I would like to install a pair of wooden 7ft gates across my driveway. Unforunately my driveway has an uphill gradient and I need to open the gates inwards.
Obviously without some "manipulation" the gates are going to hit the driveway.
The only trouble is, I don't know how to do the manipulation!!!
I've searched high and low and can't find a way of doing this.
Can anyone please help?
How can I hang my gates so they will open inwards without hitting my driveway?
Off-setting and cranking the hinges. Buggered if I can describe it but basically the centre line of the hinge pins will be perpendicular to the desired slope and not in line with the edge of the gate. er. thats it basically!
Sounds like you need hinges which lift the gate ... seen these for doors but not gates. Or gates that have the right amount of clearance for the highest point ... not very helpful ... sorry.
PS or to visualise it - imagine the gate hung perpendicular to the slope with straight hinges - it will open OK along the slope but when closed it will hang straight across the opening but leaning forwards down the slope if viewed from the side. Then pack out the bottom hinge until the gate is vertical when closed and you have it. Instead of packing the hing you bend or crank it instead - possible with a long gate hinge and a bit of heat. Is that any clearer? (just got back from the pub)
I have the same problem and solved it several years ago by making some custom 'offset' hinges for my DIY gates. I recently had the whole lot replaced by proffessionaly made and installed gates a few months ago - The installer scratched his head for a while, trying to work out how I had done it - then copied it....
Basically you put the top hinge pivot pin where you would normally put it on the gate. The lower pin then needs to be off set such that its centre is back a few inches (back as in slightly further up your drive).
As you open the gates, it will lift out and up at the bottom and once fully open the lower edge will be leaning further out from the side - So you loose a small amount of your drives width.
An alternative way (same idea) might be to set the pivot of the top hinge out to the road with the lower pivot then not needing to be so far back.
Our double 14 foot (total width) gates need to rise about 6" each side, which involves an offset of around 3" in the lower hinge sets. So when fully open, the gates also lean out by 3".
The easily way to calculate the off set is to hang the gate on the top hinge level in the closed position - then open it fully up such that it is at the same angle as your drive. Now measure the difference in gap between gate and gate post for your two hinge locations. That difference will be equal to the off set needed in the two hinges.
A completely different method, would be to have long hinge pins upon which the gate could rise the required height - then have a roller support on the gate at around the mid point of each gate.
Hope the above makes some sense - if not email me direct and I will take some photos of the gates for you.
Third possibility (and probably not at all practical)....
If the gates could be made such that their shape could change from rectangular, to a diamond shape with a roller support....
The hinges could be normal fixed ones and the gate itself adapts to the incline. That would mean every horizontal of the gate, being able to pivot in the verticals of the gate.
If you just have vertical and horizontal members (i.e. cut out the cross bracing) you can make a rectangular gate that can distort into a parallellogram when opened.
Stick a caster on the moving ends to take the weight, and Bob's your uncle.
If I had longer I'd have come up with a cunning device using a steel cable hung from the gatepost to support the gate when it's closed and lift the gate as it opened so that you wouldn't need a caster.
Standard post and hinges, and make the gates with a sloping lower edge. This is easy, so long as you don't have small livestock (there are fixes if you do, but we'd have to know dimensions).
Canting the higes is a bad idea because it means you're having to lift the weight of the gates when you open them. Just the _tiniest_ cant makes them self-closing, enough of it to clear a slope would make them unworkably heavy.
The bottom hinge needs to be a dog leg shape, impossible to explain, I'll take a photo of one tomorrow if I go into town (The whole town is built on a hill so they are quite common)
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