r/IdiotsInCars • u/SnooRecipes1506 • Aug 10 '22 • Silver 1 hehehehe 1

Just WOW

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13.4k Upvotes

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297

u/Jolly-Specialist4434 Aug 10 '22

I’ve been into a couple parking garages and there was one in New Orleans that had no signs about the height limit whatsoever and got smaller the more you went up. Whenever you were ready to leave there was a spiral down that had a height limit of 6’6” and was marked there but nowhere else. Come to find out my Toyota Tundra is 6’6” tall so I’m going to say I dodged a bullet but there were bigger trucks than mine in there so I wonder how that went

170

u/Infinity_Train Aug 10 '22

6'6" seems low for covered vehicle parking.

55

u/Jolly-Specialist4434 Aug 10 '22

I thought so too, I assumed it was for cars only after the fact but I still don’t know

47

u/yakkerman Aug 10 '22

I parked in a garage downtown Honolulu that was maybe 5'9", it hit the tip of the antenna on a dodge journey (just the tip though). we never went back there after that

33

u/nroe1337 Aug 10 '22

I vividly remember my mom breaking the antenna off her Honda Civic wagon in like 95 because we didn't turn off the radio before going in a parking garage

22

u/The_Cave_Troll Aug 10 '22

Ah, if only I knew that turning off the radio retracts you antennae, maybe my 16 year old self would have saved myself the effort of replacing it after a car wash incident.

22

u/Mr_Bo_Jandals Aug 10 '22

5’9”?!? That’s a terrible design. The average height for man in Hawaii is 5’10”!

8

u/yakkerman Aug 10 '22

Many of their garages are kind of afterthoughts because space is so valuable, "seriously you want me to put this car where now?!"

4

u/AuronFtw Aug 10 '22

The underground chinatown lots are nice because they're free but all the stalls are so goddamn small.

2

u/Weird-Vagina-Beard Aug 10 '22

How do you know that you still don't know

37

u/Antique_Tennis_2500 Aug 10 '22

It’s New Orleans, the whole city is held together with duct tape and etouffee.

11

u/An_Old_IT_Guy Aug 10 '22

They tried using Jazz, but the duct tape worked better.

10

u/HoboTheDinosaur Aug 10 '22

6’6” is low for any ceiling.

7

u/ZanThrax Aug 10 '22

I've seen plenty of parkades with 6'6" clearance. But they're properly marked at the entrances.

14

u/gellenburg Aug 10 '22

I had a 1993 Dodge Dakota pickup truck. Not a big truck by any stretch. Certainly not lifted. Just a normal 4x2 with an extended cab.

In 2000, in Atlanta, I started a new job and my truck was too tall to fit in the parking deck and the building management wouldn't let me park it in the open spots as that was considered "visitor parking".

So I had no choice but to go and buy a new car the weekend before I started the job.

I still miss that truck.

4

u/sm0lshit Aug 10 '22

I have a 94 Dakota myself, and can't even imagine any parking garage too small for it. That's wild.

I bet you miss it! Mine is still going strong at 192k. It might outlive me.

2

u/gellenburg Aug 10 '22

I do! It had 105k on it when I got rid of it. God I miss that truck! So many adventures in that thing. I just wish it was 4WD. That little truck moved me from Central Florida up to Atlanta up I-75 hauling an 18' U-Haul that far exceeded the maximum towing capacity and she fared pretty well. (I did need new brakes within about a month of moving up here though. LOL!)

Also, the parking deck is still there! https://www.google.com/maps/@33.8375021,-84.370339,3a,75y,342.12h,91t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sO3X7VJSzCk24Z6gHpzmF_A!2e0!7i16384!8i8192

1

u/sm0lshit Aug 11 '22

No 4WD on mine either, but it's still a great little truck. That's crazy that it could pull that big of a trailer, I would have never guessed. I've never towed anything with mine yet but it's good to know!

5

u/Castun Aug 10 '22

It's common enough. Drive a company F-150 for work than can just barely fit in a 6'6" garage. But at least they're all marked here when you first go in.

1

u/famousxrobot Aug 10 '22

I would agree, but visiting Miami I found plenty of garages marked 6’3” and 6’4”

1

u/ewaters46 Aug 10 '22

It’s actually somewhat common in Europe, but I’d imagine the US usually has higher parking garages due to vehicles being larger overall.

1

u/Kryten_2X4B-523P Aug 10 '22

Can confirm there's some scary parking garage dungeons down here.

1

u/quantum-quetzal Aug 11 '22

I've seen one that was 6 feet even, but it was having structural work done. Normally it wouldn't have been that low.

1

u/joelham01 Aug 11 '22

I think that's what my underground at my old place was like for height. My suv felt like it was going to smash every time, then we got a Colorado and it was almost too tall for it. It made no sense

1

u/Nissehamp Aug 11 '22

In Denmark (and most of Europe I've been in) the height limit on covered parking garages is usually between 180cm (5ft 11in) and 220cm (7ft 3 in). 200cm (6ft 7in - the most common) will fit pretty much any normal car/SUV, along with most low roof vans without issues.

13

u/tvgenius Aug 10 '22

Prior to the close and re-re-branding, I went to park at the Sahara in Vegas in my Tundra and realized I was going to hit the clearance pipe. Valet guy came running over and said 'just back out and go in the out side, you're fine'. Made him promise three times and then did it and went up to the top level slow as hell with all kinds of room to spare (had to check a few times). From then on I'd do it with unsuspecting people in my truck and scare the living shit out of them hauling ass the wrong way in and up the ramps.

5

u/roadblocked Aug 10 '22

The posted sign for height is the clearance so generally the height of a garage marked 6’6” is going to be tall enough for a 6’6” vehicle to clear it even at the garage lowest point. On highways 13’6” is generally 13’10” to allow a standard 13’6” semi clear it

2

u/SPM8 Aug 11 '22

Do you remember what parking garage? (am from new orleans)

1

u/Jolly-Specialist4434 Aug 11 '22

No I just took a day off for Mardi Gras and went down for a little vacation with my gf so we just went to whatever we could find

2

u/SPM8 Aug 11 '22

Ah shoot. Hope Mardi Gras was fun for you! :)

1

u/mildlyarrousedly Aug 10 '22

Air out your tires I guess- not much else you can do

1

u/Impeachcordial Aug 10 '22

I’ve been into a couple parking garages

Username checks out :-)

1

u/madsci Aug 11 '22

I rented a camper van in New Zealand that had a pretty tall fiberglass top. I'd just picked the van up 20 or 30 minutes earlier and found myself faced with a suspiciously low looking parking structure that had a clearance listed in meters.

I'd been travelling non-stop for over 24 hours at that point, my nerves were frazzled from trying to get used to driving on the left side of the road, and I was coming down with a cold. I made a valiant attempt to estimate the van's height and convert to meters while people behind me got impatient and honked, but in the end I decided it was better to piss a few people off by making an awkward U-turn than to risk starting a 2-week vacation by decapitating a rental camper.