very well done bud 25 years here in resi and commercial. this id the best viedo i have seen in a real low headroom situation well done ...clap clap clap.cheers well done.
Love Grandfathers that just think it through and make it happen. Some rubbed off onto my dad and I think I got some of that wisdom as well. That's why I'm here. Totally new area for me, but, gotta get it done.
I want to say thank you so much for this video! Afyer my husband and I worked at ot for like 10 hours lmao I came across this video! You saved us from having to return out door opener and possibly not having a door opener at all! Your concept worked perfectly and i cant thank you enough for thinking ouside the box! Awesome job! Awesome video! 5 stars
Dude you are a genius. I have an 89" ceiling and I thought I was not going to be able to do it. Found the super senaky brackets online. Come to Atlanta and put mine in! lol
I like the way you did that. I have a 7ft garage door with a 10ft ceiling and a lifted truck that wont fit. I'm in the process of raising the header to probably 9ft. Then use a jackshaft opener and 24 or 30 radius curves to have the door ride along the ceiling. Everyone tells me its not possible and its gonna be a waste of money to Mcguyver it together. I think buying the parts you need instead of a kit thats going to need to be modified will be cheaper.
This is awesome job Your grandpa is a good solving problems guy , he extended the steel lifting cables and extended the linkage with the door with a square bar , very professional done . I am mechanical Engineer and that is one of the job I consider " one of the kind job" to fix your garage door problem. Congratulations it was AWESOME
Oh my goodness, thank you so much for thinking of this and sharing it. My contractor got to the end of my garage project and broke the news to me that I would not be able to have an automatic garage door opener because there was not enough clearance .... Then my mom found your video. My contractor followed your instructions and it saved me from having to get out of my car with my two-year-old daughter inside EVERY time I go into or out of the garage... For our safety and convenience, thank you.
Thank your grandpa for me. Just did this for my Vietnam Vet uncle. He was told by local contractors he could not have his opener installed due to low clearance. He lives on an island in Lake Michigan. I visited him and installed it in a day, like yours. 👍👍👍
Ingenious! Clever! Brilliant! I am glad I came accross your video. I have same situation with my garage door, where the top pannel is mounted on a hinged wheel holder. Then the clearance is within 1/4'' like you. I was hoping to use a door opener, but could not figure how. Now I know how! Thanks for sharing!
This video was inspirational! I had to work a little further out of your box, but it worked amazingly. Thank you Grandfather for the hinge idea. It worked perfectly!!
Rite on bud this fixes my problem. Tell your grandfather thank you very much you should.patton this. I was installing a 16' wide door this was a garrage package and the company really didn't have a clue what they were doing. This is a great fix for this common problem
Excellent video, thank you for this! Car-Wal in Ontario refuse to talk about this method, they just want to sell me an overpriced build-down system where i lose 9 inches of door clearance. Thankfully managed to find someone eventually that will install this way. Thanks to your grandfather too!
I just received another "no" from a garage door professional because of low headroom, so this video gives me hope that I can electrify mine this summer myself. You really did a beautiful job!
Wish I'd seen this sooner! Just got our "low headroom" garage door and rails delivered and the rails have 2 tracks on them?? Pretty sure the definition of "low headroom" for us was confused as an installer said "low headroom" kit will actually make the garage door final height when open LOWER and not higher up close to the ceiling like we wanted...Oh, and he thought it will cost us another $1k+ for new rails + $1k for the install?! Still working through what options we have w the existing double rail kit. We are not even doing an opener and he said the door will be heavier to open than a standard kit. What a mess. Thanks for the video though as it gives me a place to start now I know it is possible.
Yeah i made the same mistake, and got the 2 rail kit for low headroom. i ended up using them, but i just utilize the rounded track (lower one) and use the super sneaky brackets.
Thanks for making this video. I just installed a door opener today and ran into this issue and my dad found your video so we did what you did and works great. Well done.
Good evening. I just wanted to comment and say this also is exactly what I needed. I really don't know whether I can accomplish this big project but it is great to see that it can be done. My other option is for Carriage swing doors that are on there now but I might give this a try. So once again thank you for this video. It is the most creative and detail how to video that I have ever seen. Have a blessed night!!!
You give me hope I can get a door after 38 yrs in my house I don’t feel safe and just want my cars and lawn equipment secured I think my height might be 8 or 7 ft tall and I have 2 cars in the garage now I have to find someone to do it 😳
Your video helped me out greatly in setting up my garage opener. I as well have low headroom in my garage. Your grandfather is a genius! Your explanations great!
