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I'm going to be installing a gate for timberland access this spring and wanted to get some opinions and ideas on designs. This is not for accessing a home site, just vacant timberland. I need something handsome looking but something I can install with normal tools (tractor, post-hole digger, and hand tools). I like the look of some of these steel pipe gates (kind of like you see of forest service / WMAs) but expect I'd need a welder for those. At this point, to restrict access, the gate is all I'll need -- no fencing. In the future I may add a small amount of split-rail fencing on either side. Can I do better than 6x6 treated posts with a bevel at the top and careful installation? One concern I have is the need for a brace post, when I use a single 12-foot gate. I worry that the brace post tends to make things look asymmetric and screw up the look. Any neat ways for sprucing up the look of using poles, instead of square posts?

Anyway, any good ideas or, better yet, pictures? Let's hear and see what you got! I'm running out of Google search tags.

Bump. Figured this'd be right in the DS wheelhouse.

I would be cautious on installing gates that have to match up perfectly to be locked. They can get out of alignment pretty easy from the weight of the gate to change in the soil (shrink/swell). There are many gates like this on U.S. Forest Service roads and some WMAs. They will get out of alignment, period. They can be good ideas when you what to shield the lock from being exposed (to keep someone from cutting your lock), but install a turn-buckle or some other means to be able to adjust it.

Another down fall to these style locks that perfectly match up and project the lock from being cut, is that is the exact place wasp like to nest. You learn to kick them before reaching your hand into a blind spot!

You may have already thought about this, but you may want to install the gate far enough off of the main road as to be out of traffic when you are opening or closing the gate.

To get you by what about the cattle gates they have at Tractor Supply mounted on 4x4 or 6x6..

http://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/produc ... gate-12-ft

You mentioned 4x4 and 6x6. You can get those much cheaper at Follen lumber in jackson vs. Home depot or lowes.

Thanks, all. How far off the road does a 10-ft gate need to be for logging traffic?

SB wrote:I would be cautious on installing gates that have to match up perfectly to be locked. They can get out of alignment pretty easy from the weight of the gate to change in the soil (shrink/swell). There are many gates like this on U.S. Forest Service roads and some WMAs. They will get out of alignment, period. They can be good ideas when you what to shield the lock from being exposed (to keep someone from cutting your lock), but install a turn-buckle or some other means to be able to adjust it.

Another down fall to these style locks that perfectly match up and project the lock from being cut, is that is the exact place wasp like to nest. You learn to kick them before reaching your hand into a blind spot!

You may have already thought about this, but you may want to install the gate far enough off of the main road as to be out of traffic when you are opening or closing the gate.

Haha, i was about to type the exact same thing about the wasp. Those gates are a no go.