low clearance damage

Brunnhilde is a tall girl. She is the tallest vehicle I've ever owned. There is one potential disaster when driving in a lapse of attention. That is to inadvertently drive through roadway with low clearance. While it may seem like a relatively easy accident to avoid, in reality there are often danger lurking that are easy to overlook. There were many owners of this camper (Westfalia James Cook) experience damage to the high top. Many of these accidents are quite catastrophic.



I measured Brunnhilde's height once but I only remember she is just a bit shy of 11 feet (3.35m)

At 11 feet Brunnhilde is much lower than common tractor trailers so most roadways are safe. The most common danger for me is when camping off road. Some time I nearly forget to be careful with tree branches. It is quite easy to forget sitting in the driver seat as the the cockpit ceiling is much lower than the high top. Also when parallel parking in the city often there are small trees on the sidewalk and their branches can be too low.

Obviously Brunnhilde is too tall to enter any indoor garage. Even many outdoor parking lots also have overhead obstacles so I never park in them.

There are some tunnels along the highway on Washington side of the Columbia River Gorge that can be hazardous to tractor trailers. While these tunnels were designed with sufficient clearance for tractor trailers, because of the tunnel's round cross section the driver can rip off the trailer top if the driver hug too close to the tunnel side. Whenever I am behind one I slow down to allow a great distance so I would not be hit by the falling debris.

this train trestle in Durham North Carolina has a 11 feet 8 inch (3.56m) height


To learn more about this infamous trestle please visit 11foot8.com

this video in Sydney showing how serious a problem it is at a tunnel and the length the authority went to address it; the professional driver ignored multiple huge flashing warning signs but fortunately stopped at the mouth of the tunnel


Kudos to the ingenious Aussie engineering solution.