Mighty Mule Gate Opener Repair - Success

[Soundguy]

Years ago, I purchased a board for my Mighty Mule for about $129. They would not warranty the board, and it didn't last very long.

Just a side note, I have seen some nice gate openers made out of garage door openers, for less money, and the parts are very common.

almost the same deal i heard. no warranty. but they'd sell me the board for 69$ cheaper than the entire kit with motor, and remotes and all.. I decided just to get a new kit and have some extra's and a motor without some miles on it..

have been using parts out of the kit, dogs ate up the reciever one time and the wires to the solar cell..

soundguy

 

[ultrarunner]

After too many gate problems and 3 Mighty Mules later... I no longer have a gate opener.

All had the same issues... the worm would bend. Most likely in each case caused by someone pushing the gate trying to walk through.

 

[J_J]

Interesting idea. I'm having trouble picturing it though. I assume the chain was removed. How did they work transfer force to the gate?

When the auto door opener is mounted on the garage door, it just pushes and pulls the door, so the same principle would work for the garage door opener laying on the side, with both ends mounted solid.

The moving rod would connect to the gate and push/pull.

The entire gate opener should be covered. You would have to work out the correct position on the gate for the torque requirement.

 

[jenkinsph]

My experiences with Mighty Mule gate openers is the same as others have posted. I build iron fences and gates as a sideline and am reluctant to sell these with gate operators because of too many problems. Build a nice gate with good hinges only to have a customer mad at you because of the gate opener. I have given four customers their money back on these Mighty Mule gate openers so far and no longer sell them with my gates.

 

[Soundguy]

After too many gate problems and 3 Mighty Mules later... I no longer have a gate opener.

All had the same issues... the worm would bend. Most likely in each case caused by someone pushing the gate trying to walk through.

that make sme steaming mad when someone pushes my gate open to walk thru, KNOWING it has a gate opener on it...

soundguy

 

[Soundguy]

My experiences with Mighty Mule gate openers is the same as others have posted. I build iron fences and gates as a sideline and am reluctant to sell these with gate operators because of too many problems. Build a nice gate with good hinges only to have a customer mad at you because of the gate opener. I have given four customers their money back on these Mighty Mule gate openers so far and no longer sell them with my gates.

i think some of the problem, at least for consumer instalations, is that people try to go cheap, and get the opener not rated for their gate. MM has about 3 sizes if i recall correctly.. I think people are not using the correct size for their gate length or weight, perhaps hav ethe hinge geometry wrong so it binds a lil, or are pushing / pulling on a slight grade, and not figuring that into the torque / weight specs.

soundguy

 

[jenkinsph]

i think some of the problem, at least for consumer instalations, is that people try to go cheap, and get the opener not rated for their gate. MM has about 3 sizes if i recall correctly.. I think people are not using the correct size for their gate length or weight, perhaps hav ethe hinge geometry wrong so it binds a lil, or are pushing / pulling on a slight grade, and not figuring that into the torque / weight specs.

soundguy

I suspect you are right about that, don't wan't to over work the operator. You also have to get the hinge post plumb and enough concrete to keep it that way, adjust the limits correctly and use an electric latch to reduce wind damage.

I have chosen the heavy duty models and increased radius for the pivot which will decrease the load while slowing down the gate swing speed. That has helped alot but not made them bullet proof.

How much better is the Apollo equipment? I may wan't to try one on my new shop gate to see how dependable these would be. Being able to sell a GOOD operator would be beneficial to me.

 

[Soundguy]

I suspect you are right about that, don't wan't to over work the operator. You also have to get the hinge post plumb and enough concrete to keep it that way, adjust the limits correctly and use an electric latch to reduce wind damage.

I have chosen the heavy duty models and increased radius for the pivot which will decrease the load while slowing down the gate swing speed. That has helped alot but not made them bullet proof.

How much better is the Apollo equipment? I may wan't to try one on my new shop gate to see how dependable these would be. Being able to sell a GOOD operator would be beneficial to me.

on my MM I also installed a seperate post for the operator to hinge on, and lef the gate post by itself, then i bound those 2 posts together with 3 pieces of 5/8 allthread studd and double nuts. both posts concreted.

I like tube gates since I have horses. way less wind drag than a panel gate. I also see alot of decorative iron gates on these controllers.. and wheile they meet the 'length' criteria.. I know they are over the weight limit.. thus more inertia problems for the worm.

