missing gates

[poorboy]

Drove to the other end of the farm the other morning before work. I met my herd in the road. Apparently someone thought I really didn't need one of my gates any more. I wired the space up and checked some of the other gates. I had lost one two years ago and when I put in some new gates I had bradded some chains around the bottom. It appears they tried to beat those off also with no luck. All they really had to do was knock off 4 pieces of board and lift them off over the post.
I don't know the value of a hot, used 16 ft. gate, but putting one up is not my favorite thing to do. And replacing one at the sence of being violated makes me even madder. Especially after getting my cows up on the highway. Let alone the liability of livestock on the loose. It was just before the school bus ran by on the second day of school.

If I had access to a portable welder I woul weld nuts on top of the hangers. Thats about all I can think of. Any body have any other Ideas.

Patrick

 

[alco141]

take your welder and put your name on the gates, at least if someone sees them somewhere you might catch the theives.
alex

 

[Egon]

Just Thoughts:

Put some verticals on the gate that will make it very difficult to move on the highway due to its size.

After the gate is in place pour about 200 # of concrete integrated with the hinge post to make it too heavy to lift off the hinges or onto a truck.

Egon

 

[MikePA]

The gates I have use the 'L' shaped hinges. The long leg of the 'L' is threaded for screwing into a wooden post. The short leg is where the gate sits. I point the bottom hinge up, which is standard. I point the top hinge down. This prevents our horses from lifting the gate off it's hinges. The enterprising thief could unbolt the part of the hinge that attaches to the gate, but a few taps from a chisel on the U bolts would prevent that.

This is kind of hard to explain, so I will take a picture when I get home tonight. Nothing can be much cheaper than turning the upper hinge a half turn more and a coupla whacks with a chisel. /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif No need for chains, locks, concrete, additional bolts, etc.

 

[wroughtn_harv]

What a crime Poorboy. You might consider getting some hardened chain and just running it around the hinge post and through the gate and then using a lock. If it's a wood post and you have wood rails you might consider screwing in a good eye bolt into the back side of the post and then running your chain through that.

Keep in mind chances are your thieves are young guys either stealing to sell or stealing to use. It's evident to them that you can afford a new gate and they can't.

So just make it difficult. The number one thing you have to remember about thieves is they are lazy. Make removing the gate work and that's the best security system you can find.

If your post is wood I think I would use the eye screw, not a machine bolt through with a nut, but a screw so the only way to remove it is by unscrewing it. Something you cannot do with a chain through it. I'd also consider putting this chain and lock up high enough so that it's obvious. No sense in wasting their time taking everything apart and then not being able to get the gate after all that effort.

I believe something like this will cure your problem.

After all it's obvious you're dealing with a simple thief./w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif

 

[dourobob]

Sounds like a nice application for the Zena <A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.zena.net>http://www.zena.net</A>. Hard to justify the cost for a couple of gates but ... you never know what the CFO might say /w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif.

 

[dmccarty]

poorboy,

I'm assuming you have a wooden gate post.

My gate is in a PT 6x6. The L hangers for the gate are
screwed into the 6x6 something like 4 inches. I had to use
the large bit I had to drill out the hole to fit the L hangers.
I then used an 18 inch section of pipe to screw the L hangers
into the post. I was not really worried about someone
stealing the gates but I was worried about access so I use
a heavy grade 70 transport chain and a good lock to tie my
two gates togather. But they could still lift the gate off the
L hangers.... /w3tcompact/icons/frown.gif

So I got four wood bolts, big things about the size of the L
hangers and screwed them into the 6x6 just above the L
hangers. Without the pipe and a socket wrench those bad
boys ain't moving. Course someone could just chainsaw
down the post but that is to much work for a lazy thief. I
hope. /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

The two screws/lags are cheap insurance and if they want
to take the gate they are going to have to work hard to
get it....

Hope this helps....
Dan McCarty

 

[Mike_Dumond]

Might be a little militant, but 12 guage with rock salt might solve the problem.

 

[MikePA]

Attached are two pictures of the upper and lower hinges of one of our gates. As you can see, the gate cannot be lifted off the hinges unless you loosen the U-bolt on one of the blue parts of the hinge. To loosen one of the U-bolts would require a socket wrench and an extension. Use a chisel to ruin the threads on the U-bolts and someone would have to be real determined to get the gate.

 

[Egon]

Hacksaws are a wonderfull invention.
Think along the lines of claymore mines!!

Egon

 

[Kodiak]

The invention of the battery powered SawZall has been equivalent to giving thieves a key to the palace.

