Garage door problem - Suggestions welcome
Discussion
Hi,
The height of the opening on my garage doors is 210cm, which given that a full fat Range Rover is 187cm tall, and even the monstrously sized BMW X7 is 'only' 184cm, I assumed that I would never need to park anything taller in there (I don't own a full fat RR or an X7).
The joke, however, is on me, as I now have a Defender to park in there, and it looked bloody tall so I measured it just to be on the safe side, and it comes out at a whopping 202cm. I assume partially to do with the bigger tyres etc.
So in theory it will fit in fine with a few cm of clearance, and once inside, the ceiling is much higher. But I have door stays which hang down by almost 10cm, meaning the Defender will not fit.
For those unfamiliar, the stays lock the doors open at 90 degrees, otherwise on a windy day the doors would just get ripped off by the wind, or blown into the car being driven in or out.
Does anyone have any suggestions of stays to hold the doors open which do not hang down into the door aperture?
I don't want to fit drop bolts as I have a gravel drive and the doors probably wouldn't stay put if it was windy, and the bolt would drag through the gravel.
Any suggestions welcome!
The height of the opening on my garage doors is 210cm, which given that a full fat Range Rover is 187cm tall, and even the monstrously sized BMW X7 is 'only' 184cm, I assumed that I would never need to park anything taller in there (I don't own a full fat RR or an X7).
The joke, however, is on me, as I now have a Defender to park in there, and it looked bloody tall so I measured it just to be on the safe side, and it comes out at a whopping 202cm. I assume partially to do with the bigger tyres etc.
So in theory it will fit in fine with a few cm of clearance, and once inside, the ceiling is much higher. But I have door stays which hang down by almost 10cm, meaning the Defender will not fit.
For those unfamiliar, the stays lock the doors open at 90 degrees, otherwise on a windy day the doors would just get ripped off by the wind, or blown into the car being driven in or out.
Does anyone have any suggestions of stays to hold the doors open which do not hang down into the door aperture?
I don't want to fit drop bolts as I have a gravel drive and the doors probably wouldn't stay put if it was windy, and the bolt would drag through the gravel.
Any suggestions welcome!
Edited by Le Gavroche on Friday 18th October 21:29
Stainless cabin hook and eye sets on the exterior wall, about halfway up the door height assuming the doors open outward
Or electromagnetic fire door holders
Or if you want to be fancy record dfa127 electric operators with the low profile slide rail would leave you enough height if the doors fall in to the weight envelope they can handle
Or electromagnetic fire door holders
Or if you want to be fancy record dfa127 electric operators with the low profile slide rail would leave you enough height if the doors fall in to the weight envelope they can handle
Edited by OldGermanHeaps on Friday 18th October 21:54
I faced a height issue when I got mine - I knew it would be very tight, but thankfully when I got it back, simply removing the roof rack meant that I could enter with about 5cm to spare. I’ve since installed a motor opener which has reduced clearance a bit more!
Anyway, back to solutions - could you install a power to your doors - I’m sure I’ve seen some that attach mid point vertically to your swing doors. Being powered and linked they should also brace the door against winds. You could then remove the top stays. (I saw this but on a quick Google I can find any. Sure I’ve seen some)
I think drop bolts would work really well - if you raise a concrete or timber section so it sits a cm or two proud of the gravel it would provide a definite plateau in which you can drop a bolt into. Would be more secure than the stays you have now as the leverage forces (?) would be less. Could look really nice if set neatly into the gravel.
There a couple of other oddball suggestions I could make that might need to be designed a bit, but maybe think about the above two?
I’d look at these before altering the car. Nice garage doors btw…. And nice Defender!
My mind is whirring - the second poster suggested hooks on exterior wall. Could you redesign / remake / reposition your planters (perhaps as nice wood boxes) and use them to hook against at the base? The hooks would then be discreet and the planters wouldn’t need to be moved that far from where they are and you could secure them to the ground to make them very secure?
The simple answer is that you want a locking mechanism that works from above the arms rather than from below. The more difficult question is whether someone sells such a mechanism. One would think someone must as you can't be the only person who has ever encountered the issue?
