Automatic Gates

I've found a wholesale supplier for DC Solution gates in Calif.
I'm getting 3 gates, 4 loops, spare loop detector, spare battery, and spare control board for $6,900 + ship.

Check out www.agw.net Automatic Gate Wholesalers tell Frank I sent ya...

Do you know if these gates will work with ICS?

Also, I look forward to hearing how the Coleman auto sentry's work for you. Isn't that what you are using? It would be nice to have a cheaper option to ICS.

ICS should work with any gates. I've had to replace one power supply/mother board $1,400 and have had some problems with the skidata arms.

Yes, I will be using Coleman Entry Wizard 2 with bill dispensers, Wash Link Controller system, DC Solution gates. I'm not interested in saving money up front but time, labor and maintenance $$$.

Jimmy,
We considered getting less expensive gates, but opted for the ICS Skada gates. There are several important features that we like.
1. It is made of aluminum not steel
2. The body is also beautiful
3. The arm is lighted
Plus
4. The arm is breakaway (this feature we discovered, and I kid you not, when one of our more brilliant customers had a boat on the back of his car, and the arm came down between them!) (and no we did not wash the boat as well)
5. After you spend that much money, a couple of thousand more will not be felt over the numb feeling, that has come over us, from paying for the rest of the equipment.

Now at our vacuum area, we will put in a lower price gate.

Jimmy

I don't like the Skidata. Besides having to replace an entire $1,400 mother board/power supply. I've had the cast aluminum head on the pivot arm give me some problems. The hard plastic, allen set screws in the cast aluminum tend to ream out on the inside when you try to tighten them. I've had to drill them out, tap out the aluminum and use a larger metal type pipe plug. Within the first 6 months one of the pretty lights in the arm broke beyond repair.

DC Solutions are not as pretty, but have break away, light weight arms, are much easier to work on and 1/2 the price. They're a common gate in the parking industry and have lots of service people in every major city.
PS: I got 3 radio remote control units for free from AGW.

I agree about the numbness, after spending a couple of million. But what's realy irritating is paying what you think is top dollar for, what you find out later, is a less reliable and more expensive to maintain item.

I'm driving a Honda PU now for that very reason. Only Honda and Toyota is getting any more of my money. I drive a lot and I'm tired of expensive maintenance bills on poorly built products. Any wonder why Ford and Chevy are having such a hard time?

I had a 150k miles on my 99 Suburban and had replaced the trani 3 times, radiator 4 times, etc, etc, etc.

Jimmy, it is interesting that one will have no end of problems with a particular item, and the next will have nothing but success. At first we were not going to get the Skidata gates because of the price, but changed or minds, and glad we did! We have had no operational problems with out Skidata gates.

Jimmy

It is funny (or sad) Jimmy....
At my 6/1 ss site I sold last year. For 17 years I watched the hour meters in each bay. One bay out washed all others by 5 to 10 fold. I guess because of traffic flow. This started day one when I built the location.

But the real interesting part is, that bay required no more equipment maintenance than any of the others, even though it was used 5 to 10 times more than the others. It did require alot of cleaning.

JB, Getting ready to replace motherboard on exit gate for $700, will not buy another gate from ICS, will get new company to supply. Ron

That is cheaper than what I paid, Ron. From what I've seen on other makes, $350 to $550 will get you a new control board for those units.

Looks like love bug season is already over(?)

We just put DRB with skidata gates at one site (3 gates) and will open another in a couple weeks the same way. We'll keep you posted....

Just got our single chamberlin gate running. Purchased it at the place Jimmy reccomended above. Gate, loop detector, remote opener and shipping were right at 2K. We have a single entry station so I tied into the wash selection button with diodes and tied them into a 24VDC relay. The relay energizes when someone purchases a wash and closes a set of dry contacts that open the gate. The loop closes it.

All-in-all a very simple, low cost entry/controller system for low volume applications ( conveyor chain speed is set at 80 CPH). It consists of a Coleman entry wizard 2.0 with 2 denomination bill dispenser & hi-speed CC capability, washlink 48 function controller with PC interface, and now this gate, total investment about 30K

here's the picof the installed gate:

Panama Jim, have you opened your site yet with the Coleman auto sentry's? I would be interested in your experience so far.

Also, I noticed Mellis, installed DRB...I would love to hear thoughts on DRB for an express exterior wash.

Thanks...

Will hopefully be open by Dec 4th....