Not only is it rear torsion, it also looks like a reversed torsion as well. Meaning, winding a righthand wound spring backwards. Only makes sense with the reversed torsion bottom brackets & the drums set on the outside of torsion tube. I've done quite the engineering to get doors in like this. Instead of a lengthy J arm extension, I've went up between the rafters with the rail, and only the motor sits flush at ceiling height Great build my friend
Awesome job! Could you have maybe mounted a jackshaft to the rear torsion? Your grandfather was a visionary type of fella I'm guessing. Ingenious idea. I seen something like that using 2 solid steel chain motor rails working in tandem.
Don't get me wrong. The use of Super Sneakys are a great idea to solve a low headroom problem However, it can cause another problem. That is, a small obstruction (child leg) under the door will maybe cause the opener to not reverse reliably. The top section panel (with the Super Sneakys installed) now has the "downward" back pressure very much reduced from the opener. The opener "pressure" or force is now mostly horizontal, folding the hinge up to close the top section. There is a area where the opener may not sense an obstruction correctly. Because the opener needs to sense the vertical back pressure from an obstruction the safety aspect is contravened. Beware Americans. Blessings from New Zealand
you are correct! this is a risk i am willing to take and haven't had an issue in the ~4 years i have had this system installed. but i am aware that the auto reverse feature is slightly handicapped so i am a bit more vigilant in double checking before i close the garage
Extremely slick. Now to go full spectrum on it. ;) Those exposed cables which are parallel to the ground could probably be run inside a conduit, maybe plastic, so when the spring breaks(they all break eventually) or even cable(although it takes both to break on torsion system) breaks, the cable would be somewhat contained from flying everywhere. BTW, I'm diggin' the triangulation on the spring anchor. ;)
Thats a bad ass setup. Nice work. Definitely gave me some solutions to my problems. No where near as tight but I'm still hitting rafters with the new garage door since it's a single track.
Thanks. I need to do a far back set up, but I have rafters running parallel to the opener shaft. So I can use the space to put the rail up top. I have to go far back to clear a support beam and low hanging ductwork though. Thanks
Impressive! Facing this issue in the garage of the older home I recently purchased. Unfortunately, I don't have the skills needed to make this work and I'm sure if the garage door guy that said "no can do" has the ability to do it, he would triple his price. Maybe I'll look into more of a handyman type of contractor.
This is a great video. Thanks so much! You would not believe the problems I am having with garage door installers saying it can't be done. The attitude with them seems to be if they weren't taught it in garage door school, it can't be done. All I need is a person with a brain, not a robot.
That’s impressive. I’ve never understood why a garage would ever be designed with such low headroom. That defeats the purpose of having a garage with the ability to use a garage door opener. All that being said, this is an ingenious solution to what seemed to be an impossible problem.
Thanks. I cant remember why a jackshaft opener wouldnt have worked for me, but im sure it wouldnt have worked in this situation because i remember thinking about it and then writing it off...
@@jakecrayne5120 Jackshaft opener are mounted on the shaft of the torsion spring. Since they need some lift low headroom tracks have a quick breakaway and small radius. Garage door folk say they work a bit jerky so your solution is great. Did you cut any of your vertical tracks?
Sir! Wow! You just blew my mind! You're grandpa is awesome!Well done. It looks amazing! Any chance you can show me how you did the cables on the side that is mounted to the torsion bar?
Man it did help you not just helped me no you saved me seriously , thank you thank you so mush ❤️ , am from africa and i was thinking to start this business here in my country and i start geting informations aaaandddd look at youuu you gives me everything 😄❤️❤️
I looking to see if I can do this at my house. I went and measured my parents 7’ door and the top of the rail measured 91”. How is your less than 87”? Also looking at yours, it has two rails on top? Is that a low head room kit also?
Rear torsion is smart. I have a low garage too. I think mine is the same height. Under house garage, ceiling is concrete. I'm thinking of trying the rear torsion setup with a genie 6170 side mount opener. I will try to install it on the ceiling. I don't see any reason why it wouldn't work. Thanks for the vid.
@@jakecrayne5120 just curious because I’ve never seen it done before, but could you mount the jack shaft horizontally along the ceiling? Or hang some wood/angle iron and brace it to install vertically?
@@chasegeissler4964 Yes, i definitely thought about doing this. i want to say i needed more clearance to be able to mount the jack shaft opener to the ceiling, but i love the idea of mounting it to the ceiling horizontally if it works in your situation. good luck!
There is a very good possibility that mounting it like that would cause the cables to jump of the cable drums. Unless the door can drop on its own, you may need some sort of pusher spring mounted in the top track just to give a push to get started. You have to also remember if your using outside cable hookup, the springs are wound in the opposite direction than standard hookup.
