Yes, I do have plans for a pedestrian gate, but it's a little tight. Will be a 38" opening or so.

I'm gonna hang it off the corner post, so need to weld a couple braces in (red). Also planning on fabricating a metal tubular frame (blue) and hanging it off the post with some bulldog hinges (green).

This thread makes me feel slightly incapable.

Kenneth_2003 said:

---

one MEEN Ag said:

---

This looks super impressive, but I still can't figure out whats really going on here.

Is the sliding gate supposed to replace your back fence as well as act as a driveway gate? So either the driveway or the backyard is open to the street?

---

I think it added the driveway to OPS's backyard space

---

Ohh okay. There was a fence separating the driveway from the backyard. Driveway was open to street. Putting this gate at the end of the driveway allows them to take that fence down and bring the driveway 'into' the backyard space. There is still going to be a fence from the backyard to the street. Gate rolls either in front of or behind that fence.

Thanks for the help.

Yes, that's correct. The reason for 2 is that the track has to be perfectly level to use more, otherwise the gate will kind of rock as it moves over uneven terrain and jumps from wheel to wheel. My property bows just slightly, so only the outer two wheels would be in contact anyway.

As for design, two is completely adequate. I figure this gate weighs 1500lbs or so, and these are 4000lb wheels each. Also, each wheel is about 1/4 of the way in, so half of the weight is between the wheels, and the other half is outside the wheels. This helps keep the load balanced and it doesn't sag in between wheels much.

The only real benefit at this point to more wheels is that it can help with deflection performance against any wind, and I've just beefed up the steel design to mitigate that.

Electrical Engineering.

I can post some more details on cost later if you want, but I think for my design, it'd be more like $20k to contract out for the gate (not including rest of the fencing). My neighbor put in a smaller gate for about $10k, but there was no driveway mods, they didn't paint it, and the frame and opener are definitely lighter duty.

My FIL had one out on his farm, really a no-brainer after flipping it with people.

Some more cost info for the gate materials:
- Concrete (includes forms, sand, rebar, mixer) - $1400
- Metal for gate - $1800
- Opener & Accessories - $2400
- Gate hardware (rollers, wheels, track, anchors) - $800
- Paint/Booth - $300
- Welding Supplies (gas, wire, sanding disks) - $400
- Cutting out & Hauling off Concrete - $250 - proud to say this is the only labor I've paid for on this whole project
- Wood (just for gate) - $1000
- Hardware - $100
- Tools/consumables - $250

Total - $8700 - I'm just taking a stab at labor being a little over 1:1 to materials. It could be more for all I know.

ETA - I've got no problem with craftsmen/contractors who are paid for their work and expertise. There's just something to be said for learning and doing it yourself.

Thata awesome. I hope you're proud of yourself. I sure as hell would be.

I've got some more fencing to work on, but for all intents and purpose, the gate is complete.

Pedestrian gate frame (I know it looks small, but it's 78" tall and 40" wide):


From the inside:


With wood:


Final shot:

Bravo, man. Bravo.

Everything has been wrapped up for a few months - just wanted to add a few thoughts for anyone who considering a gate like this in the future if they come across this thread.

First of all, the kids love the extra space. Really great to see them play out in the backyard all the time. Secondly, the security of a taller and privacy fence has been awesome, especially for my wife. I leave my garage doors open a lot more, our young kids can go out and bike around on the driveway more, etc. with no worries. The benefits have been money well spent.

Lessons learned:

• My neighbor has had issues with his operator being close to the gate. When it rains, the wood swells and it drags. We offset ours 4", which had some challenges with the supports, but worth it.
• I scrutinized over the slope of the track so that I could have a really low profile bottom. It's worked, but I'm afraid that in the future some settling will cause it to drag on spots on the ends and I'll have to cut a little bit of metal out. Having seen it in action, I probably would have used a slightly smaller member, or offset it so that it wouldn't be at risk for contacting the peak of the track.
• I should have put extra conduits in before pouring concrete just to have more options. This was especially boneheaded because I know better in my professional background, but I was under the gun to get concrete poured. Nothing bad, but I could have saved myself a headache or two.
• I'm very happy with the extra money spent on a nicer operator. It's quiet, got great app support (can open/close the gate remotely, or check the status) and has a lot of power.
• It was worth the effort to scrutinize the opening and size, and make the gate as wide as I could. I feel like I used every inch at my disposal, but there are no issues with vehicles making turns, etc. because of the time spent measuring and drawing it out.
• Conversely, because the gate is so wide, it takes a few seconds for it to open when parking in the double door. I do wish there was an internet based opener so I could easily open it from further away. Might be a good arduino project for another day.
• Footers for the fence took a lot of time and effort, but I think it was worth it.
• Someone suggested an ice dam cable under the track to melt snow in the winter. Haven't weather tested it yet, but I think it will come in handy with that first snow storm. Was definitely easier to install up front.
• Pedestrian gate has been really nice.
• I let the wood dry in the garage for as long as I could, and then stained it immediately before screwing on. Screws took forever... but I'm glad to be able to remove pickets in the future if needed. It wasn't fun, but glad we didn't have to stain after installing. Used a metric ****ton of stain, though. Would have used a different tape measure, my good one is all covered in gunk now.
• Spending the time to do it right is totally worth it. This project took a LOT of time, thought, effort, and energy. Wouldn't have done that part any differently.

If you're thinking about it for yourself, go for it. The yard size has always been the weakest part of our property, and I feel like for relatively little cost, we doubled our backyard space.

Here's a few final shots to show off the space increase, and just show-off the final install.

See the increased yard space:


From another angle - don't judge the lawn :-) I've had a hard time reestablishing in the heat.


Another pedestrian gate:


Gate closed:


Gate open:


Final shot (the lighting was just much better in this than my last post):

The amount of time, effort, planning, and patience that went into this is hard for me to comprehend. Incredible job.

I'm happy to report that the track heater works! We got a good 4-5" snow this morning, so I flipped the switch to see how well it would melt down the snow. If you live in a cold area, and put in a gate, it's a great feature to make sure you don't get stuck: