Reducing Van Height

Smaller wheels, 'go wheels' or perhaps even no wheels and a trolley jack.

Oops! My van has 14" wheels, and even rolling on the brake drums alone would stop you from gaining 280mm, because the distance from the wheel centre to the outer diameter is only 320 mm.
Sounds like a problem, unless you lower the floor or remove the roller door.
Not nice!

I don't know what your tow vehicle is but the specified height of a Patrol is 1855mm.

Is there enough head room to modify the opening and raise the roller door by 300mm?..

Have a look at fitting a panel lift door no drum to worry about. We have a couple at home fantastic for head room and look great too.

Cheers Scoof . :-)

I have the same problem. but I see you have a roller door. I would assume that your problem is that the door does not fully retract to to hight of the door way. Answer. I found that the difference in height was the part of the door that hung below the top of the door. I thought of lifting the brackets that hold the door, but I would of had to take down the door to move them up. I gave it some thought and got some longer u-bolts and some metal packing plates. Lifted the door end one at a time, packing under the axle until I had the right distance so that the door would go all the way up. for the clearance I needed. I hope this helps. By the way, before lifting the door, make sure you have the door down, to keep the spring taute and only lift each end at a time. This helps to stop the spring from unwinding. Ubolts and packing plates from Bunnings. Good Luck...

Hi Westskip

1780 high is less than 6ft. There is something wrong with that as they do not normally fit doors that low. Ordinary house doors are 2040. At the least the ceiling in a carport will be about 2140.

If for some reason the previous owners have fitted a roller door at a later stage and it sits below the ceiling of your carport you can change this.

I have made many bulk head sections going up into the ceiling of a carport just to fit roller doors up into it giving you maximum height for the car. This is a square lined hole above and behind where the beam goes across the front of your carport.

David

You mentioned carport? Is it possible to simply cut some support posts and lengthen them, thus raising the entire carport? Have done this twice now for mates who've 'upgraded' vans in recent times without doing the right sort of homework. Not as big a job as it sounds.

Hi westskip,
The bulk head idea is sound.Have a look at what is holding up the roller door. Remove about a meter of roof above the door and by any practical means, raise the roller door 300 mm.It may mean that you have to install two new entry posts.Then re frame the roof and box around the new roller door position.There is your bulk head.Be aware that the roller door may require some extra panels though.
Regards Paul

Hi westskip,
I'm a Licensed Garage door installer, 1780mm is really low for a garage door opening. The Standard height is 2100mm. what is the height from the door opening to the ceiling? the bulk head. I would imagen the door is as high as it can go.
A panel lift door will operate in a space of about 220mm, you can can a low head room kit which will operate in 170mm(going by memory). still this is not much of a gain. A tilt door will be of the same height give or take about 20mm. I don't know if it is possible to get a roller door that runs on its side any more. I was never a big fan of them, dirt getting in the bottom track and also it can be damaged. In 15 odd years of installing doors, off and on I only came across about a dozen of them, damn mongrels to work on.
I would be more inclined to put barn doors on your opening. With a barrel bolt top and bottom of each door. Of cause this would depend on you having the room to swing the doors outward.

Reminds me of a bloke that had retired and bought a place with a standard door opening on the 10M x 6M Steel garage and could not get his Troopy that was highly modified into the garage. His solution was to raise the garage by 500mm and then got us to install 2700mm doors. The PA door looked weird being over 8 foot tall :)
Maybe you can lift your carport 300mm.
Hmm Bugger ;)