Driveway gate openers ???

[NIXON]

Do any of you folks have one of these ?? If so, what brand ?
Any particular likes or dislikes ? One concern of mine is that it will have to be located about 500'from a 110V power source .
Do any folks make a unit that can be powered by photo cell, or should I just bite the bullet and rent a trencher ?
TIA , John

 

[CTyler]

Don't have any experience with gate openers. I do know there are units that run off a battery and the batt is charged from the solar panel though.

 

[mountain_man]

Here a link to Mighty Mule gate openers . They are sold by Agri Supply .

They make both solar and 120V gate openers. I haven't purchased one yet, but expect to in the Spring.

 

[HammerFour]

I think the Mighty Mule openers use a 110 transformer that sends low voltage current out to the opener, so you don't have a high volt wire to bury.

 

[wroughtn_harv]

I install operated gates for a living.

The low voltage ones I recommend are along the line of Patriot or Apollo. They cost twice as much as the Mule or it's compatriots at the places like Tractor Supply. But, and this But is of extreme importance, but they are worth something and the lesser priced ones aren't.

The best piece of advice I can give anyone looking at putting in an automated gate is to get into their vehicle of choice and drive around for a day or two and look. Look especially at the automated gate that is in the open position permanently or the operator is detached. Nine out of ten of these inoperable gates will be the cheapos, guaranteed.

I have Apollos that have been out there for eight--ten years with their only maintenance being batteries. The better units use deep cycle marine type batteries and are charged with either a trickle charger or a solar panel. I don't know why but the batteries don't last more than a year or two under these circumstances. That's why I recommend rotating the battery with other the battery in the boat etc.

The Patriot low voltage system appears to be comparable so far to the Apollo in durability.

If you're looking at the gate being more than a hundred feet or so from the house there are a couple of features that you might find necessary.

One would be a free exit coil. This is a coil that's buried along the drive that activates the gate to open when a metal object passes by. It's easier to install than the cutting of the drive to bury the wires like you see in commerical installations.

The free exit allows you and your visitors to leave without anyone operating the gate. It can be adjusted in sensitivity to where you can activate it with your four wheeler etc.

Sentex makes a reasonable priced system where a visitor pushes a button and your phone in the house rings. You can talk to them and push a code on your phone to open the gate. Or you can ignore them or talk to them and deny them access.

Another thing one must consider is the safety of the unit. A gate closing on a car can be expensive. A kid caught in either the gate closing or getting trapped in a pinch point can be devastating.

I use Elite and Osco for hundred and ten volt units for swing gates. I've had fantastic luck with All-o-matics for slide gates. They've been bullet proof.

When a customer to be starts trying to cut corners I remind them of the most likely situation when the operator will fail. It will be when it's cold and rainy and you're really involved in something. And the gate won't fail on you. It will fail on your wife when she's most susceptible to snot slinging fit itis.

Probably even more important than the operator choice is the post and hinge installation. Keep that in mind. You can put the best operator in the world on a bad post and it will fail immediately if not sooner. A poor operator choice will live a lot longer than it should on a good post.

 

[jinman]

Harv, just this weekend my girfriend had her gate actuator break. The end of the actuator which attaches to the post broke and pulled out of the actuator. Her gate is very heavy and this is the second time the actuator has broken. I'll get some pictures and post them this weekend. Also, I think I have an idea for a spring-loaded mounting of the actuator to the post which will reduce the instantaneous shock load to the actuator. ...and yes, it looks like the Mule from TSC. /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif

 

[bgott]

What is your take on sliding gates as opposed to a swinging gate?

 

[snowbound]

We have an automatic gate. But we just leave it open because it's really complicated and nobody really knows how it works. There are several layers of security equipment around the property from previous owners. Most of it is abandoned in place and we haven't got around to figuring out how to get rid of it.

But the gate is a weird story. The previous owner had installed a new set of gates. _The day before we closed on the house_. So it turns out that he was gone before they were installed and we hadn't arrived yet. It isn't clear that anyone ever was told how they work.

Then about six months ago a plumber's truck delivering a piece of air handling equipment took out the intercom/keypad for the gate. So if that _was_ part of the working system, it's not now. The plumber told us to get him an estimate and he would have it fixed. So we got the local "gate" guy to come over and tell us what was in the system. Since they are the big gate installer around here we thought maybe it was a system they installed. No, the guy says that he's completely unfamiliar with any of the equipment in the gate system and all he could do would be to completely install a new system for $7000.

Well if we used the gate then maybe we would care if it were working or not.

