Subject: Re: Putting in gates on a hillside

From: [email-masked] (malcolm roe)
Date: 10 Mar 93 12:16:26 GMT

>  One thing I've never quite worked out a
> satisfactory plan for is putting in gates when fence runs up a hill.
> What should one do?

What's important is to ensure that the hinges are vertical.  It doesn't
matter if the gate itself slopes.  A crude ASCII drawing (with an
exaggerated slope) follows:-

                   -------
                  /       -------
                 /               -------
                /                       -------
               /                               -------  |
              /              Gate                    /-+|
-------       -------                               /   |
       -------       -------                       /    | Gate post
 Hill side    -------       -------               /     |
                     -------       -------       /-----+|
                            -------       -------       |
                                   -------              |
                                          -------       |
                                                 -------|
                                                        -------
+ marks the position of the hinges or, to be precise, the hinge pins.
The gate can be turned to any position and, since it neither rises nor
falls it will stay put.  On a realistic slope the offset is only likely
to ba a few inches and can be achieved simply by appropriate positioning
of the hinges.  If it's a steel gate you may need to weld in a spacer.

-- 
Malcolm Roe                            Phone  :  +44 442 230000 ext 4104
Crosfield Electronics Ltd              Fax    :  +44 442 232301
Hemel Hempstead, Herts. HP2 7RH, UK    E-mail :  [email-masked] 
------------------------------------------------------------------------

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From: [email-masked] (Bob McKay)
Date: Wed, 10 Mar 1993 23:47:16 GMT

>exaggerated slope) follows:-

[lovely piece of ASCII artwork deleted]

One point to add to this and a previous note is that the hinge post
MUST be on the downhill side - if you put it on the uphill side, the gate
won't open (I know, that's just common sense - trouble is, I've done an awful
lot of things in my time that LATER common sense told me wouldn't work)
     Cheers
       Bob McKay
-- 
Bob McKay		   	Phone:	+61 6 268 8169	    fax: +61 6 268 8581
Dept. Computer Science		Internet:	[email-masked]
ADFA, Northcott Dve 		UUCP:...!uunet!munnari!csadfa.cs.adfa.oz.au!rim
Campbell ACT 2600 AUSTRALIA	ARPA:	[email-masked]

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From: [email-masked] (Jim Baranski)
Date: Thu, 11 Mar 93 18:20:12 GMT

In <[email-masked]> [email-masked] writes:

 Got it... Thanks for the advice.  I see clearly that if you amke
 the gate a parallelogram, skewed to follow the ground, it'll all work
 quite nicely.  My only problem is that I wasn't planning to *make*
 the gates: I was just going to go to the farm supply and pick up a
 standard, metal 12' or 14' gate and hang it.  Is there any similar
 way to deal with the problemif you're using a store-bought gate?

The heavy duty gate hinges that I like the best are one part eye hook, and one
part right angle hook.  It's easiest to get parts with long stems, and vary how
far they stick out from the gate and the post.

Jim Baranski

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From: [email-masked] (malcolm roe)
Date: Thu, 18 Mar 1993 18:26:15 GMT

>way to deal with the problemif you're using a store-bought gate?

No you havn't got it.  The gate doesn't have to be a parallelogram.
It can be an ordinary rectangle.  You will just have small triangular
gaps between the gate and the gate posts.  Assume a 12' gate with a
2' fall on the slope (for example).  The slope is asin(1/6).  The
triangular gaps will have the same angle.  What's the height of the
gate? - 4'?  If so, the width of the triangular gaps is only 8".
This is unlikely to be a problem.  I've never seen a horse, for example,
less than 8" wide!  Also, you can make the gap at the opposite end to
the hinges disappear.  Just put the post 8" closer.  The bottom of
the gate will strike the post but so what?  You want a stop for the
gate anyway.

>On the other hand, I should dig around and check some of my
>references and see just how hard it'd be to build a gate.  I've
>never done anything like that before [all of our other gates are
>either the store-bought ones or spring gates [spring gates work
>great on hillsides, but they're a *bitch* to open and close]]...
>but how hard can it be?  :-)

Yes you could make a gate, in which case make it a parallelogram
and it will be that much neater, but to do an effective job will
need some good woodworking.  Gates take a lot of punishment.

>} ...  If it's a steel gate you may need to weld in a spacer.
>
>I don't understand this part.  Here's my steel gate:
>
>     -------------------------
>     |-----------|-----------|H
>     |-----------|-----------|
>     |-----------|-----------|H
>     -------------------------
>Where the 'H's are the two swing-eyes where the hinge pins will go.
>Is the idea that you'd 'tilt' the gate by doing:
>
>             --|
>             --|H====H
>             --|   ^
>             --|H   \ welded-on 'extender'.
>             ---

If you do it this way you'll have problems.  Look at my original
drawing.  The extender should be on the bottom hinge and the hinges
should be on the downhill post otherwise the gate will hit the ground
when you open it.

>If this is the case, I have two questions:
>  1) would there be any lower-tech way to kludge up the extender besides
>     welding it?  I can't weld worth squat [and I don't have any welding
>     equipment, although I've been thinking about getting some...]

Around my way I could easily find a garage or blacksmith who would do
the job for a small amount of money.  It would only take about 5 mins.
I'm sure it's possible to make a good non welded job but you would have
to be prepared to work with quite heavy pieces of steel, cutting and
drilling them.  If you can't see what to do I suspect it's better not to
try.

>  2) Does this have to be a 'good' job?  It looks to me like that
>     extender is going to take a LOT of stress and torque, so I bet
>     that however you do attach the extender, you have to do it _right_
>     or it'll fracture and break, no?

Yes - it should be a strong job.  Use a nice thick piece of steel bar
and make sure the welding penetrates properly.