Gate motor installation near me: sliding and swing gates, done properly

Three things decide the motor, and the technician checks all three before quoting:

1. Sliding or swing. A sliding gate takes one motor beside it; a swing gate takes a motor on each leaf.
2. The gate's weight, and on a swing gate the length of each leaf. Every motor is built for a maximum, and a long swing leaf counts for more than its weight. The figures for each motor are on sliding gates and swing gates.
3. How busy the gate is. A house gate that opens a dozen times a day is a different job from a complex gate that opens every few minutes, and the motor's duty cycle has to match.

The brand comes after that: Centurion, ET and Gemini all make motors for the usual driveway gate, and the choice is often about remotes you already have, a keypad or app you want, and price.

The makers' installation manuals set out the job. Done properly, it covers:

• The gate first. It must roll or swing freely by hand, with sound wheels, guide rollers or hinges and end stoppers, before a motor goes on it.
• The base plate, level and above the highest water that runs down the driveway. Cast into fresh concrete, ET notes it needs more than 48 hours to cure before the motor is fitted; on a sound slab it can be fixed down instead.
• Cabling in conduit, laid before the motor, in flexible multi-stranded cable that survives the vibration.
• The rack or the arms, fixed so the rack sits 1 to 2 mm off the pinion along the whole gate, or so the arms meet the leaves at the angle their manual gives.
• An earth. Centurion's surge protection only works if the motor is earthed: through the mains earth or an earth spike beside the motor, a copper rod of over a metre driven into the ground.
• Limits and setup: the open and closed positions, the force the motor learns, auto-close, pedestrian opening and the remotes.
• Safety beams, which ET and Centurion require before a gate may close on its own.
• The handover: you're shown how to use the manual release and how the safety sensing works, and you get the user manual.

On Centurion's D3, D5-Evo and D6 SMART sliders, a theft-deterrent cage can be fitted over the motor to make it much harder to get at.

Most gate motors run from a battery that a charger keeps topped up, so the supply only has to feed the charger. Depending on the model, that supply is either mains at the motor or a low-voltage feed from a transformer plugged in at the house:

• Mains at the motor needs a weatherproof isolator switch within 1.5 m of it, out of the gate's path and away from the street, and a certificate of compliance for the circuit. Putting in a power point or a mains circuit is a job for a registered electrician.
• Low voltage from a plug-in transformer, as on ET's Drive 300 and Drive 500 or Centurion's D5-Evo Low-Voltage, runs a safe voltage down its own cable to the motor.

If there's no power at the gate yet, tell us on the job card and we'll say which way suits your property.

Many installations replace a motor that has reached the end of its life, and that changes the job a little:

• The rack may stay, if it's straight, firmly fixed and the new motor's pinion matches it. A rack that has worn, sagged or rusted through is replaced with the motor.
• The base may need changing, because base plates differ between makes and models.
• Remotes may carry over. A new ET Drive reads both ET BLUE and ET BLU MIX remotes, so working ET remotes can often be coded across; moving to another make means new remotes.
• Beams, keypads and intercoms are usually reconnected to the new control card, if they still work.

The technician checks each of these on site, and the quote says what is reused and what is new. If the old motor might still be worth fixing, repair or replace a gate motor sets out what to weigh up first.

Each kit is priced installed on a gate that already runs freely. 1-year guarantee on every motor kit we supply and install. Prices checked October 2026.

If you're comparing quotes, these are typical market figures from published cost guides:

Prices checked October 2026. What each kit costs in shops, and every kit side by side, is on gate motor prices. Your exact price is set in a free quote before any work starts. No call-out fee when we do the work. If no work is done, a R650 call-out fee applies.

A new motor needs little, but the gate keeps needing what it needed before: a clear track, free wheels and rollers, and a rack that doesn't drop onto the pinion. Every so often, check that the gate stops and reverses when it meets something in its way, with the beams covered, as its manual describes.

If anything changes, from a new noise to a gate that stops short, book us before it becomes a breakdown. Repairs are covered on gate motor repairs, batteries on gate motor batteries and remotes on gate remotes.

We install in 21 areas across Johannesburg, the East Rand and Centurion.