Cedar Picket Gate, Gator Power Gates

In this home improvement project we're building a Cedar Picket gate that will be opened by an automatic gate opener, Gator Power Gates. The absolutely worst type of gate you could use for an automatic gate opener is cedar pickets. Why? Because of wind. Cedar picket gates don't allow the wind to pass through and therefore causing the gate to act like a sail. Wind will cause automatic gate openers to not perform.

In our final product the gate needs to swing level and plumb and avoid any sagging. In this application the driveway has a 5 1/2 inch slope. In the gates open position there will be a large gap between the driveway and bottom of the gate. This means the Gator Power Gate will have to travel down a slope and climb back up to open and close the gate.

We are going to begin this project with a sturdy post. We're using a 10 foot long 4x6 treated beam. We attached to the beam 2 1/2 inch 1/4 inch thick angle iron. The post and angle iron both weigh about 90 lbs. We placed the post 5 feet in the ground and added 480 lbs of concrete (six 80 pound bags) to secure the post. Totally, this post now weighs approximately 570 lbs.  

For some additional reinforcement we added 3 cross bars to secure the new post to a post just adjacent. This adds more strength to the post that will hold up the cedar gate.

We carefully measured and attached the aluminum frame we previously had made by a local welder at Expert Welding. To make it easier to attach the cedar pickets they used 2 inch aluminum tubing.

This was a great home improvement project and adding the convenience of the Gator Power Gate. Great way to ad value to any home.