This, that, and the other

[mikim]

big trucks and trailers use every inch of that when turning from the 20' wide gravel road
oh yeah ..... I get that -- and even built my entrance for the same reason and problem ...bit of a lapse there ....But I was trying to think of a way to separate the guard from the gate so they don't get in each other's way. It would make for a lot more fence - but if you put the gate 50' in from the road with a really nice big V entrance, then set the guard 50' inside the gate, then you could pull in from the road, open the gate, take your time pulling through the gate, close the gate, then cross the guard that all this time has held the cattle back away from the gate. Would keep them from scratching against it as well.....'Course you'll probably have to re-do your re-do of the drive

 

[EddieWalker]

My entrance is 60 ft off the highway and 25 feet wide. I've had severarl semi trucks with 40 foot trailers in here and they always come close to one or the other gate post. I sometimes wonder if there is such a thing as wide enough because somebody is always gonna cut it close and risk hitting it.

A little off topic, but when talking to owners of RV Parks, the biggest complain that I hear over and over again is that nobody can drive. Too many of them cut the corners too tight when turning and don't realize that thier rear ends will turn even sooner. The longer they are, the worse it is. My Dad has been RVing since the early 1970's and has an allot of miles on them. He's also guilty of cutting corners too close and has had to back out a few times and try it again. It just happens.

My thought on this is to crown the road down the middle and have my drainage ditches wide and shallow. I expect people to hit the road right with the front tires, but know that the back ones will wonder off into the ditches from time to time. Having a wide V at your entrance will solve all your problems if you can get people to aim for the middle of the drive when they make the turn. If they have a flat, smoot way in that they can cut the corner as soon as they get past the first fence post, that's just what somebody will do. It only takes one person to make the mistake and ruin your fence, his vehicle and your day.

At 60 feet off the highway, I'm just barely far enough. 50ft might be a little tight when I have my 16ft trailer on my truck. It's way too short for my parents RV when they are towing thier exporer. When they show up and the gate is closed, they have to park across the road and walk to the gate to open it. 50ft sounds like allot, but it's not. 80 ft is what I should have set mine at and 100 feet would be even better.

Eddie

 

[Bird]

A little off topic, but when talking to owners of RV Parks, the biggest complain that I hear over and over again is that nobody can drive.

That's a fact you can bet the farm on. I got to see lots of interesting accidents and problems in our years of RVing, but the one I got the biggest kick out of was in Virginia Beach when a guy in one of those half million dollar rigs cut too short and ruined one of his basement storage compartment doors against a big oak tree. He got out, looked at it, and said, "Doggone it, that'll cost $5,000 but the worst part is that it'll be in the shop for a month." Someone asked him, "How do you know?" and he said, "Oh, I've done it before."

 

[txdon]

Harvey, I'm not hijacking your thread, I'm the "other".

Pat and Mike, to stimulate my mind more I took a drive in Mike's county and looked at the entrances with cattle guards and gates.

Eddie, I'll see if I can move back a bit more. Thanks!!!!

notes:
#3 is the kind of gate that a man in La Grange was impaled with through his windshield and died.
#8 has no cattle guard but it had big cedar
#11 and 12 are the same - he did the bottom with concrete
#15 cattle guard collapsed under a heavy load??????????

 

[mikim]

Course we've all seen those single pipe gates across cattle guards -- but I guess I wuz thinking you'd need more than that for Harv's "creativity" ....Figgered there'd be a need for MORE SPACE. A simple one like that would make it easier on the opener tho'.

 

[Kyle_in_Tex]

TxDon, I currently don't have any cattle so I don't want a "gate" yet. My entry is "angled", not perpendicular. Maybe 75° or so, it gives an advantage of pulling in from 1 direction but a slight disadvantage from the other direction.

My question to you is, What is the biggest thing you can't think about right now that you may need to get thru the gate later on? Will you be willing to cut the fence if need arises? We were prepared to cut the fence when moving my home in here but with the angled entry, it barely squeezed in mainly limited to the big oak trees that line the entry.

One more question Don, What's going to happen to the "little wheel"???

 

[txdon]

My question to you is, What is the biggest thing you can't think about right now that you may need to get thru the gate later on? Will you be willing to cut the fence if need arises? We were prepared to cut the fence when moving my home in here but with the angled entry, it barely squeezed in mainly limited to the big oak trees that line the entry.

One more question Don, What's going to happen to the "little wheel"???

The biggest thing will probably be a cattle trailer, a tractor trailer, a dozer on a trailer, Lincoln fire truck, furniture moving truck, Ron, Harvey, etc..... wait is this a trick question? "...you can't think about right now..." (your working too hard today)

The little wheel is very popular and may end up on e-bay to pay for this new entrance.

