The ole woman has got used to having reversing sensors for the last 5 years but our car doesn't have them for some strange reason ... it's got an electric sunroof, heated seats, cruise control, climate, fogs, but no blimmin reversing sensors!
So, the missus has spoken and I'm checking out the various options available to me.
Any experience of having had them fitted would be mucho appreciated.
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Er, sit her down and explain how a mirror works?
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If you know how a mirror works then you know how useful sensors are for parking.
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Sorted now thanks, being done next week ... £220 (GULP!) but they are colour coded :}
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I have an old mate mobile auto electrician on tap, does lorries as well as cars, fixes stuff where possible instead of throwing new parts at it, Luddite as charged..;)
He fitted a front and rear sensor kit to the Hilux, he doesn't do garbage and insisted on ''Steelmate'', and i agree with him despite it seeming expensive at the time.
Spare parts such as individually connected sensors readily available from their website, cheaper kits may not be serviceable if any single item fails or gets damaged.
He spent a long time measuring the bumpers and getting the sensors in exactly the right place, have to be at the correct angle too so you don't get false alarms from kerbs etc, once drilled too late.
It paid off though you could manoeuver the pick up completely blind down to within an inch of contact made even me look like a parallel park expert which is far from the truth.
He fitted a fairly upmarket kit with interior display, sitting with foot on the brake i watched someone walk past the front of the truck just by the display as the 4 sensors picked up and lost the reflection, nice in urban situations or where children or animals might be lurking.
Considerably cheaper on ebay for genuine kits if you decide on one.
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Thanks again gb, I'm having them fitted by a pro who has been on in the game for years, apparently.
www.flyingsparks.co.uk/
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Not difficult to do - I've done it on two cars. The kits are only about £25 on eBay. Fitting by a mobile fitter is about £90 according to the adverts
You'll need to drop the rear bumper to drill the holes, but on newer cars they're helpfully already marked and just need drilling out. Feed wires through convenient grommet into boot (may or may not need hole drilling), and then connect the control box to reversing light. You can get CANBUS safe ones.
You can also get ultra-flat sensors that are almost invisible, or a little screen that you can sit at the bottom of the back window which shows you exactly where things are.
Don't understand the "You've got mirrors" attitude. You still need to look as much, but this makes the job easier and safer. The buzzers go nuts if someone walks behind the car, and since my usual approach to parking is "back a bit, back a bit... *thump* forward a bit" it helps save your bumper from the occasional nudge too.
Edit:
^^ Looks like GB and myself crossed posts.
Last edited by: Fursty Ferret on Mon 29 Apr 13 at 10:01
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Got to agree with the mirror thing. I've often found that with the best will in the world and even though you know your car, you can back up on the mirrors, get out and find you could drive a bus through the gap. I think it has something to do with the image you get in mirrors.
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I've the cheapskate version:
tinyurl.com/cpyhekm
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>>I've the cheapskate version:
I was considering getting one of those things bathtub, d'you reckon they 'do the job' then?
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>> >>I've the cheapskate version:
>> I was considering getting one of those things bathtub, d'you reckon they 'do the job'
>> then?
They're not as good as reversing sensors, but they improve the situation considerably. I got one that's hinged, so only a small part's stuck to the window. I thought it would be easier to remove if it was no good. SWMBO can't use it at all!
I also stuck a thin, self adhesive, plastic, chrome trim to the 'high point' of my bumpers. I use the same procedure as FF ( "back a bit, back a bit... *thump* forward a bit").
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>>SWMBO can't use it at all!
Ah! - say n'more squire, my wife is a (I ain't saying nothing!)
;)
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>>You'll need to drop the rear bumper to drill the holes
That's the bit that worried me FF (and the wiring!) I used to do all that kind of stuff as a mobile car tuner of course,
but that was 20 year ago, and I had all the tools then, I'd sooner cough up these days and have the job done professionally (hopefully!)
He reckons the job takes 2-3 hours on a Forester, so I'll drop the car orf and go on a hike ;)
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>> ^^ Looks like GB and myself crossed posts.
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Yes but i bow to your bravery FF, i can just about cope with vehicle electrics but when it comes to things like this rather let a proper sparky do the biz.
He did lots of other work at the same time, wired in the towbar inside the passenger compartment after he looked with disgust at the genuine wiring kit and took it back to the dealer, also fitted some additional interior and extra hi power reversing lights to help the one candle power it came with.
As to just mirrors yes course i can do it, been doing so for a lifetime on the lorries and with tiny flat unheated mirrors of olde.
Despite the stupidity of the modern human they still tend not to walk behind a reversing artic unless they do want to die, but the same can't be said for the average brain missing twerp (with toddlers and pushchairs) who wanders aimlessly about behind cars/vans whilst reversing.
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I think I could do with front sensors on my Laguna. I bashed a bollard with the nose this weekend, long old bonnet on these things. No harm done, thankfully, just a bit of green paint on the bumper which came off easily.
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It's probably just me, but I find it mildly concerning that someone who gets to park artics and someone else who gets to park airliners feels the need for parking sensors to park a passenger car...
