# Roof Rack Ranger App - Prevents driving into garage with bike / gear



## bikerx40 (Jan 9, 2004)

Hi All,
My brother and I co-developed and just released an iPhone app called Roof Rack Ranger. It is an advance warning app to prevent you from driving your bike, kayak, Rocket box, canoe, etc, into your garage.

After driving one of my bikes into a car port, I decided to work with my brother on programming an app to warn you before driving into your garage. The unique thing about Roof Rack Ranger is that it only requires a simple one-time set-up and then it is truly "hands free" after that; the app runs in the background and provides warning when necessary.

During the one-time setup you just define your "Home" location and each of the "Activity locations" (trail heads, lakes, rivers, etc) that you might go biking, boating, canoeing, skiing, or camping. Roof Rack Ranger runs in the background of your phone and senses the pattern of traveling into these Activity regions and is "triggered". Then, as you head back Home, Roof Rack Ranger automatically provides a warning as you approach your Home location.

We designed the app to use very little battery usage and only uses GPS when you are near your "Home" location with gear on your car. This way, Roof Rack Ranger can always be run in the background mode of your phone and always keep you protected.

Anyway, we have been beta testing this app for over 5 months, and it is extremely accurate. Check out Roof Rack Ranger in the Apple App store, www.roofrackranger.com, or in the Mtbr classifieds for more info.

If you have any photos of damaged bikes, kayaks, or canoes, feel free to post and we will be adding a "Wall of Shame" page to our site (and maybe some voting functionality) 

Regards,
-Ryan


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## Jayem (Jul 16, 2005)

What happens at the drive thru?


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## 1niceride (Jan 30, 2004)

Jayem said:


> What happens at the drive thru?


There is always gotta be someone to be Killjoy...


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## bikerx40 (Jan 9, 2004)

Jayem said:


> What happens at the drive thru?


Jayem - Yes, we are actually working on that functionality, but it is not ready for public release yet. Once we get it working, we will release it as an app upgrade.
-Ryan


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## cracksandracks.com (Oct 22, 2009)

seems cool....we'll recommend it to our customers.


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## bikerx40 (Jan 9, 2004)

Roof Rack Ranger is Free this entire weekend for the finale of the Tour de France. Please review our app on App store if you love it!


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## bikerx40 (Jan 9, 2004)

cracksandracks.com said:


> seems cool....we'll recommend it to our customers.


Thank you - let me know what you think!
-Ryan


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## JohnJ80 (Oct 10, 2008)

Thanks. Having driven a bike into the garage before, I'm sensitive to this need. I downloaded the app and will give it a try. I presume this uses the iPhone's geofencing capability?

J.


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## bikerx40 (Jan 9, 2004)

JohnJ80 said:


> Thanks. Having driven a bike into the garage before, I'm sensitive to this need. I downloaded the app and will give it a try. I presume this uses the iPhone's geofencing capability?
> 
> J.


Hi John180, We created a technology called ExacTrack, which uses a combination of location systems depending on the sensitivity that is needed at the moment. It switches to more accurate location tracking like GPS when it knows that you have gear on your roof and are nearing your home. Over a period of 6 months of beta testing, we tweaked the ExacTrack algorithm and it uses very little incremental battery use. This allows you to run Roof Rack Ranger in the background at all times without the battery drain typically found with most GPS apps. 
Thanks for trying out the app, and please leave a review on App store if you like it!
Regards,
-Ryan


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## bikerx40 (Jan 9, 2004)

We are creating a "Wall of Fame / Shame" page for our web site with photos of peoples bikes & gear that they have smashed into their garages.

Post your photos here and I will add them to our new page. Maybe we will have some voting buttons for best photos 

Bring it on - let's see the carnage!

Regards,
-Ryan


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## bikerx40 (Jan 9, 2004)

OK, I just received some photos for our "Wall of Shame" on our web site. $2,000+ in damage to bike, rack, and car. Ouch!!! Let's see your pics.


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## bikerx40 (Jan 9, 2004)

FYI - Roof Rack Ranger is currently free on Apple App store. Please rate the App on App Store if you like it!


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## JohnJ80 (Oct 10, 2008)

I've used it. It works well. You do have to be very careful that you have your volume turned up all the way.

What I've not been able to figure out is the purpose of the "activity" locations. The home locations makes sense (it's where the garages are, I suppose). But what are the activity locations? They don't seem to arm the Rack Ranger app to alarm, for instance.

J.


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## bikerx40 (Jan 9, 2004)

Hi JohnJ80, Thanks for your feedback. 

First, yes, it really is critical to remember to have your volume turned up. The alert is pretty distinct, but you still have to have your volume up especially if you are listening to music, etc. Apps cannot change your volume level so you have to remember to do this manually, although, Roof Rack Ranger does provide a pop-up reminder to turn up your volume.

Second, the Activity Regions are areas like biking trailheads, kayak put-ins, camping locations, etc. Areas that you might travel to with bikes or gear on your roof. Roof Rack Ranger knows that you have gear on your roof by detecting when you travel into one of these Activity Regions. Once you travel into an Activity Region then Roof Rack Ranger will indicate that it has detected an Activity Region- Roof Rack Ranger is now "triggered". Once you return to your Home Location, it will now provide a warning as you approach your home. 

