Charging curbside: how to protect against parallel parkers?

I charge on the street in front of my row house in Center City Philadelphia using an EVSE I installed curbside on a pedestal. This is a dense area with very close parallel parking. Parking often involves bumping the car behind and the car in front. Any tips on how I can protect against the car in front of me bumping the connector cable while I'm charging and destroying the charge port? Perhaps a bumper rail of the sort employed on police cruisers?

Park crooked, so they end up bumping the corner of the bumper instead of right in front.

Get two used truck tires. Place them against your front bumper on either side.

Yikes. I'd park on the lawn, if I could! Failing that, I'd use something better than truck tires as end cushions. Twin-sized (cheap) mattresses with plastic waterproof covers, maybe...?

garsh said:

Get two used truck tires. Place them against your front bumper on either side.

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I saw an old school Mini Cooper driving in Paris one time, and he had sausage-shaped rubber boat fenders tied onto the car, front and rear. Looked silly of course, but I'm guessing he was tired of his car getting banged up when parked. :lol:

That would be funny to see.

Just in case I wasn't clear, I'm imagining leaving the tires curbside, and just setting them in place once you're parked.

It looks like the bumper sticks out farther than the charging port, so I don't think it would actually get damaged from a bump. But the cord would most likely be between the bumpers, which might end up damaging the paint on the bumpers.

I think that if you learnt how to drive a car properly, you really shouldn't be worrying about bumping the cars in front and behind you! Goodness! Not all parallel lots are a tight squeeze and it's really just a matter of using judgement and common sense to manoeuvre your car out of a parallel car park lot. It would help if there was something to help people protect their cars from people who CAN'T park parallel though, and if that's what this thread is about then I fully support the idea!

I agree with Rowan Webb on this. A lot of people just are too inconsiderate and self centred when it comes to getting out of a car park lot sometimes. I mean, just because your car is big enough to take a bashing, doesn't mean you should go around bashing the people who are parked around you. If there was ever a time to install an in vehicle camera, this would be it! I'd hate for these bumper bashers to get away with bulldozing their way in a car park lot!

Maybe a set of bird spikes on both the front and rear bumpers will keep the buzzards off ya!

I've seen the "bumper buddy" rubber mats in NYC and places like that. I agree though, if my car was to be constantly subjected to bumper hits, I wouldn't keep parking there.