Garage Door opener in the way

[Jtangm04]

So planning on installing a sportscreen underneath my garage door rails and low enough to clear the J arm. Problem is my drive swing gets awfully close to hitting my garage door opener. I still have leftover parts from my old garage door opener so I can easily extend the J arm and raise the opener another 4 to 6 inches easily which should be more than enough clearance.

The question I have is my opener's manual says the header bracket must be 2-3 inches above the torsion spring. Question I have for anyone knowledgeable on this is if the J arm is long enough is there any problem raising the garage door opener higher. If the arm is too long then the garage door might not open all the way up is the only issue I can foresee.

Option 2 is a jackshaft opener but wife might kill me since I just installed my current opener 9 mo ago.

[inorkuo]

I actually tilted both horizontal tracks and the opener bar upward. it puts a little extra strain on the motor when in the open position because the door won't stay open on it's own. I had a garage door tech come out and give me a quote on raising it up the right way but it was going to be a couple thousand dollars and he said if it were him, he'd just leave it the way I had it.

[p3eps]

I replaced my door with a roller door. Now I have no rails and no opener. The whole mechanism is self contained and it’s so much neater... and there is nothing to hit!!

[Jtangm04]

Never considered a roller door. Are they really noisy? Also what is the cost.

[p3eps]

I’m in the UK, and it cost me approximately £2500 to have a double door fitted.
Prior to that, I had an ‘up and over’ door - which is essentially a single piece that goes up on the rails.
My roller door is significantly quieter than that. It’s also much more efficient for Scottish winter, as it’s insulated and has a good seal against the ground. The up and over door had a gap at the bottom, and was solid wood.
it also had to swing out when opening, meaning that cars had to be parked a couple of feet away.

My up and over door came with my house - and it had only been built 2 years when I replaced it. There was nothing ‘wrong’ with the door, just the roller was a better option for me.

[Jtangm04]

Thanks for the info and good to know. If I ever have to replace my garage door will have to keep that in mind. Wonder why they are not more popular in the US since it frees more space in a garage and has insulation benefits. Unfortunately for me trying to keep my costs as low as possible so trying to make due with my current setup.

[Captargo]

Understand you are trying to keep costs low but if you are ever looking to replace your garage doors, you can look into a "high lift" garage door installation.
door opener mounts to the wall the garage doors are on and turns a spindle to raise and lower the door. The garage door also hugs the garage ceiling when fully opened. No chain and no opener in the middle of the garage
gives you way more clearance and no door opener in the way
only down side is for a two door garage you would likely only be able to have one door with a door opener, other door would have to be manual. Not enough room between the two doors to mount two openers
i replaced my 25 year old wooden garage doors with new insulated doors with a high lift installation about three months ago and so far it has been great

[inorkuo]

To go high lift it was in the range of $3000. For $600, I could get larger radius track sections, new cables, and new springs and gain about 8 inches. Here's what mine looks like tilted.

[bbjr]

I remounted my opener off-center which gave me the space and height necessary. The torsion spring provides much of the force necessary to raise the door and also provides even tension to both sides of the door, keeping it square on the tracks as it opens. This allows for the motor to be mounted at various locations and not just in the center as most are. You can check the manual for your model to be sure, but most allow for off-center installation.

[aeroburner]

just get a shaft driven garage door opener and get rid of the outdated one

[Captargo]

I was getting new doors because mine were very old and needed replacing but in my area the cost to go to high lift was only $200 more per door than the standard install. Was an easy decision for me

[Captargo]

To be accurate should also mention the shaft driven door opener was about $100 more than a standard garage door opener

[Jtangm04]

I am going give it a whirl and see if I can raise the opener 8 inches. My eyeball measurements and tape measure suggest it should work. The angle of the J arm is steeper but still looks like it clears the top railing of the garage door. The door might not lift all the way up but will still be 96-98% open. My projector is a BenQ Ultra short throw so for a 10 foot image it will need to be 4 feet away from the impact screen. So even if I do a jack shaft opener I am still going have projector in front of me that I will have to protect with padding and netting.

Thanks for the suggestions but I buy too many other man toys and gotta hold back now and then. Still it would be awesome to upgrade to a 4k projector and a gtx1080ti with a premium screen.

[Jayzee]

Did you ever raise the Motor? How did it work?
I have the same exact problem.

[Jtangm04]

I was able to raise it with no issues. Didn't have to readjust any tension in the torsion spring. Longer j arm does not open the garage door as much but really minimal to me.

[Jayzee]

Thanks for the reply. I know this thread is old. I will be trying this before the winter hits