Garage Simulator placement thoughts - help, silly pole

[Rukus]

Looking to build a simulator in my 2 bay garage. Am quite handy so will do all the work myself. I’ll figure out permanent install vs foldout, actual hardware and mats, etc as a next step but trying to figure out placement first. Floor plan attached here. GD = garage doors (on tracks). Ceilings are 10ft high and the room in total is 25x25. Would love to go with a 16x9 setup (both aspect ratio and actual screen size) if possible.

The biggest issues im running into - the dang support pole smack in the middle of the garage is basically 12.5ft in from the two side walls (I’m calling side walls those perpendicular to the wall the two GDoors are on). It’s offset front to back though very slightly from the back wall ~13.3ft (and 11.66 from GDoor wall). But it seems like no matter where I put the sim I will have to use an offset hitting position - I recall reading you need 13-14 feet width to hit from center). Does that change if one of the walls isn’t a solid wall but only a thin-ish pole right in center of what would otherwise be a side wall?

second issue is basically the whole front half of the garage is probably unusable as there are garage door tracks and openers in that area which are only about 8.5ft from ground. Feel like that’s too tight to swing under.

edit: oh yah, I’m a 5’9 lefty though want flex to accommodate 6’3 tall righties as well given some family and friends.

anyone have any thoughts on best place to put a sim in here?? Can I fit a 16x9 setup somewhere? Am I ‘doomed’ to something like a more standard 10ft wide screen and 4:3 aspect ratio to fit on one ‘side’ of the garage and hitting offset?

thanks!

[mthunt]

I suggest you just go out there and figure out what feels good swinging and put it there. For me, I’d go top left with the garage doors being bottom. And, I’d face the side.

[Rukus]

I suggest you just go out there and figure out what feels good swinging and put it there. For me, I’d go top left with the garage doors being bottom. And, I’d face the side.

thanks. Wish I could go out there and swing but not there at the moment and won’t be for another week or two. That said, I think I’m coming to grips with that type of setup you suggest (though I’d do the other side wall so as not to block a door) and just not being able to hit centered.

[Tom Hawkin]

Agreed. That looks like your best bet, and will make the most efficient use of the space. Good luck!

[cmckelvmi]

Something else to consider if you haven't yet is where your East and West is for natural sunlight. Unless you're planning on blacking out the windows to accommodate a projector and impact screen.

[Rukus]

Something else to consider if you haven't yet is where your East and West is for natural sunlight. Unless you're planning on blacking out the windows to accommodate a projector and impact screen.

thanks. Lotta trees around the windows so not a ton of natural light comes in with just regular window shades down. But yah I’d put blackout shades in if needed.

going to make it out to the house/garage this weekend after all, so will go take a driver out there and see what I can do in the various areas. My ideal would actually be to have it be against the one ‘front’ wall that only has windows on it that has 13ft between wall and the post so that I could put in like a 16x9 screen but I don’t think 13ft of depth is doable though maybe the fact that all I have limiting depth is a single pole changes things?

[Taco]

Is the pole necessary? my garage is 25x25 and has just a standard single gable roof with 2x6 trusses and no reinforcement or support. Is that pole overkill or can the roof/floor/ceiling be reinforced and the pole taken out.

im afraid for what your trying to do that pole is always going to be in the way, especially if youre trying to accomodate both righties and lefties.

if the pole must stay my strategy in these situations is usually try and get as close to it as possible instead of trying to run from it. that means hitting from the middle of the garage towards the "back", away from the garage doors. Your monitor could be paced in line with the pole, if its a foresight for instance, and it would be out of both club paths just like the monitor is.

good luck

[Rukus]

Is the pole necessary? my garage is 25x25 and has just a standard single gable roof with 2x6 trusses and no reinforcement or support. Is that pole overkill or can the roof/floor/ceiling be reinforced and the pole taken out.

im afraid for what your trying to do that pole is always going to be in the way, especially if youre trying to accomodate both righties and lefties.

if the pole must stay my strategy in these situations is usually try and get as close to it as possible instead of trying to run from it. that means hitting from the middle of the garage towards the "back", away from the garage doors. Your monitor could be paced in line with the pole, if its a foresight for instance, and it would be out of both club paths just like the monitor is.

good luck

Not sure if the pole is needed or not but I’m guessing to replace it with a stiffer/thicker beam is not going to be ‘cheap’ and I’d rather figure out how to work with it and spend that money elsewhere on sim components.

I was out there today and unless I want to replace my garage door opener with one of those vertical lift ones (and still be limited by the tracks themselves), I may indeed need to go this direction as you point out, ie try to figure out how to hit from center of the room, as close to the pole as possible. Do you think I should aim to have the ball as close to the center as possible or have hitters’ backs as close to the center as possible (ie have them face their respective side walls)? I would think putting the ball in the middle. But then you kind of run into issues where even on a wide screen setup a player is basically only seeing/feeling maybe 4-6 feet of screen from the edge while the whole other side of the wide screen is sort of lost to them. It actually almost seems more engrossing to have a lefty hit off center to the left when facing screen(with his body itself actually being positioned mostly centered with screen) and a righty off center to the right, etc. Seems like it would be more engrossing that way? But not sure that way works with the pole no matter where in the room I put the sim.

[SkeetShooter]

Is there a story above the garage? That will pretty much tell you if you need that pole or not. If there is the only way around it is to go with a Steel I-Beam that is correctly engineered for load. Not cheap. but ironically, likely cheaper than getting two bays high-lifted for garages.

[Rukus]

There is indeed another story (unfinished at the moment but likely to be finished some point in the future) above the garage...

[Taco]

My idea was always hitting facing the pole, giving yourself as small a footprint around it as possible and minimizing the risks of wrapping a shaft around it.

[Rukus]

My idea was always hitting facing the pole, giving yourself as small a footprint around it as possible and minimizing the risks of wrapping a shaft around it.

I’m tending to agree with this now that I’ve spent some time walking around the space with a driver and tape measurer. Been reading about launch monitors over the last few days as well - seems like Uneekor is a great value when thinking of dealing with both righties and lefties as well as matching performance of something like a GC2 with HMT (or GCQuad).

Because of it’s tracking area and the fact that it needs to be center-mounted, I am now thinking of feasibility of hitting into the ‘back’ wall of the sketch as you say and centering the ball. But since the Uneekor tracking area only seems to be about 12-18” wide, I would need to stand about ~5 feet ahead of the pole to clear backswings (and that doesn’t leave much room for taller people or hitters who improperly shift/lean way back in their backswing). That leaves ~7-7.5ft from impact to screen (Assuming 0.5-1ft screen/backing/padding). Is that too close? Know a lot of people hit 9-10ft back from screen.

Other options to hit into same area if i need more distance from impact to screen are 1) to use something like GC2+HMT (i want club face data) or 2) figure out if it’s possible to put the Uneekor on a rail that slides 2-3 feet from left to right as this would allow me to hit slightly off center either side of the pole while standing further back (since pole would no longer be in way of backswing). Or i could change orientation to hit into one of the side walls and just stick with a 12ft wide setup and hit from 10ft away with unikeekor center mounted (12-18” should be enough to offset for lefty/righty in a 12ft wide area).

anyone know if Uneekor can be mounted on a sideways-sliding rail to allow for a moveable tracking area?