Auto Hangar Door

Hi All,

I am new here so will give a little information about myself for what it is worth (Probably nothing).

I have a Rv-4 that I completed several years ago and have since put over 500hr on it. It has been a realy great all-around airplane for long and short trips,acro and general local flying.

I recently built a new hanger here at my house and after about a year I finaly built the door for it.

The structure of the door was copied from a frends door and then re-engineered for my taste.

The controls are just a lot of componets that I put together without a clue as to what I was doing but I finally managed to make it work.

http://www.xanga.com/MeNyouandadognamedWilma/videos/cdf32936337/

Joel "Weasel" Graber
RV-4

Nice!

Wesael said:

Hi All,

I am new here so will give a little information about myself for what it is worth (Probably nothing).

I have a Rv-4 that I completed several years ago and have since put over 500hr on it. It has been a realy great all-around airplane for long and short trips,acro and general local flying.

I recently built a new hanger here at my house and after about a year I finaly built the door for it.

The structure of the door was copied from a frends door and then re-engineered for my taste.

The controls are just a lot of componets that I put together without a clue as to what I was doing but I finally managed to make it work.

http://www.xanga.com/MeNyouandadognamedWilma/videos/cdf32936337/

Joel "Weasel" Graber
RV-4

Click to expand...

Joel,

Welcome to VAF!

Very, very nice door! I know you are proud of it.

Someone is bound to ask you for a mechanical list and drawings/schematics for the door, so be ready!

Mark

Auto Hanger Door

Nice looking door, for safety reasons please use caution when parking a plane under a open door as the radio controlled operator can be triggered by RF interference.

My daughter lived under the approach path to MSP where the airliners passed over at about 1000', several times a month her garage door would open or close without keying the opener.
Being a good father I said I would take a look and see if I could find the problem. Just by luck a airliner passed over while we were having a cook out on a low IFR day, as a plane passed the door started to come down.
I concluded it must have been triggered by a radio altimeter or some distance measuring device for the auto landing feature.
I solved the problem by cutting 10" off the door operator antenna leaving about 2", the range was reduced but still workable.

wesael !

Hey Wesael !
Welcome man , its about time you join-up !
You got a pretty cool set-up there !

Welcome, Joel........

.....to the neatest gathering of RVers..

BTW, since you like catfish, consider flying up to Augusta, Ga on Saturday, March 14th to the Pea Patch EAA strip for a catfish lunch/meeting..61GA.

Regards,

Wesael said:

Hi All,

I am new here so will give a little information about myself for what it is worth (Probably nothing).

I have a Rv-4 that I completed several years ago and have since put over 500hr on it. It has been a realy great all-around airplane for long and short trips,acro and general local flying.

I recently built a new hanger here at my house and after about a year I finaly built the door for it.

The structure of the door was copied from a frends door and then re-engineered for my taste.

The controls are just a lot of componets that I put together without a clue as to what I was doing but I finally managed to make it work.

http://www.xanga.com/MeNyouandadognamedWilma/videos/cdf32936337/

Joel "Weasel" Graber
RV-4

Click to expand...

Hi Joel,

I am the guy that Mark was referring to

We are building a private aviation estate here in South Africa (about 30 miles north of Johannesburg).

I have been tasked with finding an inexpensive automated Hangar door and really like what you have done.

I would really appreciate some technical info especially on the air struts and mechanicals.

Thanks in advance.

Regards,

Rob

For those that are requesting information.

The door is operated by a electric over hydraulic pump.(not air)

The door measures 40 ft x 10 ft and the calculated total weight of the door came to 1500 lb.

I used 48" cylinders with a 2" bore and a hyd pump with a 2.2 GPM rating at 1000 PSI.

If your door is taller than 10 ft consider using a longer cyl. and or larger dia. bore but keep in mind by doing this you will run into a lot more money for the pump because you will need more gpm to open/close it in a acceptable period of time.

Also try to keep the frame as light as possible. I used 2"x1" tubing that is 14ga. If you go with anything bigger than this you will run into a lot more weight requireing again more money for the cyl and pump combination.

Also the truss on the door is 18" tall with 2"x1" tubing.


Finaly. DO NOT build the door untill you have calculated the loads and lifting points required to open the door. You can easily build a door to heavy to open with a given pump/cyl combination.

Each door is different so it will require specific engineering for your application.

Weasel

How about a counterweight?

Something to consider for power required. I helped a friend on a hangar door once and we counterweighted it with a system of pulleys and concrete weights. We used an electric winch to open it, but with enough weight for counters it could be opened by hand. Might be simpler and cheaper than hydraulics.

can u please post ur video again

seems like it is not working. I like what you have done but would love to see it in action. Thanks

aluminum?

Has anyone built one out of aluminum? I know it would be a lot more money but would the weight savings help. Would be too difficult to make it rigid enough? Just pondering options. looking at something like a 40x14 or so.