Gate design

[rob762]

Hi All,

Im looking at making a swinging gate for the cattle race and I’m looking for some advice. It needs to be 14ft long and swings from a post and will be made out of square in the sides and tube horizontally. What size thickness should I go for with the tube? 2mm or 3mm? Normally I’d go 3mm but I’m worried about the weight of it all. Also will a 90x90x4 boxpost be sufficient bolted to the ground and braced to a girder at the top?

Any advice is appreciated

 

[Nearly]

3mm wall min on a 14ft gate.
Bigger the better on post.

 

[M-J-G]

Hi All,

Im looking at making a swinging gate for the cattle race and I’m looking for some advice. It needs to be 14ft long and swings from a post and will be made out of square in the sides and tube horizontally. What size thickness should I go for with the tube? 2mm or 3mm? Normally I’d go 3mm but I’m worried about the weight of it all. Also will a 90x90x4 boxpost be sufficient bolted to the ground and braced to a girder at the top?

Any advice is appreciated

If possible I'd break the concrete and put the post into the ground.
Once dung and urine gets under a bolted post they can come loose pretty quick.

 

[Danllan]

Hi All,

Im looking at making a swinging gate for the cattle race and I’m looking for some advice. It needs to be 14ft long and swings from a post and will be made out of square in the sides and tube horizontally. What size thickness should I go for with the tube? 2mm or 3mm? Normally I’d go 3mm but I’m worried about the weight of it all. Also will a 90x90x4 boxpost be sufficient bolted to the ground and braced to a girder at the top?

Any advice is appreciated

Maybe have a wheel away from the hanging end? (either good or a pain depending how clean your yard is)

 

[hutchy143211]

If the post is tied back at the top and bracketed to the girder I would think that 90 x 90 x 4 should be strong enough. I also agree that if possible embedding the post would be the best way to go. I'd definitely go with 3mm over 2mm as its easier to weld and will last longer. Personally when making gates i go with 50 x 50 x 3 box because its not a lot heavier or more expensive than 40 x 40 x 3 but its a lot stronger and stiffer. Ive made free hanging gates up to 20ft this way no problem. These gates are heavy but easily swing and for lifting into place I add an eye at the top balance point for a chain or strap to be used with a telehandler. With gates made of thicker/heavier sections like this I would do one extra thing which is to put backing plates on crooks to reduce stress concentrations as well as locally thickening the bolt holes on gate the uprights for the eyes with plates to prevent local buckling. Finally, if possible, I'd get it galvanised as it will last a lot longer and saves time in future repairing or replacing them. Here's a few I've made in the last year:

 

[David.]

If you're going to the trouble to break the concrete and brace the post, I'd put the post in a socket so it can be removed when inevitably it rots, or at least make the post from a section so that it can itself be cut off to form the socket next time.

 

[rob762]

Great thanks for all the replys! One thing about your gates @hutchy143211 if I was using tube would a flat bar welded to all horizontal tubes be enough to brace them 40 x6) or would you have another piece of box in the middle with holes for them? Also what size plate did you use for the backing plates?

 

[hutchy143211]

Great thanks for all the replys! One thing about your gates @hutchy143211 if I was using tube would a flat bar welded to all horizontal tubes be enough to brace them 40 x6) or would you have another piece of box in the middle with holes for them? Also what size plate did you use for the backing plates?

For crook backing plates to be welded to posts I tend to use 8 - 10mm thick flat bar as I find its better to weld onto particularly for vertical and is very stiff. I also put a small gusset underneath the crook pin onto the backing pate and well this assembly all up so that you then simply weld the whole thing by the backing plate onto the post. On the gates i can't remember what thickness I used for over the holes but probably 6 - 8mm flat bar. For the verticals running in the middle I used another piece of box section as this gate in particular has a smaller gate T'd off (can just see the crooks on the second photo) and this helped to stiffen the whole gate and limit twisting effects. If yours is just a gate i think flat bar would be simplest to vertically brace it and save having holes in box section or lots of short tubes. It may be worth putting 2 verticals in the middle splitting the gate into ~5ft chunks (if that makes sense!) so you have a bit stronger gate thats also simpler to make. On the flat bar as well if you use 2 lengths of flat bar at each location and sandwich the tube in between, that may also help make it more rigid but would be a bit trickier to weld and be another spot for muck to build up. In general though I tend to overdo most things I make but hopefully that way they last!

 

[rob762]

Yes makes perfect sense thank you so much for the detailed response!

 

[simmy_bull]

I’d go 100 x 100 for the post. Ideally galv and dug into the concrete. Will almost last forever!

 

[cowmop]

Think about going across the gate from top of the post corner to the bottom free end corner with a peice of say 40x5 flat on one side, it will add no end of strength to it.