I’ve got a single large gate at the moment. Its basically a fence panel on a big hinge. Works ok but is a bit rickety now. I’m thinking I’ll replace it with a pair of half size gates. Now the catch. I want to rigidly hold these two halves together to effectively make a stiff single panel when closed. Easily done with a a couple of threaded bolts through L brackets but while I don’t use the gate very often that would still be a pain. I know traditionally one gate is bolted bottom (and sometimes top) then the other gate latches to that but I don’t want a top bar and I think bottom only will be too flexy without substantially improving the gate posts. Its a stealth gate that looks exactly like the rest of the fence from the outside and I want to maintain that look. Does that actually make sense to anyone? So I’m looking for a catch of some kind to effectively hold the two hales to each other. Closest I can come up with is a sash fastener but that is a bit weedy and still quite fiddly.

This is not it but the gate will look a bit like this without the top cross bar

This sort of arrangement would do it if was less weedy and more outdoors proof

if you can cope physically with a top bar you could recess it behind the gates instead of on top, thus maintaining the stealth look from the outside. your shoot bolts would then just bolt up into holes drilled in the top bar set abck a little from the position shown in your pic.

you could use some sort of long wooden bar and holder type arrangement a la old castle door where a wooden bar runs the width of the gates with a drop in holder on each post and on each gate near the centre.

you could use some sort of long wooden bar and holder type arrangement a la old castle door where a wooden bar runs the width of the gates with a drop in holder on each post and on each gate near the centre.

This was my thought – something like this basically

You could even hinge it on one side so you don’t have to lift it off, just swing it up and secure it in place out of the way.

Also this as a variant:

something like this…

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fx-MuPKoal4[/video]

But executed in a better fashion….

Something like this might be good

http://securitydirect.uk.com/shed-security-bar

Try a throw over gate loop like this. £10 from Screwfix