What is the biggest complaint when buying an automatic gate ?

I hear it all the time.. I bought an automatic gate kit on line or ebay etc, It is at home and I am trying to put it together and I have some questions.  Or there seems to be something missing.., Or I have installed it and nothing works.  You know it is very common.. I hate reading manuals, and being a male I think I know enough.  Well the most frustrating thing is that when you call the phone number of the place that sold it to you, leave a message and they will get back to you...  They almost never do.. plus you are at the gate right now, a light is on the board but nothing happens when you click the remote,  and I am right here, right now, please talk me through it.....it is probably a simple thing, and I need to go back to work tomorrow. 

That is where I come in. If you buy anything , a kit or a keypad, or extra remote from me and you mess up or don't understand something, you can call me... I live and work from home. I am there 7 days a week because I love being at home working on my classic cars... You can call me any day at any reasonable hour and I will help you.. To me service is the key to any business.. so yes you might get a similar product somewhere else, but usually they are also selling water purifiers or blow up swimming pools and know nothing about the gate kits they sell.  Just look at the reviews, usually bad because they don't reply to a call or days go by before you can wake someone up to help you, or even worse, they have no idea. and they say read the manual...

Another thing to watch out for is the specifications of the gate kits online. They can be very very misleading, it is a good selling point and they might work for a while, but because they only have a 12 month or 2 year warranty they will not support you at all when you need them..

I looked at a double kit on ebay the other day and they advertised that the motors will push 6 meter gates. and 600kgs.  and only $799.  Sorry to say, it is not possible long term. When I read the copy it said later that it was 6 meters for two gates and 600kgs for two gates. so 300kgs and 3m gates.. 

You will find that Italian automatic gate kits are underrated, Most Chinese kits are underrated by their engineers but the Australian sellers ramp up the specs because it looks better and they can sell more.  Why the Italians , Chinese, and South Africans understate because they want their products to last longer. If we in Australia change the specs they will still work but you are always pushing the limits of the motors...brackets, bearings etc.  I see this all the time..

To be honest most gate kit manufacturers work with double gates, open pattern and 3m + 3m. that is standard in most countries for standard size double swing gates. In Australia we push them to a single 4.5m farm gate , yes very little weight but the longer the leaver on a motor the more easily the damage or to be forced open .  One of the issues I see, is an underpowerd motor on a 4.5m farm gate that bends and twists on opening , stopping and closing..So do your home work. It it seems too good to be true, then it probably is..

Another thing worth knowing is this. Gate motors for swing gates have what we call a reach.. That is the distance or difference between fully in and fully out.  Most people don't know that the smaller the reach, the smaller the gate. So if you have a motor with a 300mm reach, it is suited to a 2.5m- 3m gate. If it is a 400mm reach then around 3.5m gate, and a long 450-500m reach is a 4.5m gate.  Watch out for this,  it is very important..

.So if you need me, to talk to, just call me on 08 95711936... happy hunting