Drive-Over Gate For ATV's

Drive-Over Gate for ATV's FENCING Gates 16-3-3 Dean Pierson, Copake, N.Y., came up with a simple "drive-over" gate for his 4-wheel ATV that automatically opens in either direction. Pierson simply lets his front wheels push the gate down and drives over. After the ATV has crossed the gate, the gate automatically flips back up into place. "It works great for checking cattle in my pastures," says Pierson, who has built three "drive-over" gates. He built a frame for the gate out of 3/4-in. dia. pipe. A steel cable which runs through the pipe along the bottom edge of the gate and is anchored to two 10-ft. high gate posts on either side, acts as a hinge. A 1 1/2-in. dia. pipe mounts above the gate about 8 ft. off the ground. Three used car wheel rims are welded to the pipe and wrapped with cable. Two of the wheel rims are mounted between the wood posts and are tied to the gate's top corners. The other wheel rim is positioned outside one of the woodposts and has a 40-lb. counter-weight tied to its cable. When the gate is in the closed position, the weight hangs about 6 in. off the ground. "As the ATV's front tires push the gate down, the pipe and wheel rims rotate, raising the counterweight up," says Pier-son. "After the ATV has crossed the gate, the counterweight drops, rewinding the cable on the other two rims to lift the gate back up to the vertical closed position. The key is that the cable on the outside wheel rim is wrapped in the opposite direction from the other wheel rims. I first tested my idea by making a 2-ft. high toy model from scrap lumber and twine. I used small pulleys so I could see how the cables should be wrapped. "The wide circumference of the wheel rims provides leverage that makes the gate easier to push down and causes it to go back up slowly. I used only one counter-weight (a roller from a bulldozer track) because it happened to be perfectly balanced with the gate. However, on the other two gates I used two counterweights, a light one on top and a heavier one that rests on the ground. The light counter-weight on top makes it easy to push the gate over, and the heavy counterweight keeps the momentum going once the gate is half way down. It also keeps the gate from being blown over by the wind or accidentally opened by a cow." The pipe rotates inside a pair of home-made bearings mounted on the wood posts. "Same idea could be used to make drive-over gates for cars, pickups, tractors, etc." Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Dean Pierson, Weed Mine Rd., Copake, N.Y. 12516 (ph 518 329-4543).

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