Mike, it will be MORE than a single pipe.

 

[wroughtn_harv]

Glenda sat with me and laughed almost as much as I was, almost. Ya'll are something else.

My rule of thumb is enough of an approach to get your expected combination out of the way of traffic when entering the property.

My truck, Lucy, and the fifth wheel, thirty six foot toy hauler, comes out to be fifty four feet long. That's about two feet longer than the truck with the tractor trailer in tow.

Non permit loads I believe have a length limit of sixty five feet.

The jeep rack I built for the old boy with the Peterbuilt wester hauler was an RV train. When we measured out the combination of the truck, fifth wheel, and jeep he was seventy five feet long. When I questioned him he let me know the cops didn't bother RV'rs.

 

[wroughtn_harv]

Today we rough cut the logs for the entryways.

One of the entryways will have three posts on either side. The other one will have two but it will have branches cradling the overhead.

These are rough cut and you will have to use your imagination a little.

First thing to keep in mind is none of the cedar logs will be touching dirt. The three log variation will have it's uprights on mounded concrete. We'll have a rock dressing around the base to disquise it. The branch logs are shorter and we're going to have their bottoms four feet off the ground.

It might help if you're having difficulty getting the inclination of my angle of the dangle to take 4618 and 4621 and look at them sideways. Keep in mind these are rough cut.

Tomorrow we load them up and take them to their new homes. There the fun will start.

One of the funner things I do in life is play it as it's dealt. If I was a pilot I'd wear a patch that says, "we don't need no stinking gauges!" I fly by the seat of my pants. Posting pictures as we go on a project like this where we're going where few have gone before the way were doing it I hope shares some of the funner fun I enjoy so much.

 

[txdon]

First thing to keep in mind is none of the cedar logs will be touching dirt. The three log variation will have it's uprights on mounded concrete. We'll have a rock dressing around the base to disquise it. The branch logs are shorter and we're going to have their bottoms four feet off the ground.

It might help if you're having difficulty getting the inclination of my angle of the dangle to take 4618 and 4621 and look at them sideways. Keep in mind these are rough cut.

I know it's English, however I think it will make perfect sense by the end of the week.

 

[ronjhall]

My entrance is 60 ft off the highway and 25 feet wide. I've had severarl semi trucks with 40 foot trailers in here and they always come close to one or the other gate post. I sometimes wonder if there is such a thing as wide enough because somebody is always gonna cut it close and risk hitting it.

A little off topic, but when talking to owners of RV Parks, the biggest complain that I hear over and over again is that nobody can drive. Too many of them cut the corners too tight when turning and don't realize that thier rear ends will turn even sooner. The longer they are, the worse it is. My Dad has been RVing since the early 1970's and has an allot of miles on them. He's also guilty of cutting corners too close and has had to back out a few times and try it again. It just happens.

My thought on this is to crown the road down the middle and have my drainage ditches wide and shallow. I expect people to hit the road right with the front tires, but know that the back ones will wonder off into the ditches from time to time. Having a wide V at your entrance will solve all your problems if you can get people to aim for the middle of the drive when they make the turn. If they have a flat, smoot way in that they can cut the corner as soon as they get past the first fence post, that's just what somebody will do. It only takes one person to make the mistake and ruin your fence, his vehicle and your day.

At 60 feet off the highway, I'm just barely far enough. 50ft might be a little tight when I have my 16ft trailer on my truck. It's way too short for my parents RV when they are towing thier exporer. When they show up and the gate is closed, they have to park across the road and walk to the gate to open it. 50ft sounds like allot, but it's not. 80 ft is what I should have set mine at and 100 feet would be even better.

Eddie

Maximum length when towing for trucks and RV's is 65' in most states. Some allow up to 100' without a permit. I will bet your dad is using every bit of that limit. Our little 35' motorhome is 55' with car in tow. Don's may not need 80', but yours should be close if not farther.

 

[Bird]

Maximum length when towing for trucks and RV's is 65' in most states. Some allow up to 100' without a permit. I will bet your dad is using every bit of that limit. Our little 35' motorhome is 55' with car in tow. Don's may not need 80', but yours should be close if not farther.

Yep, when we were living in a 40' motorhome and towing the car, we were over 60' but easily within the 65' limit. My youngest brother and his wife live in a 38' fifth-wheel which he's been pulling with an F350 crew cab, but just bought a new F550 crewcab and didn't want the ones they had in stock with the 60" cab to axle; he ordered one with the 84" cab to axle, so I guess that's an 11' bed on it.

Is that about the length of the bed on Lucy, Harvey? Of course, I know Lucy doesn't have the crewcab, so that keeps her a bit shorter.

