Thread: Garage door opener props?

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I have a screw type 1/3 hp sears that does not require the "eyes" to work.


I have been working on ideas, but I would like to hear from some of you.

I thought of just laying it on the ground up side down, and hook up a grave grabber torso, that would move toward the kids.

I also thought of using it to push / pull a large suspended prop on fishing line in the path of the kids

maybe even an arm on a pivot to place a prop on?


What would you guys do?

This has been discussed before. It may work for things if it's occasional use, but if you get a lot of kids and would be triggering it a good bit probably not. I don't know off hand what model you have, but many have a automatic shut off if it gets hot. A lot of them get pretty warm fast. When I installed garage doors we would of course run the door up n down a few times to make sure everything worked and they'd get pretty warm just from that.

Remember they were designed to be used with lots of power for only a short time.

It may be just fine for the average home haunt use, but figured I'd give a heads up in case it stops on you. It may need to cool down

I've got one but its the chain type. I was planning on exactly your idea of the grave grabber, I've had him in the grave yard for 2 years just grabbing away, not much of a got ya factor so I thought it would be fun to have him a third year and for the returning tots they would just figure its the same old boring prop...but then he starts to move towards them...add a little bit of fog to hide the track and you have something different .

My plan is to turn the opener and track upside down and place a stake in the ground at the other end to attach the track to, the mount the grabber to the trolley/slide mechanism.

My other idea was to stand it upright and use it as a type of elevator to raise a prop up out of the grave yard

I had not thought about the heat issue with the frequency of use. the only thought here is to add a small muffin type fan to help cool the motor.

The fan may work quite well , especially if your running the prop at night when the air is much cooler. i dont see any danger,,jus that the cool effect kinda fizzles when it stops and may not restart till the motor has cooled.

One thing I did forget is the prop you are moving probably (at least it should!) weigh a lot less than a standard garage door that can weigh 125lbs and up. So without the large amount of weight the load on the motor is a lot less so there shouldn't be as much of a strain