low clearance alarm

[georgelesley]

Today I made an aluminum "stick" that clamps into the drivers side window, sticks straight up and will hit a too low underpass before the A/C or anything else expensive on the roof. It folds up when not in use, is stored behind the drivers seat and is light and easy to use. I did allow an extra foot of clearance because of all the variables involved.

[ol_Bombero-JC]

mrhddh wrote:
The normal human reaction time to an emergency situation is 1.5 seconds. Let's just say that you are traveling at 60MPH when you encounter a REALLY LOW BRIDGE. Converting speed from MPH to FPS (feet per second) you are traveling at 94 (rounded up) feet per second. Multiply that by 1.5 seconds you have already traveled 140 (rounded down) feet before your foot hits the brake pedal. Now the rig has to stop. Put the stick away, unless its for checking clearances as you slowly pull into a drive thru, park entrance, whatever.....

Great post.

There's an electronic device that will do the same as the stick.
Unfortunately - the above applies to it also.
By the time it alerts you - it's too late, unless you're traveling at walking speed.

Best "gage" - is to know *your* height - and clearances of things you will go under....in advance of going there!..;)

~

[hooligan]

Well, if it saves the air conditioners just one time, it will be well worth the effort.
Once saw a 5th wheel at the dealers, AC had hit a bridge, the mess it made as it rolled between the bridge and the roof was not pretty.

[georgelesley]

sowego wrote:
I'd mount your stick to a spring "just in case". Our CB antenna will sometimes "twang" on low hanging small tree branches. And as you've mentioned you can never know where you'll find a low hanging obstacle.

Actually the stick will swivel if it his anything. I left a "tail" hanging down and if the tail wags, stop!

[sowego]

I'd mount your stick to a spring "just in case". Our CB antenna will sometimes "twang" on low hanging small tree branches. And as you've mentioned you can never know where you'll find a low hanging obstacle.

[georgelesley]

Folks, you totally miss the point as to where and when we will use it. Obviously we look and follow posted heights. On main roads we have no concern. And if the road is ok to be travelling at normal speeds, no problem. But with a B we often find ourselves in small towns and country roads going slowly, often with no clearance posted, We faced just such a situation last year in rural Wisconsin. We held our breath and made it. We boondock on private property with the boondockers welcome website and sometimes are offered spots that are tight.

As I said in the original post, we will likely never use it, but if we ever do need it we will be happy we have it.

If we did hit something in that situation we would be a real inconvenience to traffic any traffic behind us I assure you.

BTW, we did FT in a large class A for three years and did fine, but we did not go in the tight places we now go in our B.

[Old-Biscuit]

Our 5vr is 13' 4" and I don't use a stick

Measure the actual height of your rig then pay attention to 'signs'....you are slowing up the traffic behind you with that stick

[mrhddh]

The normal human reaction time to an emergency situation is 1.5 seconds. Let's just say that you are traveling at 60MPH when you encounter a REALLY LOW BRIDGE. Converting speed from MPH to FPS (feet per second) you are traveling at 94 (rounded up) feet per second. Multiply that by 1.5 seconds you have already traveled 140 (rounded down) feet before your foot hits the brake pedal. Now the rig has to stop. Put the stick away, unless its for checking clearances as you slowly pull into a drive thru, park entrance, whatever.....

[westend]

The Winnie Class B has a height of 9'11". Anything on an interstate and most State roads will be 13'6". I would be more concerned with the window breaking than hitting anything overhead.

[Pirate1]

jfkmk wrote:
Just out of curiosity, just how slowly do you plan to approach the underpass?

They must still have snow up there or he would be camping instead of inventing this wonderful device.

OP - Low clearance devices such as yours are usually mounted to an escort vehicle so they can warn the vehicle behind them. You should mount it to the dinghy and have the DW drive ahead of you.

[wa8yxm]

One of the things made for professional drivers is a stick, if you think the bridge might be too low, you walk the stuck under the bridge.. If it hits bridge and road at same time... ABOUT FACE and find another route.

[jfkmk]

Just out of curiosity, just how slowly do you plan to approach the underpass?