I recently purchased a small private airport. The hangars at the airport are quite run down an will require some work. The door system on all the hangars itilizes pipe type tracks. The doors themselves are skinned with steel siding that gets all damaged by sliding the doors back and forth past each other. Looking for suggestions on an economical functional door system that I could use to replace my existing doors. Thank you for any suggestions you may have.

I own a unit in a t-hangar building.
The doors hang on rollers that ride in a track above,
and roll back & forth on inverted angle-iron tracks below.
I had trouble with my doors rubbing my neighbors,
what I did was rebolt the wheels on the bottom to give a little more space
between my neighbor's doors & mine.
No more rubbing.

One of my favorite things to do when I land a new to me airport is to check out the hangar doors. The smaller and funkier the strips, the more ingenious the door opening mechanism are it seems. Every time I think I've seen it all, I get corrected, the home made ones are the most interesting. One of my favorites was at a private strip in Montana, the pilot using a wall mounted pedal system, complete with the derailleur system, to open his door. He'd change gears as it opened and as the required forces altered. I had an ultralight hangar that used wheel rims and hubs from a '64 Rambler as cable sheaves, and two hand cranked winches. LOTS of ways to open that big door, point being, don't re-invent the wheel if you don't have to. i do know that even after 12 years now, I still get a huge kick out of opening
my 36' HydroSwing door

Yeah, looking for available hangar door systems/hardware as I have 25 doors. Not looking for a one off or to invent something, looking for a proven system.

Thanks,

Matt

There's a private public-use airport nearby. A friend of mine bought a hangar custom-built for him by the guy who owns the airport (a local farmer). The doors are the roll-aside type, but 100% of their weight is suspended from above. He used some type of irrigation pipe (maybe 3" diameter) welded at the top to a flat piece of steel (maybe 1/4" thich by 2" tall) that runs end-to-end and is bolted to the door frame itself. He used an externally attached "trolley" system to support the door itself. IIRC, there were only two sets of trolleys supporting each of the doors, but for larger doors, one could easily add a third trolley. The rollerblade wheels run along the irrigation pipe, with one pair of wheels outside the door, and the other pair inside the door, held together with bolts through the door frame. (He said they used LockTite to prevent the bolts from loosening, and the upper trolleys are all non-adjustible mount points – nothing to potentially loosen and create misalignment.) Those rollerblade wheels are set at roughly 30º from vertical, so they roll easily atop the irrigation pipe, and support the door's weight properly with minimal torsion (flex) on the bearings.

Having the trolleys sandwiching the door and the upper rail (irrigation pipe) keeps the door on track, even in some pretty high winds. The bottom of the door has another set of trolleys, with rollerblade wheels aligned parallel to the ground, but rolling in a narrow u-channel set with the top at floor level. Those attachment points had some adjustability to ensure minimal "pinch" friction. That keeps the door from swinging in or out. That lower u-channel was slotted for drainage. The doors themselves feel quite substantial, yet they can be pushed open with literally one finger! Everyone who came to the EAA chapter fly-in he hosted had to try them for themselves. Easiest opening hangar doors I've ever seen! And the cost was amazingly inexpensive (if anything in aviation can be considered "inexpensive").

If I ever build a hangar (or a barn, for that matter), I will probably use this type of door system.

Might think about retaining the present system and add a guide system to the bottom of the door. 1/4” steel plate, 3” or so wide the length of the door travel bolted to the concrete. Weld 1” to 1-1/2” angle iron to that length of plate or flat bar. Get a machinist friend to machine “V” groove guild wheels that incorporates sealed roller bearings. Fabricate yokes or forks from 3/8” for the guide wheels. Weld those to the end of the door... if the floor surface is uneven your yoke/forks will need to be set up like a nose wheel...but use a good heavy spring... not difficult job to do... can generate a Cadkey drawing for farming out the spring pressure set up for the guide pulleys...


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JP , It sure would help me to understand that door system if it would be possible to see some picts .
If there is any chance that you might get time to snap a few next time you are there , I would sure appreciate seeing them. I need to build a 40’ door before winter .
Thanks !