Buy all your VW California Accessories at the Club Shop Visit Shop

Renting a garage

BillyCasper

BillyCasper

VIP Member
Messages
236
Location
Teddington
Vehicle
T5 SE 180
I'm thinking about renting a garage to store my newly acquired California (so that it doesn't corrode as quickly).

It's not easy where I live, but there are agencies and some available from a nearby local authority. Unfortunately, their websites don't state dimensions. Before I have to set off with a tape measure touring around, has anybody done this before?

Broadly are garages a whole mixed bag of sizes or is there a general standard?

Have members who have looked at this found that the California fits in most garages or doesn't fit in most garages especially older properties or garages in public housing?

Anybody got a spare lock up in SW London or thereabouts? Valuable property and source of income these days.

Regards,


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 
Before you embark on your quest to find a suitable garage, is there any evidence to suggest that keeping a Cali in a garage will either slow down or prevent the roof corrosion?

Unless you intend removing the rubber roof seal and drying it out internally after every trip, keeping a damp vehicle in an unheated garage might well assist the process.

P.s We have a double garage with what seem to me like pretty standard width single doors and they are too narrow for a Cali. I suspect that if you are able to get your Cali into the average single garage, you probably wont be able to get out of it.
 
Last edited:
Before you embark on your quest to find a suitable garage, is there any evidence to suggest that keeping a Cali in a garage will either slow down or prevent the roof corrosion?

Unless you intend removing the rubber roof seal and drying it out internally after every trip, keeping a damp vehicle in an unheated garage might well assist the process.

P.s We have a double garage with what seem to me like pretty standard width doors and they are too narrow for a Cali.

Thanks Borris, I wasn't being too serious about the corrosion.

I bought it now, before a late winter/spring mad panic, something that I experienced before. I'm not planning to use it much if at all until around Easter.

I'm not fixated about keeping it under cover. I do have one off road car space in front of my house, but at the moment it's full of scaffolding and a site hut whilst remedial work is undertaken on our lousy roofs.

So, I live in a dense urban area and my California is parked in the road and I'm thinking about putting it away safely for a couple of months.

When the roof is fixed I can put in the the drive and leave my car in the road. I don't care about my car, it's old, but my van is new(ish) and so I fuss.

Broadly, do members bother whether their vans are in the open or undercover? I've never bothered about my car being outside, it's ten years old and still looks fine to me.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 
Never put a car (or van) in a garage but always off road overnight. The Cali would not fit in the garages around home.
 
Never put a car (or van) in a garage but always off road overnight. The Cali would not fit in the garages around home.

Thanks for the advice. Unfortunately, it is going to have to stay where it is until the roof is fixed, maybe two more weeks or so.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 
Thanks Borris, I wasn't being too serious about the corrosion.

I bought it now, before a late winter/spring mad panic, something that I experienced before. I'm not planning to use it much if at all until around Easter.

I'm not fixated about keeping it under cover. I do have one off road car space in front of my house, but at the moment it's full of scaffolding and a site hut whilst remedial work is undertaken on our lousy roofs.

So, I live in a dense urban area and my California is parked in the road and I'm thinking about putting it away safely for a couple of months.

When the roof is fixed I can put in the the drive and leave my car in the road. I don't care about my car, it's old, but my van is new(ish) and so I fuss.

Broadly, do members bother whether their vans are in the open or undercover? I've never bothered about my car being outside, it's ten years old and still looks fine to me.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
Fair enough.

Whilst we have a double garage, I have never kept a modern car in it. Firstly because if you use it regularly it becomes too much of a faff to get it out and put it away each time. Secondly with all the other stuff stored in the average domestic garage there is a heightened risk of the vehicle getting damaged. But most importantly because the modern motor car is designed to stand out in the open and is therefore thoroughly tested in the most extreme conditions before being put on sale to the public.
However I do feel that a garage does often keep your vehicle safer than if it were parked on the street.
 
I'm just about to pop outside to check that it and its spare wheel are still there. I have a spare wheel lock on order.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 
I'm just about to pop outside to check that it and its spare wheel are still there. I have a spare wheel lock on order.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
Why not remove the spare wheel and store it on the floor inside the Cali until your Sparesafe arrives?
 
Why not remove the spare wheel and store it on the floor inside the Cali until your Sparesafe arrives?

Yes, sensible reasoning has flown out of the window in the excitement of having a new toy.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 
Why not remove the spare wheel and store it on the floor inside the Cali until your Sparesafe arrives?


I failed. I gave it a go but it was dark and cold.

