| parking Sensors infared Parking Sensor
If you're like many of us (and believe me, I'm not trying to insult you), then maybe your garage could use some tidying up. Perhaps your wife periodically cleans up the house and gives you boxes of stuff to "put outside." Where outside would that be exactly? For many of us, that is probably the garage. Ever hear a crunching sound when you pull your truck into the garage? It's dangerous enough driving the highways and byways where you can catch a rock off a dump truck at any minute of the day, without having to worry about scraping your paint or denting your fender in your own garage.
Hence, this month's topic: the general category of parking pals, which is not a brand name as far as I know. We have a series of progressively higher-tech options for you, each designed to precisely park your truck in that perfect spot in your garage.
Option 1: Ball on a String
Who hasn't tried this option at one time or another? The fun part for me was always carefully cutting slits in the tennis ball and then poking the nylon string through the ball with my finger. The not so fun part was continually running into the thing and either bonking into the ball or getting tangled up in the string.Coolness Factor: 2
Option 2: Parking Pad
They actually sell these things, which look exactly like the tire cradle in the drive-thru car wash down at your local gas station. You feel yourself going up over the bump and then you settle down into the depression. In the car wash they give you a blast on the air horn when you hit the spot, like your cruise ship just arrived in port. The home version doesn't come with a horn, and unfortunately it tends to move around over time, so you may have to re-position it.Coolness Factor: 3
Option 3: Infrared Parking Sensor
These are pretty neat. There's a mini stoplight on the front wall of your garage. As you pull forward, the lights change from green to yellow and finally to red, while you hear a series of tones that guide you to parking nirvana. Ahhh, what a great feeling. These gizmos are fairly easy to mount and calibrate, and the lights are pretty. This solution is my favorite.Coolness Factor: 6
Option 4: Laser Sensor
This is the most high-tech parking pal. You plug the unit into your garage door opener, and when you pull into the garage a bright red laser beam shines down onto your hood, just like James Bond spread-eagled on that table in Goldfinger. You basically drive up the beam until it stops at the pre-selected spot on your dash, and when that happens, your truck is also parked in just the right spot. It's like science fiction!Coolness Factor: 8
All these options are surprisingly affordable, at less than $40. Check them out online or at your local auto parts store, and say sayonara to those tragic crunching sounds in your garage.
