Garage door mahem

Darren Wright

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Springfield, Missouri
So my neighbor called me up in a panic last night. He went to close the main garage door on his house, one of the cables snapped and the 16' door literally fell apart as one of end the panels fell and twisted themselves off the tracks. Luckily missed his truck and car by inches.
I got over there and 3 panels were hanging by the cable 4' high and the other end was sitting on the ground.

I helped stabilize them and lower them down to remove them. Honestly they weren't all that heavy, I picked up two of them by myself, but combined they were enough to bend one of the steel tracks way out of wack.

Sorry no pics, but take a few minutes to check yours out to make sure things are OK. :wave:
 
I hate being in our garage when the doors are down as those old springs are like looking down the barrel of a loaded gun! I have replaced all four of them after two of them broke and I kept cheating out and bending a hook on the end of the spring. I really like the new design that wraps on a shaft and everything is contained when the spring fails. Now my cables, :huh: probably original to the garage, 1940's, might be time to think about replacing/updating them this summer! Thanks Darren.
 
Make sure you have the safety cables running through the springs so when they do break the springs cant go flying. My wifes uncle had one snap and it broke his jaw in three places. They are under a lot of tension. The cables are only a few dollars at HD.
 
I hate being in our garage when the doors are down as those old springs are like looking down the barrel of a loaded gun! I have replaced all four of them after two of them broke and I kept cheating out and bending a hook on the end of the spring. I really like the new design that wraps on a shaft and everything is contained when the spring fails. Now my cables, :huh: probably original to the garage, 1940's, might be time to think about replacing/updating them this summer! Thanks Darren.

I'll repeat Sayer's advice of the safety cables if you don't have them. My neighbors was the wound spring above the door, it held, it was the cable that is connected to the bottom panel that failed, don't know if it was the cable or the pin that it went on. I'm not sure that his tracks had the correct number of brackets to support the side stress, it bending is what sent all of it crashing down. I think his panels actually came out pretty good overall, so they may just replace the track and cables and re-install.
 
Make sure you have the safety cables running through the springs so when they do break the springs cant go flying. My wifes uncle had one snap and it broke his jaw in three places. They are under a lot of tension. The cables are only a few dollars at HD.

Sayer, I never knew such a thing existed! Makes complete sense and I should have thought about a cable or something through it to contain it. Will get that completed. Thanks for the information on that!:thumb:
 
My son, Glenn, will remember our next door neighbor, Earl Bowlin being in the garage wearing a baseball cap. A spring broke and without touching him, took Earl's cap up to the shingles.

INSTALL CABLES if you don't already have them.

Enjoy (and keep your jaw)
JimB
 
My son, Glenn, will remember our next door neighbor, Earl Bowlin being in the garage wearing a baseball cap. A spring broke and without touching him, took Earl's cap up to the shingles. INSTALL CABLES if you don't already have them. JimB

Many years ago, a co-worker had one go thru the back window of his then 3 day old Oldsmobile. It came to rest halfway thru the back of the driver's seat.
 
Fortunately, here I only have a carport, but when we moved to a house in Dallas back in '92, we heard a noise and a bang in the garage in the middle of the night... the MBR shared a wall with the garage... I checked on the noise to discover the garage door laying on top of my wife's Chrysler.
 
A sound like no other. Mine broke before there were cables. Thankfully notihing was damaged. Truck was in the driveway in front of the closed door!
 
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