Advice or feedback from experience - Making sim portable for garage

[CSPGAPro]

Hello All,

My name is Corey, I am a PGA club professional in the beginning stages of building a simulator in my garage. I will be using this predominantly for teaching in the winter, but also for my own game and friends/family enjoyment.

I am looking for some feedback and hopefully advice from personal experience on how to make the simulator “portable/movable” so I can stow it away to allow my wife to still park in the garage. I will try to make the vision I have in my head as coherent and understandable as I can as I type this up..

Here are the details:

• Garage is 22’ wide x 24’ deep with 10’ ceiling (wife utilizes one bay for her large SUV that takes up the entirety of one side with enough room to open her trunk)
• I have a SkyTrak unit for now and JNPG until it expires (advice on E6 vs TGC19 would be appreciated also)
• Optoma short throw projector
• Acer gaming laptop
• 10.5’ W x 8’ H x 5’ D Carl’s enclosure (waiting on this now)
• 10” x 30” hitting strip

Still deciding what to do on turf for the rest of the sim to flush it out with the strips for putting...

So here is the dilemma as I have been trying to swing a club around to map it out... If I keep the sim on the left side of the garage that isn’t utilized (22’ total width, so 11’ for one bay of the garage), righties will hit the wall, lefties will hit the garage door opener. I know you can offset the sim, but I’m trying to keep it centered since I teach both dexterities and have righties and lefties that are friends/family.

My thought is to build two “platforms,” one that the enclosure will sit on and another that is the same width and I will connect them with some sort of deadbolts or latches. I thought about using the workbench casters that you raise with a foot peddle to move, then can let it back down to sit stationary. I could pull my wife’s car out and just slide it to the center of the garage. Then slide it back over and pull her car back in when done.

My initial idea was to build the first platform the enclosure would sit on 11’ wide x 5’ deep, then the stance platform 11’ wide x 7’ deep. Total width and depth would fit perfectly into one quadrant of my garage when not in use that way.

Has anyone done something similar and does anyone have any advice on how deep to make the stance platform to not hit the bar of the 5’ deep enclosure in the follow through? I will obviously have a better idea on this whenever the enclosure arrives, but was hoping to get any construction out of the way while waiting.

I also don’t even have to do it this way, it is just my initial idea. If anyone has an easier/better way, please share it!

Would love any advice and images anyone could share.

Thanks in advance!

[trhuke]

Is it possible to go crossways? That might take the garage door opener out of the equation, depending on the length of the opener track? Or if you're going longways maybe have the hitting area at the back of the garage facing towards the door and the net below the garage door opener? Maybe make one half moveable, (probably the enclosure) and make the hitting area locked in place? I think the enclosures are reasonable moveable. Just throwing out some ideas, its hard to mentally picture.
Good luck, it can be tricky to work out the best use of the area.

[CSPGAPro]

Thanks so much for the response. Both of these ideas were my immediate thoughts once I realized I couldn’t pull off keeping it in one of the two bays. However, going crossways actually puts the garage door opener even more in play (feels that way with measurements and preliminary swings at least when basing off of a centered mat and screen alignment). Flipping it the other way and hitting towards the garage door opener may be possible, but the garage door arms hang barely over 8 foot off the ground, so if I put this thing on some sort of casters, it would not work.

I included some pics just for an idea. The garage door opener is almost in the dead center of the garage which is why I thought centering it against the back wall may be the easiest way to avoid any interference for lefties and righties. Maybe the pictures will help with the visualization. The workbench I built in the picture I put on casters for this exact reason, so I could slide it out of the way, so it obviously would be moved over since that is the wall I’d be hitting towards if I went with original layout.


Thanks again for for the response!

[Smudge7204]

Have you considered a side mount garage opener, would remove the entire rail and as a bonus they are super quiet?

https://www.canadiantire.ca/en/pdp/chamberlain-wall-mount-ultra-quiet-garage-door-opener-with-wifi-0460598p.0460598.html?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIqouzp_3A5gIVQx6tBh2d5gijEAYYASABEgIBp_D_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds#store=288

[Jtangm04]

My setup is not nearly that pretty but gets the job done.
I use a sportsscreen attached to the underside of my railings. Impact screen is from dbgolf's mill thread.

Since these pictures, I hired a garage guy to raise the garage door railings another 1.5 ft higher. My wedge shots had a tendency to hit the metal sportsscreen roller despite the pipe insulation hanging in front of it.

Also looking at your setup I would agree that a jackshaft garage door opener with a high lift system would give you the greatest flexibility to constructing your sim.

[jrod738776]

do you keep this attached to the rails all the time? The door can come up and down without interference?

[Jtangm04]

With my garage door up, there was still about 2 feet where the rollers stopped. One of the images show the garage door fully up with the screen down. I did have the raise my opener higher for the j arm to clear the impact screen roller. The last image shows the silver j arm extended by a black bar.