We don't have to worry too much. In the first place nobody much comes here. In the second place we live across the road from one of the reservoirs for New York City and the road is patrolled by the NYDEP reservoir police. And since September 11 there are more patrols, and not just NYDEP but also the state troopers and for a time there they had prison guards on overtime patrolling the reservoirs. Our place is on a little stretch where they like to pull over for lunch or coffee. So we have armed guards a lot of the time.

I have no idea why previous owners here invested so much in the gate system.

 

[_RaT_]

Harv, my gate uses an Apollo actuator and board. It works quick and reliably. I used to have 2 solar cells charging the 12V deep charge battery but ever since installing 120V at the gate for my wife to put lights on it for the various occasions, I have installed a battery stuff.com trickle charger that not only keeps the battery optimum, can actually supply enough curent to operate the gate.

I am rebuilding everything at the gate now including the old 20' wide gate. The new one will be about 14' and not require the extra leverage operating arm.

Where or how do you do the hinges? Do you make up your own or buy ball bearing ones designed for gates? How about the arched top. I have an idea of how to build it, that is by drilling holes in my shop floor and pinning the steel square tube and arching it myself. Is there a better way?

Lastly, I am intrigued by the automatic trip loop that runs parallel to the driveway. I have gravel and the iron loop sounds great. Do you have a source for it?

Thanks, Rat...

 

[wroughtn_harv]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( Also, I think I have an idea for a spring-loaded mounting of the actuator to the post which will reduce the instantaneous shock load to the actuator. ...and yes, it looks like the Mule from TSC.)</font>

It isn't the shock that kills the operator. It's the operator is a knife in a gun fight. Look at the mounting hardware and bracketry of a good operator and then at what the Mule comes with. It'll become instantly crystal clear.

Sometime grab a heavy gate where the operator attaches to it. It takes a real piece of equipment to initiate movement and even more to stop it.

 

[wroughtn_harv]

They each have their place. A properly designed and installed slide gate has to exert less effort to move a gate than a comparable swing system would. But slide gates are more expensive because there's a lot more to them.

A lot of times there isn't the swing area necessary for a swing gate too.

I've had exceptional luck with both styles.

Here's a picture of a double slide with each side weighing in probably close to a thousand pounds. They're finished inside and out with them operating in and out of a pocket door type of enclosure. There's half inch or less clearance for each gate in their respective holes. They have small children and I don't want them pinched.

I've had one maintenance call on this set of gates. It involved the customer trying to do some maintenance and moving a switch he shouldn't have.

The attachment shows a gate of about six to seven hundred pounds, one of four. They're the entry gates into a retirement subdivision. I designed, fabricated, and installed them almost three years ago.

The posts held up just fine. The gates and hinges did too. But I spent last weekend removing the rock and reinforcing the hinge bars coming from the posts.

When I installed the posts I was under the impression the gate hinges would be a foot or less from the posts. But after the masons put their cinder blocks and facia stone in the hinges were from eighteen inches to two feet away from the posts.

When the gates were in the open position the two by four quarter inch wall rectangular tubing hinge bars tweaked enough to allow gate sag. It got progressively worse.

They finally came to me about replacing the gates with something not quite so massive. I told them the gates were fine and that I could fix the problem and give them a warranty on the modification. They jumped on it.

This was one of those situations where I was a sub to a major gate operator company. I wasn't in a direct conversation with the end user until the discussion between the primary two parties came down to replacing the gates. That's when I was invited into the discussion.

These gates are made from two by six fourteen gauge rectangular tubing with a two by eight full rough cut cedar facia. They wanted the three rail cedar gate but eighteen feet long look.

They got it.

 

[wroughtn_harv]

A picture of the repair. All that was required was for some lateral support for the hinge. This was accomplished with the four inch channel legs to a half inch by six inch plate attached to the existing two feet deep footer.

 

[wroughtn_harv]

Morning RaT,

On rolling the top rail I suggest going down to your local wrought iron shop. They usually only charge twenty to thirty dollars to roll the tubing plus the cost of the materials. It's money well spent.

Here's a page from http://kingmetals.com

The roller bearing ones are the best. The Nomar is a great hinge I use the heck out of them. They have a brass pin so there isn't the problem with rust bind.

If you use one of the weld ons with the ball bearing and grease zert please don't do like the knownuthin's do. They weld one hinge up and then the other upside down. What happens is the upside down one collects water and freezes up (rust not cold).

What I do on those is the pin side is welded to the post on the bottom hinge. On the top hinge the female side is welded to the post. You can't lift the gate off the hinge and the zert is on top where it should be.

