Best hangar doors

[BruceEicher]

I am in conversation with merrill@supreme-door.com and have had a look at his doors for my current project. Looks great, good client feedback, honest business man... Merrill manufactures and installs them himself in the North West, so maybe no help for the op. He worked for Higher Power for many years now has the patented ?better mouse trap?. We?ll let you know.
http://supreme-door.com/

[longranger]

My 40x12 Schweiss bi-fold is a little slow (takes a full minute to fully open), but overall I am happy with it. It is what was on the hangar when I bought it. A couple of guys here at 45G have replaced their homemade doors with Diamond, and are very happy with them. They appear to be about half the weight, and open about twice as fast as my Schweiss.

[RV10Man]

Both of my hangars have Horton Stack doors. I'm happy with them.

[Pilot135pd]

I built my own out of 2" square steel tubing welded together and covered in Galvalume steel R-Panels. They're a total of 45" wide and I divided them into 4 doors with 8 hinges and 4 wheels and it all cost me about $900. Can't beat that price. Need them stronger? Don't know why but if you do just add another $15 hinge to each door and another couple of $45 2" square tubes and it'll be stronger than anything you can buy commercially.

Come visit us and I'll show you how nicely they work.

[Mark33]

Originally Posted by Pilot135pd

I built my own out of 2" square steel tubing welded together and covered in Galvalume steel R-Panels. They're a total of 45" wide and I divided them into 4 doors with 8 hinges and 4 wheels and it all cost me about $900. Can't beat that price. Need them stronger? Don't know why but if you do just add another $15 hinge to each door and another couple of $45 2" square tubes and it'll be stronger than anything you can buy commercially.

Come visit us and I'll show you how nicely they work.

I?m planning on building the doors on my new hangar basically the same way. My hangar is 40? wide. Each ?barn-door? side will be 20? wide but then each door will be divided in half and will be able to fold back on itself.... so they?ll never be more than 10? of leverage on the main hinge points at the outside corner post.

Also, there really won?t be any real ?leverage? so to speak because there will be a castoring wheel at the midpoint where each door half hinges on itself and another castoring wheel at the end of each door assembly.

So, starting from each corner post, the doors will have heavy duty main hinges, at the midpoint the doors will be hinged again so that they?ll be able to fold back on themselves and they?ll be a castoring wheel at that point, then when the doors are fully closed there will be another castoring wheel there at that corner to support the 20? leverage that the door assembly will be exerting when fully closed. I think it?ll be a simple and cost-effective solution and will be able to operate without any power.

Mark

[Pilot135pd]

Originally Posted by Mark33

I?m planning on building the doors on my new hangar basically the same way. My hangar is 40? wide. Each ?barn-door? side will be 20? wide but then each door will be divided in half and will be able to fold back on itself.... so they?ll never be more than 10? of leverage on the main hinge points at the outside corner post.

Also, there really won?t be any real ?leverage? so to speak because there will be a castoring wheel at the midpoint where each door half hinges on itself and another castoring wheel at the end of each door assembly.

So, starting from each corner post, the doors will have heavy duty main hinges, at the midpoint the doors will be hinged again so that they?ll be able to fold back on themselves and they?ll be a castoring wheel at that point, then when the doors are fully closed there will be another castoring wheel there at that corner to support the 20? leverage that the door assembly will be exerting when fully closed. I think it?ll be a simple and cost-effective solution and will be able to operate without any power.

Mark

You just described mine and they?re very easy to open and close. I also designed an inexpensive and easy way to lock the doors in place at the top and bottom because buying the $18 latches would have added $144 to the total price of each hangar and I still would have needed to modify the 4 top ones.

[Mark33]

Originally Posted by Pilot135pd

You just described mine and they?re very easy to open and close. I also designed an inexpensive and easy way to lock the doors in place at the top and bottom because buying the $18 latches would have added $144 to the total price of each hangar and I still would have needed to modify the 4 top ones.

I guess crazy minds think alike. LOL!! I too have thought about and easy/cheep locking mechanism. Basically it?ll just be one rod that goes up through the door frame and pins into the overhead header and one pin that goes down through the door frame and into the concrete. The pins will be at the mid hinge points and where everything comes together at mid-span. I?m hangar?d south of San Antonio...it might make for a fun flight up to see yours.

Mark

[Pilot135pd]

Originally Posted by Mark33

I guess crazy minds think alike. LOL!! I too have thought about and easy/cheep locking mechanism. Basically it?ll just be one rod that goes up through the door frame and pins into the overhead header and one pin that goes down through the door frame and into the concrete. The pins will be at the mid hinge points and where everything comes together at mid-span. I?m hangar?d south of San Antonio...it might make for a fun flight up to see yours.

Mark

You?re an hour away in an RV, come on over !

[robertahegy]

We've had our Wilson Bi-fold door on our hangar home for 25 years and is working perfectly. Very sturdy aluminum frame that can be clad in almost anything.

https://www.facebook.com/wilsondoors

Roberta

[Mark33]

Originally Posted by Pilot135pd

You?re an hour away in an RV, come on over !

Sounds great!!...I?ll let you know when I can stop by.