Make your 7ft garage door opener work on an 8ft door, save some money
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- Опубліковано 1 бер 2023
- So you've got an 8ft garage door but the openers they sell are meant for 7ft doors by default, what do you do?
Fork over more cash for an extension kit and just throw away a section of rail and the whole chain/belt....ORRR you can take some measurements, extend the header bracket, modify the stops, save your money and be less wasteful.
This probably voids your warranty and I take no responsibility for damage you do to your shiny new opener, door, garage, body or anything for that matter.
They should really just sell the motor separately from the rail and chain/belt so you can purchase the right size and not waste material...but, $$$ - Авто та транспорт
Good job and good idea bro
Nice. I’m going to do the same. $50 for an extension kit is ridiculous.
By the way I had a pro install mine and he did use the extension kit for my 8’ door. However, being an engineer I noticed on the 7’ door the whole track is not being used. How far would the 8’ door open without doing anything? Is it possible that it would open a 7’6” door fully without doing anything? When you increase the header, do you need to do anything to the track, etc.? Is there a reason you need to open the door fully? When I had my tract home built 20 years ago, this was a reasonable option (3 car garage, both doors were about $300 extra), so I opted for this. The only time this is used is when you have a larger/higher truck, or when you put on a car top carrier for storage for a vacation. You can open this carrier in the garage, fill it and close it and then can safely ride out in the morning. This works with the carrier we have. This was on a 2012 Honda Odyssey.
PS: I actually bought the same door opener for a rental condo I own and noticed the extra track length. I ran into a different problem, the door opener was too long, I ran into a You Tube video showing how to decrease the length. I did a different workaround, I had an “I” beam in the way. The “I” beam was covered by a drywall box, which I cut into and recessed the opener into the box and that worked. The opener was 2” too long, but when done there was still 3” to the beam.
That's the funny thing, the tracks are long enough for an 8' door but the factory stops on the opener bars are the limiting factor. So no, I didn't have to do anything to the tracks. And yea the only reason I tried to maximize the opening height is because I had a ladder rack on top of my truck at the time.
As far as how high it would open without modification, you would have to install it to a point where you can test or measure where the lift arm rests closed up to the stopper at the full open position. Theoretically it would open the distance between the physical stops if you can install it in a way to take advantage of the full travel. Too many variables to say with certainty.
Your arm is installed backwards
You right. My door doesn't have protruding supports it needed to clear so it wasn't an issue, but it is indeed backwards.