Heavy Duty Gate

A couple of years ago, the farm next to us sold to another neighbor. There were several old buildings on the place, and quite a few old posts, rolls of wire, gates, and cattle panels.

The new owner wanted to farm the place - and install a center pivot irrigation system - so the farmstead needed to be removed. He told me that I could have as much stuff as I wanted, except for the gates.

I came home with lots of wood, tin, posts, etc, and even a 12' x 18' granary intact.

Among the items I (literally) drug home, were to corral panels that were 18' long. These "monsters" are EXTREMELY heavy, and a pain to work with. I had no idea what to use the on - at first.

After a week or two, I decided to put them on top of the hill to be used as a gate to enter the hay field we have. This would serve two purposes - (1) keep them up in the air so they wouldn't rust to death, and (2) allow me to have an intimidating gate on the top of the hill.

So, I pulled out a couple of long railroad ties and drilled a couple of holes. After bolting on an angle iron with loops welded to them (so I could hang the gates), I lifted them up with the loader, and set them on the gate posts. I knew that they'd be heavy and hard to move, but this at least, got them out of the way.

At first, I planned on using both of them for the gate, but I decided against it. It's not really necessary to have a single gate over 36' wide....I'll eventually move the second one to a future, "as yet to be determined" location...

I had also been planning to cut up an old ear corn elevator to use as a "raised bed garden". I had brought it home 3-4 years ago, and hemmed and hawed about what to use it for. I HAD designs of making a goat feeder (or 3, or 4...) out of it, but the garden idea finally won out.

As a "by product" of cutting the elevator up, I had several good parts to find other uses for. One of those uses was cutting the elevator's axle and attaching it to the gate to make it roll easier. I FINALLY got the task done this week!



The gate moves MUCH easier now, even with the tire not being totally full of air. It is a 15" tire, so it shouldn't be hard to find a replacement - if need be. It's fairly bald, but won't see many miles, so should last a long time.

There are a few "odds & ends" that are needed to finish the job - like a brace post, the gate/brace post for the other end, and a couple of spacers - but it works great now.



The bottom of the gate is about 5" above the ground, and moves pretty easy - even over the unmowed grass.

Not that it will tell you anything different then what I have written, but here is a short video of it:



Now that the gate is there, all I need is the fence to go along with it......