Ceiling mounted garage door opener - how to deal with it?

[Zedoych]

Hi Everyone,

Hoping to get some advice on how to deal with a center mounted garage door opener. My sim build will be in a single car garage with the following measurements:

• 10' wide
• 19' long
• 10' tall

The main issue I'm currently trying to find a way around is that the garage door opener hangs from the ceiling right around the middle of the room, at about 8-8.5ft off the ground. Even though the garage itself has plenty of height to hit every club in my bag, the garage door opener is right in the way. I assume this is a fairly common problem so I'm looking for advice on how to handle this as inexpensively as possible. Current ideas are:

• Install a side mounted garage door opener. Some quick research shows I could purchase and get this installed for ~$800-$1000 CAD
• Raise the garage door opener to be almost flush with the ceiling. Not sure if this is even possible given that the tracks are also mounted around 8-8.5ft above the ground. Does the opener have to be roughly even with the door's tracks or could I purchase a larger j arm and raise the opener and belt up to the ceiling?
• Remove the garage door opener entirely and just keep the garage door closed and locked.

I'd like to be able to open the door if possible but if it's going to cost a fortune to do it then I could probably live with keeping it shut. Exploring all other options before going that route though.

Thanks in advance!

[Darren W]

If the garage door opener is in the middle, you should be fine. We have lefties and righties hit in my garage with the door opener in the middle maybe 9’ off the floor. I project the image onto the drop cloth. I put net on the ceiling because we had a couple “dimples” put in the ceiling.....😏

I have to take mine down after using it so we can park in the garage. Not sure if you have that issue.

[Zedoych]

Thanks for the response! Unfortunately in my case leaving it in the middle won't work because I have less width than it looks like you have. I've tried slowly swinging some longer clubs and I would definitely hit the opener on my follow through, even extremely offset

[pwade3]

Not sure if this helps, as it would effect other handed golfers. I hit away from my garage door but my garage door opener was in the way of the follow through. I took my existing garage door opener and moved it off to the side so it was well out of the way. Has been like that for about 3 years. Just need to make sure your springs are adjusted correctly (will go up and down with the same force). I did the adjustment of the springs and moving of the opener myself so no cost. Caution with adjusting the springs as they are dangerous if your not familiar with them as I was. If your door is already well adjusted, you don’t need to do anything with the springs. It works very well and is now out of the way. Would be a problem for the lefty though.

[Zedoych]

I thought about trying this as well but unfortunately I have ONE friend who's a left that wouldn't be able to play if I took this approach. Great suggestion though, damn lefties ruining it for everyone haha

[Treyc321]

Just got my sim with similar dimensions, I don’t know the height of the opener but I’ve hit it a few times already with a wedge so I’ll have to go with a side opener. The rails are not an issue at all though

[Zedoych]

Yep rails are no issue for me as well. Looking more and more like a side opener is going to be my best bet.

[Treyc321]

I was also thinking of just raising the opener and lengthening the arm before buying the side opener. It might work even if it strains it. Best case I can avoid a dumb expense haha

[BJMDO]

If you have any experience with garage door opener installs, the side mounts are a breeze. I just put up a side mount Liftmaster for the same reason.

[Zedoych]

No prior experience with opener installs. My main concern is that I wouldn't know what to look for in terms of incompatible torsion bar or other parts, and I don't want to mess with the spring. The opener itself isn't too expensive but the labour to have it installed would double (or more) the total cost.

[P_Bio1]

I had the same issue and I removed the overhead unit and installed a side mounted unit. I'm surprised at the cost you quoted, I'm in the US and I paid $499 for the unit but maybe CAN markup is that much. The unit was very easy to install and is much quieter and nicer than the overhead unit.

[Zedoych]

The total cost I quoted includes the installation cost so that would explain the big difference. Did you have any experience with installing garage door openers before you installed this one? I'm a little concerned about installing it myself because I wouldn't know what to look for in terms of incompatible torsion bar or other parts, and I don't want to mess with the spring.

[frodaddy00]

You absolutely don't want to touch your spring however you can install a side mounted door opener that doesn't require you to touch it at all. I'm not particularly handy but managed to install one myself. Youtube is your friend it walks you through it step by step even to confirm your garage is compatible.

Here is the vid I used to install a Chamberlain RJ070 side mount opener.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6XKMfVFbQzY