We've been working at putting a fence around our property and are almost finished. The last part that we have to do is we're adding gates to the end of our driveway.
The fence that we put up is a hogwire fence with wood framing. It looks like this:
However, to keep with the style of the fence, I'd like to build a matching gate. I've seen some ideas online of how to build a large gate that won't sag and came up with this similar design, but I'm still not sure of it: (Front and back views)
I'm hoping to keep the opening as large as possible so that trailers and such can easily enter. We are also having the gap split into two gates and will be using an automatic opener system. Currently I'm looking at having it at 20' wide, so two 10' gates.
The question that I have is primarily, is this design reasonable in hoping that it won't sag? They will both be 10' wide X 4' high. I know that these will be incredibly heavy gates and this just seems unreasonable; but I saw it being done with a 10' wide X 6' high privacy gate, so I would think that these might be a little better off than that.
Also, our driveway is mostly flat and so we'd be able to use wheels if needed, but I'm hoping to avoid that if possible.
Last; I've thought about maybe buying two of the metal farm tube gates instead and just mounting this design (or similar) onto them. Does that sound like a better idea? Or possibly some form of metal support to add to this.
Best Answer
If you were my client and I was taking money for your project, I'd put wood on a metal substructure, have wheels on the ends, and make sure the posts were extremely well stuck in the ground. (You might be able to skimp a little on the post as long as the wheels are in contact with the ground at all points in the arc, but the other two points would be non-negotiable.)