for me it's about parking far enough in that I can open the boot (opens outwards.. Power boot, so don't want it to open into the garage door if someone hits the button without thinking) - but not too far forward that it reduces the space to walk across the front of the vehicle.
you seriously thought that people at the shopping centre can park correctly? without hitting something? (some just carelessly knocked my car!!!)
What's wrong with the ol' table tennis ball on a string?
it can be offensive to some people
HAHAAHA!
Underrated comment of the year!
Is it a cultural thing like the Krikkit Wars?
So true, so true. I type this eating a redskin.
Just don't hang it up in the garage, that would be culturally taboo, though the glaring inappropriateness would be better than a lighthouse.
@The Magic Pudding: @The Magic Pudding: You're right. Let's have a protest and spread covid (being sarcastic if people want to take offence or a gate)
Have one, works great, high WAF. Pick a spot on your dashboard and stop when the laser hits that mark.
Does the dual laser mean you can set each one for cars side by side?
Yes. The car on the left we stop when the laser touches the centre of the dashboard. The car on the right is less obvious, but that laser is aligned to a point on the passenger dash.
Only negative is that there isn't a huge range of movement on all directions of the individual lasers.
I think I might have bought ours on eBay perhaps cheaper…? (I also have it hooked up to 12v adaptor near my garage door motor)
Although my issue is more parking straight rather than the depth lol. I have tape on the ground at the moment, laser seems cooler
I have tape on the ground
On the ground? Why not also on the wall?
My reverse camera lets me back up to the line exactly. Not sure how lines on the wall would help with straightness?
Just buy a Tesla. It will park your car. And more complicated than an antique laser.
Will I be able to see the red laser dots on my red Ferrari?
You have to buy the Ferrari first
Answer his question
I will gladly test for them, just lend me the keys and I will try
Make one for a bed and I'll buy it.
Thanks, worth a punt. Bought one. I guess the issues might be how long the batteries last, and whether it will activate if we're just walking through the garage
I have one. Mine was ebay and came with power adapter.
I have a desk and laundry in back of double garage so not only tight fit for our big vehicles, but also lots of foot traffic.
Batteries last less than 1 week here. Wired to power and very good since then
Perfect,now I can use it for my motorbike parking :)
I use a cardboard box and the end of the garage, when it bends I'm in place… it was free :)
Same!! Hi-five
I have a pile of boxes and a motorbike. When the motorbike moves a little my numberplate has pressed against the footpeg and it is time to reverse a touch.
The boxes are just sitting on the bike for show.
Thanks for reminding me; I need to disconnect the battery of my MT10-SP haven't used it since end of Feb.
Plank of wood on the floor for me.
The problem I had with that solution was that the planks move, even after I bolted them down… still there 1/2 bolted in.
Maybe the size of the plank and the finish of the surface they're on. Mine don't seem to budge, and one of our cars only has about 15cm to spare, so I'd notice.
The exact same thing is $10 at [AliExpress]
(https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4000328716788.html?src=googl…)
$10 + $12 shipping for me
and you need to add GST
whats stopping your kids from playing with it and look up at the laser?
..discipline. lots and lots of discipline
I'd first need to clear all the crap from the garage to be able to park a car in it…
No way. I've got Chinese smart lamps and door/window sensors, Chinese doorbell, and Chinese power boards, but I am NOT letting the Chinese have friggin lasers in my house.
This is cool. Don’t really need it but with a long car in a compact garage I will be able park with MM precision.
I have this. Kind of useless. Have two large cars parked in tight space with just one inch between garage door and front bumper. What worked best for us is, first park the car where you want with a help of someone. Then look through the reverse camera and paste a black duct tape on the floor which aligned with the rear bumper. So when you are reversing to the garage, you will see the duct tape (through rear view camera) and just align the rear bumper with the tape. This worked for us for many years every day. Only downside is, when you change the car and you want to take the old tape off, that leaves a mark on the floor. Need dissolve it to remove.
My mother drove my car out the back of our fibro house when I was younger. My manual car was in gear and when she turned the key, it bunny-hopped its way through the wall. No amount of lasers would have saved it. We just use a big Besser block. Never fails.
If you get a high yield investment of a car like my Wifes tiguan, it has 360 degree cameras so you can see everything around you. Just do that for a measly 50k instead!
Isn't ozbargainer use their garage to put all their winning stuffs from here and leave their $xx,xxx car outside?
Used to use tennis ball on a string but that kept getting caught inside the boot (we have a wagon) and would drive off taking the tennis ball as well. Now using a thick piece of rope with end taped up. As soon as the rear window touches it, you stop. Car in the garage and room to open boot.
I have 4wd with a bull bar and it only just fits. I use an old Christmas tree to get an idea of how close my bull bar is from the wall.
When my side mirror lines up with the cabinet, i know im parked far enough :)
I looked at the laser thing and ended up using these which I already had on hand. They don't budge. Definitely recommend. https://www.supercheapauto.com.au/p/sca-sca-wheel-chock-smal…
Seems like anything gets enough votes to make front page these days
I bought one sometime ago, really good when you barely fit a big ass 4WD into a shoe-box sized garage. Shame that it doesn't have an external power supply port only battery operated.
I tried carefully for the firt time to fit in the garage until reached good distances of front/back/left/right.
And I sticked a small piece of black tape (of course you can use anything you like)on the wall so that I could see across the car front-right window to align to the black mark.
Years passed it's working good. You really can do many before getting this laser entertainment item home.
Things could be better off simplified.
lol is it really necessary?