Why Does My Gate Go Fast When Opening And Slow When Closing

This question came to me yesterday, so lets find out. 

• It is simple really, just imagine your gate is opening and gets faster as it goes. If your gate is not level when it is open in fact in goes down hill when opening then it will open quite fast. But just imagine the steel pipe farm gate with mesh infill, and it is 4.3m long. If it is opening and falling down hill at the same time, it will gain speed because of it's length and a bit of weight. and when it gets to full open position it bangs hard against the post. This situation is hard on the motor and brackets etc. Because the motor will be trying to hold the gate back and stay under control the whole way the weight and length will over ride what the motor is trying to do.. The same thing happens if the gate is not level when closed.  A customer called yesterday saying that his gate opens faster that when it closes and always bangs hard on the post when it opens.  This is a common issue, and needs to be fixed. The rule is as close as possible, the gate should be level when closed and level when open. 

Why not put a wheel on the end of the gate.

• This is a No NO.  Actually this happened yesterday also, a customer said his gate always bangs hard on the open post and stalls or stops when it is closing. Then he told me he had a wheel at the end of his gate to hold it up. There is the problem. He told me the gate post moves a little so putting a wheel at the end stops this. Rule no 1, your gate post must be strong enough and straight to be able to hold the weight and length of the gate in a level position at all times. I see too many people put a small post to hold a long gate, and they always work loose.

Why does the motor stop or stall when it is closing then.

• As I said, if you have a wheel, and lets say a gravel drive, and the post is not taking the weight of the gate so there is weight on the wheel, and as the gate is closing, the small wheel is having a rough time running over the gravel until it comes across a bigger stone in the gravel and this is a bit harder to get over then the controller thinks it has hit something so turns off.  This is what was happening in this situation. This is why you should never use a wheel on the end of the gate.  Yes the gate will sometimes stall but you can see why now. Keep the gate level, keep the gate off the ground at all times.
• regards Graeme