The following instructions for converting your garage door to a high lift system are written for only the confident mechanic. The task is more complex than installing a garage door from start to finish. The average diy-er should not attempt this. These instructions apply only to the standard type of garage door pictured below. Your cable drums and cables should look similar to these. The next part beyond the end of the spring assembly is the cable drum. The drum is cast aluminum alloy 4" in diameter and 13" in circumference around the flat portion. Just beyond the cable drum is the end bearing plate. The cable unwraps off the back of the drum between the drum and the wall and travels down beside the door, inside the track brackets and behind the roller stems as shown. When converting from standard lift tracks to a high lift system, you will need: Most residential garage doors use less than 54" of high lift to fit in garages with ceilings that are 12' high or less. With assembly these high lift parts cost $200.00 plus the cost of the tracks, springs and extra shipping.
These are normally shipped same or next day. You can also shorten your horizontal tracks to provide tracks for the high lift portion and assemble the track yourself. Parts for doing this cost $125.00 instead of $200.00 plus the cost of the extra tracks. Assembly of the high lift tracks is best done on a bench. As you can see the track extension is pitched on the left to prevent the door from binding on the header as the door opens and closes. On certain types of garage doors, you will need additional parts. For example, if you are converting from extension springs to high lift track and torsion springs, you will also need additional hardware including the shaft, end bearing plates and the center support bracket. If you have a Clopay or Ideal EZ-Set torsion spring system you will need to convert to standard torsion hardware, which includes end bearing plates and the spring anchor bracket (or brackets if you have a coupled shaft on a wider door). A third type of door system needing additional parts is the Wayne Dalton Torquemaster torsion spring assembly.
On these garage doors, the entire torsion assembly will need to be replaced with a new shaft, spring anchor bracket, and end bearing plates. Standard spring anchor bracket kits cost $7.50 and the end bearing plate kits cost $9.00. You can view other options and prices at our garage door bearings and plates page. If you need a shaft to convert to a high lift system, we recommend buying a shaft locally from a steel supply center or a steel scrap yard. To fit standard garage door hardware you need a hollow 14 ga. tube with one inch outside diameter. A 16 ga. tube will work on a single car door weighing less than 150 pounds; we recommend 11 ga. or solid keyed shafts on doors weighing over 450 pounds. Shafts for 8' wide doors can be shipped by UPS; shafts for wider doors can also be shipped by UPS, but they need to be be cut in the middle and coupled, requiring a coupler and two spring anchor bracket kits for two springs. Converting your garage door to high lift is dangerous work.
It is impossible to cover every dangerous situation you may encounter. The directions below hopefully will help guide you in safely converting your door to a high lift system, but there are no guarantees. Pay special attention to the warnings that appear in red. In summary, you need to supply us with the following information when you contact us for a price for a high lift conversion kit for your garage door: You'll also want to consider the wind of the spring if you have only one, and conversion from one to two springs if that becomes necessary. In these instructions we replaced a single spring with another single spring that had the same wind. The customer had installed a pad up above and finished it with drywall. You will need to check the area above your header for studs or pads for mounting the spring anchor bracket, as well as the track angle that supports the track extension. Often additional framing will be necessary. In addition, we often recommend converting to two springs for high lift.
If you are converting to two springs, or if you already have two springs, we recommend reviewing our instructions for replacing garage door springs. Pay particular attention to the wind of the springs. The winding cone with red paint on it is normally installed on the left side of the center support bracket, and the spring with black paint on the winding cone is installed on the right side of the bracket. As with our torsion spring replacement page and our torsion spring price lists we begin this tutorial with our sternest warning: We hear from many mechanics who relish the excitement of a challenge like this. Probably more often than not they are professional people such as engineers, doctors or lawyers who need extra space for their Porsches or Lamborghinis. By the time they order the hardware from us, they have already ordered located the lift needed to raise their car into that empty space where their opener once was. I salute you men. I am working hard to help you do what you could have figured out yourself.
Hopefully the information on this page will help you save at least one trip to the hardware store. You have my deepest respect and best wishes.- Dan MusickOwner, DDM Garage Doors Whether it's a steel or aluminum garage door for your home, or a sectional or rolling door for a commercial or agricultural application, Raynor products are crafted for dependable long-lasting performance. Personalize your visit by choosing Products, Homeowners, Contractors, or Architects. Learn how durable, reliable Raynor residential and commercial garage doors, openers, and operators can meet your needs. A TOUCH OF COLORFAIL (the browser should render some flash content, not this). The Haas Commercial Ribbed Steel Series doors are a value-based product that offers the strength of steel in four panel and color choices. Energy efficient insulation panels are an upgradable option available on all models. Ribbed steel doors are the ideal choice when economy is theprime consideration but a high quality, beautifully crafted product is still a necessity.