VERY Low Headroom Installation Question

[nkx1]

Question for anyone who might be able to help me out.

I need to stuff an SUV into a tiny garage (left bay in photo). SUV is 74" tall, garage celing is 80.5" tall, and garage entrance is 75" tall.

Not sure if you can tell in the photo, but there are two wooden support beams on each side of the ceiling of the bay I need to use. Barely enough room to install tracks. This might prevent a torsion spring at the front (but I'm not an expert). One might fit at the back, but it would have to be WAY far back to clear one of the beams. Not sure if/how that would work.

I marked the point between the garage door and the entrance in red.

Any suggestions on what might need to happen to install a roll-up door and allow my car to fit?

 

[yelchevelle]

Not saying it can’t be done with a traditional door, but it’s going to be tight. If you are serious about it, and money is available, I might would look into a door that opens and closes horizontally. I used some hinges made by a company called super sneaky. They work good. I put an 8’ door in an 8’ opening with about a 102.5” ceiling. The problem is, I can’t really get anything any higher, but the door braces hang down, so I don’t get a full 96” opening. Truthfully, I probably only get 92-94” of opening because of the braces. My truck is like 83”, so I’m not worried about it. I installed it myself, and I am not a pro. I found a great used door (8’x20’) for about 1/4 the price of new. I had to cut my ceiling a little bit to get the pulleys up as much as I could (pulleys go up about 1/2”-1” up above ceiling. Obviously, not ideal, but my point is, I am doubtful that you can get a traditional door to work with that tight of tolerances. I hope this helps.

 

[nkx1]

Thanks for the reply. Yes, I'm sure the Super Sneaky hinges are a must if it's even possible. Yeah, we'd have to be extremely selective with the door, so we don't have anything hanging down like you mentioned. Even a total of 6 inches down from the ceiling would be pushing as far as what we're working with.

We would definitely pay someone to do it- I'm just curious if it's possible. It's for a condo that we might buy, and it would really **** if we had to get rid of our 1-year-old-car if it won't fit in the garage. From what I've seen on YouTube etc., it should be possible to mount the tracks very close to the the ceiling and still get the door to open using the Super Sneaky hinges. I just don't know where an opener and torsion spring would go (given the beams and very minimal headroom). Jackscrew opener would be challenging because of the beams, and a traditional overhead opener would hang down too low.

What do you mean by a door that opens horizontally? Like a barn door(s)? If so, that wouldn't work for me. This is a condo with only a narrow street to turn into the garage. Good suggestion if it was a house though!

 

[firebirdparts]

Kickout doors have the advantage with low headroom, but they can't really go above the opening. You'll have to be very precise with the tracks. to me, this is the very best ultra-low-headroom style.

the other style is with the top wheel is hinged. This hinge requires you use a track opener. Otherwise, nothing is closing the door.


I don't know that you realistically can run a track opener. The track might squeeze into the building, but the j-jook is going to hit your truck. You can run a track opener beside your truck, but garage doors are flimsy. It's not really going to close nicely if you try to do that.

 

[firebirdparts]

I guess there is a third style and that's the "quick turn" style. Not really a fan.

 

[firebirdparts]

So something that helps more options work is you use a straight link instead of the j-link, making it possible to run a track opener in the middle. The straight link will need to be working functionally on the top of the door (by top here I mean the top.) That is not a NASA fab job to make that happen.

 

[Viper98912]

That condo garage doesn't look like it was designed to fit a suburban/tahoe/expedition/navigator/wagoneer sized vehicle. Did you also measure the length of the garage? Are there any radio/gps shark fins on top of your SUV that raise it a few more inches even more?

 

[nkx1]

Thanks for the additional replies. I'm getting more optimisitc haha. I don't think a double track would work. If the tracks are around 2 inches wide each, that's just cutting it too close when you consider the track needs to be installed down from the ceiling a tad, plus whatever hardware components hang down from the door (hinges, etc.).

