We are getting a new car and have become very dependent on our current parking sensors.
Before we pay someone to fit 4 sensors in the front bumper are there any alternatives that I could easily fit?.
In these days of doorbell cameras is there a gubbins that would connect to my phone and I could see what I'm about to crash into?
OK - I'll start seeing as everyone else is too polite!... 🙂
• Look out the windscreen?
• Squeeky toys stuck to the bumper?
• Man with a top hat and flag to walk in front of you?
In the good old days you could see where the bonnet ended so it wasnt a problem.
Squeaky toy is a good idea though!
A cheap(ish) rear parking camera kit from ABD or similar but mount it in your front bumper? Need somewhere to mount the screen inside too that won't look like a bodge.
If it's a new car, won't it have autonomous breaking? I thought that was a standard requirement these days.
Or just new-to-you?
(Sorry, braking obviously, before the pendants jump in! 😁)
It's 11 years old so not new new.
Ah. Ok. In which case, just get your front seat passenger to shout...
Bip
Bip
Bip
Bip - bip - bip
BEEEEEEEEEP!
as you approach a hazard.
Does it need to have a camera?
The Dolphin DMS400 reversing sensor is alright for £50, just connect it to something other than the reversing lights.
The sensors are available in a choice of colours
Doesn't need a camera , I just wanted something really easy to fit.
Learn your vehicle, don’t rely on sensors. You can tell how close you are without seeing the end of the bonnet or the rear of the vehicle. Find the marker points which give you clues.
Learn your vehicle, don’t rely on sensors. You can tell how close you are without seeing the end of the bonnet or the rear of the vehicle. Find the marker points which give you clues.
Nice try. My car has a very short front end, it’s impossible to see anything further forward than the bottom of the screen. Front sensors were offered as an option from new, but as my car was originally a Motability lease, the option wasn’t available, or wasn’t offered. It’s possible to get a sensor set, but they have to be compatible with the sensor loom, and have to work when the car is in gear and moving - reverse sensors are the same, they have to know that the car is in reverse and the engine running, along with the camera if fitted. Mine has the camera and sensors, and they’re invaluable, especially in tight spaces.
I managed to put some gouges in my front bumper trying to manoeuvre into a very tight space in the work car park - there was a stack of palisade fencing that had been dumped against the outside fence, from my driving position it was actually impossible to see my cars location with regard to the fencing, I couldn’t actually see the fencing at all!
I’m very familiar with driving lots of vehicles of all kinds and sizes, having done roughly 100,000 miles over two years and never so much as scratched a vehicle, I’m quite good at spacial awareness, but some vehicles make it very hard to judge where the corners are!
Indeed you do have a lot of driving experience, so do I and none of the vehicles I drove at work had sensors. Many had complete blind spots at the rear due to the set up, the front had long bonnets, short or typically standard. You can learn each vehicle and what to use as a marker.
If you can't see the extremes of the front bumper, and therefore can't judge the proximity of it to an obstacle, you could get some of these....
Low Tech' but effective ;o)
You can learn each vehicle and what to use as a marker.
While this is undoubtedly true technically and with no insult or criticism implied or intended to the person you were replying to or the OP some people are just not good at that stuff and find it hard to learn/visualise.
In life we are all rubbish at some stuff despite making an effort. I would consider myself pretty good at parking and reversing but I'm sure it helps that I learned before parking sensors existed and spent 20 years without them driving all sorts and towing so had little choice.
Having sat in my car and watched others park around me it's clear that for the sake of other people's property the more parking aids vehicles have the better unless we are planning a wholesale cull of driving licenses based on inability to reverse a small car into a parking space (I'm cool with that, although sales of certain small SUVs would take a massive hammering).
Probably a fair point garage. It was the old hands that taught me how to identify markers on vehicles for judging a vehicle. I am the only one who is allowed to reverse our motorhome up my parents’ drive. It is down to experience and teaching, possibly some natural ability of spacial awareness.
I used to be fine parking. Working in a garage made me rather good at it.
Around 2005 though cars started coming out where judging the front was very difficult.
We will definitely get sensors and one of those parking poles in the interim and pretend our car is radio controlled.