If it were me, then I'd consider fitting an opener as the quickest solution. That would shift the locking mechanism to the motor and away from the doors themselves and you'd be able to fix the arms right at the top of the doors and possibly even run a few degrees of incline to the motor position.
If it were me, then I'd consider fitting an opener as the quickest solution. That would shift the locking mechanism to the motor and away from the doors themselves and you'd be able to fix the arms right at the top of the doors and possibly even run a few degrees of incline to the motor position.
Frankychops said:
Just drop the defender suspension. It’s must be modded from stock
The car was bought from a local Land Rover trader, so absolutely no idea what has been done to it previously, but it appears to have brand new springs and shocks in it, along with the bigger tyres, so I believe it must have some kind of lift kit on it.It’s had one owner from new and never used for towing or work by the condition of it, so it’s something of a Pavement Princess… I could lower it, but I kind of like all the mods that have been done to it previously
thepritch said:
I faced a height issue when I got mine - I knew it would be very tight, but thankfully when I got it back, simply removing the roof rack meant that I could enter with about 5cm to spare. I’ve since installed a motor opener which has reduced clearance a bit more!
Anyway, back to solutions - could you install a power to your doors - I’m sure I’ve seen some that attach mid point vertically to your swing doors. Being powered and linked they should also brace the door against winds. You could then remove the top stays. (I saw this but on a quick Google I can find any. Sure I’ve seen some)
I think drop bolts would work really well - if you raise a concrete or timber section so it sits a cm or two proud of the gravel it would provide a definite plateau in which you can drop a bolt into. Would be more secure than the stays you have now as the leverage forces (?) would be less. Could look really nice if set neatly into the gravel.
There a couple of other oddball suggestions I could make that might need to be designed a bit, but maybe think about the above two?
I’d look at these before altering the car. Nice garage doors btw…. And nice Defender!
Thank you very much.Anyway, back to solutions - could you install a power to your doors - I’m sure I’ve seen some that attach mid point vertically to your swing doors. Being powered and linked they should also brace the door against winds. You could then remove the top stays. (I saw this but on a quick Google I can find any. Sure I’ve seen some)
I think drop bolts would work really well - if you raise a concrete or timber section so it sits a cm or two proud of the gravel it would provide a definite plateau in which you can drop a bolt into. Would be more secure than the stays you have now as the leverage forces (?) would be less. Could look really nice if set neatly into the gravel.
There a couple of other oddball suggestions I could make that might need to be designed a bit, but maybe think about the above two?
I’d look at these before altering the car. Nice garage doors btw…. And nice Defender!
Was not aware of power openers for ‘barn door’ style doors, so thanks for that, I will have a look into it!
Belle427 said:
What a fantastic garage though.
Thank you.I built it oversized you so can park 3 cars in and open the car doors, plus have about 1 metre in front and 1 metre behind the parked car. It’s about 6.5 metres deep.
It’s built to the same spec as the house. Insulated cavity walls. Getting boarded out internally with insulated plasterboard at the minute. Just one of those jobs I haven’t got round to previously.
The architect kept questioning me about why I was being so annoyingly fussy about the garage sizes and why did I want it so big. “Waste of space and money” were the comments… he was obviously not someone who appreciates the need for a garage!
thepritch said:
And tangent question : how do you keep your gravel so weed free and clean?
Nothing special to be honest.That gravel has been down for over 4 years now and I’ve done nothing much with it apart from a quick spray of any emerging weeds with this stuff. It’s like Napalm!
https://www.diy.com/departments/weedol-fast-acting...
I generally spray any emerging weeds every 6-8 weeks, and it only takes a few mins. Probably no more than 5 or 10 weeds or bits of grass poking their heads through each time.
That’s about it really. Its machine-crushed angular Cotswold stone chippings, and when walked and driven on it packs down really hard and locks together. Never moves, so never needs raking.
They say gravel drives are self cleaning, and I can believe it as this one still looks really clean after 4+ years of being down.
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