How do you build an auto mechanical gate

[btolle]

When I was about 40 years younger a lot of folks in West Texas had bump gates. I knew a fella who had a nice piece of chrome pipe welded to the bumper of a brand new Pontiac Grand Prix to open his with. He also happened to have a chrome plated 12 GA pump shotgun mounted on the headliner. Rich West Texans go first class.

Texas bump gate instructions Down at the bottom of the page.

Bigger picture includes dimensions Incidentially, the reference to "sucker rod" is not a reference to Non-Texans, it is the rod used in oil wells that runs the pump up and down.

And for those who might be interested here is an interesting article on Artificial Insemination in the Boer Goat on the same website.

Finally, the outfit in Australia does sell in the US. They have a kit you can buy to build a bump gate, see Bump Gate Information

If you look at the top of that page you can click on a link that will show you a movie of a bump gate in action.

Bill Tolle

 

[ns_in_tex]

Don,

Security is not of concern to me at this location. I do have an electric gate on my front entrance. This would just be a gate to an area I travel through a lot with tractors, ETC.

You are probably right, I should just go ahead & buy one. I have forgotten, but I think the price was maybe in the $400.00 range and the complete kit only weighs 35 lbs.
Thats only 11.42 per lb, maybe 15.00 per lb by the time I get it here. Probably a bargain if it works as advertised.

I just have this small problem, aptly described by harv as SICK MIND. I see something (most but not all) in this case, and say, hey I could build that in a couple hours out of junk around the place, and the juices start flowing. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[ns_in_tex]

Thanks Bill for the info.

I think I might qualify as the poor east texan. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Maybe I could collect ideas here, mix them together, and come up with a East Texas Bump gate.

Do you happen to know if that is 2 individual chains, or 1 long chain looped at the gate to slip? Also what purpose does it serve? Does it put some pull when the gate is open, to start the closing? On one picture, it appears to have some slack in it, in the closed position.

I was thinking of a lighter gate also, maybe a 16' cattle panel with a tubing frame. Maybe a latch & trigger system, similar to the Austrailian gate.

 

[wroughtn_harv]

The bottom hinge pieces are the key Neil. I've looked online for the chainlink version and haven't seen one. Double doggone darn!

Here's the premise. If the bottom hinge is inboard of the swing side the gate will rise because it's going up as it swings out.

Fencemen have taken advantage of this principle for years. It's the best self closing mechanism available. Gravity doesn't wear out. So the most common usage is for gates around swimming pools. It's also nice to use when the gate has to open in a direction and grade is an impediment.

Doors in commercial buildings will use this principle as do refrigerator manufacturers.

But in your bump gate you need to open up and out both directions. This is only possible if the top hinge takes the weight. AND the bottom hinge is a fork and slot configuration.

Think of a hand rake for turning soil in a garden or flowerbed. The one that's at every hardware store for the old maids to use. It usually has three tines.

Let's remove the middle tine, cut off the handle. You now have a minature example of the gate side of the hinge.

Let's take a piece of plate and weld or bolt it to the post. We cut in two arc'd slots that match the tines on your fork er uh gate hinge.

When the gate is opened the inboard side of tine--gate pin will pick up the weight of the gate and the outboard pin will swing out of it's slot. And of course vice versa when the gate is opened the other direction.

The offset is critical. If it's too far out of line it will be hard to open and come swinging home with a vengence. If it's not offset enough the gate won't close.

I had an interesting idea come up out of nowhere (ain't that the way it always is?). Let's say you have a catch latch to hold the gate open. And you want a way to release it allow the gate to close. I was thinking of maybe a fulcrum lever combination that you could activate by driving over it as you go past. It wouldn't matter if you drove over it when the gate's closed etc.

One extremely important thing to consider on this kind of gate. Cattle must not be fed close by. That's just begging for trouble.

If you still have questions don't be afraid to ask. I'm good with ideas. I'm just not good at expressing them. So if you have a question it's not because of you, it's because of me.

