Ramps

Have any of you ever made atv/lawnmower ramps for the truck,if so how long did you make them? I need to make some pretty soon was wondering if anybody had any ideas or pictures.

Thanks, Don

[Brainfarth]

Check out some dirtbike websites. They've got a variety of ramps that are either straight or fold in half(better for length). They've got pictures to give you an idea of what to make. I made one for my brother and consisted of angle iron sides(1 1/2" by 3/16" I think, or close to) and angle cross bars(1" by 1/8") every 6" or so. Also, a piece of flatbar was used to lay on the tailgate to keep the angle from digging into the tailgate. We could have gone with less on the side angle, but I think that was all that was laying around.

I would like to fold it up but what kind of hinges would you use.

[Sandy]

I didn't build any but I have a set of fold-ups. They are roughly 43 inches each half. That's 86 inches from the point that they meet the tail gate to the ground. That's about righ for a 'tall' truck. You wouldn't want to go much shorter than that, especially if you are going to load a lawn mower. The critical point for mowers is that angle right where the ramps meet the tail gate. I load a quad so that's a matter of brass versus brains and angles aren't that critical. Fingers or flanges would have to be factored in for overall length.

Get some scrap lumber to just lay up there for a visual.

[Franz]

1, go to Ebay
2, swipe design you like
3, reverse engineer the design
4, ask yourself if you can really build ramps cheaper than you can buy them
5, build ramps.