Features:

  • Designed to allow gates to open and close freely by automatically adjusting height on uneven ground
  • Spring-loaded clamp acts as a shock absorber when caster is rolling over uneven or Rough surfaces
  • Hard rubber wheel and metal caster stem, 125 lb. Load rating
  • Universal mounting system for wood or metal gates
  • Universal mount for wood or metal gates
  • 125 lb load capacity
  • Fasteners not included
Not sure whats up with the negative reviews

Not sure whats up with the negative reviews. I bought this for my swing out garage door to relieve some stress on the hinges. Each door is wood and weighs 200 pounds. The hinges support the whole thing but I figured this would help hold off sagging. I compressed the spring halfway and used a couple carriage bolts with washers and nuts to install it to the back of the door. For the people complaining about not coming with mounting hardware...maybe you should take up knitting. How is this company going to supply mounting hardware for every type of application? That would be wasteful and raise the price. Buy the wheel, get $2 worth of nuts and bolts and be done with it. Also, this is pretty heavy duty. Not sure if the spring is really good for 175 pounds...but it was fairly difficult to compress fully.

Shepherd 4" gate wheel

Bought this wheel to help support an 8' wooden privacy gate. Worked great using two 3/8 galvanized bolts. Only issue I see, is that the narrow wheel will eventually wear a small rut in its path.

Very well built. A good buy!

A good sturdy wheel. If you want the wheel to spin 360 degrees and not get bound up against the gate then you must mount this about 6 inches out from the fence. I used a 6X6 post about 10 inches long bolted to the outside of my existing wooden gate You need a long drill if you are going to go through 6 " of wood plus the existing gate wood. You will need a little compression of the spring when its mounted so the tire stays on the ground if moving over an uneven surface Mine worked best when i made a smooth area for the tire to ride over. The bracket has 6 pre-drilled 3/8 inch holes for mounting so depending on the integrate of the gate you are mounting to you could use lag screws or bolt all of the way through the gate, 6X6, and wooden fence. Mounting lag screws or bolts are not provided and there are no instructions. Other considerations might be: If mounted on the outside of a gate it might provide a stepping stone and make it easier for someone to get over the fence. Rubber deteriorates with age so shade from the sun might be a consideration for placement.

Rolls smoothly. Some resistance when the gate is opened, so wind can't blow it easily, but not too much that me or the kids ...

We added this wheel after a wooden gate was installed on our driveway, along with a wooden fence around the property. The gate ended up being heavy for my kids to open and close, and would blow wide open with the slightest wind gust. Here in the Midwest we see a lot of sagging gates, and we wanted to add insurance that ours wouldn't. We added a brace made from scrap cedar left by the contractor to the back of the gate and mounted the wheel to it. We happened to place it in the middle of the gate panel so it'd hit our asphalt drive all along its path (our drive needs replacing so the grade is way off) but still be out of the way of our feet at the gate's edge. So far, so good. Rolls smoothly. Some resistance when the gate is opened, so wind can't blow it easily, but not too much that me or the kids can't roll it open or closed. From the outside, the gate with the wheel on it looks level. We don't use the other gate much so we weren't going to install a wheel on that side, but to keep the gate from sagging, we're going to add one there too before winter sets in.

Works beautifully to support my sagging side gate!

My wooden side gate sags over time, which makes opening and closing the gate difficult. On a friend's recommendation, I ordered this wheel. I added a piece of wood to the wooden gate in order to have a flat surface to attach the wheel. I used a 3/8 wood drill to drill 2 holes and bought two 3/8 bolts and nuts from Home Depot. Remember to press down the wheel when you are installing it so the spring will help carry the weight of the gate. It is easy to install. After the wheel is installed, my gate opens and closes smoothly!

Very uplifting, highly recommended

My gate was so low, he was really bringing me down every time I came home to his sagging stature. I thought I would surprise him with this uplifting spring loaded wheel to ease his travels from open to close. And it worked! With just a little baseline support, he now stands straight and tall, maybe even grew a couple inches too.

Looks like crap, works like magic.

It took quite a bit of manipulation to get it to work, but now it works like a champ. I have a 14ft farm/pipe gate and the "farm store" gate wheels last between 6-9 months before the wheel rusts off and we have to buy a new one. I bought the 4 inch plastic wheel also by Shepherd but it wasn't big enough and was very rough to open/close the gate. I'm concerned this tire has to have air, and I wonder how quick it'll go flat, but hopefully it won't be too difficult to find a replacement tire when it happens. There isn't enough clearance between the gate and the wheel if you just attach the wheel directly to the gate, so I ended up going through several different ways to connect the wheel but this is the only one that mostly worked. I got 2 blocks of wood cut to size and bolted those to the wheel. Then I bought some chain link fixtures to attach the Frankenstein wheel to the gate. Even with the two extra blocks the wheel can still hit the gate, but 80% of the time the wheel/caster seems to swivel the right way and the wheel travels smoothly around. Eventually the wood is going to rot and the wheel is going to need some maintenance... but the difference between this wheel and the cheaper wheel available at the "farm store" is that most of the parts seem to be serviceable whereas the other wheel was just garbage after it broke. Opening and closing the gate is a dream. We're on crushed crete and rocks magically appear in the wheel path over night or even just between passes so the gate usually felt like it was going to shake itself to death whenever it was opening or closing. Now it's so smooth you can do-something-really-clever-that-requires-a-really-smooth-surface-or-flight-path. Hopefully this wheel will fall into the "buy once, cry once" school of thought.. and will be worth it's relatively large investment. Edit: 5 Month Report: Still going strong, no rust and still very sturdy. My only complaints so far is that because the wheel is so small it's very easy to over inflate it, and now I have a small bubble on the wheel. It still rolls smoothly but I imagine the lifespan of the wheel has shortened quite a bit. I've re-inflated it twice so far.

Gate caster

This gate caster is what it is supposed to be. For my gate it is too small and the range is not enough. That said it works marginally. I will need to get a bigger one. My gate is 7 feet with a 4 foot door. The drop is about 2 inches ant the differences in the ground are variable from 2 to 3 inches. Of course I figured this out after installing this caster. I hope this helps someone figure out their caster for their gate application. Cheers

Exactly what was needed!

I thought the wheel was going to be a bit too large when I first opened the package, but it worked out perfectly. It was challenging to install by myself as you have to depress the spring in order for it to work properly.

Get this one

If you have a good size gate over 7' or so and the surface of the ground isn't smooth concrete, don't even think about getting the smaller 4" version of this gate wheel. I did initially because I really didn't want a pneumatic wheel to worry about going flat. I have a gravel surface and a 7' wooden gate, the 4" wheel just plowed the stones and didn't turn. This 8" one works great. You have to play w the mounting to make sure the wheel dosent rub the gate and that you have appropriate pressure on the spring. Once you get it right it works wonderfully. No more sag and rolls nicely. No issues holding air thus far (about 6 months)

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