If you do not enter an Activity Region and you return Home then Roof Rack Ranger will not provide a warning because it was never "triggered" by traveling into an Activity Region.

Once you set up your Home and your Activity Regions, Roof Rack Ranger can just run in the background of your phone without any user input necessary. It will warn you when needed. You may have some occasional warnings when you don't have gear on your roof, but that's better than no warning at all (example: if you go to a restaurant within an Activity Region but don't have gear on your roof. It would still trigger.)

I hope that helps. If you enjoy the App, we would love your review in the Apple App store.

Cheers,
-Ryan


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## JohnJ80 (Oct 10, 2008)

some comments -

I'd like to have the ability to set it so that it alarmed at any of my garage locations. Perhaps a trigger to say that if you are at a garage location it can be set to arm. For example, if I take my bike to work I want to be careful to park outside instead of driving into the garage. But then when I come back home, I want to not drive into the garage there. In that case, I'm going from a "home" location to a "home" location, but it wouldn't arm, correct?

J.


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## bikerx40 (Jan 9, 2004)

John,
We are currently beta testing a "hazard" pin that you can drop on things like you are describing. For example, a drive through, bank drive through, your work parking garage, etc. You drop the pin on these locations and it will alarm you no matter if you have gone into an activity location or not. It will always warn you just to be safe. When we are done testing it will be released as an update to the app. 

Stay tuned and thanks again for your feedback.

-Ryan


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## JohnJ80 (Oct 10, 2008)

That would help. 

Maybe having an option to automatically include home(s) as a hazard?


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## XJaredX (Apr 17, 2006)

People do this????


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## JohnJ80 (Oct 10, 2008)

XJaredX said:


> People do this????


Go ask your bike shop. Happens all the time. Very easy to do if you have a roof top rack. Anyone that has their bike on top and does it a lot has either done it or come awfully close to doing it at some point.

J.


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## bikerx40 (Jan 9, 2004)

Hi All,
I wanted to let you know that we recently pushed out Roof Rack Ranger app version 1.2.2 to support iOS7. We made some tweaks to our ExacTrack programming which have dramatically improved battery life.

We are also in the final beta testing a "Low Clearance" marker so you can easily mark known low-clearance locations that you frequently use (ATM's, banks, drive-throughs, parking garages, etc.). 

Hope you enjoy and thank you for your support and feedback!

Regards,
-Ryan


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## bikerx40 (Jan 9, 2004)

Hi All,
We're looking for pictures that we can add to the iTunes App store. Tweet @RoofRackRanger a photo showing you and your roof rack and you have a good chance of getting your photo in the App Store! Get creative with it!

Happy Holidays!
-Ryan


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## bikerx40 (Jan 9, 2004)

Jayem said:


> What happens at the drive thru?


Jayem,
Roof Rack Ranger just released iPhone app version 1.3.2 with a new "Hazard Pins" feature. You can drop a hazard pin on any drive thrus, banks, low tree branches, etc. The Roof Rack Ranger app will warn you every time you approach those Hazard Pins.

The app is also free now. The free version allows you one Home and one Activity location to try out. Then, you can upgrade for a couple of bucks to the version with unlimited Home and Activity locations and also add Hazard pin functionality "a-la-carte" if you want that functionality.

We hope you like it!

Cheers,
-Ryan


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## askibum02 (Jul 7, 2005)

I wish I would have seen this in January, I backed my road bike into the garage and did about $1500 damage.😳. I bought a hitch rack to make sure it doesn't happen again. An app would have been cheaper.


Sent from my iPad while drinking the kool aid


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## bikerx40 (Jan 9, 2004)

askinbum02,
PM me any photos and we might put your pics on the App store and you can be famous! Sorry, that really stinks and is one of the reasons we created this app. I killed my $3,000 bike by backing through a carport.
-Ryan


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## askibum02 (Jul 7, 2005)

Sorry no pics, I was too pissed.


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## C.P. (Sep 17, 2005)

Had a thought regarding the setup of "activity locations", because there are SO MANY places I go that I would forget to set up.

What if there was a way for it to be turned on and raise the volume in your phone automatically at the start of Strava or similar App. That way, it would be armed automatically and know that you are out riding, and just in case you forgot to load the activity location the app would know you're out with your bike...just a thought.


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## bikerx40 (Jan 9, 2004)

Hey CP, 
That's a cool idea about the Strava locations. I believe that Apple does not allow Apps to take control of the phone's volume control though.

One trick that I've been using with Roof Rack Ranger is setting up certain road junctions as their own Activity Location. For example, there is one road junction that I drive through on my way up to our local ski area, but there are several other trail heads up different drainages accessed through the same road junction. I usually only pass through that road junction if I'm going up to the mountain to ski or ride, therefore, I just set up that actual road junction as my Activity Location. That way, it triggers Roof Rack Ranger to always provide a warning when I return Home ever time I drive through that road junction. It eliminated me having to set up about 4-5 individual Activity Locations.

Thank you for your feedback!
-Ryan


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