Cantilevered Driveway Remote Gate

   / Cantilevered Driveway Remote Gate #1  

GuglioLS

Veteran Member
Joined
Feb 13, 2005
Messages
1,143
Location
Edgewood, NM USA
Tractor
Jinma 354, 1953 Ford NAA Golden Jubilee, Komatsu Bulldozer
Pic 1
Overall picture of the gate.

There is a very interesting story behind our gate and where the parts came from. So bear with me. I have 14 pictures to post, please be patient with me and wait for me to post them all.

Once upon a time:
We needed an automatic “Estate” gate to keep our Alaskan Malamutes in and the “un desirables” out. For 20 years my wife and I would stop the car get out open the gate, get back in the car, drive through, stop the car, get back out, close the gate, get back in and drive off OVER AND OVER AGAIN AND AGAIN.

So one day after almost getting struck by lightning - I said to myself – self, enough is enough!

So here is the story behind where the materials came from, now please flash back about 15 years. In our home we have a basement, at one time the only way to get down there was, again to go outside and enter through the Bilco basement door. So – I built a home made elevator (sorry no pics as) it was dismantled to build - guess what THE GATE!
We have since added a garage and now the basement access door if from inside the garage.

Anyway here are the basic details of the gate:

40' long 5' tall gate made out of 2 & 1/2" steel pipe.
Reinforced with 5/8" rebar every 5 feet. The cantilever wheel support posts are 3" dia steel pipe. The holes for the support posts are 4' deep x 12" dia filled with concrete.
The pipe is suspended in the concrete so as to avoid rusting out from the bottom.

This type of gate is “Cantilevered” I.E. suspended by wheels attached to posts and balanced by it’s own weight. The advantage is that it opens & closes no matter how deep the snow gets as it does not touch the ground. The disadvantage is that the gate must be twice a long as you want it to open + about 1-2 feet. And if purchased and installed cost mega bucks about 5 to7 thousand dollars. This was built by me at around 1 thousand.

The remote control electronics are from an automatic garage door opener.
The real trick was to interface those electronics to a more powerful 1.5 hp reversible motor with an electric disk brake and 90* gear reducer to drive the whole thing. Being an Electronics Engineer with access to some “Spare” relays, & SCR’s etc sure helped. The pipe, motor, disk brake and gear reducer are what I “stole” from the elevator.
More…….
 

Attachments

  • 805346-Gate Pic1.JPG
    805346-Gate Pic1.JPG
    66.5 KB · Views: 719
   / Cantilevered Driveway Remote Gate
  • Thread Starter
#2  
Pic 2
Mechanical & Electronics Control Box cover – Fabricated by a duct work sheet metal shop in Albuquerque, NM. Inside is what moves the gate and is cemented into the ground four feet. You might notice the drive chain in the background and the conduit that houses the magnetic limit switches
More…….
 

Attachments

  • 805349-Gate Pic2.JPG
    805349-Gate Pic2.JPG
    88.2 KB · Views: 532
   / Cantilevered Driveway Remote Gate
  • Thread Starter
#3  
Pic 3

Angle view of gate with drive chain, tensioning turnbuckle & Magnet for limit switch.
More…….
 

Attachments

  • 805350-Gate Pic3.JPG
    805350-Gate Pic3.JPG
    88.5 KB · Views: 552
   / Cantilevered Driveway Remote Gate
  • Thread Starter
#4  
Pic 4

View of my home made overhead Power Lines. I had to run power 600 feet from my barn to the gate. The wire came from a spool left over form when the electric company replaced all the power lines & poles out here. It was a trade for some blasting I did for them on a couple of pole holes in solid rock. If I had only started this project when they were out here I could have had “Professional Grade” overhead power lines.
Now that I have a Backhoe I will someday bury them underground.
Please, no questions or comments from the Power Police, NEC Police, Linemen, OSHA, ATF, etc. Unless you want to come out here and help me bury this!
More……
 

Attachments

  • 805351-Gate Pic4.JPG
    805351-Gate Pic4.JPG
    61.1 KB · Views: 436
   / Cantilevered Driveway Remote Gate
  • Thread Starter
#5  
Pic 5

Close up of a “Cantilever” wheel – it has needle bearings that I grease.
More…….
 

Attachments

  • 805352-Gate Pic5.JPG
    805352-Gate Pic5.JPG
    50.2 KB · Views: 409
   / Cantilevered Driveway Remote Gate
  • Thread Starter
#6  
Pic 6

Driveway Alert Transmitter

I work out of a home office and my Wife is a full time homemaker. We need to know when Family, Friends, Neighbors UPS, FedEx & the “un-desirables” show up at our driveway. We installed a Driveway Alert Transmitter with a 1000 foot range. We also have a means of opening & closing the gate from the house as well as with any of our remote transmitters in our vehicles, tractors, ATV’s etc.
More…….
 

Attachments

  • 805353-Gate Pic6.JPG
    805353-Gate Pic6.JPG
    65 KB · Views: 428
   / Cantilevered Driveway Remote Gate
  • Thread Starter
#7  
Pic 7

One of the lower Cantilever support wheels with drive chain tensioning turnbuckles.
More……
 

Attachments

  • 805356-Gate Pic7.JPG
    805356-Gate Pic7.JPG
    95.9 KB · Views: 348
   / Cantilevered Driveway Remote Gate
  • Thread Starter
#8  
Pic 8

1.5 HP Motor, Disc Brake, 90* reducing gear & electronics.
One of the tricks was to get the disk break to disengage prior to starting the motor. I did this with an electronic time delay for the motor. The reason I used a disk break was to stop the gate INSTANTLY when commanded by any of the limit switches or the remote control. There is a large amount of inertia from the motor & the weight of the gate.
More……
 

Attachments

  • 805357-Gate Pic8.JPG
    805357-Gate Pic8.JPG
    97.1 KB · Views: 365
   / Cantilevered Driveway Remote Gate
  • Thread Starter
#9  
Pic 9

Close up of the chain drive sprocket.
More……
 

Attachments

  • 805358-Gate Pic9.JPG
    805358-Gate Pic9.JPG
    90 KB · Views: 304
   / Cantilevered Driveway Remote Gate
  • Thread Starter
#10  
Pic 10

Details of how the drive chain is connected to the ends of the gate.
More……
 

Attachments

  • 805359-Gate Pic10.JPG
    805359-Gate Pic10.JPG
    93.5 KB · Views: 307
 
Top