Main gate to the house is covered with that artificial wood, looks ok but is extremely heavy. Makes it difficult to move backwards and forwards.

I want to remove it, that's the easy part but also want the gate to be a solid wall not see through.

Can anyone suggest what would be a lightweight replaement that would look good.

Don't want flat sheets of alloy etc that would make it look like a factory gate or similar.

Any suggestions out there.

My 5m gate is clad with thr same but i doubt that the 8mm cladding significntly increases the weight beyond an already heavy steel frame.

Mine is a slider you dont say what yours is.

The important part is the quality and rolling ability of the bogey wheels.

Maybe even if your gates are hinged you can have a set of bogeys welded on to help with the opening and to reduce the strain on the hinges.

Otherwise not much option to improve the panelling other than fix the bamboo roll fencing which actually looks atrocious.

I should look at improving your gate operation first.

Giving the wheels a soak of WD-40 (or the like) will help a lot for the rail slider types.

Agree with both of you on all points. Roller change is on the cards. Just want to make it look better and reduce the weight.

Forgot to add that I will be fitting an electric motor drive to it. Sliding gate by the way

maybe some new better quality rollers and an additional set.

you could do with some plastic sheeting, is it sliding in the USA

If you're adding an electric motor, weight doesn't matter so much right?

If you wanted something lighter, you could replace the fiber cement with poplar wood, which is very lightweight. It's not a fantastic wood though.

You could replace the cement boards with polystyrene boards which are lighter. I haven't seen them here, but I haven't looked either.

Using WD40 or the like on bogey wheels will help, trouble is heavy rain will wash the lubricant away.

There are several types of spray on "silicon lubricant" made specially for this, they have a picture of bogey wheels on the can, available from HomePro and the like.

I took my bogeys apart and packed them with chassis grease. That seems to be a longer term solution. Probably marine grease would have been more rain resistant but I didn't have any of that.