Self Storage- Gates, Chains, Locks

Just ordered our entrance gate yesterday. Will give you a run down on gate systems we use. We are in a blizzard so hey, got time. Over all our road ways are 25 foot wide. Use a 20 foot (drivable space) gate, the actual gate may be 30 foot long for offsetting weight and to stay on the rollers. You could go with a shorter gate. Make sure to put Posts or Bollards on each side of the gates, so no one runs into it.

We primarily use three types of gates on our properties. Two sided swinging/hinged gates for construction entrances, Walk thru gates- in case entry gate is down, and Entry gate- we use a Cantilever gate. If in the country side, we will do galvanized. If in the city we will use Black coated. Two sided hinge gate around $1,000. Walk thru gate (??). Cantilever gate by itself without motor (rough $10,000). Motor (rough $15,000).

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Before we get into the entry gate, if you look at the walk through gate you will note a "Blue" chain and lock. PEWEG grade 120, 1/2 inch "square" chain. Get at a "Rigging" store. Use this type of chain since it is impossible for Bolt Cutters to cut; and extremely hard to cut with a cutoff saw. You may see a youtube with a Vise holding it and cutting it, but they won't have a Vise outside. For a lock we use the below which is a Master Lock, model 6127A Key??????. If you keep the model and Key number, you can buy or have the locksmith key to the same Key. This is not even close to the "BEST/BEST" lock out there, but is less expensive and great. Due to the heavy neck and metal strength, no one has been able to cut through this lock with a bolt cutter. I like the moisture cover for the key hole, for our weather.

Don't remember exactly the prices.

Chain is about $20 per foot.

Lock is about $25

​Three pictures above is our Cantilever gate. The next picture shows the Rollers for the gate at the bottom. There are 4 rollers, one at the top and bottom and then about 8 feet away is another set of top and bottom rollers. The gate rides on these rollers, and is called a Cantilever since the weight transferring over the rollers as you close and open, the weight on one side, helps offset the weight on the other.

​Good thing about this gate, is it can be turned off and then easily manually rolled open or shut.

a. Your gate might not being getting electricity. Breaker switch could be thrown- long term you need your electrician to check if that is happening. Make sure your Electrician when installing puts the gate on its own Breaker Switch. Same thing with your NVR and Computers.

b. First thing to check though if gates won't open are the sensors. See next section.

First picture. To access these controls, you must unlock the cover. Then second picture, turn the switch off.

Third picture is the manual latch lever.

Fourth picture. You must use two hands and at the same time, pull back on the Handle sticking up in the air, and lift the latch that is laying down on the locking arm, to the second tooth position. Then just roll the gate open or closed.

Some folks may use "Lift" gates where there is just one fulcrum point. Then the whole gate lifts up in the air, until it is at a 90 degree angle to the ground. My contractor has this gate at his storage. He says the only issue he has ever had is in an ICE storm and the gate was to heavy. He has to go knock off the ice from the gate.

Ice is an issue with the Cantilever gates also. On the top bar, we take a small hammer and knock the ice off. Otherwise it builds up under the roller wheel and blocks the gate as you open. On the bottom bar and Rollers, I usually take windshield wiper fluid and pour on the two bottom rollers and bar.

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First thing to check if your gate won't open are the sensors. See if weeds have grown up or trash is near the Beam or reflector. Or if humidity or frost are occurring.

a. Make sure you have hoods on both your Beam and reflectors to protect them from ice and rain.

b. Put Rain X on them to keep them clean of ice, snow or humidity. If you still have problems in the cold, your Beam may be freezing. Get your gate company to install a heater on it.

c. You will have two sets of Beams and reflectors. One for the gate opening and one for the rear area where the gate retracts when opening. These sensors should note if there is a vehicle or a human blocking the signal and stop.

d. Also you may have in ground sensors on both sides of the gate where the vehicles drive through. The sensors, sense a vehicle and will stop the gate from closing until the gate moves. See the third picture below. After the driveway is poured, the Gate company will cut tracks in the concrete and lay a sensor wire there and cover up.

e. Some gates may use a Bumper sensor on the edge of the gate and if it hits something it will retract or stop.

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​All or none of the above may be required depending on your government/zoning entity, your business model or other considerations. Also the above are what I use, not necessarily all or the best solutions on the market.