 

[Ozarker]

If you can't get a welder out there to weld a nut, the next best thing is to cross drill the nut then pin it in place. Put the pin in coated with a liberal amount of JB Weld.

 

[poorboy]

Alco, I thought about identifying the gate some way. It's funny how all gates look the same when up.

Egon, I thought about going vert. but dow in the lot there are 7 more gates and I don't know about how practical it would be.

MikePa, Your right a picture being worth a 1000 words. I might try that approach. Thanks for the picture and all the trouble.

Wroughtn harv, The eye bolt crossed my mind as that I have some telephone pole hardware from the lot post I have been planting. They were locked and chained and they got the lock in a bind and beat it off. Should have sprung for the larger lock but couldn't fin same keyyed locks at the time.

Dmcarty, I may add those no matter what route I choose.

OZARKER, if I had a drill press that would be a good way to go.

violent replies, I thought of those all that morning. I an suprised that no one mentioned an electrical charge in some gross amount.

Thanks for all the ideas and pictures, I know its been said but this is a great place.

Patrick

 

[patrickg]

HMMMM, what a low deed. Well yes there are things that might make gate stealing harder but if it is an area where they won't get caught you probably won't get to take a shot at their tires or...

One thing that came to mind was long life batteries like mercury cells wired to a gravity switch that would set off pyrotechnics if the gate were taken more than, say, 20 degrees out of the vertical plane. You wold have to take it off the hinges to lean it more than 5-10 degrees even if the hinges are pretty sloppy. What pyrotechnics you chose is up to you.

There is a commercially available booby trap that fires a 12 ga blank. It isn't so expensive and you could probably make some yourself. You could load it with the bird chasing shells that scream then explode a hundred feet or so in the air when launched vertically. It could be hidden in a wooden box that looks like part of the gate post or in a hollowed out section or use your imagination. Emergency flares like for a flare pistol that shoot red meteor flares to quite a height come in 12 ga also.

Don't you think they probably work at night? I should think at night all quiet like sneaking around real stealthly like then bang the 12 ga shell goes off and shoots a red flare a couple hundred feet into the air. They just might be in the next county wishing for a change of underwear before they stop to consider what happened.

I could get meaner and I could get a lot more devious but I think this would give you, dare I say it, the most bang for your buck!

Patrick

 

[Kodiak]

How about 4 or 5 Dobermans.

 

[Phred]

Kodiak,

Your right. The good news is that most of the bad guys are not that smart.


I bought some steel pipe ~8 feet long and set it in concrete. I had the company that sold me the pipe cut some holes for the bolt on gate hangers. Then used the JB weld to make it difficult to get the gate off without the sawzall.

However, if I ever need to get it off that battery powered sawzall in the tool box would make quick work of it. I know because the previous owner had used a stick welder in a similar manner to the way I used the JB weld. It took about 5 mins to chop those old hangers off.

I a man could get his hands on a cheap motion activated camera it would sure solve the problem. Maybe you would be lucky enough to get a tag number to share with the deputies.

Fred

 

[wroughtn_harv]

<font color=blue>How about 4 or 5 Dobermans.</font color=blue>

My first thought was along the line of simpathetic hornets living in the nice home provided in the post. And battery powered sawsalls might irritate them just wrong.

If'n you had some pet hornets and a skunk tethered close by that had a real nasty personality it could be funny. Post the skunk along the most obvious path of rapid retreat. It would be a personal invite to swellsmellhell if'n you know what I mean.

 

[Egon]

Poorboy:

Been doing some more contemplateing on the missing gate.

1: any injury promoting devices, if ever activated, will probably give you the privledge of getting free room and board with a nice orange jumpsuit included.

2: Passive recording devices will probably cost more than the gate, may even go with the gate and most likely will not evoke much response from the local law enforcers.

3: Making a gate theft proof is expensive and will not deter a determined thief if the gate is worth stealing. [ read metal cutting saws, wood cutting saws, two large hammers for padlocks, hydraulic bottle jacks and numerous other common tools.]

4: Provide a gate that no will want. eg. a barbed wire gate. Cheap, easy to build, effective but a pain to drag back and forth when opening and closing. It may alleviate your problem.

Egon

 

[dmccarty]

poorboy,

You know what is REALLY interesting about the responses
to your problem? Look at how many different solutions
you received for the same problem.....

Just an observation on the TBN Mental Collective... /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

Later,
Dan

 

[rozett]

This thread has convinved me to buy two sections of jersey barrier and use that as a 'gate' at the remote end of my property. I will move them out of the way with the tractor for the snow mobile trail at first snow.