murfysflaw

I appreciate everyone's help on this! I may try the cutout idea with the front-end measurements, but you're right, I need to consider the rear too. If someone can measure the height of the lowest part of the rear-end for me, that would help too. I'll need a bit of cardboard as my Grand Cherokee is lifted too, but that should give me a pretty good idea.

I don't think moving is much of an option, and with as short as the driveway is (length before it levels out at the top and turns into the garage), I'm not sure you could grade it much better.

Amber Gramps

I did some recon for ya. find this house and try it with the Jeep. If it don't clear, you're screwed.

jester911

Backing in usually won't help if it is that steep. You still end up dragging the front end.

JABSEA

I just measured the rear-end clearance on mine and it's just under 8 inches.

murfysflaw

Holy cow that's a hill right there. Mine is probably not terribly far off from that angle, but it doesn't have the sharp transition from level to hill... that's gradual and spread out over several feet before it really hits the hill.

Thanks JABSEA!

Slantnose!

OMG...
Nothing I have would make it up that!

BlackPearl

I had a similar problem in my old house. Our 911 and 912 have both been lowered for tracking, and the resulting ride-height caused scraping of different parts.

Bags of 'temporary' asphalt "cold-patch" solved our problems in the old house. I used a piece of 2X6 wood as a guide and built 2 ramps from driveway to just outside the gutter-line to reduce the angle of approach/departure. I had to use a piece of pvc for drainage, and rainwater didn't pool. The resulting aphalt "ramps" prevented further scraping. When we moved, I pulled the patch with a hammer and shovel.

Simple engineering and $4.00 per bag for the ashpalt.

murfysflaw

Quick follow-up on this... I'm about to go out to mock up the height on my WJ. The measurements above are for an SC w/o the whale tail or front valence that typically goes w/ it.

If anyone has that setup on a stock-height SC, can you measure the distance from the ground to the bottom of the valence for me? Or, alternatively, just measure the height of the valence itself.

Thanks a bunch! I have a potential car in mind if all of this works out.

murfysflaw

Well... I didn't do the cardboard mock-up, but I think this will work. I found a few pieces of leftover metal from replacing my garage door opener. Taped sections of it to each corner with the bottom 5.5 inches off the ground per the previously noted measurement. If I take exactly the right angle, I can get it out with about 1/2 inch to spare. With that in mind, I believe the front valence w/ the whale tail may not work. I know the cars can handle oddly w/ the tail and w/o the front-end piece too, so I'll have to figure out what to do there.

I don't have the rear measurements from the tire contact patch to lowest part on the rear, but it's certainly a few inches taller than the front. I recall w/ my 84, I was always more apt to drag the front than the rear anyway.

Thanks for everyone's help! Pics of the setup I used to test:

DARISC

Makes no difference, the front will scrape either way The street is at the same angle of approach to the driveway as the driveway is to the street.

murfysflaw

Well... after looking at a few different cars, getting really close on one, I pulled the trigger on one and gambled that she'd fit in the driveway. She's been lowered a bit, so I was even more nervous about it. Flew up with a friend on Saturday and finished the deal and drove her the 500 miles back that afternoon.

She does get up the driveway without scraping front or rear as evidenced in the pic below sitting at the top of the hill.

95 993 C4 Cab with 38k miles...

Now off to find a booster seat for my 5-year old.

bargamon

I had one of those crazy driveways and as soon as my son wanted to ride his bike the driveway from hell just had to go.

But the angle thing did the trick.

Forget the moving truck getting up the driveway. Had to bribe them as they wanted to bolt on me when we were moving out. Saving grace was the stuff was going DOWN!!!!!

First thing for the new house..........NO SLOPE!!!!!

Hey, good thinking ahead!

murfysflaw

As we've grown through the 3 houses, the driveways have become more and more steep. I kid with my wife that it was an attempt to keep me from getting another 911, but I know that's not true.

You can see the scrapes and gouges from the movers trying desparately to get the truck into the driveway when we moved in... some of the worst sounds I've heard and I really thought they'd get it stuck with the drive wheels off the ground if the kept trying. They finally gave up and just carried it all up, but they were not happy about it.

Jitters

Hey Patrick,

Congrats on the new PCAR...looks very nice...

Jitters

Rick K

Congrats on the new pcar - love the wheels (and the ride height)...

What kind of suspension set-up do you have on there?

What differences jumped out at you from the '84?