 

[ns_in_tex]

Hey, Thanks Harv

I think you made it soak in for me.
The slots in the slotted plate on the bottom hinge, post side are open all the way to the gate side, so one pin actually comes out of the slot when gate is opened. Correct me if I am wrong.

That sounds ultra simple.

Sounds like your gate latch release might not be so bad either.

Now for a 16' lightweight gate, how should the gate post be put in to make it steadfast? I am not sure if I will hit clay or have deep sand.

 

[wroughtn_harv]

Morning Neil. It sounds like you got it. On that top hinge you can probably get away with a half inch rod end bearing. Some time back I went everywhere trying to find some "heim joints" as we called them in race car construction. I drew a blank everywhere. Then a good old boy looked at me with a quizzical look and said it sounded like I wanted a rod end bearing. /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif

If you're going to use a wood post I suggest you build it with plates so that you can shim or adjust the gate as required.

On the hold it open while you drive through catches. I've got a better idea. How about pneumatics?

An air line from the catch to a rubber pillow buried in the drive so that when a vehicle drove over it's activate the latch. Sure be a lot easier to install. /forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif

 

[btolle]

From the picture at Bump Gate there are 2 separate chains holding the gate up. The chain on the opened side would be slack and the chain on the entry side would be pulling the gate closed.

I would definitely recommend using pipe. Wood will warp over time because of the weight of the gate.

There is also a note about welding a couple of pieces of pipe at the bottom of the upright to keep it from turning in the dirt. I would think that 4 pieces 90 degrees apart would be better. The pieces that are parallel to the gate would help to keep the post from sagging toward the gate and the pieces perpindicular to the gate would keep it from leaning from side to side.

The biggest factor against using a lightweight panel style gate is that the wind might keep it from closing or could even possibly let it blow open in a heavy gust. The panels catch a lot of wind. A pipe gate doesn't catch as much wind and is heavy enough that the wind will not move it.

If you wanted to use a panel gate you could use a "rising butt hinge" made like the hinge shown on the drawing. You put a butterfly latch on each side with a roller or eye bolt on top of the fence post, set posts on the drivers side of entry and exit of the gate, put a roller on top of that post, and run some sash chain from the latch through the rollers and down to a weight on the end of the chain so you could reach out and pull it to release the latch as you pushed on the gate.

Butterfly Latch shows a latch for a chain link fence that should give you an idea of what type of latch I am tryng to describe. You would need for the butterfly latch to be weighted enough to overcome the weight of the sash chain setup.

On a windy day you might have to get out and close the gate by hand.

BTW, I would have an assistant standing by the first few times you go through it to catch the gate if you happen to go through too slowly and it tries to swing back into your vehicle side.

Bill Tolle

 

[ns_in_tex]

Harv

Your rubber pillow sounds great.

Is this something you are aware of for this purpose?

I did a quick google search, but didn't find what I think would be needed.

An alternate method might be a driveway bell, with electric solenoid. There I am back to electricity /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif

 

[chucko]

Gates are easy...look at who ever is riding with you and say "grab that gate" after a while you will not have to say a thing

 

[Brad_Blazer]

The Aussie gate loooks like a pretty clever design with these key features:

/forums/images/graemlins/wink.gifGravity operated self closing. A simple solution only touched on so far is to have the hinge axis leaning slightly toward the gate when closed. That allows the use of plain hinges.


/forums/images/graemlins/wink.gifA spring loaded bump latch mechanism that doesn't unlatch until the spring has enough energy to open the gate, taking most of the guesswork out of driving speed.

/forums/images/graemlins/wink.gifHold-open latches that release after a set time. Maybe they use a spring with heavy damping in one direction like you find on a cheap door closer. The energy of the swinging gate closes the latch and compresses the spring. The adjustable damper then slowly allows the spring to open the latch. The latch might be a kind of pivoting c-shaped hook like you see on car doors.