I live in Los Angeles, so this concern is more for those of us that live in big cities and have to regularly park in parking garages. For reference, I have stock coil suspension (non-air), stock wheels/tires, and no roof rack. My previous vehicle was a lowered BMW M4 and I went from looking at the ground to make sure I wouldn't scrape my lip when entering a driveway/garage to looking upwards to make sure my Defender can fit without hitting something. I realized that 6'3" is the absolute limit in my current stock setup as there is a parking garage I regularly visit where my shark fin antenna is literally within millimeters of the pipes above.

I've been considering some upgrades such as new tires and a roof rack, but fear that it will limit where I can park since the Defender is my daily driver. My fears were recently confirmed when I was heading towards a garage and D90 with a roof rack pulls up just ahead of me. Slowly creeps until they realize that their roof rack was hitting the hanging sign indicating the height and they had to back up and presumably park elsewhere. How do you all deal with this?

 

You'll learn that the clearance posted at the parking garage entrance is not always correct. My setup is quite a bit different (air suspension, 1.5" lift rods, 32.6" tires, and factory rack). I've discovered some garages will either put in sprinkler systems with low-hanging pipes or signs that hang down. I enter all garages at access height, but have scratched up the roof rack on a couple of poorly marked garages. I now know the garages I can safely enter, and generally, if I'm entering an unfamiliar garage, I look for street parking or over 1 foot of additional clearance

 

I second DonMitsu's comments. Parking garages in Boston are no different. I have an expedition roof rack and air suspension and have to enter the garages at access height to ensure I fit, and I mean barely fit. If you don't have air suspension and still want to park in parking garages, I probably wouldn't recommend any changes to your rig. And even with air suspension you are still limited. Can't have anything on the roof rack when I go into the city and need to park in a garage.

 

I concur with the prior comments. I don't have air suspension and find city parking a challenge, especially in old buildings. I did swap out my roof rack and gained about an inch and a half that helped a lot. A couple of times I entered a garage with a clearly marked clearance and hanging tube that was supposedly representative of clearance, only to find that once past that, a plethora of sprinkler pipes etc are off buy enough to create a problem. I also found that if I had reasonable clearance at the screening entrance, the internal ramps changed my approach or departure angles enough that I had a problem as a result. In one instance, I found that it made a big difference on which side of the ramp I was on. I changed out roof racks to get the lowest profile possible. But, even so, I just try to avoid anything less than a seven foot clearance. And when trying to manage a new garage, making sure it is a low traffic time so I don't have the hassle of backing into a batch of waiting vehicles. Oh, well, no good answer!

 

I have the expedition rack and air suspension and I figure I need 7' clearance to be safe - which rules out most garages in NYC and Boston and quite a few airport garages too. I have scratched up the rear surface of the rack (which fortunately protects the shark fin) in a garage showing 6'8" and I was in access height. As others have said, garages are often incorrectly shown as having clearance and then sprinkler pipes, exit signs and other obstructions are installed.

 

I have no lift on my D90 with coils, standard-sized tires, and I hit the shark-fin on one of those hanging warning things at the entrance (if you hit this thing, you know you won't fit). But instead of the usual plastic pipe or whatever, this was very heavy steel. Thanks!

So I had to turn around before I went underground and really get hit. Except ... on the way OUT, they had ANOTHER heavy steel warning thing (why!?), which I couldn't avoid, so thanks for the second hit guys!

Luckily, there wasn't too much damage (a nice scrape that you can't see from the ground). But yeah, even stock you have to be careful!