I need garage door track for something custom.

[haugy]

I need heavy duty garage door track for a custom lift I'm building. I've got a pole barn, so I've got 6x6 posts in the ground. Two of them in are 3' of gravel and 6" of concrete on top of that. Plus the extra 2' in the ground with cement. In short, they aren't moving.

I've got a space to put two garage door tracks along the posts, next to my current garage doors. But this will be to hold shelf lift. I'm going to build a metal and wood shelf that can lift up to 700lbs and have it run along those tracks.

The tracks will be lagged bolted in with 6" lag bolts (there is a 2x6 on top of the posts). And I will be putting the legs to the tracks every 8 inches. That should be able to distribute the load evenly.

But since most track isn't designed for that kind of lateral load, I need some heavy duty stuff. Anyone know where to get it?

See pics for reference location.

Walls are insulated and covered in drywall now.

 

[ODIS]

Have you looked at Uni-Strut?

 

[JakeKohl]

Have you looked at Uni-Strut?

I second that. They have rollers and all sorts of stuff to fit it.

 

[pmiranda]

Uni-Strut is probably better since it's designed for that sort of thing, but a garage door track designed for an old-school 16' wide wooden door has to handle over 300# per panel, so as long as your shelf isn't deeper than your top and bottom support rollers are spaced, you're not in bad shape from a back-of-the-envelope static loading calculation. Keeping the load as far back on the shelf as you can will also help make sure the load is carried vertically instead of trying to rip the track out of the posts. Of course, if you build a 200# platform to hold the shelf on the track and you bounce the load, it's going to try alot harder to rip the track apart or out of the posts, and garage doors generally don't present any dynamic load like that to the tracks they ride in.
If you try this, I'd mount the tracks "over-plumb", so that the tops are closer to the posts than the bottoms, kinda like forklift rails lean back away from the load.

The big problem is I don't know a surefire way to add a safety stop to the tracks. They're just not that strong in shear. That would make me very nervous to leave any load up there for very long and I would absolutely not let anyone be under the platform when it's loaded.

 

[haugy]

Have you looked at Uni-Strut?

Nope, but I am now!! Thanks, that's exactly what I need!

Uni-Strut is probably better since it's designed for that sort of thing, but a garage door track designed for an old-school 16' wide wooden door has to handle over 300# per panel, so as long as your shelf isn't deeper than your top and bottom support rollers are spaced, you're not in bad shape from a back-of-the-envelope static loading calculation. Keeping the load as far back on the shelf as you can will also help make sure the load is carried vertically instead of trying to rip the track out of the posts. Of course, if you build a 200# platform to hold the shelf on the track and you bounce the load, it's going to try alot harder to rip the track apart or out of the posts, and garage doors generally don't present any dynamic load like that to the tracks they ride in.
If you try this, I'd mount the tracks "over-plumb", so that the tops are closer to the posts than the bottoms, kinda like forklift rails lean back away from the load.

The big problem is I don't know a surefire way to add a safety stop to the tracks. They're just not that strong in shear. That would make me very nervous to leave any load up there for very long and I would absolutely not let anyone be under the platform when it's loaded.

That's not a bad idea about the slope. My plan is to have (say I use Unistrut) two pairs of trolleys, an upper and lower. The lower will be at shelf height, the up will be above it with an arm going to the outer edge of the shelf to help with the load. If I use the unistrut with holes every 3" I'll be able to lag bolt the hell out of that thing. At that point, I think it will hold the 600lbs of tires I'm planning on putting up there.

I think with the right load tolerance Uni-strut channel and trolleys I should be fine.

 

[JimVonBaden]

Have you looked at Uni-Strut?

That was my first thought. The garage door tracks are not usually designed to control that much weight.

Jim

 

[pmiranda]

My plan is to have (say I use Unistrut) two pairs of trolleys, an upper and lower. The lower will be at shelf height, the up will be above it with an arm going to the outer edge of the shelf to help with the load. If I use the unistrut with holes every 3" I'll be able to lag bolt the hell out of that thing. At that point, I think it will hold the 600lbs of tires I'm planning on putting up there.

I think with the right load tolerance Uni-strut channel and trolleys I should be fine.

Cool. I was thinking the upper trolley would be at shelf height and the lower would be below so the diagonal support arm would be in compression instead of tension. The shelf would never get down to the floor but your tracks wouldn't have to be as tall.

BTW, I just have a fixed high shelf and carry my tires up and down the ladder one at a time, but I only have to move them a few times a year.

 

[haugy]

Yeah I put the arm on top since the tires will already be tall I won't lose any more space, with the arm under the shelf, I can't go as low. This way I'll be able to roll them on easily. I will be using this to swap out my rockcrawler tires versus my street set. So it will be going up and down a lot.

Thanks for all the help!