;-)
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In the car pilots haven't got team of geezers in ear defenders waving pretty flags at them, or a white Citroen C1 with "FOLLOW ME" in 4 foot neon letters on the roof and a flashing orange light to guide them.
:-)
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Google Visual Docking Guidance System, Humph. It's why you don't see ping-pong bats at airports any more. Not unlike the orange-red stop...Stop...I said STOP! system in my LEC and probably yours too.
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>>my LEC and probably yours too.
Yeah it has that, but to be honest it's a bit too nervous for my liking, there's always a foot or so left even when it's getting it's schlüpfer in a twist.
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I don't use a visual docking system, reversing sensors or mirrors when I am reversing.
I just turn round in my seat and look out of the rear windscreen. The bumper projects 9" beyond the glass. When the distance has closed to about a foot, I stop.
Why complicate a simple process?
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>> Why complicate a simple process?
>>
What is complicated about using mirrors, shop windows, or any other reflective surface?
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>> What is complicated about using mirrors,?
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As above;
"Got to agree with the mirror thing. I've often found that with the best will in the world and even though you know your car, you can back up on the mirrors, get out and find you could drive a bus through the gap. I think it has something to do with the image you get in mirrors."
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>>I think it has something to do with the image you get in mirrors
Convex (or is it concave) ... stick the mirror that your missus uses to powder her nose on your car door mirrors and you'd be able to judge distances easily.
Wouldn't be much good for driving/overtaking etc. though.
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It is difficult to get distances right with convex door mirrors, but my car has such poor low-down rear visibility that I have to use them, and the sensors (which every now and again don't work). Best to take it gently when reversing anyway.
Truckers are best at this. I always admired the Tesco artic drivers who used to reverse into a long tunnel only a foot or so wider and higher than the wagon's trailer from Westbourne Park Road, narrow, busy and with cars parked on both sides. At the end of the tunnel was a loading bay into the back of the Portobello Road Tesco.
Not a thing I would fancy trying, but a pleasure to watch.
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Oh yes, I love a shop window! Even in the less-than-wieldy S60, a handy bit of plate glass turns me into Captain Parallel.
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Late to this one Dog, and you've gone ahead now, but I have to say when I now drive other cars I don't half miss the camera. Third party ones aren't much more than reversing sensors these days either.
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I did consider a reversing camera kit Cc, but Ann is happy with the bleep bleep jobbies so that'll do for now.
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>> Google Visual Docking Guidance System, Humph. It's why you don't see ping-pong bats at airports
>> any more. Not unlike the orange-red stop...Stop...I said STOP! system in my LEC and probably
>> yours too.
>>
VGDS... Nice idea in principle but parking with one of them generally goes like this:
1. Arrive at stand. Guidance is not switched on. Wait patiently.
2. Guidance is on, make turn onto stand. Guidance system eventually spots the plane and starts giving left/right instructions. At this point you're damn sure the nose wheels are dead centre.
3. Weave drunkenly onto stand as system alternates between left and right instructions, while frantically flashing "SLOW DOWN" at you.
4. At this point you're doing about 2 kts on one engine, uphill.
5. The final countdown of distance occurs over about 2 seconds. Invariably, you misjudge it and stop about 20 cm short. This is not good enough, and the system beckons you further forward. In the meantime, you start slowly rolling back. Sweat begins to break out.
6. With one engine screaming away at max allowable ground power, you rocket forward the last 18 inches and leap on the brakes at the countdown changes, unexpectedly, to "STOP".
7. You set the brakes. The wretched machine is now showing "TOO FAR" on the screen.
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6. With one engine screaming away at max allowable ground power, you rocket forward the last 18 inches and leap on the brakes at the countdown changes, unexpectedly, to "STOP".
And I thought you did that on purpose to catch out the passengers who have to be up in the aisle the moment the plane stops moving.
(Tried to post this last night but the site wouldn't accept my login. Anyone else have problems?)
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>>(Tried to post this last night but the site wouldn't accept my login. Anyone else have problems?)
Yep! - for an hour or two as it appens.
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>>(Tried to post this last night but the site wouldn't accept my login. Anyone else have problems?)
VxFan replied at 21:14 to an email I sent to say the problem had been fixed.
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>> VxFan replied at 21:14 to an email I sent to say the problem had been
>> fixed.
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VxFan earned his keep last night, he also replied to my whinge about the links not working.
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>> VxFan earned his keep last night, he also replied to my whinge about the links
>> not working.
And to me too. Thanks Dave.
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Yup, me too ! Thanks Dave.
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I thought I had been terminated and as so often, lost a valuable post.
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Always makes me smile the passengers who are out of their seats, rummaging in overhead lockers, seconds after stopping. Even more so at AMS on the KLM Cityhopper when being last off the plane, last on the bus, means first off the bus.
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First off the plane, longest wait at the baggage carousel. It does help with the UK immigration though, only the USA are comparable. It does not pay to upset the world.
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Car reversing sensors - Robin O'Reliant