The gate I'm finishing up today in that thread in projects I used two inch solid stainless bar for the pin and the schedule forty two inch pipe for the female side. I've had real good luck with that system on pipe gates.

Go to World Fence News online and go through their online sources for the free exit coil. I looked at the King site and they don't carry it.

They wholesale for about a hundred and fifty and worth twice that.

 

[OkeeDon]

Nice, timely posts, because I'm getting close to fabricating and installing two gates. We need the gates because it's the best way to keep our dogs in, more important than keeping people out. One gage will be on my daughter's driveway, about 200' from her house and opening on to the state highway. The other will be on our driveway (next door, but opening on to the side street) about 600' from our house.

They will both be 16', welded aluminum. I was originally going to build 2-8' gates for each driveway with dual openers, but two things changed my plans -- I don't want to spend the extra $$$ for the slave units, and it's easier to install a magnetic locking unit on a single, swinging gate. The downside is that it takes a bit longer to open a single, longer gate.

Harv, I was planning to use the aluminum block hinges from King metal shown in the upper right of this page. I plan to bolt an auminum channel to the posts with one side of the hinge welded to the channel and the other side welded to the gate. I'll use spacers inside the channel to keep the mounting bolts from crushing it. If you have a better solution, I'm more than ready to pay attention to it.

When I first designed the gates, I calculated the weight. I can't seem to put my hands on the figures now, but I recall the total weight was less than 300 pounds - the number 175 keeps popping up in my head, but that might be unrelated. Because of the light weight, I had been planning to use the Mule operators, but your comments have me re-thinking this.

I will have keypads outside both gates and remotes for the family. I'll be trenching power to both gates to operate post lights (and Christmas lights, etc), so operating power won't be a problem. I'll use the low voltage units and a battery with charger so the gates can continue to operate during a power outage.

The next question that occurs is how to most conveniently operate the gates remotely and how to determine who is at the gates. I have some fanciful ideas about using wireless cameras, some sort of intercom, etc. I need to look at the phone-operated system Harv mentioned and see if it can be hooked up to my cell phone, so I can speak to the visitor and operate the gate from anywhere on the property. I suspect it depends on having a hardwired phone and operates internally, and I don't plan to have a landline phone. All I really need is a wireless intercom to the gate so I can give the visitor the "code of the day" to punch in on the keypad. I've thought about chaining a FRS walkie-talkie to the keypad, and carrying another FRS radio in addition to my cell phone. That would work, but seems like extra stuff to carry when I don't expect many visitors who won't have their own "friends" code.

 

[bgott]

Post your cell phone number at the gate, then they can call you. If they don't have a phone with them, let 'em go to town and call. You probably didn't want to let them in anyway. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[bgott]

Thanks. I was gravitating towards the slider because I figured it would be easier than trying to stabilize a pivot post in the muck we have for dirt.

 

[OkeeDon]

<font color="blue"> Post your cell phone number at the gate, then they can call you. </font>


Thunk! (sound made when open hand claps side of head as expression of, "Why didn't I think of that?")

I don't know why I have a penchant for always looking for the hardest solution when such an easy one is so close. That would work for 90% of the people I would expect to want to gain entry. Regular service people, like the meter reader, pool service, etc. will have a code that doesn't change. Close friends and family will have a code, if not a remote. When we throw a party, there will be a "code of the day" on the invitation. The rest can simply call me -- I can't think of anyone who wouldn't have a cell phone.

The only time we will be able to leave the gate open is when the dogs are put up -- our two adopted greyhounds are not good candidates for finding their way home if they get out, nor for wandering onto the state highway. One is too timid, the other too exuberant. We have enclosed the entire 7.5 combined acres with field fence (aka "hog wire" fence around here) to give them all the running room they so enjoy.

 

[wroughtn_harv]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( Harv, I was planning to use the aluminum block hinges from King metal shown in the upper right of this page. I plan to bolt an auminum channel to the posts with one side of the hinge welded to the channel and the other side welded to the gate. I'll use spacers inside the channel to keep the mounting bolts from crushing it. If you have a better solution, I'm more than ready to pay attention to it.)</font>

I recommend the roller bearing hinges here.

I'd weld to the post and have a matching plate welded to the gate for a bolt up situation.

I've got some really heavy gates up out there facing some heavy traffic with those roller bearing hinges and never had a problem.

 

[jinman]

As you can see from my last post, the operator has no shock damping whatsoever. What I'm suggesting to absorb some of the shock is shown in this attachment. I've exaggerated the lengths of the fasteners for illustration. The attaching hardware for the operator would be able to move against the springs and not have a sudden shock to the aluminum cast parts.