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Solar Powered Gate Opener recommendations

Duc

Red Skull Member
Joined
May 30, 2020
Member Number
1679
Messages
396
Loc
ABQ NM
I'm in need of a solar powered gate opener for a 17ft long swing gate for my driveway.

Something similar to this to stop people from turning around my driveway. One day someone will hit my cars and leave without caring.
1677353460095.png



Plan so far for gate
4x4in 1/2in wall square tubing
6ft in ground with 4ft above ground
2 Cu yards of concrete for the tubing due to sandy soil

Gate will be made from 2" x 2" x 1/8" tubing

For now the gate wont be used for stopping a idiot dead in his track but more stop them from turning around in driveway.

Any recommendations?
 
I’m sure it’s now what you’re looking for, but..

Somewhere I saw a gate mounted on a..

Medium Duty truck rear axle, standing vertical, the housing was mounted solid, the gate was hung off the hubs and had a motor on the pinion.

No idea where it was but would go back to get more details if I could.

TLDR: cool story bra:homer:
 

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My impression is mighty mule seems like it’s kinda ….. happy homeowner grade and my Apollo was a little more …. Industrial maybe the right term
 
Watching this thread and learning. I'll be needing a solar powered opener with about 1,000' range after I get the house built, and make a double gate.
 
just had to take a Mighty Mule apart last night so I could actually leave visiting family last night, gate opened about 4' and quit

not really impressed with them
good thing they are stupid easy to get around, kind of defeats the purpose of installing them in the first place :laughing:
 
BDK said:
Affirmative, driveway is a little over 1,000' long. Your recommended gate's opener has a 1/2 mile range from a wifi source.
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My front gate to front door is approximately 330yds (990ft). We have a keypad at the front gate, but we rarely give out a access code. Any family that wander back already have remotes, but those only have a range of maybe fifteen yards. I have never looked into the wifi possibilities.

The inner gate can be opened from the front porch with a remote.
 
smurfblue40 said:
My front gate to front door is approximately 330yds (990ft). We have a keypad at the front gate, but we rarely give out a access code. Any family that wander back already have remotes, but those only have a range of maybe fifteen yards. I have never looked into the wifi possibilities.

The inner gate can be opened from the front porch with a remote.
Click to expand...
Why two gates? Keep livestock away from the house?

My house design doesn't have a formal entry, so the gate will be the entry.
 
BDK said:
Watching this thread and learning. I'll be needing a solar powered opener with about 1,000' range after I get the house built, and make a double gate.
Click to expand...
You'll have far better luck extending the network to the gate than relying on gate opener manufacturer's very optimistic wireless ranges.

whether that's a PTP wireless setup or fiber or whatever.

if it were me, I'd run fiber down to the gate. Be bombproof and have all the bandwidth you'd need for things like an access point down there so you could setup cameras or whatever. Probably cost you a grand.
 
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To the OP, either build a gate that will stop a vehicle from crashing through or build a light duty deterrent. Anything in between is waste of money. What I’m referring to is your plan for a gate is more heavy duty than it needs to be for your goals, but not HD enough to really stop someone from driving in.

A cheap farm gate and a Mitty mule will do fine for you.
 
BDK said:
Why two gates? Keep livestock away from the house?
Click to expand...
We used to have goats on the property. The second gate was to help wrangle the herd into a smaller space when needed. The original inner gate was manual, I scored major points with Mrs when I rebuilt it. The inner gate is used mainly to keep the man-eater from going down to the road now.
 
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dave_dj1 said:
How often are these people using your driveway to turn around and why are they using it?
Click to expand...

Somewhat upgraded picture of why people are turning around. They dont realize the road ends or are just idiots. Probably more on the later point. My driveway is the red X.
1677467895805.png

WaterH said:
To the OP, either build a gate that will stop a vehicle from crashing through or build a light duty deterrent. Anything in between is waste of money. What I’m referring to is your plan for a gate is more heavy duty than it needs to be for your goals, but not HD enough to really stop someone from driving in.

A cheap farm gate and a Mitty mule will do fine for you.
Click to expand...
I wanted to build a gate to take a semi but there is questions if I would be responsible if someone died or waste alot of money defending. I already have the metal and a new welding table to test out. The gate will at least built exactly how I want if I build it. 1in aircraft cable will take care of most vehicles or I thought about building a tiling gate bar that interlocked into a post on the other side if I was allowed to stop the vehicle in a fun way.

M92PV4U said:
Get a new job and new family.



Scratch that keep job and family, make family get out and open the gate.
:laughing:
Click to expand...
So I would be getting out. I know my wife


Alot of good ideas for products that wont break the bank. I dont mind leaving a gate opener in my car compared to a garage door opener. Always surprised people will leave them in the car when the car registration has the home address. Gate opener will only give access to driveway.
 
Duc said:
Somewhat upgraded picture of why people are turning around. They dont realize the road ends or are just idiots. Probably more on the later point. My driveway is the red X.
1677467895805.png
Click to expand...


Put up some fucking chevrons then. No moving parts, lower maintenance, cheaper, possibly free if you steal from the people who steal from you.
 
Duc said:
Somewhat upgraded picture of why people are turning around. They dont realize the road ends or are just idiots. Probably more on the later point. My driveway is the red X.

I wanted to build a gate to take a semi but there is questions if I would be responsible if someone died or waste alot of money defending. I already have the metal and a new welding table to test out. The gate will at least built exactly how I want if I build it. 1in aircraft cable will take care of most vehicles or I thought about building a tiling gate bar that interlocked into a post on the other side if I was allowed to stop the vehicle in a fun way.


Alot of good ideas for products that wont break the bank. I dont mind leaving a gate opener in my car compared to a garage door opener. Always surprised people will leave them in the car when the car registration has the home address. Gate opener will only give access to driveway.
Click to expand...

My gate opens out and is caught by hooks on another post. Still it won’t stop a car if they are not worried about some body rash.

I don’t leave the registration in the car.
 
Duc said:
I wanted to build a gate to take a semi but there is questions if I would be responsible if someone died or waste alot of money defending. I already have the metal and a new welding table to test out. The gate will at least built exactly how I want if I build it. 1in aircraft cable will take care of most vehicles or I thought about building a tiling gate bar that interlocked into a post on the other side if I was allowed to stop the vehicle in a fun way.
Click to expand...
if it's not in the right of way there's nothing anyone crashing into it can sue you for.

recently in ohio we even got a supreme court case that said if it is in the right of way, but not in the commonly traveled section of the right of way, you cannot be held liable.
guy hit a mailbox that was "reinforced" because the owner was tired of it getting knocked down and it rolled his truck and he paralyzed. family sued the property owner, supreme court sided with the property owner here.
 
I just recently installed two double gate Mighty Mule openers. One unit was bad out of the box as well as a bad battery. I will say they have great customer service and overall has been great to deal with them. I figured they were top of the line home owner grade. Satisfied with the one that has been working. Hoping the new circuit board that is supposed to arrive this week fixes the weirdness i get out of the one.
 
We have been using mighty mule at our place well over 15 years. When the control board went south on the first one I purchased another unit to replace it. Then got a replacement board and repaired the first one. If one breaks down I got another ready to go on the shelf. In fifteen years we've only had two breakdowns, the afore mentioned control board and a battery. Happy with mighty mule
 
Ransil said:
Gate I installed last month had a keypad, the code was 1234 :vader2:
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for some reason old people think they are cleaver for being the only person to have that code
I know a couple right now that are using it, they don't see the problem ....but 'no-one knows what it is' they say:laughing:
 
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