Hangar door wheels and bearings are critical components on a bottom rolling hangar door. They carry the weight of the door and must move freely. A door that is difficult to move will wear down drive components (bearings, sprockets, motors, gearboxes, clutches, chains, etc.) much sooner than a door that moves as intended.
Hangar Door Wheels Maintenance Costs
Our hangar door service division have noticed several bottom rolling hangar door manufacturers do not incorporate an accessible grease pin on the bottom wheels for regular maintenance. This leads to wheels being removed and replaced far sooner than necessary, which is a costly repair expense.
Aero Door regularly performs service calls to replace door wheels simply because maintenance personnel cannot perform routine wheel bearing maintenance because there is no grease pin.
We recommend that an architect always specify a grease pin on a bottom wheel for routine maintenance when designing an aircraft hangar with a bottom rolling door.
AeroDoor wheel with grease pin which allows for routine wheel maintenance.
Examples of wheels without grease pins
Frequently Asked Questions
What specifications would AeroDoor recommend to architects to prevent this from happening?
- Provide a minimum of two wheels per door leaf. Wheels to be sized correctly to fit the ASCE bottom rail.
- Wheels shall be manufactured from steel plates having a minimum tread diameter as required for the actual wheel loading. Treads to be machined concentric with the bearing seats.
- Wheel Bearings: Shall be internal tapered roller type, arranged so that both horizontal and vertical loads shall be transferred to the rail only through the bearing.
- Bearings are equipped with dust seals and high-pressure grease fittings.
- Wheels shall be removable from the housing without the need to remove the door from its position on the rail.
- Wheels 18 inches or greater in diameter shall be heat-treated to obtain a rim hardness of 320 Brinell.
Wheels on my hangar door are damaged, can they be replaced?
Yes. Contact us with photos of the wheel and the diameter. From there we can determine price for supply and install.
Our wheels appear to be different to the ones on your website, can you still help?
Yes, send us photos of the wheel and we’ll issue or fabricate a replacement.
Does the hangar door need to be taken down to replace wheels?
This cannot be determined until we see photos of the door and the wheel.