And yes, the car fits with regard to length and width. The shark fin is what causes it to be 74 inches high. I'd otherwise have another inch or two to work with. I've searched for ways to delete the shark fin, but it seems like it'd be easier to find a creative door installer than to delete the shark fin.

 

[no704]

Low pro tires and a suspension drop?

 

[Viper98912]

Low pro tires and a suspension drop?

BAG IT

 

[Jeff Ivers]

Are you going to eliminate the door opener? Based on appearance it would appear the opener is too thick to allow your vehicle under it and the garage construction would appear to preclude the type of opener that works from the side of the opening.

 

[yelchevelle]

What do you mean by a door that opens horizontally? Like a barn door(s)? If so, that wouldn't work for me. This is a condo with only a narrow street to turn into the garage. Good suggestion if it was a house though!

I briefly looked into it, but decided it wouldn’t solve what I was looking to accomplish for some reason, can’t remember why.

 

[jstroede]

Unfortunately many of those places were almost built around those tilt-up style doors. They can be replaced with sectional doors usually, but you are going to give up some height. I have put doors in a lot of tight spaces, but I just don't think anything is going to fit with all of your criteria unfortunately. Double track low headroom can probably work, but the door will hang down in the opening probably 3-4 inches and you can't pull it that far back due to the geometry to get full opening height.

The craziest thing I could think of to even try would be a set of custom built double track with a 10" radius and custom length verticals to jam it as close to the operator rail as possible, but even then I don't think it would clear the opening enough to get your car in. Finding someone capable of doing that would be a challenge probably too.

 

[firebirdparts]

Fundamentally, I just don't buy that you can't pull it all the way back "far enough". That's not a NASA-level engineering problem at all. The main thing you have too look at is what the cable is going to hit. You really wouldn't have to be that creative to solve that.

I also don't buy that double track won't fit. That's not right either.

By the way, I should have included above that I personally have a double track AND hinge setup. The double tracks are only a foot long. I have one of these in my own basement. I think this is a reasonably common setup.

 

[firebirdparts]

Thanks for the additional replies. I'm getting more optimisitc haha. I don't think a double track would work. If the tracks are around 2 inches wide each, that's just cutting it too close when you consider the track needs to be installed down from the ceiling a tad, plus whatever hardware components hang down from the door (hinges, etc.).

I don't buy any of this at all. Not at all

And there's a shark fin

This is interesting. That means you could possibly have some extra room everywhere except one little spot. I don't know that you need it, but I would certainly be trying to put my shark fin not-in-line with the opener if it was me.

 

[jstroede]

Fundamentally, I just don't buy that you can't pull it all the way back "far enough". That's not a NASA-level engineering problem at all. The main thing you have too look at is what the cable is going to hit. You really wouldn't have to be that creative to solve that.

I also don't buy that double track won't fit. That's not right either.

By the way, I should have included above that I personally have a double track AND hinge setup. The double tracks are only a foot long. I have one of these in my own basement. I think this is a reasonably common setup.

That's a Canimex low headroom conversion kit. I actually tested those when they first came out. They are really designed for adapting an existing set of track. They don't really save any space, other than the space in the installers truck. The door still travels above the track. Your track install has to be dead on or there are problems. It is a useful tool for installers that show up to a job site that doesn't have the space they think it does (job sold without measurements or improperly measured).

If speaking about a 7' door (I know the original poster doesn't have this but the same logic applies to other door sizes), normally horizontal double track is made from 15" radius. On a standard 7' high door, the verticals are 8" under door height. On LHR, normally the verts are another 8" shorter. That's a total of 16" under door height. Add in the 15" radius and the bottom of the horizontal track is roughly the height of the opening. Now if it is sprung with torsion springs, and the bottom section starts getting in the radius, it will reach the closest point between the bottom bracket and the cable drum. At this point, the bottom of the door will still be several inches down in the opening. If you pull the door further open, the distance between the bracket and the drum increases. That means it has to pull cable back off the drum. That's when bad things like thrown cables happen. Extension spring geometry is different, but it has similar issues. You can't get the LHR tracks too high in relation to the door either unless you get crazy with trying to fab some crazy top fixture either.