wanted: hangar door tips

(Joa) wrote in message

Any tips from those of you that have built or used this style of door?

Thanks folks.

J oa

Yeah, get a bi-fold. It's worth it. My damn custom hydro door always
jams, and instead of working on an airplane, I get to spend all my
time doing maintenance to the property. Those segmented doors always
rattle and will drive you crazy.

pac

Rollers, folders.... all asking for trouble. Why not a garage-door
style door, single piece and folding upward with help from low-tech
springs? That's what we recommend for county hangars. Very low
maintenance, can be automated, and don't flop around in the wind.

My opinion only, of course.

How can you get a 40 ft garage style door to work properly. Can you imagine
one track holding each end. Wouldn't the midlle colapse when in the up
position?

J.P.
"Musky" wrote in message
...
Rollers, folders.... all asking for trouble. Why not a garage-door
style door, single piece and folding upward with help from low-tech
springs? That's what we recommend for county hangars. Very low
maintenance, can be automated, and don't flop around in the wind.

My opinion only, of course.

http://www.dpindustries.com/onepiece...nterweight.htm

more on doors:

http://www.hangartrader.com/aircraft_hangar_doors.htm

Jean-Paul Roy wrote:
How can you get a 40 ft garage style door to work properly. Can you imagine
one track holding each end. Wouldn't the midlle colapse when in the up
position?

thank you very much, Very informative.

regards

Jean-Paul
"Musky" wrote in message
...
http://www.dpindustries.com/onepiece...nterweight.htm

more on doors:

http://www.hangartrader.com/aircraft_hangar_doors.htm

Jean-Paul Roy wrote:
How can you get a 40 ft garage style door to work properly. Can you
imagine
one track holding each end. Wouldn't the midlle colapse when in the up
position?

Cub Driver wrote:

I'm not
sure what would happen in a severe winter--would the bottom track get
frozen up?

Similar doors have frozen up at other airports in New Jersey. Sometimes an aircraft
can be locked in for months.

George Patterson
This marriage is off to a shaky start. The groom just asked the band to
play "Your cheatin' heart", and the bride just requested "Don't come home
a'drinkin' with lovin' on your mind".

"Jean-Paul Roy" wrote in message m...
How can you get a 40 ft garage style door to work properly. Can you imagine
one track holding each end. Wouldn't the midlle colapse when in the up
position?

J.P.
"Musky" wrote in message
...
Rollers, folders.... all asking for trouble. Why not a garage-door
style door, single piece and folding upward with help from low-tech
springs? That's what we recommend for county hangars. Very low
maintenance, can be automated, and don't flop around in the wind.

My opinion only, of course.


Mine is a single piece 50 ft "garage-type" steel door with a
residential door and six residential windows in it. It is suspended
on cables and guided by two parabolic curved tubes. Every time
there's an earthquake slight alignment problems delvelop and the side
rollers take huge stresses and snap apart the sides of the building.
The side rollers attract dust and are high mtc. But it allows me to
have windows and a man-door which is nice. But for dependability I'd
have gone with an electric bi-fold if I had to do it over again.

pac

On 14 Apr 2004 10:17:59 -0700, (Joa) wrote:

Our EAA chapter had a 40' hangar door that split in the middle and
folded sideways (each half). The ends were hinged and the center had
a single roller that ran in a track above. The bottom was not
attached in any way and just hung. It was held closed and open with
large steel pins that dropped into holes in the concrete/asphalt.

The door worked OK but sometimes the bottom would scrape (seasonal)
and be hard to close and the door also "racked" if you pushed it wrong
(it would "rock" back and forth and cause it to open sort of "jumpy").

The trick is that this door was about as inexpensive a design as them
come so I want to use a similar design on a hangar I'm building.

What I'm needing are ideas for making this style of door operate
smoother (not rack) and prevent catching along the bottom with changes
in weather.

Any tips from those of you that have built or used this style of door?

Thanks folks.

J oa

Well, I built a hangar at my home airport about four years ago. I
purchased a kit from a steel company (Miracle Steel or Miracle Truss --
sounds like a hernia aid g) and had it erected by local folk.

It came with an electric bifold door.

In spite of winter ice and snow, the door has never given any trouble
whatsoever. No tracks in the ground to freeze up or buckle. The only time
I couldn't open the door was when the airport had a power failure.

I would do it again.


Ron (EPM) (N5843Q, Mooney M20E) (CP, ASEL, ASES, IA)

Why couldn't they use salt to melt the ice?

Mike
MU-2

"G.R. Patterson III" wrote in message
...


Cub Driver wrote:

I'm not
sure what would happen in a severe winter--would the bottom track get
frozen up?

Similar doors have frozen up at other airports in New Jersey. Sometimes an
aircraft
can be locked in for months.

George Patterson
This marriage is off to a shaky start. The groom just asked the band
to
play "Your cheatin' heart", and the bride just requested "Don't come
home
a'drinkin' with lovin' on your mind".

Ron Rosenfeld wrote in message . ..
It came with an electric bifold door.

In spite of winter ice and snow, the door has never given any trouble
whatsoever. No tracks in the ground to freeze up or buckle. The only time
I couldn't open the door was when the airport had a power failure.

I would do it again.


Biggest problem with a bifold is tail height. For my aircraft, it
makes the door framing a heck of a lot bigger than I really want. For
a tail height of 15' on one of mine, it makes the bifold opening a
minimum of 20' tall. When you couple that with a required span of 60',
it makes for a very expensive door that has to be power operated,
along with some significant structural needs. For my purposes, a
biflod would end up costing nearly as much as the rest of the hangar
itself.

Craig C.