{"id":16295,"date":"2020-01-20T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-01-20T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rainydaymagazine.com\/wp\/?p=16295"},"modified":"2020-01-22T21:07:47","modified_gmt":"2020-01-23T02:07:47","slug":"rhinoramps-inthewild","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rainydaymagazine.com\/wp\/2020\/01\/20\/rhinoramps-inthewild\/","title":{"rendered":"RhinoRamps : InTheWild"},"content":{"rendered":"

We had noticed a “noise” when backing up the car for a few days, but as the sound was intermittent and only when in reverse, we “forgot” about it pretty much as soon as it had gone into Drive \"\"<\/span><\/p>\n

At a recent Aikido seminar, someone mentioned “Hey…there’s something hanging from the bottom of your car!” LOL \"\"\u00a0<\/span>Anyway, now that we know the cause, we, of course have to deal with it…especially since it would be scooping up snow every time the car backs up.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Fortunately, the “fix” was not as involved as we had first feared.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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We would never trust just a jack<\/a> to hold up the car when working under it. Our solution for years has been the RhinoRamps<\/a>. They are absolutely the way to go for “driveway” mechanics, and anyone not interested in being a Darwin Awards<\/a> candidate.<\/p>\n

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Coupled with the ramps is our trusty water-proof ground mat<\/a>. This all-weather mat folds up and stows in the trunk for ready deployment in any condition. BTW, our’s also doubles as a nice picnic blanket!<\/p>\n

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Once we looked, the problem was pretty obvious. A plastic shield’s anchor point to the car had broken<\/a>, partly due to some mechanic NOT replacing all of the anchor screws when he\/she last removed the shield…relying on just the outermost attach point to secure the big piece of plastic…lazy!!!<\/p>\n

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Fortunately, we were able to zip-tie the shield<\/a> to one of the brackets under the car using the available holes designed for the anchor screws.<\/p>\n

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It is not a “perfect” fix because there is still a gap<\/a> between the end of the shield and the side of the car, but that cannot be helped without more effort, of which we were not prepared to expend.<\/p>\n

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While not a perfect fix, it should hold<\/a>…we think \"\"\u00a0It is likely that we\u00a0<\/span>will have to revisit this hack come Spring!<\/p>\n

Amazon\u00a0link to items mentioned:<\/b><\/p>\n