# High Radius Garage Door Track



## jcu117 (Sep 8, 2007)

Hi,

My garage has a 10' 6" ceiling. The current garage door turns horizontal at around 7'. I would like to buy a scissor hydraulic jack for the garage and need to modify to have the garage door turn at around 9'. I have been told that I would need a "high turn radius" track, but can't seems to find a place to purchase it. I have checked HD and Lowes.

Can you point me to the right direction?
Can this be done by a homeowner?

Thank you in advance for your help!


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## joasis (May 28, 2006)

Actually, they are called "high lift doors" or door tracks. Essentially what this means, is the door tracks from say a 9 or 10 foot door are installed but the opening is only 7 feet, so when the door is all the way up, it isn't as far back into your garage, and a panel is above the opening....we sometimes install true vertical lift doors that have no horizontal track at all. A door guy can come in and install new tracks for you and make your existing door a high lift.


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## Doorguy06 (Jul 17, 2007)

*High Lift Track.*

To answer to other part of your question, it is rec. that a door guy come out and do it because the springs cable and drums are all going to have to be changed. If the door has an opener it will also have to be changed to a jack shaft opener. The whole conversion will be pricey just to give you a heads up.


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## Tscarborough (Mar 31, 2006)

Note that you will have to add panels to the door equal to the height you raise the track. Other than that, there is no special track or technique.


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## Tscarborough (Mar 31, 2006)

Oh, and Doorguy, you do not need or want a jackshaft opener on a high lift door.


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## Doorguy06 (Jul 17, 2007)

Tscarborough said:


> Oh, and Doorguy, you do not need or want a jackshaft opener on a high lift door.


You seem to be quite the expert on these Tscarbourough. Maybe you would like to tell me why you would need to install extra panels since the door height is not going to be changed and why a you don't want to put a jack shaft opener on a highlift door when a jack shaft opener is all you can put on a high lift door?


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## Tscarborough (Mar 31, 2006)

I guess I am a bit of an expert on Garage doors and non-typical applications.

Here is a crappy elevation view of a standard low headroom and a highlift application:











As you can see from the drawing, the rail extends above the door. With a standard opener, the angle of the trolly would pull the door out of the track, not UP the track. By adding dummy sections, you raise the trolly pivot point to the required level.

For insurance reasons alone, jackshaft applications are not suitable for normal residential applications.


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## Tscarborough (Mar 31, 2006)

I guess I am only a little bit of an expert after all. There appear to be UL 325 listed residential openers available now. Are they any good, Doorguy?


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## Doorguy06 (Jul 17, 2007)

Tscarborough said:


> I guess I am only a little bit of an expert after all. There appear to be UL 325 listed residential openers available now. Are they any good, Doorguy?


 
Actually yes, there is a very good (Residential Jack Shaft) opener available. The Liftmaster 3800. It comes with photo eyes and the circuit board automatically adjusts the sensitivity so that you don't squash the dog. There is also a commercial (Jack shaft) opener suitable for residential use it is called the LGO. Both of these openers meet your UL 325 standard. Now how would I know this? Well, I have installed I don't know how many jack shaft openers in Multi-Million dollar homes down to Hundred Thousand Dollar homes on doors with high lift and on doors without highlift. They all pasted the inspectors BS safety test and to my knowledge insurance did not cost anymore nor was it denied or affected in any way. I don't know anything about that though, my wife is the one that works in home and auto insurance not me.

For all applicable reasons yes, what you said will work. However, I don't know of any professional door guy that has ever rec. that method, I mean why doesn't the guy just install a 9 foot door in a seven foot opening with 15" radius track? Why don't we all do that?

Installing high lift track the right way and adding a Jack Shaft opener is going to utilize his maximum amount of ceiling space and look much better not to mention he is going to have 4 less rollers to worry about replacing later on down the road.


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## Doorguy06 (Jul 17, 2007)

OH and that door on the left is standard lift, not low headroom.


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## ra_whitney (Jun 24, 2009)

*the fake panel*

I have an existing 7 ft garage door that I want to retract closer
to the ceiling. Had some spare track around that went to the 
ceiling, but I am stuck with a dead vertical segment of maybe 2 ft.

Not wanting to shell out at least $1K for new track, jackshaft motor,
cable, drums, installation &c., I think the fake panel, to make up the 
missing segment, is the way to go. Anybody done this?

The track I installed was from a 9 ft door whose track went to the ceiling.
(High ceilings!) So basically what I want to do is turn a four segment
door into a five segment door.

Appreciate any thots, design considerations....
Glass door, metal frame, very heavy.

Cheers,
Richard


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## Scuba_Dave (Jan 16, 2009)

Better off starting a new thread then digging up a 2 year old thread


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