Shop door

Is an 18' overhead door big enough for modern farm equipment? I know it depends on what I am putting in there but it is a lot easier to put a 20' (or bigger) door in now. The shed will be 35'x80' when finished and the door will be going in the end wall.

I think even 16 ft would be reasonable if it has at least a 15 foot height of opening. If you need to park things next to each other at the front near the door easily wider is better, but most equipment is foldable to road hauling width and height. WIde overhead doors are very much more expensive when going beyond 16 ft. Jim

I have a 16' door on my shop.Too narrow.Be nice to
get 16' and even some 15' ft stuff in side.

It takes a 18 to get a 6rn corn head in if you have one

Sorry, meant to put this in tool talk but keep them coming!

Often you can get much wider stuff in by angling,and backing around but if it's raining hard?? 24' much better and while i have 14' 6" height i doubt if anything short of 16' is built anymore? I just had to switch places with my overhead tram rails yesterday and even with my Grandson running the loader,im not the man i wonce was!! Bud.

i would go bigger i've seen alot people around here
wish they had have went bigger and some built a
bigger shed with bigger doors than they needed and
they were happy

I got behind a new JD combine last fall(he was only
going a 1/4 mile up the road) and he had the right
tire off of the road, and the left tire off the
road. This is a Missouri black top but trucks use
it everyday. Go bigger.

I'd go for the widest door you can fit on the end wall. Overhead is great but expensive: I'd take 20' of sliding doors over one 18' overhead. It isn't just a matter of what fits through the opening: the wider the door the more stuff you can fit in the shed and the more of it you can get out without moving everything else first.

Also, don't forget about overhead clearance. I think you are going to want 14'.

The reason I asked about 18' wide doors is because I just got 2 - 18'x16' and 1 - 18'x14' overhead doors. They are brown and I want white and they are 18' and I planned on 20' (or more???). A local township was getting new doors and they were tossing these used Raynors. They are a well built door, but are pretty used up. I could probably get one good 18' door and maybe another short door out of all three.

My barn has 18' sidewalls with a minimum of work/money. If I want to get fancier/expensive I could get around 20' of height.

I may put the used doors on Craigslist and use the money towards larger doors. I may also put a "small" door in the sidewall/other end so I would have two or three doors. What is a fair asking price for used overheads? I see they are around $2500 each at Menards. I usually ask half of new for something used, but $1250 seems too high for these...

Here are some pictures to get your minds going. Check out my Photobucket account for some more pictures. http://s1246.photobucket.com/albums/gg601/sflem849/Barn Pictures/ The "dairy" barn is the one I am going to convert. The "pen" barn is the other big barn on my property. The "Belvidere" barn is the one I am going to use as my template. The other pictures are other local converted barns.

Also, if anybody has any experience in removing the haymow from their barn I wouldn't mind a little help.

The doors.


The long wall of the barn.


NE Corner of the barn. This is the wall I plan on putting a big door in.

I would go for maximum height for todays combines at least 16feet anything smaller you will be disappointed.