 

[jinman]

Is that about the length of the bed on Lucy, Harvey? Of course, I know Lucy doesn't have the crewcab, so that keeps her a bit shorter.

Be careful Bird. Lucy and Ron's motorhome are both Chevy's. They may get all indignant with your comparing them to a Ford.

 

[Bird]

Jim, I know what Lucy is, but didn't know about Roin's motorhome. You know I'm one of those who got a lemon in a Ford once (new 1966 sedan) and there was no way I'd own one for about 25 years, but haven't owned anything but Fords now since October of '91 when I bought that Ford powered motorhome and December of '92 when I bought an Escort to tow behind it. My brother finally got his truck yesterday after the "customization" was done. I expect to get some pictures of it tomorrow.

 

[wroughtn_harv]

Yep, when we were living in a 40' motorhome and towing the car, we were over 60' but easily within the 65' limit. My youngest brother and his wife live in a 38' fifth-wheel which he's been pulling with an F350 crew cab, but just bought a new F550 crewcab and didn't want the ones they had in stock with the 60" cab to axle; he ordered one with the 84" cab to axle, so I guess that's an 11' bed on it.

Is that about the length of the bed on Lucy, Harvey? Of course, I know Lucy doesn't have the crewcab, so that keeps her a bit shorter.

The bed on Lucy came off of another truck. I built it back in middle of 97 and she's help up pretty good. The bed requires a 108" CA (cab to center of axle). The bed overall is thirteen foot long, five feet of toolbox and eight feet of flat bed.

 

[wroughtn_harv]

I know it's English, however I think it will make perfect sense by the end of the week.

Hmmmmmm, Don yesterday I prepared the metal posts for the gates. I needed sixteen feet long six inch pipe posts. They come in twenty four lengths and custom lengths cost extra. So I ordered four twelves and four fours. The welds will be in the eight feet of concrete footer.

I hope this helps.

 

[weldingisfun]

Hmmmmmm, Don yesterday I prepared the metal posts for the gates. I needed sixteen feet long six inch pipe posts. They come in twenty four lengths and custom lengths cost extra. So I ordered four twelves and four fours. The welds will be in the eight feet of concrete footer.

I hope this helps.

Can't wait to see how all this comes together.

 

[txdon]

"...the inclination of my angle of the dangle to take 4618 and 4621 and look at them sideways..." "I hope this Helps."


OHHHH! thats what the numbers mean! Very clever.

I guess with the extra cement I could dig down 8' with with my BH on each side of the cattle guard and cement the 6" pipe. I'd remove the front side of the wings, the cows won't be on that side anyway, and place the post in front of the long mid pipe. That would make the gate opening 16'.

Looking forward to seeing the pictures!!!

(8 feet deep! Are you trying to put the little wheel people out of business)

 

[Bird]

The bed on Lucy came off of another truck. I built it back in middle of 97 and she's help up pretty good. The bed requires a 108" CA (cab to center of axle). The bed overall is thirteen foot long, five feet of toolbox and eight feet of flat bed.

Yep, Harvey, I remember when you moved that bed onto Lucy and had to do a bit of modification. My brother came up from near Waco today. He got his completed truck yesterday, and it's an 11' bed (had to cut the corners off to provide sufficient clearance when turning with the fifth-wheel. I think the new F550s require a little longer bed back beyond the rear axle because the fuel tank is now behind the rear axle. Overall, the truck is about 25' long, and I'll say the 2008 Ford diesel has to be the quietest diesel I've heard. And my brother says this 2008 F550 with the 6.4L diesel and 4.88 differential is definitely more powerful than his 2000 F350 with the 7.3L diesel. But I'm sure glad I don't have to work on those machines. They've pretty well filled up the space under the hood the last few years and I do believe this 2008 model is the fullest I've seen.

 

[scott_vt]

A little off topic, but when talking to owners of RV Parks, the biggest complain that I hear over and over again is that nobody can drive. Too many of them cut the corners too tight when turning and don't realize that thier rear ends will turn even sooner. The longer they are, the worse it is. My Dad has been RVing since the early 1970's and has an allot of miles on them. He's also guilty of cutting corners too close and has had to back out a few times and try it again. It just happens.


Eddie

Evenin Eddie,
Well after three weeks of hauling one wreck after the next, I can assure you that there are a lot of very bad drivers out there ! Im not doing night time recovery, just hauling totaled vehicles from area auto body shops and garages and I never run out of work !

I definitely know what you mean about turning a vehicle that has a large overhang past the rear wheels, because I drive such a vehicle and you have to be very careful !

Harvey, BTW, I loved those cedar stair treads !!! Thanks for all the pics !