help with gate design

weldlady · Jul 10, 2016

Hi Everyone,

I have an arbor part way into my driveway, about an eighth of a mile from the house. I've always wanted to do something decorative and functional here, as its the entry into my residence. The standard eight foot gates that a person can buy in a farm store are too short, a ten footer is too long, and I don't really care for the look of one ten and one eight foot gate.

The posts on the arbor are sixteen feet and eight inches apart. I am thinking two gates that are a full eight feet in length and four foot high. I have inch and seven eighths schedule forty pipe and premade ninety degree corners that I can use.

I am thinking that one day I may have an automatic opener on these gates so that may play into the design, and they will need to be able to be locked in some fashion.

I would like to ask the tractorbynet community for some creative design ideas.

Thanks in advance.

CreekyB · Jul 10, 2016

I would consider a sliding gate if your property is level enough for it. Only one gate controller needed and the sliding controllers tend to last a bit longer than swing controllers.

flyerdan · Jul 10, 2016

It looks like you have some lag hinges already in the post for gates that were there at one time. I have an Excel spreadsheet that generates cut lists for tube gates, I could give you a cut list but it would be for nipped and welded joints, not prefabbed 90's. For that size of material, you need two bays in each leaf with truss rods to true it up; that's a considerable moment arm.

A roll gate would require setting additional posts to support the rail it tracks on and it needs a fairly good surface for the ground wheel to run on so it tracks true. The real setup would be a cantilever gate; that requires 2 posts for the 4 rollers it runs on but they roll super easy and track straight, at least the ones I built did. The drawbacks on these is that they would be behind the large wooden posts so the gate would be noticeably offset behind the existing structure, where a swing gate would be centered.

KYErik · Jul 11, 2016

I vote for the siding gate idea that Creeky B suggested. Wind and snow can really mess with motorized swinging gates. I had a 12 footer across my driveway (motorized swing type).

weldlady · Jul 23, 2016

Thanks for the thoughts everyone. I've thought of the sliding gate, but I don't think it will work for me. I had a snafu when this was put in six years ago. The two upright posts are canted from each other rather than in a direct line of being straight across. This came into being because in the drilling of one hole, I hit a boulder, so the hole was moved thus moving the layout of the arbor. A sliding gate may not work because it won't track directly behind one side or the other. Still open to other suggestions to solve this.

Qapla · Jul 23, 2016

If you swing one gate in and the other one out you could add a decorative panel to the open side of each gate. The panels would take up the empty space in the center while also providing a way to lock the two gates together

JerryK · Jul 23, 2016

Have to think about snow depths and how you plan to keep the gates working during the winter months.. Both sliding and swinging have their own set of good/bad points as far as snow depth/snow clearing.

Al Mac · Jul 24, 2016

I have swinging gates on my driveway. Being in Canada we get feet of snow and it is not a issue for me. The gates are about 6 inches of the ground so it takes a good storm to block them. They also swing in so I can clean up to them after a storm.
I bought my own parts for the operator with the thought if something breaks I just need to replace that part from

the local stores.
It has been in operation for 5 years now and like it.

Al

lennyzx11 · Jul 24, 2016

weldlady said:
Thanks for the thoughts everyone. I've thought of the sliding gate, but I don't think it will work for me. I had a snafu when this was put in six years ago. The two upright posts are canted from each other rather than in a direct line of being straight across. This came into being because in the drilling of one hole, I hit a boulder, so the hole was moved thus moving the layout of the arbor. A sliding gate may not work because it won't track directly behind one side or the other. Still open to other suggestions to solve this.

Could you track from the inside of one directly to the offset post on the other side with a slider? This would take away from the appearance of the gate being "behind" the fence.

seaneastok · Jul 24, 2016

lennyzx11 said:
Could you track from the inside of one directly to the offset post on the other side with a slider? This would take away from the appearance of the gate being "behind" the fence.

:thumbsup:

Morning Lenny..That was what I was thinking also
Sean

lennyzx11 · Jul 24, 2016

seaneastok said:
:thumbsup:

Morning Lenny..That was what I was thinking also
Sean

Morning to you Sean.

I saw one in Ontario last winter (slider).
The gentleman had fastened an ordinary plow share on the back end of the gate. A la locomotive cow catcher. It would flip the snow away from the rail and chain. Said it works really well as long as snow doesn't melt and refreeze.

kirkawilson · Jul 24, 2016

Here is an unusual one: Wooden Fence Lifts Upon Entrance - YouTube

franklin2 · Jul 25, 2016

What you have now is all wood. I would think to keep that theme going whatever you build needs to be wood to match. Unless you want the old "farm" look with store bought metal tube or flat galvanized gates.

If you want something fancy and nice made out of metal, I think I would rip out what you have and take out 8 or 10 feet of the wooden fence on either side and fill it back in with metal that will match the metal gate. This would also give you the opportunity to incorporate a sliding mechanism into one or both sides if you wanted that style gate.

flyerdan · Jul 25, 2016

If you want to continue the 4 rail look, make the frames out of 1.5" square galvanized tubing. I've made tons of those frames, mostly for dogear fence boards but rails would work, just need to run some .125" or .1875" flat stock about 6" wide vertically to anchor the rails to at the ends and a couple in the middle. I'd go with the 1.875" round hinge posts, and make them 7+ feet high, that way you can run a truss rod or cable to the ends to true them up and support the extra weight. From the pictures, it looks like there might be about a 9 inch bias; that need to be measured and built in so one leaf won't be noticeably higher than the other.

Cord · Jul 25, 2016

If you could bend the top rail so the pole side is taller you'd create a more graceful design.

erda · Jul 26, 2016

kirkawilson said:
Here is an unusual one: Wooden Fence Lifts Upon Entrance - YouTube

That is very interesting. Have to wonder how long it would last-seems like a lot of stress put on it when it "bounces" open and closed. I'd love to have better understanding of the mechanism.