Hey this is super helpful! I want to add a garage door and enclose my carport, but because of a beam and the roof sloping, I have about 87” as well to work with. My question is, how are the cables routed near the door in order to attach to the door since normally those pulleys are mounted directly above the door rather than put back behind the door if that makes sense. Also is that just a bracket/strut you are using to mount the track or is it a double track? Hard to tell in the video. Thank you again for this! Super helpful in figuring out how to do mine.
it is a double track but i dont even use one of the tracks. i ordered it cause i thought i would need it, but the super sneaky brackets make it usable with a standard track. and yes, it is a rear torsion setup so the torsion bar is set at the rear. at the front near the door, there is a pulley on each side which changes the direction of the cable from horizontal to vertical and then it goes down to the bottom of the door and attaches to the cable brackets
@@jakecrayne5120thank you for the reply! Did you have to cut the vertical track? Right now my track for a 7’ door is 89” from very bottom to top of horizontal track. I only have 88” of clearance so as it stands I already have to take an inch off the vertical, but then that leaves no room for the door which I imagine goes above the track a bit. You have built in clearance by having that double track, so I’ll just figure the width of the track as the clearance I need.
im not sure you need to cut the track. the excess upper track and upper door panel should just hit your header. if you need to cut the track though, it shouldnt be an issue to take an inch off the bottom. the main thing is making sure your door panels will fit. the super sneaky brackets help with track issues @@ImmDanny
Thank you Jake. a very helpful video I have an identical garage and I'm encountering same headroom problem. I was about give up when I found your video. Can you tell me which super sneaky set you used in your install.
Great job! Question. Why did you use a double track system when the upper track isn’t being used? Did the upper track not end up working? I need to do this but want to use regular track. Thanks!
@3:22 in your video you menton you used a super seeking or super ceiling bracket? Could you clarify that please? I have a similar situation as you do. Did you buy a special door for this?
the bracket is called a "super sneaky" bracket. the door is standard. you can even use a standard track, although i did use a low headroom track here but found it unnecessary as the super sneaky brackets negated the need for a low headroom track. supersneaky.com/product/super-sneaky-garage-door-hinges/
Do you remember what the height of the finished opening was? I'm trying to replace an existing door that's 6'6" tall with a 7' tall door. I just want to make sure that the weather strip is still going to hit the top style and not load across the raised panels
@@kylekageyama mine is exactly 106 inches (just under 9 feet). i guess it should be about the same length as the rail that comes with your opener. probably buy 10 feet to be safe and cut to length after the opener and the door linkage are installed
Jake Crayne thanks Jake, I ended up buying 10’ as it was slightly more then 50% the 20’ cost locally. It came out to around $20 for 10’ 1/8”. If I had bought less then 10’ they would have charged extra for cutting and cost would have been $30+. Once I setup the opener I measured and 9’ was about the max distance I could go, so I cut it to 9’ and drilled and mounted all the metal brackets. After some tinkering everything works nicely. Thanks again!
GREAT ! Same question... Did you cut your bottom rail. And did you add a pulley each side and chose a longer steel cable since you installed your torsion in the back. Thanks
He did not cut his bottom rail he purchased a low headroom rail kit and only used the lower of the two rails in the radius with a super sneaky set. Probably would have also worked with the standard low headroom fixture in the second track but maybe I'm wrong, every situation is different. If you bought standard rails you would have to cut them down to fit yes The cables will also need to be longer yes, and it does use pulleys in the corners yes
They go from the torsion bar in the rear, loop over pullies attached up top right on the outside of the track right where it makes its 90 degree curve downward. then they attach on the lowest wheel bracket at the bottom of the bottom door panel
This is almost the exact setup that I have in my garage, and I'm needing to switch my 1-piece door out this summer. Where did you purchase the garage door kit with the rear mount torsion? Do you happen to have a model number or part number? Thanks!
Did you buy a low headroom kit to install the garage door? (IF YOU DIDN'T THAT'S IMPRESSIVE!!!) Or you installed it with the kit that came with the garage door..
I did buy the dual track, low headroom track kit, but as you can see, i only use the top track. i didnt need the double track system. i initially bought the low headroom track thinking it would be a simpler task than it was. at the end, a normal track would have worked just fine.
Great video , Looks as though there has to be pressure on top panel in order for sneaky brackets to work ? So this can not be done on a manual opening garage door ?
Do they make a long enough drive belt that would work with this type of setup? My neighbor has the same garage height/clearance problem as you and this would probbaly work, but he hates the loud sound of the chain drive compared to my nice and quiet belt drive system.
yes it is not that the belt or chain needs to be longer, i just attached a rigid piece of steel tubing to the garage door attachment piece and extended that. i didnt not modify the garage door opener at all. a belt drive, or chain drive will work fine. just extend the linkage!
