john

i am not sure on those toy dimensions, but I can tell you that if you can - go with the 9' high x 8' wide doors. I put 4 of those those in - I have two 2 car garages - and love em. In our last house the doors were 8' high x 7' wide and could fit a mid size car OK, but larger vehicles would have been a very tight squeeze at best and some vehicles just would not fit when you add on the widths of the mirrors that stick out.

The 9' height would allow a good size tractor with a roll bar. The 8' width is great and easily accomodates an large SUV, no issues judging, plenty of space to walk around the vehicle. I also have a tow trailer that has a 6' x 10' bed BUT when you add on the extra width of the wheels and wheel wells the trailer barely makes it into the garage! Had I gone with the 7' door width - no way it would have fit.

Make sure that they size the garage itself properly. My architect increased the size from the original plans - I think they are now 25 feet deep x 25 feet wide (were originally 22' deep x 20' wide i think). Having that extra space is really nice and the increase in cost was minimal - same for the larger doors.

Check your garage plans and lay on top scale size cut outs for an SUV, truck, mini-van - whatever you plan to drive. Then look to see how the door swings would be - in my case you could barely get the car doors open and walk around space was very limited.

Agree w/ sniffdog about going higher, but you should also consider going wider than 8' as well. Trucks, suv's these days are bigger and the mirrors required for towing are generally extended out meaning you would literally have to fold the mirrors in on an 8' wide door upon entry. Most garage door companies make 10',12' doors other than the standard 8', 16' doors w/ some being special order depending on the supplier. Also take sniffdogs advise and go deeper with the garage. Well worth the extra expense.

The typical runabout or pontoon boat will be 8'6" wide. Usually the trailer will be tucked under that. I'd go for at least a 9' tall and 10'wide door if it was me. The wider the better.

Mine will be 12' tall by 44' wide.. oh wait that's the airplane hangar.

The car garage will be a triple with one double door and one single (don't know why, my wife and the architect came up with that one I think).

You'll need a 10' door for a pontoon on a regular trailer. You can get away with 9' if you have a scissor trailer. We store our pontoon in our barn, not our 3rd bay. It would never fit in our garage! Our door is 12x10 and it just fits width-wise. Of course, we have a big (22') pontoon boat. A smaller pontoon boat might fit in a garage.

Eventually, you'll have to measure these things yourself if you want to be sure they will fit.

All our doors are 9' tall. The two singles are 9' wide. I have a Denali (S-burb) and it is a tight fit to get in and out of those. Our other door is the traditional double size (16'?). Don't forget that if you have any decorative rock work around your garage that it might encroach a bit on your approach inside.

Thanks for all the great input. Can those of you with campers/pontoons post what size campers/pontoons you have and what size doors you need?

Thanks, John

If you have rv centers in your area you could measure them out yourself. Fast way to get the salesperson off you is to let them know the garage comes first!