When parking a car in a garage, it can be difficult to tell where to stop the car so it clears the garage door. Here’s how to make a garage parking gauge that raises up out of the way when the garage door closes and lowers when the door opens.

Garage Parking Gauge

  1. Attach a screw eye hook to the ceiling so that it is plumb with the desired stopping location for the front of the car.
  2. With the garage door open, attach a second eye hook between the first hook and the garage door.
  3. Punch or drill a hole through a tennis ball, run a piece of string through the hole, and tie a knot below the tennis ball.
  4. Thread the string through both eye hooks and attach it to the open garage door so the tennis ball is level with the front of the car when the garage door is open.
Garage parking gauge attached to garage ceiling with screw eye hooks.
Garage parking gauge attached to garage ceiling with screw eye hooks.

When the garage door closes, the tennis ball will be pull up and out of the way.

Watch the video above to find out more.

VIDEO TRANSCRIPT

Joe Truini: Whenever you park in a garage, you have to play a guessing game of knowing how far in to pull the car so the door can close behind you.

You may have seen this trick before where you hang a tennis ball from the ceiling, then you pull forward just far enough so that the car hits the tennis ball. Then you know you’re in the proper distance.

So we’ve upgraded this tip and improved it by running a string up and across the ceiling, through a couple of screw hooks, then tied off the opposite end of the string to the garage door.

Now, depending on the depth of your garage and the size of your car, you may have to adjust the height of the ball. So leave a lot of extra string hanging, then just tie it off where you need it, so it just contacts the car.

And now when you close the garage door, as the door goes down, the string and the ball move up and out of the way.


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Editorial Contributors
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Mitchell Layton

Mitchell Layton is a former professional mover who currently lives in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Mitchell spent years packing and moving for REAL Rock N Roll Movers, a commercial and residential moving company based in Los Angeles that’s primarily staffed with up-and-coming musicians. That gave him plenty of experience navigating box trucks up and down the winding streets of LA. In addition to moving hundreds of happy customers into new homes and apartments all across Southern California, Mitchell has also performed corporate moves on company lots for Nickelodeon, Warner Bros, Universal Studios, Paramount, and more. After pouring blood, sweat, and tears into his profession, Mitchell has all the helpful tips you need for your next move.

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