These automated gates can be programmed in several fashions.

a. Keypad, we use just a push button. You could use a code or a fob. We don't want the extra calls on I lost my code or fob. To beef up the security just using a push button, we have about $8,000 worth of special cameras. Face camera when you push the button coming in and going out. Special license plate camera that is built just for that. Passenger camera and an overall camera. Both sides of the gate.

b. You can program the time the gate stays open when activated.

c. We have programmed only during the hours 8 am to 9 pm.

d. We have a hard lockdown we communicate at 9pm.

e. Gate is accessible through our phone. We are 25 minutes away. So if someone gets locked in after 9 we can open, or if we want to test because of frost, we can do this over the phone. Or if police need to get in after hours.

Security system update 01/2022:

Had some break ins 3 weeks in a row about 2 months ago. Was once trying to get into storage units and twice going thru our RV and vehicle parking. I actually dislike RV and vehicle parking because they are so easy to break into, hard to see they are broken into versus storage units, and due to the tall height of vehicles it is hard for cameras to get a picture or for the night lights to shine between.

How bad do I dislike thieves. After the third weekend, took my shotgun and sat at that location and watched the cameras in the office all night for 5 days. They never came back. They were cutting through the chain link fence at the back where the cameras and lights don’t cover. Also parking somewhere farther away and walking in.

Asked my Security guy what he had we could try next.

Keep in mind, cameras are only after the fact and since they didn’t drive up with a car and were totally covered in the pictures, couldn’t do anything. Our new camera and system does have some Warning features, but we never got them dialed in, to where I wanted to be called/texted and woken up. Matter of fact our cameras, we can even talk through them from our phones. We tried one feature. You can draw a line on the Camera view. If something breaks that line in the picture, you can have it do whatever you want; alarm, phone call, text, warning lights etc. We never could dial it in, so we did not use that function. Our latest cameras have motion sensor, so we could have them call us.

We just installed an infrared Beam system, that I am very happy with. Costs a lot of money, but I don’t have to stay awake and I will get a phone call at night if the beam is broken. Lost 3 customers, so I don’t care on the cost. Plus with the internet talk forums, you have to nail, your location is secure. Will be putting these in at all of our Fenced properties. Has two sets of beams about 2 inches apart at the top and two more down at the bottom. These two groups are about a foot apart. All 4 beams have to be broken to set the alarm off. Thus depending on height, raccoons and cats won’t set it off. Birds flying though won’t either. You can set the time for the alarm, which we did 11pm to 7am.

Tested the system at night by breaking the beam. Got a call from the Call center within 5 seconds of breaking the beam. You can tell the Call center whatever action you want. Call the police, text, email, call, or keep calling till they physically have you awake and talking with you.

So, does it work??????

Had an alarm phone call on Saturday at 4am. Got there pretty quickly, dressing, shoes, get the shotgun, driving two miles. But they were there only 7 minutes and gone by the time I got there. They had cut the fence on the back side of the property.

Sunday at 11:30 pm get an alarm call. This time I’m awake already. Faster to dress. Faster to drive. Drive straight to the spot. Saw their truck. “Feared for my life”. Shot the driver side tires out. Shot the engine. Shot the radiator. So they couldn’t leave. Used Bird Shot. Called the Sheriff. Went back to the front gate and unlocked it so the Sheriff could drive straight in. Then went back around to the field and watched to see if they came out.

Had about 10 law enforcement. K9 dog. Drone. The dog hit on one RV but it was locked. Gave them the owners number. But the owner was out of the state with the key. They didn’t want to break in, so didn’t get in. They left. So I put some duct tape across the doors, just to see if they came out. There is snow on the outside of the fence, so I could tell they had not left the premises. Stayed the rest of the night watching in my truck but they never came out.

Today, I saw another RV’s door open. They were hiding in a different RV. The Law Enforcement searched the whole property, but did not find them.

Took some desserts into the Sheriffs department today, plus a raw steak for the dog. A Deputy came out and said they got the culprits. There were papers in the truck with their names. They had sent the older brother to jail before for theft. Went to their house Early monday morning after they left our storage. The Girl friend let them enter. They found a lot of stolen material. They went back the next day and arrested them. Guess that’s an easy way to get rid of a boyfriend you don’t want.

These beams work great in open areas or where there won’t be weeds or parking. At this spot we have 4 storage buildings. We put a beam across the back of the buildings also. These beams can be turned on 180 degree arc. Thus you could stick it on a building and turn both of them at 90 degrees facing each other. To get better coverage, we put on one of our buildings, then we put a post away from the buildings towards the back.

If the battery (lasts about 3 years) runs out, you get a call. If they get bumped, you get a call.

This is for two sets of beams.  It's expensive, but it can cover 350 feet of space. So we have two separate sections covering around 280 and the other one 260 feet on the back side.   And you get to nail them in the act.

Looks simple.