Self-Opening Truck Gate

Self-opening Truck Gate TRUCKS Accessories 14-4-9 "Anyone with a farm shop and a welder can make this "no hydraulics" self-opening truck gate. I've used it for 10 years with no problems," says R.E. Mitchell, Chilliwack, British Columbia. The automatic door works great for silage-hauling trucks and wagons with hydraulic dump. When the truck box is raised to dump, the door opens up. It shuts itself again when the box is lowered. No hydraulics or other power is required. Two lengths of 1 by 2-in. sq. tubing fasten to each side of the door. The two pieces to form a "Y" at a fulcrum point about 2/3's of the way up the side of the truck's 6-ft. sides. A steel cable, anchored below the truck bed on the frame, pulls down on the end of the "Y", lifting the door up and over the top of the box. A length of 1 1/4-in. angle iron serves as a stabilizer, running from the top corner of the door to the end of the "Y". The fulcrum is a 3/4-in. dia. pin welded to the side of the truck box. A piece of heavy-wall pipe welded into the "Y" fits over the pin. Mitchell had to drill a hole through the angle iron that runs around the outside of the truck bed in order to run the cable directly down to the truck frame. He welded a short piece of 3/4-in. pipe into the hole to thread the cable through. He also had to "round off" the upper back corner of the sides of the truck to make way for the door as it raises. He put a 1 by 3-ft. piece of draper cloth over the opening to keep silage from falling out. Contact FARM SHOW Followup, R.E. Mitchell, 7725 Chilliwack River Rd., Rt, 1, Chilliwack, B.C. V2P 6H3 Canada.

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