Just finished my first 200ft privacy fence on a slope

I ran into a similar situation with my back driveway last spring, though I only had about 160 feet to cover. Since mine was also a 10-foot height for privacy from the neighbors' second-story deck, I actually racked the panels to follow the ground instead of stepping them. I was worried about my small dogs squeezing under the triangular gaps that stepping creates on a steep hill. It was a pain to cut every picket at an angle, but it kept the bottom tight to the grass.

For the gate, I went with a Mighty Mule 371W beacuse I didn't want to run a trench for power across the gravel. The solar panel kit has held up surprisingly well, even during our gray winters. One thing I did differently was using Sika PostFix foam instead of traditional concrete bags for the last few holes. It is pricier per hole, but my back was shot by the end of that week and not hauling eighty-pound bags saved me a lot of physical grief. I totally agree on the steel frames for the gates. My first attempt with pressure-treated 2x4s warped within three months because of the humidity here. Swapping to a pre-welded steel frame from Adjust-A-Gate made the whole thing swing much smoother, especially with the weight of those double-layered pickets.

My expirience was a bit diffrent becasue my local code had a strict height limit, so I spent weeks dealing with the zoning board for a variance before I coud even buy materials. For a 10-foot fence, I didn't trust the 4x4s or even the standard thin-wall steel pipes. I opted for 12-foot 6x6 pressure-treated timbers set 48 inches deep. The wind load on a 10-foot solid wall is massive, so I added a third 2x6 rail in the middle to keep the pickets from warping in the summer heat. Regarding the driveway gate, the weight of those 10-foot boards is no joke. I used a Ghost Controls heavy-duty opener because the basic residential models I looked at didn't have the torque for a sloped entry. I also learned the hard way that you need to leave at least a 4-inch clearance at the highest point of the slope for the gate swing, or you'll be out there with a grinder shaving down the pavement. I used heavy-duty J-bolt hinges instead of the standard strap hinges to allow for fine-tuning the level as the posts settled over the first winter.

If you're worried about that heavy gate sagging over time on the slope, you should definitely swap out standard hinges for the GTO/Pro Heavy Duty Greaseable Ball Bearing Hinges. I put them on my 10-foot privacy gate last summer and they handle the weight of the steel frame without any creaking. They make the opener's job way easier becuase there's zero friction. Since you already did the welding, these are easy to tack on and will keep everything aligned much better than the basic bolt-on kits you find at most big-box stores.