Rear Track Hangers: What Are They and What Do They Do?
Residential garage doors have many components. The most obvious parts are the door sections and the tracks they sit on. A less obvious part is the rear track hangers that help keep the tracks in place. Rear track hangers are a vital part of keeping your garage door secure. They’re not necessarily a standard piece of garage door installations, so it’s important that you call a professional to install them on your garage door.
Let’s take a deeper dive into what rear-track hangers are and what their function is.
What are Rear Track Hangers?
If you’re like most homeowners, you’re probably not thinking about the specific parts of your garage doors, so you’re likely asking yourself “what is a ‘rear track hanger’”?
Rear track hangers, which are also known as back hangs, are specific parts of your garage door apparatus. They are the vertical supports to the horizontal track of your garage door. These brackets are usually made from metal, specifically angle iron, and attach to the roof of your garage to provide support and prevent your garage door from falling.
Your rear track hanger should be straight, square, and aligned with your garage door. If you notice it’s off in some way or if it has broken or become detached, you’ll want to have to repaired or replaced right away by an experienced garage door professional such as Creative Door Services™.
What Do Rear Track Hangers Do?
Rear track hangers are a fairly key component of garage doors. They add extra support for the horizontal tracks, allowing your garage door tracks to be securely hung from the ceiling. Their job is to prevent lateral movement in the horizontal tracks. This is a very important job as movement like that can cause damage to your garage door, and even cause it to fall out of the tracks.
Rear track hangers aren’t a standard part of garage doors, and so they require custom installation from a qualified professional. A professional technician will use angle iron or punched angle to create the hangers from scratch, or they may use a rear track hanger kit. If your door has existing hangers, a garage door installation professional may be able to reuse them, but they inspect them to ensure that:
- They are still in good physical condition, and
- They are properly positioned for the new installation.
Rear track hangers need to be strong enough to support the full weight of the garage door. A sway bar will also be used to provide lateral support and help prevent the tracks from spreading apart, something that would lead to your garage door falling right out of the tracks and causing damage or injury.
How They Work
Rear track hangers are pretty simple pieces, all things considered. They’re little more than a set of braces that are attached to a brace mounted in the rafters of your garage at one end and the garage door tracks at the other, usually less than 6’ away from the end of the track. They also hold the track square and level with the door.
The hangers are secured using secure fasteners that are at least 1” long, which is necessary to stop your garage door from going past the end of the track and falling out. Everything requires careful measurement and alignment, so they can be properly effective.
Once the hangers are in place, a sway brace is mounted between them to prevent the tracks from spreading apart and losing hold of the garage door. Sway braces also ensure that your garage door can open and close much more smoothly.
If everything is properly squared, mounted, and braced correctly, your rear track hangers should provide support for your garage door for years to come.
Call a Professional for Rear Track Hanger Installation
It can be tempting to try and install rear track hangers yourself. Doing repairs and installation of rear track hangers yourself can save you money over calling a professional. However, the installation process involves a lot of precise work and heavy parts. If you’re not a garage door installation professional, you should not attempt installing it yourself.
Improper installation of rear track hangers can lead to damage to your garage door or your home itself, which ends up being a much costlier issue than simply calling a pro to install your rear track hangers for you. A professional who knows what they’re doing can ensure the installation or repair goes smoothly and you can get years of use out of your garage door.
Additionally, many older models of garage doors should only be handled by professionals as they may use torsion springs. Trying to remove a torsion spring yourself without experience can result in serious injuries.
Master the Remarkable with Creative Door Services™
Choosing the right accessories and parts is a crucial part of ensuring your garage door operates safely and effectively. At Creative Door Services™, we sell and install all parts of residential garage doors. We offer a comprehensive selection of parts and hardware from some of the best brands available in Canada.
Alternatively, you can count on us for our professional repair and installation services. We are highly experienced in the installation of rear track hangers for garage doors. Our team can ensure your hangers are properly installed so that your garage door is properly supported.
When you need an expert, you can give us a call and we’ll give you a hand. Our technicians have extensive experience installing and troubleshooting garage doors for homeowners throughout Western Canada. Whatever your needs are, you can count on us to meet them. We carry all the top brands in the business. We’ll ensure your garage door looks great and functions properly.
To learn more about our garage door products and services or request a quote, contact us today. We’re happy to serve you from one of our eight locations. You can find us in Kelowna, British Columbia; Vancouver, British Columbia; Calgary, Alberta; Edmonton, Alberta; Fort McMurray, Alberta; Regina, Saskatchewan; Saskatoon, Saskatchewan; and Winnipeg, Manitoba. We look forward to working with you.