[Fritz]

I've been swamped with updating a 150+ year old house and am hoping to finish up a few large projects before focusing on cars again. Top on my list is the security gate installed for the driveway. I need a touchpad and radio control and a video camera would be nice. While I've done my research there are lots of different pieces to pull together to make it work right and I'd rather leave it to a professional. If you have any recommendations, please let me know!

Thanks!

[Mark Hubley]

My wife and I have a farm in southern AA County. We built the house and barn here in '04. Our drive is about 1/3 mile long, and we have a gate at the entrance. Shortly after moving into the house, we ran electricity to the gate and automated it.

There is a keypad on the outside to allow entry with a code. We have remote controls in the cars, for remote opening of the gate. We have a sensor under the driveway on the inside, so when the gate is closed, people can exit on their own. The gate normally closes automatically about a minute after it has been opened. However, we have a switch that allows us to keep the gate open.

I forget who did the initial installation; they used equipment with the brand name GTO-Pro (I think the same stuff is also sold as "Mighty Mule"). This equipment did not hold up well. Seems like about every 6 months something failed, usually one of the gate arms. After a couple of years we switched to another company. They installed LiftMaster equipment, and we haven't had a problem since (that's probably been about four years now).

My wife has the info on the installer. If you're interested in following up, I'll get it from her. If they do work in your area, then I recommend you have them out for an estimate. I also give a thumbs up to LiftMaster.

[Fritz]

Thanks Mark! PM on it's way...

[Mark Hubley]

Fritz,

Here's the info I've got:

Action Activator (I guess that's the name of the business). The contact person is Mike Foster.

The phone numbers I have are 571-237-1538 and 301-322-1600.

Again, our gate has been trouble-free since they did their installation.

Cheers,

Mark