high lift door rails following scissor trusses

[oiler]

I am installing a 9 ft high door into my garage that has scissor trusses
I have high lift rails and a Liftmaster jackshaft opener
I want the rails to follow the ceiling rather than come out 90 degrees from the wall.
I can pull the rails to within 6 inches of the ceiling rather than 2 feet but where the curve meets the vertical rail I get a gap (which I can fix) but I can see that I'm changing the curvature of the rail so it actually pulls the door towards the wall as it travels up.
Anyone else do this or have a good idea? I did a search and found lots of high lift posts but none with this concern
Thanks
Jeff

 

[Torque1st]

I am planning on the same thing in my garage.

You will need to cut a section out of the curved section of the rails.

The tracks will need to be spaced farther from the ceiling to clear both the door lift mechanism track and the top door panel. The springs and lift cable will also need to be repositioned and tensioned differently to hold part of the weight of the door while it is on the inclined rail.

 

[Kevin54]

Don't they make special tracks just for this application?

 

[Torque1st]

They may but I have done a lot of searching and have never found any nor any mention of this type of installation in any online sales or installation manuals. It will be interesting if anyone has any info. I am very interested.

 

[67pete300]

Not sure exactly what you mean, but I watched a pro do this conversion to my door a few weeks ago. He replaced the vertical rails with taller ones but shimmed the tracks out from the where the original ones installed on the jambs by installing small pieces of 1x (3/4") material. This got the whole vertical track angled back a bit. Maybe this would help your problem?

 

[nova65ss]

Plenty of info here


http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/search.php?searchid=748271

 

[oiler]

When I ordered the doors last month I asked about rails with a different radius and was told that there is different sizes but no one makes one with a radius less than 90 degrees and I've yet to find one
i figure 60 degrees would be perfect
I'm kinda hesitant to cut anything out of the curve cause that will also drop top rail and compound my problem
I've searched for hours here and haven't found any posts where guys want to do what i do.
If I can keep the door above 12 feet I can free up alot of space in front of the hoist so thats why this is important.

 

[nova65ss]

Far as I know they do not make a horizontal track that is less than 90*. What we do is cut the curve down to what we need and drill new holes for the track bolts. You will also need to cut some of the angle iron that goes to the flag bracket. There is a guy on here that has what you are looking for i will see if I can find it. Are you wanting to add some vertical track also or just come straight off of the vertical you have?

 

[oiler]

No I can come straight off the vertical
I figured I'm going to have to redrill the flag bracket (closer to the wall)
I was also thinking about pie cutting the curved portion and opening it up a bit and rewelding (although with galavanized I'd rather not)

Thanks for alll the help I really appreciate it

 

[nova65ss]

If you are coming straight off you will need to pull the vertical all the way away from the wall. If not the top of the door will bump going up. All you will need to do is cut the curve redrill and cut the angle iron that goes up to the wall. The door will not balance well, you will need to add turns to keep it up at the top and you're done.

 

[4me2nou]

It can be done! I designed my garage the same way, 9 ft walls and 6/12 scissor trusses. Gives 3/12 inside, my garage is 32' deep so i have over 13' at peak and over 12' for at least the center 8'. Plenty of room for a lift. I left one bay standard ceiling for storage and heat pump install. I checked around for this door install. Clopay makes a track system, which I believe I read about on here a while back. But I went with CHI doors, I felt like they were a much better door, 2" thick steel on steel fully insul. The installer had never done this design, but with the help of the CHI reps he had no trouble getting the tracks from them and yes the radius is different and the springs are stronger for this design. They went in great and are so balanced that an easy lift lets them float to a raised position and a gentle tug closes them. We discussed openers, I had him install a liftmaster on the standard door and at this time used no opener on the other two. He said that the liftmaster jackshaft should work great.

 

[Torque1st]

It can be done! I designed my garage the same way, 9 ft walls and 6/12 scissor trusses. Gives 3/12 inside, my garage is 32' deep so i have over 13' at peak and over 12' for at least the center 8'. Plenty of room for a lift. I left one bay standard ceiling for storage and heat pump install. I checked around for this door install. Clopay makes a track system, which I believe I read about on here a while back. But I went with CHI doors, I felt like they were a much better door, 2" thick steel on steel fully insul. The installer had never done this design, but with the help of the CHI reps he had no trouble getting the tracks from them and yes the radius is different and the springs are stronger for this design. They went in great and are so balanced that an easy lift lets them float to a raised position and a gentle tug closes them. We discussed openers, I had him install a liftmaster on the standard door and at this time used no opener on the other two. He said that the liftmaster jackshaft should work great.

Thanks for the info.

 

[4me2nou]

trying to get a few pics on here, but cant get that figured out yet. my pics are too large to upload

 

[4me2nou]

finally got a pic to fit. wish it could really show the full view. they are not as tight to the ceiling as i would have hoped, but it really did gain a couple feet.

 

[4me2nou]

I hope this worked now.

 

[4me2nou]

this is frustrating

whew!!!!

 

[4me2nou]

one more try before bed

 

[oiler]

Thanks for the pics
I did get finished the one door on sunday
I took the horizontal piece which includes the 90* curved section and I trimmed about a 1/2 inch off one side of the track where it meets the vertical track
I then lifted the horizontal track about 20 inches up at the far end and attached it.
The 2 pieces meet pretty good and the door lifts easily with no real problems
I figure I'm about 1 and a half turns tighter on my springs that what shown to be normal in the instructions
The springs are the same size as the ones for the 14 foot wide door I've yet to install so I think they'll handle it
Thanks all for your ideas
Jeff

 

[mpraddict]

Here's mine....Wayne Dalton doors installed with their commercial tracks. The track slopes away from the wall above the header, has a different size radius than the standard track, and follows the slope of the ceiling (2/12). They did required heavier springs.

 

[Torque1st]

More good info! Thanks!!!