I was planning to make a sliding gate drive out of an old reversible drill and several bicycle chains until I found this operator. The price is hard to beat; I guess i would pay the same for parts for my dyi project. It's a dedicated kit, with options for expansion and numerous pieces of hardware intended to fit miscellaneous gates that I might have. Much better than anything i would build myself from a scratch. The gate needs to be stiff enough to take the chain tension, in my case 2" square pipe was enough. Of course, with accordance to Murphys laws, the fittings didn't fit my gate, because of the intervening midstile, but several cantilevered pipes cut and welded together allowed for installation and proper positioning of the chain and magnets on my gate. I poured the concrete foundation (2 bags 80lbs) with embedded bolts and placed metal conduits to the additional circuit breaker. The drive base was welded in place to avoid theft. The drive operated once energized; there was no setup necessary, other than repositioning the magnets which work as limit switches. I will hook it on a surge protector to protect the electronics. I have two more gates and I will buy these operators for the remaining gates.