What had failed
A gate sold before the grade was measured
A property on a hillside lot near the Encino hills came to us after a previous installation had failed. The homeowner had been sold a V track sliding gate, a gate that rolls horizontally along a bottom rail, without anyone measuring the driveway grade first. The slope was just enough to cause the gate to drag under load. Within six months, the gate motor had burned out.
What we measured
A 4.5 degree grade across the opening
That ruled out any track based system immediately. We recommended a cantilever sliding gate, a design that operates without a bottom track, suspending the gate leaf from a counterbalanced roller carriage instead. No ground contact. No drag. No grade problem.
We also assessed the post anchor conditions. The existing concrete footing was undersized for the gate leaf weight we were planning, so we poured a new footing before setting the operator mount.
What was installed
Operator, loop detector and safety beams as one system
The final system included a rack and pinion gate operator (the motorized drive unit) matched to the gate's exact weight and the owner's daily cycle count, plus a loop detector (the buried wire coil beneath the driveway that senses vehicle presence and signals the gate to hold open or reverse) and a safety beam on both sides of the opening.
That is the difference between a gate that stays true for ten years and one that starts to sag after two.
