Do I need a middle track for my garage door?

[Back In The Saddle]

Have a garage door on the garage attached to my house that is about 13 feet wide, maybe 7ish feet tall. It's made of thin metal, probably aluminum, with I guess steel brackets and such, but it's pretty light I suppose. I bought a Liftmaster garage door opener, I think it's the 8500, but it's the one that attaches to the bar that has the door spring on it. I took off and sold the old door opener, that had the track with chain and such installed. But after setting everything up, I'm wondering, did that middle track also provide support for this door? It has the two tracks on the sides that the wheels on the door roll on, but I don't want to try and open this thing before making sure that the middle track wasn't also acting as a support. I don't think it was, as it was pretty thin metal, but maybe it only needed to support the middle a bit while the sides held most of the weight.

 

[gnpenning]

With you mixing terms pictures would have been nice to verify you don't have something odd ball going on. The rollers support the weight of the door as a rule not the opener. The opener just replaces the person raising and lowering the door.

 

[matt_i]

The standard "tracked" garage door opener (chain drive/belt drive) can't support any significant downward load. The "J- bar" which attaches to the door is a free-to-rotate pin joint at both ends of attachment. So the center of the door can deflect due to its weight as much as the door structure allows. Usually there's something like an inverted "U" shape sheetmetal channel which provides rigidity to the top edge of the door so it doesn't deflect as much in the center when its mostly horizontal.

 

[steves_001]

If it helps, garage doors are made to be used without openers. So, they would not have a middle track (door opener hardware) if you did not ever use an opener. You will be fine with the door tracks and torsion bar lift.

 

[curiousB]

If you are concerned add a strut or two to the door panels to stiffen hings up. They aren't expensive

https://ddmgaragedoors.com/parts/struts.html

 

[Viper98912]

No, the center track that's for the opener doesn't support any door weight.

 

[The Cobbler]

No, the center track that's for the opener doesn't support any door weight.

this

 

[Back In The Saddle]

Cheers, fellas. Appreciate the sanity check.

 

[rburke65]

Well that’s what we are here for.

 

[The Cobbler]

Cheers, fellas. Appreciate the sanity check.

Well that’s what we are here for.

and don't be afraid to hang around, and share some of your knowledge!