[Jtangm04]

Also my sportscreen screen is a 10 foot wide. The right end of it is directly attached to the railings but the left side is attached by some hanging angle iron.

[Burtgolf]

Corey,

You did not mention wanting to spend more but you mentioned wanting to have space for both left and right handed players. As such my recommendation would be to eliminate the garage door railings and motor with a side mount garage opener as others mentioned .. this would free up your swing and impact area space.

I have a similar area but only need right handed golfers so if I was in your situation I would go with the side mounted garage door opener and then use the far wall opposite your entry door. You would have to remove the vehicle when you are using/setting up your simulator but this would allow you to place your hitting area far enough back and centered where both left and right handed could swing freely.

My set up takes less than 5 minutes to set up and about the same to tear down and this includes moving the wife's car in/out of the garage. It does become a hassle to do but if you really want to use the area for your simulator I think you can make it happen for your situation if you choose to use the impact area against the far wall from your entry way.

Hope this helps! Be ready to tell the wife she has to keep the car outside the garage ... lol

[Supraracer]

Looks like you have room in front of the cars. I built a folding platform and it only takes up 3' from wall when folded up. That with a side mount garage door opener.

https://golfsimulatorforum.com/forum/golf-simulator-forum/simulator-builds/165677-lightweight-subfloor

https://golfsimulatorforum.com/forum/golf-simulator-forum/simulator-builds/174684-folding-garage-sim-build

[CSPGAPro]

Thanks to all for the feedback!

Supraracer,

Thanks for the pictures and feedback. I actually talked to my buddy (who has a sweet sim in his garage, but they don't park in there so his doesn't have to be mobile or have a small footprint) about something like this to be able to fold it up. Mine would have to be slightly different and have a larger footprint than yours because of my enclosure having 5' depth.

With that being said, I am not exactly handy and this thought seemed like I might be getting in over my head! That workbench in the pictures I built on casters made me feel like I was Bob Vila(!) and that is about the extent of my "handiness." Haha.

If I did try this sort of setup, I would still need to make it "mobile." What I mean by that is, if you can see in the pictures, I would still want it in the middle of that back wall but with the ability to slide it over into the left bay not being used. I am wondering if I were to build a folding platform like this (by some miracle) on workbench casters (or something similar), if I could have the wench on the left bay back wall and be able to let it down in that bay and then slide it to the center and vice versa? Any chance something like that works or would it be just flat out too heavy to slide back and forth?

I don't know. I am sure many on this forum can attest to the overwhelming amount of thoughts and possibilities you have when trying to build a sim.

Being a perfectionist and having little to no handiwork ability has made the thought of undertaking this project difficult.

Being able to build a folding platform like that would be sweet and make the footprint smaller (like I need). My only other concern is that I really do not want to spend a ton of money on it because my wife and I have been in discussions about a building in our back yard that would be around 20 x 20, so this would not be completely permanent. Obviously life would be much easier with that, but it will take us some time to save the money up for that project as well.

Got a lot to think about and I hope the advice and personal examples keep coming!

Thanks!

[Supraracer]

It would be extremely heavy and would probably need a steel frame to hold the weight on the casters. I doubt it would be practical. If you made an enclosure out of EMT it might be light enough to mount on something the could be "wheeled" away. You could make the sides hinge in over the screen when not in use.

[CSPGAPro]

Hello Everyone,

Just wanted to give an update in case anyone else sees this in a similar situation.

I got my enclosure in (pics attached). I went ahead and built that. Still need to make the matting/turf, mount my projector and some other little things.

But I waited on making a mobile platform or anything until I could get the enclosure built and see the space it actually took up. I put it in the dead center of the garage about 15” off the back wall. Centering it actually completely takes the garage door tracks out of the equation, so that’s a bonus. My wife’s car’s front end actually fits with plenty of room into the enclosure about two feet and that allows plenty of room on either side and for the trunk to open.

What I am going to do is leave it stationary right where it is. Going to build in turf/matting inside the enclosure that will also stay put. I’m building another mat with a cutout for my hitting strip insert. This will butt up against the turf in the enclosure. When I’m done teaching or hitting, I’ll simply pull the hitting mat into the enclosure, pull her car in and be done. Won’t need to build anything on casters or a folding platform (thank goodness, wasn’t sure I could pull that off).

I’m happy, more importantly, wife is happy being able to keep her car in the garage, so all is good.

Anxious to get it done and post final pictures.

Thanks again for everyone’s help!

[CSPGAPro]

Well Guys,

The build is finally complete! I found a creative way to making my sim “portable” by only having to move the hitting mat and putting strip each time. Now all I have to do is figure out which software to go with.

Advice on E6 vs TGC 2019?

Thanks again to those who took the time to give me advice!

Pictures below are from beginning to end...

[kirkemg]

Hi - what material did you use around the cage to black it out? netting + something else? thanks