ROPS TOO TALL FOR GARAGE DOOR

[kbm3]

WOW!!! I certainly opened the proverbial "can-o-worms" on this question! I have been out of town for a day and have not had a chance to check the posts......and there were a LOT! OK, first off, my tractor is a NH 1520 (97) and yes it is factory welded at the base of the ROPS, where it bolts to the fenders. My garage has an overhead door, that is not adjustable enough to gain the extra height that I need. Could I lower the floor? Not without a lot of expense, but not impossible I suppose. Letting the air out would be good for winter storage, but I use the tractor all year. I will investigate the possibilities of a factory folding ROPS option, but I doubt there was one on this unit. Thanks for all the input guys! Believe me, I value my life, and the life of others, and will not do anything without a LOT of fore thought, and hard calculation! Now its time to venture outside and prepare for the snow storm bearing down on us! Later guys!

 

[MikeBurr]

Had the same problem with my door. It is an overhead rollup door with NO door opener. I found that by opening the door and then using a long stick in the side of the door, I could push the door up the extra 2 inches that I needed to get the tractor thru the door. Stick in the door and problem solved. The hard part is remembering to put the stick in the door.... /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif

 

[Bob_K]

It so happens that a friend of mine had the same problem. After looking into the purchase of a new folding ROP, We found out that there was'nt a option for that tractor. So the next thing was to cut and weld it. After going to 5 or 6 welding house's no one would or want to touch it. And I dont blame them.
At this point we sat down at the kithcen table made a pot of coffie and tried to come up with a salution. Here is what we did.
We desided to raise the Garage 2 feet. We only needed to raise it 2 inch's to fit the tractor in. Due to the cost of ordering a speacial garuge door to make up the 2 inch's made us go to the 2 foot raise of the hole garage. After making the 2 foot sub walls and adding another section on garage door, We rasied the building installed the sub walls and added the new section of the garage door. It took a full day to due this but the cost was only $400 give or take a few buxs.
I due belive this was the best way to make this work. And it may or may not work for you, But for us it was the best solution. A plus to this we could add aditional lights to the top of the ROP now and still had room to get in and out of the garage door.

My 2 cents of this or was that $400 of my friends $$$'s

 

[DirtHauler]

If your ROPS clears the garage header but not the door and you have the "standard" roll up door, you can purchase what they call "high lift" door tracks. What this does is raise the door closer to the ceiling when open by about a foot or more (you may have to add a panel) and if you need to, you could easily modify or raise the garage header.
Just another idea /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[JerryT]

The door was on a 24 x 24 steel building that I had built. I came standard with and 7 x 10 roll-up (commercial type) and the guy that sold it to me got me an 8 x 10 roll-up and was suppose to come back and get the old door (had only been in use a few months). He never did. Actually, in looking at my records he only charged me $100 for the foot taller door as an up-grade. I would call him every once-in-awhile to remind him about the door. Then one day I called and he was out of business (no wonder). I don't know this size door would usually cost because the 7 x 10 was included in the original building.

 

[keeney]

The factory ROP's probably has more than just theoretical engineering calcs done to determine if it will work. From my days at Toro, I recall that the certification process included actual roll-over testing of prototype tractor/ROPS assemblies whenever the ROPS design was significantly changed. At least I assumed that is why they were always tipping over the machines on a big tip-table.

So, if you make or modify your own ROPS design, you should push your tractor over (using a tilt-table or a big forklift or something and with sandbags in the place of the operator) and make sure the ROPS holds up. Do this sideways and in the back-flip direction.

In the story concerning the boy who was killed, testing the ROPS in a back-flip would have saved him - they would have realized that the tractor mounts were missing some critical parts!

- Rick

 

[Soundguy]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( The factory ROP's probably has more than just theoretical engineering calcs done )</font>

I think we can all safely agree that is a 'given'.. otherwise with out evidence.. you can't go from theoretical to certified! /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Soundguy