The apollo equipment is supurb.

More or less easy to install, You can buy component parts, like the board in the controller box, the box/enclosure itself ( has nice seal, place for battery, push button overide and key bypass / lockout. the motor's are very HD.. we swing 20' steel gates on them in push or pull. the one at our rock mine is a 20' chainlink gate, and it is in a pull configuration, and due to grade, pulls UP hill at about a 25' angle..

rf rcvr is a seperate replaceable unit.. can use a variety of rf keypads or wired keypads, as well as hand held xmitters ( NOT MM compatible ).

overall.. they are the best gate openers I've dealt with.

I sometimes have to put them up on jobs in a solar confituration, and over the years have installed them at the owners hous(es), and at our mine and work locations.

the only issues I ever have to go out on service calls are for:

dead battery in a keypad

car hit the fence / gate, repair / repalce parts as needed.

tree dropped right onto the pc board enclosure making it a neat looking pice of scrap metal with a crushed battery, charger, and bits of circuit board and wire hanging out. incedentally, this knocked the gate post over at a 45' angle, and swung the gate stickin into the air on a complex angle with the worm as part of the short right triangle down near the base..

worm worked fine after that.. had to splice the multi wire harness from it as the tree cut the whip 3' from the motor, and a new whip was a bit much, especially since I was buying a new board, enclosure, xcvr battery and charger and was on a budget.. whip would have been another 75$, replaceable at motor housing.

I highly reccomend them...


soundguy

 

[jenkinsph]

on my MM I also installed a seperate post for the operator to hinge on, and lef the gate post by itself, then i bound those 2 posts together with 3 pieces of 5/8 allthread studd and double nuts. both posts concreted.

I like tube gates since I have horses. way less wind drag than a panel gate. I also see alot of decorative iron gates on these controllers.. and wheile they meet the 'length' criteria.. I know they are over the weight limit.. thus more inertia problems for the worm.

The apollo equipment is supurb.

More or less easy to install, You can buy component parts, like the board in the controller box, the box/enclosure itself ( has nice seal, place for battery, push button overide and key bypass / lockout. the motor's are very HD.. we swing 20' steel gates on them in push or pull. the one at our rock mine is a 20' chainlink gate, and it is in a pull configuration, and due to grade, pulls UP hill at about a 25' angle..

rf rcvr is a seperate replaceable unit.. can use a variety of rf keypads or wired keypads, as well as hand held xmitters ( NOT MM compatible ).

overall.. they are the best gate openers I've dealt with.

I sometimes have to put them up on jobs in a solar confituration, and over the years have installed them at the owners hous(es), and at our mine and work locations.

the only issues I ever have to go out on service calls are for:

dead battery in a keypad

car hit the fence / gate, repair / repalce parts as needed.

tree dropped right onto the pc board enclosure making it a neat looking pice of scrap metal with a crushed battery, charger, and bits of circuit board and wire hanging out. incedentally, this knocked the gate post over at a 45' angle, and swung the gate stickin into the air on a complex angle with the worm as part of the short right triangle down near the base..

worm worked fine after that.. had to splice the multi wire harness from it as the tree cut the whip 3' from the motor, and a new whip was a bit much, especially since I was buying a new board, enclosure, xcvr battery and charger and was on a budget.. whip would have been another 75$, replaceable at motor housing.

I highly reccomend them...


soundguy

Thanks for the good read Soundguy, I will check into the Apollo line of gate openers.

 

[FLHayman]

I once made a gate opener with a garage door opener, and it worked fine. The control head had to have a little cover built over it, since it wasn't weatherproof. I mounted it on it's side, and most importantly, it was a type I don't see very often that has an extruded aluminum travel path with a nylon or plastic tape inside that moves back and forth. That way it didn't need lubing constantly due to rain washing the oil away.

In another place, I installed the mighty mule type. I was into C band satellite dishes, and noticed that the actuators were virtually the same, other than the motor voltage. Had 3 board failures, all were presupposed to be lightning damage, despite being grounded to a ground post. But we do get a lot of lightning in Florida.

Now, I use one of those industrial actuators that has a heavy duty pulley drive, old fashioned cams and limit switches inside a weatherproof box. It has run with only 1 drive belt change in 12 years. The keypad has a modem and fancy features, and is showing it's age, but the moving parts somehow keep on going. It's been years since I bought it, but it was about 4 times the price of the mighty mule type at the discount store.