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The van is about 1-2cm too high to get under a height barrier and the tyres (215/65R16) provide about 10cm of the height...
I'm wondering if I could let the air out to about 7-8cm.. drive underneath (about 10') then reinflate the tyres?
Will I damage them or does that sound "in tolerance" ?
obligatory bump ?
obligatory bump ?
Sounds like the most likely outcome
Nah, you'll be grand. Just a bit of a pain, but doesn't sound like you'll be doing it often, and obviously you'll not be doing any speed, so crack on, I say...
Park else where works for me.
Tbh I find that if the height barriers a pain for the van it's a pain for the Berlingo as well.
Spring compressors on a leaf would be impressive
Park else where works for me.
Don't mind lots of places but some places I'm more worried about where I leave the van.
I'm also more than happy with the height many places... (the ones where car parks are covered in three stumps waiting to hit the tank or a sensor)
I've got a compressor in the van so I can reinflate PDQ after assuming there is somewhere to pull aside...
Only other thing is I'll need to remove the aerial before I set off but doesn't seem that much hassle.
Many moons ago on return from a climbing club trip someone drove the minibus under a height restriction into the underground car park. All the climbers got out with their kit and disappeared.
Next driver can't find minibus in car park, somehow finds out it is underground, figures if it went in it must come out, right?
It very much didn't and needless to say they couldn't find 10 light folk + kit (or 15 lardy lads) so they let tyres down low and drove out without issue.
So basically let tyres down or fill the van with lardy lads.
You'll eventually shag up the tyre walls. It's not something I'd want to make a habit of.
Besides which, those limits are (usually) there for a reason. You drop the van to get under the barrier, pump them back up, drive into the car park and recreate 11foot8.
Hard and fast
Most of the height barriers have a bit of wiggle room in them to ensure that vans near or on the limit don't catch.
You could always carry a 3m tape in the door pocket to check or get some one to watch. 😉
It's very hard to accurately measure van height, you need level ground and a batton over the roof!
If you are using the signed height of the barrier you may well get under fine. Remember the roof of your van is likely to be higher at the back so you are not safe until all the way through!
It reminds me of when I had a Citroen with the pneumatic suspension and where I worked had a car park on a slope with a 200mm step on the right side of the space up to the next space. I could open the door to get out but when I returned after 8 hours the car had settled down, as they all used to, so the step was now stopping the door from opening.
Lower it a tiny bit?
OP's van pictured tomorrow:
But really, bit of a sledgehammer to crack a nut innit? Letting your tyres down & reinflating just to park somewhere I mean.
Tracey
Most of the height barriers have a bit of wiggle room in them to ensure that vans near or on the limit don’t catch.
You could always carry a 3m tape in the door pocket to check or get some one to watch. 😉
Don't know what it said but I drove right up to it yesterday and it was literally 1-2 cm off... (unloaded) I know its just smaller than an ambulance.
as it happens I have a 5m tape in the van (for some reason other than it's just in a toolbox)
Cougar
You’ll eventually shag up the tyre walls. It’s not something I’d want to make a habit of.
Besides which, those limits are (usually) there for a reason.
Not planning on doing it often ... and the reason the barrier is there is the same reason I don't want to leave the van out of sight. (According to the council website who built the dirt jumps...)
Hopefully it will be removed in the future after the crime spree has settled down and the ambulances will be able to get to the dirt jumps.
But really, bit of a sledgehammer to crack a nut innit? Letting your tyres down & reinflating just to park somewhere I mean.
Beats having the van broken into ...
Cannonmills Tesco has underground parking with a height restriction, what isn't taken into account is the slope. Thank goodness for the two stubby AA Ariel's I never got round to removing.
Depends how often you have to do it?
I'd argue that ~20 minutes faff to park would encourage me to just park anywhere else within a mile radius, or buy a smaller van.
FWIW I park our transit in all sorts of dodgy looking places whilst filming, never had an issue. Probably a case of fear to crime being higher than actual crime levels. Because after all the people that live/work there are all presumably parked there not being broke into too.
Beats having the van broken into …
Are the would be thieves too tall to get in the carpark ?
fill the back with water, that will weigh it down enough to get under the barrier.
Oh wait...
Are the would be thieves too tall to get in the carpark ?
Its the difference between being able to see the van and others riders see it whilst riding or parked on a remote lane in an area that has recently experienced (according to locals) a huge increase in crime. I got warned by a couple of people about leaving the van.
I had a high roof van that I measured at 8'6".
My shortest route to work was via a bridge signed as 7'3"/2.2m.
I usually drove my car to work but occasionally took the van to give it a run - which necessitated a short detour to avoid going under the bridge. Although I'd often looked at the bridge and thought there was more height than indicated, I wasn't going to risk ripping the roof off and the ignominy of a mention on the local radio traffic news.
Then one day, driving the van to work, on autopilot, forgot what I was in and drove under the bridge...
Wasn't until I was well clear and unscathed on the other side that I realised what I'd done. Fortunately there was a bit of room for error built in. But not much, confirmed to me by someone else from work who followed me through at a later date!
You could always carry a 3m tape in the door pocket to check or get some one to watch
My van has the front wing mounted radio aerial set at unladen roof clearance height, so it the barrier touches my aerial.. I'm not getting under.
Number of times I've stood out the window while creeping forwards just to make sure though...
Got called to this today at work.
Nearly 25k litres of highly toxic material offloaded under the overhead gantry, combination of odd shaped tanker and an old (slightly higher) trailer meant that when it all raised up after being emptied it trapped the tanker under our steelwork by ~40mm
Few telephone calls later and I pulled the valve cores, tank dropped and cleared gantry. Job jobbed.
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Many moons back in my early 20's I was the unlucky driver from York to Plymouth, to catch a ferry, in a RAF 12 seat LDV on a hot July day With 8 others and all their kit for a week's adventurous training...
We got to hotel in Plymouth after 8 hours and just squeaked under the barrier for the underground car park....I had my concerns but we got under the 'barrier'....just.
The car park was strange as you entered at the lowest level and had to exit on level 3. My colleagues jumped out with their kit and I headed toward the ramp to the next level.... I was starting to sweat as there was no airflow or aircon.
It was TIGHT! I could hear scrapes as I went up the ramp, but nothing too bad, but stress levels went up. Same on the next ramp....I wanted out by now.
Then on level 3 I saw the real problem: a big box-section venting duct between me and freedom.
By now I'm sweating like a gunner in a spelling test. No way am I reversing this 12 seater down. So I take a good run at it foot flat down.
A steel duct is remarkably strong. The van slammed to a halt. No matter, I'll have another go. By now red mist had descended and I was desperate for fresh air.
After 3 tries, I gave up. Left the van where it was and found my colleagues getting stuck in at the bar. One kindly came to guide me to reverse down the ramps.
I managed to get out of that hell hole and park round the corner. The roof was trashed but I didn't mention it until we were oversees! I also refused to drive for the remainder of the week.
I managed to attribute the blame to the barrier height, but in reality it was a hinged up and down job that wasn't intended to denote the height restriction.
I learnt about vans, height clearance and loads from that. And jack ****s who let you drive 8 hours without helping out!
I once nearly got jammed in a car park at a Travelodge (or similar) near Winsor. Not through height, but width/length of a Kia Sedona.
Car park was multistorey, with a spiral ramp to get to the parking floors. On the way in it was no problem, as the way up was on the outside of the spiral. On the way out the following morning the way was on the inner spiral, so a much stighter continuos turn, with the front and rear bumpers scraping all the way down three or so floors.
Good job the car was a horrible wreck anyway!