I loosened the left bolt, removed the right bolt, shifted the carrier to the right and dropped the rear end of the carrier to the ground. The wheel was then held on a slope as the carrier was pivoted at the front. However, I failed to slide the wheel out of the carrier, there didn't seem to be enough headroom and the wheel kept hitting where the bolts are screwed in. Maybe the camber and kerb of the road? It was cold, dark, so I put it back and hope it survives until my safe arrives.

Know what I'm doing wrong? I read the manual.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 
Most rental garages are single. I doubt a Cali would fit into one.
 
I failed. I gave it a go but it was dark and cold.

I loosened the left bolt, removed the right bolt, shifted the carrier to the right and dropped the rear end of the carrier to the ground. The wheel was then held on a slope as the carrier was pivoted at the front. However, I failed to slide the wheel out of the carrier, there didn't seem to be enough headroom and the wheel kept hitting where the bolts are screwed in. Maybe the camber and kerb of the road? It was cold, dark, so I put it back and hope it survives until my safe arrives.

Know what I'm doing wrong? I read the manual.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
Well if you can't remove it then hopefully a thief couldn't either. It must be how the vehicle is parked as it should be possible to remove it without too much trouble.
 
Well if you can't remove it then hopefully a thief couldn't either. It must be how the vehicle is parked as it should be possible to remove it without too much trouble.

Exactly what I'm hoping.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 
Most rental garages are single. I doubt a Cali would fit into one.

Yes, I think based on feedback, I've kicked the garage idea in to touch.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 
It will fit through a standard single garage door aperture, probably with one wing mirror held in.
To extract yourself once inside just use the sliding door.
 
Most garage doors are up and over opening which are far too low to get a Cali under. If you find a rental double check both width & height. you need minimum 2 mtr height.
 
I failed. I gave it a go but it was dark and cold.

I loosened the left bolt, removed the right bolt, shifted the carrier to the right and dropped the rear end of the carrier to the ground. The wheel was then held on a slope as the carrier was pivoted at the front. However, I failed to slide the wheel out of the carrier, there didn't seem to be enough headroom and the wheel kept hitting where the bolts are screwed in. Maybe the camber and kerb of the road? It was cold, dark, so I put it back and hope it survives until my safe arrives.

Know what I'm doing wrong? I read the manual.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
I lift one side of the van by reversing onto the kerb stone (making sure there's no hazards indoing so!!) by way of driveway slope,that way I'm left enough clearance to easily drop the spare wheel

Alan
 
It will fit through a standard single garage door aperture, probably with one wing mirror held in.
To extract yourself once inside just use the sliding door.

Aaah Sidepod...nice to see someone else occasionally slips back into calling them "wing mirrors".
Those were the days...Rover 2000, Ford Corsair..etc.
Now we have "door mirrors" the size of small TV screens!
Still, they may not be as visually pleasing sometimes but they do the job better.
 
I'm thinking about renting a garage to store my newly acquired California (so that it doesn't corrode as quickly).

It's not easy where I live, but there are agencies and some available from a nearby local authority. Unfortunately, their websites don't state dimensions. Before I have to set off with a tape measure touring around, has anybody done this before?

Broadly are garages a whole mixed bag of sizes or is there a general standard?

Have members who have looked at this found that the California fits in most garages or doesn't fit in most garages especially older properties or garages in public housing?

Anybody got a spare lock up in SW London or thereabouts? Valuable property and source of income these days.

Regards,


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

I've looked long and hard in South London for a garage large enough for the Cali - we're about to demolish ours for the obvious reasons - and come up with absolutely nothing. It doesn't fit in any of the so called standard size garages round here.

Always worth keeping an eye out though . . . and give me a shout if you find anything that you might not use. I think the above is right, it doesn't really need a garage, but it does keep it a bit more secure and all that.

Mark
 
We looked at the possibility of cobstructing an oak framed car port to stop all the leaves and pine needles messing up the Cali. Until we got a quote....£17500 without the ground works. I don't think so! Have also looked at a collapsible garage shelter. Has anyone got one? Height seems to be an issue.
 
We looked at the possibility of cobstructing an oak framed car port to stop all the leaves and pine needles messing up the Cali. Until we got a quote....£17500 without the ground works. I don't think so! Have also looked at a collapsible garage shelter. Has anyone got one? Height seems to be an issue.
Not with this one.

http://www.houseoftents.co.uk/Portable-Garage/49541.html

http://www.houseoftents.co.uk/Stora...-shopping-cp&gclid=CIC43qDn7NECFYaVGwodRpwG-w
 
Back
Top