[SkyHope]

What is the "correct" ground clearance under the Sky from the middle of the air dam (I think that is correct term for plastic strip hanging under the body)? Jack measured the distance between the garage floor and the bottom of our air dam. EMPTY the distance is a scant 3". In 400 miles of top down driving over a variety of roads, we periodically heard the plastic scrape. I cannot find an answer to what is normal clearance anywhere on the forum and would appreciate someone measuring their Sky to let me know if this is normal or too low?

Jack took this pic tonight

He also measured the distance from the bottom of the front bumper to the garage floor (again empty) at about 6".

Many thanks!

 

[vstar]

I don’t have mine yet, but I can say from my test drive I was shocked on how low the front end was.

 

[cerberus]

Same measurements here. Makes you think a bit when entering driveways etc.
Enter real slow and on an angle. During street use...? Don't know, but you do have to keep your clearance in mind.

 

[reedred]

I find myself doing the 'California Turn' into pretty much every driveway- practically stop in the street and then take 20 minutes to turn in. Until I got my Sky, I never really realized why people did that.

Interestingly enough, my Sky doesn't scrape leaving my driveway and my L200 does every time. I think the short overhang helps a lot with the low clearance.

 

[SkyHope]

Same measurements here. Makes you think a bit when entering driveways etc.
Enter real slow and on an angle. During street use...? Don't know, but you do have to keep your clearance in mind.

Don't want to suffer the knowledge of how the clearance diminishes fully loaded hubby & self .

I appreciate knowing that this is normal. Will repeat to myself that if I wanted clearance I'd have gotten Jack another truck. (No way would he give his new toy back).

 

[1994SC2]

Dont forget about speed bumps/humps... ESPECIALLY the kind that have the two dips in the middle (where you can conceivably drive through if there is no traffic and not have to go over the hump).

Went through one the other day and only heard SCCCCRRRAAAAPPPPEEEEE the whole way over it.

Poor lil' Sky.

 

[cerberus]

Don't want to suffer the knowledge of how the clearance diminishes fully loaded hubby & self .

Now, I'm sure that's not a problem, esp with the suspension.
But if you're driving and see vermin, better yell duck, cause that front chopper's gonna put a vampire look on that Sky grin.
There's quite a bit of give in the lower piece, so it can flex quite a bit, so long as you don't scrape anything at speed.

 

[richmcc]

Wow!!! and the RedLine is even lower!

 

[MCW Sky]

Parking

You might also need to watch out when parking with a curb or other more than 3" tall concrete slab (trying to think of the name for the block of concrete that you often see in parking lots but drawing a blank).

back when I used to drive my 1964 GTO daily or other similar cars I got into the habit of pulling well into a space so as not to be sticking out into the traffic lane. The first time I drove a small car habit got the best of me and I pulled way in only to scrape the underside of the air dam or something on the concrete.

What would be really interesting to see would be a movie - if someone could strap a video camera under there and see how much the clearance changes as you drive around.

I suspect the low clearance is at least part of the reason the suspension is so stiff. In my brief test drive of a Sky I found the suspension to be almost too stiff my my liking, but I suppose I would prefer that to routinely scraping the bottom of the car.

Not sure if the Red Line will be any lower - but it will have the upgraded suspension standard, right? so if it is a bit lower it may also be stiffer yet.

 

[SkyMan 08]

Well the underside of the nose of my sky is testimony of very little clearance, just be as careful as you can.... and just resigne yourself that the underside of the nose will get scraped no matter how careful you are.

 

[Sunny Ragtop]

The scrape I heard every now and then turned out to be the Rear Tires scrubbing plastic off the plastic piece in the wheel well. Just make sure it's the front where the noise is coming from.

Hit a plastic Coke bottle the other day and it Cracked the black piece of plastic behind the bumper, saw it for sure when my SKY was on the lift last Thursday. Poor baby!

 

[KappaMan]

Airdam to ground ~3 - 3-3/4 inches.

 

[marklynn70]

I have deffinetly taken a new approach to entering parking lots and drive ways since getting Missy.

 

[SkyHope]

Airdam to ground ~3 - 3-3/4 inches.

Thanks very much for this spec. The service manager wanted to take a look at our Sky so we dropped it off last night. Sunday Jack did some troubleshooting in checking the car out for source of infrequent scraping sounds. He noticed what appears to be right front wheel well abraisons/scuffing. Will be interesting to see how this develops. After reviewing all prior related posts, we are confident they'll be able to effectively take necessary action. I'm crossing my fingers just in case!

 

[SkyHope]

He noticed what appears to be right front wheel well abraisons/scuffing.

Scuffing turned out to be from the mold when the right wheel well was poured. Took all wheels off and found no evidence of rub!

We are very impressed with our first dealer service. Elk Grove not only done us right with sales end, they are coming through for us on the service end, too!

 

[SkyHope]

We guessed wrong about source of scrape sound

http://www.skyroadster.com/forums/showthread.php?t=5097

 

[MCW Sky]

Tire hitting strut tower

I think there was another post with pictures where the front wheel was hitting the side of the strut housing.