gate adjustment

[badgolferman]

The gate to my back yard is not lining up properly and the latch will not close without lots of manipulation. There are photos at the below link.

This used to work nicely before but in the past six months something has changed. I've tried leveling the two gates to the same height using the guide wires, but the non-latch side always must be lifted to have the latch catch it. Right now I have the gate offset by an inch or so and it still isn't matching up. The latch won't swing down without lifting the non-latch side up. The posts and the gates have been checked with a level and seems fine yet the distance between the two is too close.

I've tried looking for a guide online on how to adjust these types of gates properly but came up empty handed. Any tips?

[trader_4]

I think it's going to be hard to figure out what's wrong from pics without actually being there. If you have to lift the one side slightly, what happens if you use tighten the wire on that side to lift it a bit?

[Stormin' Norman]

Those are rather long gates and, even though I could not make out the hinges, I suspect they are not very beefy.

Take a careful look at the hinges on the post attached to the structure, I would not be surprised if you have a cracked weld or a bent pin.

I would also examine how the post is anchored, both to the ground and possibly to the structure.

Lastly, carefully examine the wire rope clamps and ensure they are not loose and that the cable hasn't slipped.

Please let me know what you discover.

[songbird]

just looks to me like the right gate needs to be let out a little bit. can't tell what else might be going on. perhaps freeze-thaw frost heaved it and you didn't notice.

how did you set the posts?

songbird

[hubops]

Also - it looks like the gates are bolted construction ? rather than welded .. ? see if they have slipped out-of-square. .. someone jumping on them perhaps - or swinging hard open and distorting .. John T.

[dpb]

On 18-Sep-17 12:47 PM, [e-mail] wrote: ...

...

+1

The pictures don't show enough perspective or details where it would matter that much as noted, but the above observation appears spot on...in particular in the first figure note particularly the LH side bracket is angled down from being in line with the horizontal it's bolted to (and quite a bit more than is the matching one on the RH gate). Also not there's bare metal showing to the left end of the LH bracket that indicates it's shifted from where it was when the assembled gate was painted. I'm guessing a close inspection of measurements and such will indicate pieces-parts have moved relative to each other and fittings such as these have worked loose. Can't tell if the intermediate pieces are fastened or not; all in all looks pretty poorly constructed.

Getting them back full squared-up and to the original lengths would be the first step, then I'd tack weld all those connectors to keep stuff where it's supposed to be.

After that, again go back to the mounting posts and hinges as above poster noted.

[badgolferman]

Okay, I have posted new pictures for you to view. There are pictures of each post and the gate.

house post 1-5 shows the post nearest the house and how it's mounted. The gate is attached to the post with clamps and none have shifted.

dirt post 1-3 show the post on the other side. It is slightly not plumb and the gate is attached to it securely.

gate 1-4 show the gates are level and the distance apart from each other are roughly equal.

The entire problem is that the latch on one gate is too close to the other gate. I must lift the opposite gate to let the latch hinge down and fall into place. You will see the rust from the scratches made by the latch over time. I have also replaced the turnbuckle since the old one broke from me trying to adjust it. This gate was already there when I bought the house so I don't know how the dirt post was mounted but it's secure and doesn't move.

What are the basic techniques for adjusting gates such as this? All I know to do is to level the gates and make sure the gap between them is equal. How do I shift one gate sideways to make more of a gap between the two when they meet up?

[Stormin' Norman]

Looks like at least one fixing nut is missing from the base of the post near the house. I would replace missing and tighten all of the base nuts. If the post is loose, it will lean in what ever direction the gate is situated.

[Stormin' Norman]

After ensuring the posts and hinges are intact and tightened in place, you would adjust these gates by raising or lowering the hinge brackets.

[dpb]

On 18-Sep-17 3:59 PM, badgolferman wrote: ...

Both posts show a lean in yet the gate itself is nearly level -- this can only be so if the frame of the gate has been pulled out of square to make a parallelogram.

Have you measured the diagonals; they will, I'm pretty certain not the same indicating the above.

Raising the posts back to vertical will pull the two back apart again--the multiplier by the length will make it seem quite a lot in comparison the the actual movement at the post. The one by the house is pretty easy--somebody already put in a threaded rod to be able to crank it back towards the house.

The other one will be more difficult; possibly since it looks like they're bolted down you can manage to shim under the inside side with a washer or two.

As noted earlier, looks to me like there's been shifting of at least some of the structural pieces tying the thing together and the one of the earlier set near the latch set surely looks to me like it's shifted such that the overall length is longer than what was initially -- unless what looks like paint markings are something other than what appear to be.

[dpb]

On 18-Sep-17 4:57 PM, dpb wrote: ...

...

I'd already closed the link before; didn't remember the details on the dirt side -- just looked again. Too much dirt/leaves/etc. to tell the mounting -- is it also on a poured base or just buried like a regular fence post? I was presuming both had a similar base bracket as the one at the house from the symmetry argument but it isn't apparent from the picture.

You'll have to see how that one is supported; if it is just in the ground will have to dig on the back side and try to reset plumb; may need to add a deadman or some other way to get support similar to what was done by tying the other end post to the house--clearly somebody already had had similar problems...

If you do square them back up again, it just |might| be that you'll gain enough simply from the one end to give the latch sufficient clearance again.

The second set of pictures wiped out the first so couldn't see the ones with the cable any more. Where would do the most good would be as crossing diagonals on the gate frame itself to stop them from racking if can't do the tack weld to fix them permanently square once get them back.

[Dean Hoffman]

Could it be just the wear of the mounting brackets and the L shaped hooks supporting the gate? I bet a hardware store would have the L hooks, (what ever the proper term is). I'm guessing you've tried moving the latch up or down. Would it work if it was at the top of the gate? I know there are air bladder type things to push stuff apart. Nothing comes to mind off hand that would fit between the 1/2 gates to push them apart.

[Tekkie®]

badgolferman posted for all of us...

Think of it as hanging a door in a frame. Maybe look at some Utube vids and work from there.

[badgolferman]

I have figured out what the problem is. The dirt post is leaning in too far. When I pulled on it and had someone close the latch everything worked properly. Now I have to figure out how to fix that. I'm not digging anything up, but I think I can attach something to my post and use the wood post next to it as support. The wood post seems stable enough. Maybe some wire would work.

[dpb]

On 19-Sep-17 3:41 PM, badgolferman wrote: ...

As I noted, _both_ are showing leaning from plumb in the pictures and that fixing that would pull the gates back apart.

Note that from the pictures, when you are plumb again the gate will show it's not level as the top was level when the end wasn't plumb as it was...did you check on just how far out of square they really are?

[badgolferman]

I have fixed it temporarily.

Now I just need to let the vegetation grow out and hide it or come up with a better solution. It will have to be something other than digging it up though.