What's new
By:
Filters

Building a good trailer ramp

Grendel

Grendel

Iron Sharpens Iron
Joined
May 19, 2020
Member Number
297
Messages
3,521
Both of my trailers have bent ramps. :homer: I want to make new ones but I'm not sure what's reasonable.

I don't haul equipment very often, mostly just my XJ or whatever crappy car/truck I've either purchased or am taking to scrap. I'll keep the bent ramps from the equipment trailer stashed away in case I need to get something like that for it. Ideally I want to be able to load a car on my equipment trailer, as I think I will sell my car trailer at some point (car trailer's deck is 20" off the ground, forgot to measure the equipment trailer but it's at least 24", with the ramps it came with I had to do some real neflarfin' rigging to get a car on and off).

I was thinking new ramps about 76" long, made from 3x2x.125 HSS for the side pieces, and the same 2x2x.188 angle for the rungs, and space them so there is 10 rungs, and go for a 12" wide ramp. Plus it needs an angle or cut C-channel piece for the hook at the top. My steel weight calculator says these will come out to about 75lbs each.

Is a 12" wide ramp reasonable? 75lbs doesn't seem too heavy for a ramp to me, but I don't know. :confused: Is that HSS going to be strong enough? I don't want to go to .188 wall as it will push the weight up about 100lbs a ramp.

What do you have? Or how were your ramps built and have they not bent?

Obligator M$Paint that is not to scale and I drew 11 rungs by accident. :flipoff2:

ramps.jpg
 
sounds heavy. with 3x2 i'd wager you could get away with less than 0.120 thickness espceially with all the bracing.

guess it depends on how heavy of equipment you plan on running over it
 
Provience said:
how thick and what way design are the old mangled ones?
Click to expand...
I think they're 2x2x.125 rails and the same size angle for the rungs. But they're super narrow (8" I think), and way shorter (48"~ I think). I'd have to check them when I get home to confirm.

The car hauler ramps are 2" C-channel on the sides and the same rungs, but they're 13" wide or so, and 60"~ long. The car hauler ramps bent to fuck when I bounced a diesel Dodge on them. I then bent them back mostly with some sketch shit involving a jack-all. :lmao:
 
The other idea I had was to put the angle iron rungs in upside down, and use thinner angle, then weld expanded steel all over it. It might be better for trying to get cars on and off. :confused: Or it's a stupid idea because I'm missing something.
 
Scott Cee aka 2drx4 said:
The other idea I had was to put the angle iron rungs in upside down, and use thinner angle, then weld expanded steel all over it. It might be better for trying to get cars on and off. :confused: Or it's a stupid idea because I'm missing something.
Click to expand...
Shit building up between the angle iron and expanded metal, id do the first design with the angle iron upside down.
 
Oh, and I confirmed my equipment trailer (the pile of shit in the pictures) is 24" deck height. Those 56" ramps are stupid short for that.

Picture to demonstrate.

20220523_181112.jpg


The car still scraped. :homer:
 
Beamboy.exe is a beam calculator that is free and pretty easy to use.

It doesn't provide info usually exactly for your situation but it lets you compare two materials with the same loading.

I can punch in some numbers later today but we have a volleyball tournament this morning.
 
CarterKraft said:
Beamboy.exe is a beam calculator that is free and pretty easy to use.

It doesn't provide info usually exactly for your situation but it lets you compare two materials with the same loading.

I can punch in some numbers later today but we have a volleyball tournament this morning.
Click to expand...
Okay, cool. I think there's some online calculators too.

I figured the napkin math said you're adding 50% in the section height from going from 2x2 to 3x2, so you're going to be about 50% stronger from that, then by going about 20% longer you're going to be about 20% weaker, for a net gain of about 30% strength.

(Yes, I'm aware that's not how math works. :flipoff2:)
 
Scott Cee aka 2drx4 said:
Okay, cool. I think there's some online calculators too.

I figured the napkin math said you're adding 50% in the section height from going from 2x2 to 3x2, so you're going to be about 50% stronger from that, then by going about 20% longer you're going to be about 20% weaker, for a net gain of about 30% strength.

(Yes, I'm aware that's not how math works. :flipoff2:)
Click to expand...
Don't forget about "strapping" the flanges with flat strap to increase the flange thickness but keep the weight down.

You can also build oval shaped "beams" with flat sheet and wrap it with flat strap.

One of our customers welder builds ramps for heavy equipment that way, they are really light for their capacity.
 
The ramps on my dump trailer are 3" channel with 2x2x.125 cross bars. They are 76" long with another 2" for hooks (½" thick).
I load my T190 skid steer no problem and just hauled a mini ex (9k lb) yesterday. Didnt even flex. I was watching while it was loaded.
 
CarterKraft said:
Don't forget about "strapping" the flanges with flat strap to increase the flange thickness but keep the weight down.

You can also build oval shaped "beams" with flat sheet and wrap it with flat strap.

One of our customers welder builds ramps for heavy equipment that way, they are really light for their capacity.
Click to expand...
going to 2x3 instead of 2x2 and adding a 0.125 strap for the middle thing along the top or bottom or both ?

and use 0.188 angle instead of square to save weight on the middle pieces?
 
77fixer said:
The ramps on my dump trailer are 3" channel with 2x2x.125 cross bars. They are 76" long with another 2" for hooks (½" thick).
I load my T190 skid steer no problem and just hauled a mini ex (9k lb) yesterday. Didnt even flex. I was watching while it was loaded.
Click to expand...
I'm assuming the heavy channel that's 6lbs/foot?

How much do they weigh? 100lbs-ish?
 
CarterKraft said:
Don't forget about "strapping" the flanges with flat strap to increase the flange thickness but keep the weight down.

You can also build oval shaped "beams" with flat sheet and wrap it with flat strap.

One of our customers welder builds ramps for heavy equipment that way, they are really light for their capacity.
Click to expand...
Got any pics of his work?

Just throwing a piece of 3/16x3 flat bar on the outside of the HSS would help and only add 24lbs per ramp. But that thick might not even be necessary. :confused:



I'm curious how Grendel bent his ramps. It seems like they should have been fine for what he has in the picture. :confused:
 
Scott Cee aka 2drx4 said:
I'm assuming the heavy channel that's 6lbs/foot?

How much do they weigh? 100lbs-ish?
Click to expand...
I built some like that for my buddies dump trailer after he bent the stock ones.
It takes two men and a boy to carry the mofos but they don't bend anymore.
 
Scott Cee aka 2drx4 said:
Got any pics of his work?

Just throwing a piece of 3/16x3 flat bar on the outside of the HSS would help and only add 24lbs per ramp. But that thick might not even be necessary. :confused:



I'm curious how Grendel bent his ramps. It seems like they should have been fine for what he has in the picture. :confused:
Click to expand...
I don't have any pix.

Just imagine air frame type construction, speed holes on the web wrapped in flat strap.

These are for 50 ton scrapers and rollers and shit so way too heavy built for your use.

Something like this but in a symetrical oval shape and wrapped to make a I beam instead of a angle.
1661619091769.png
 
I know the thread is about ramps, but maybe unless there's a reason you can't, putting some of the time/ money into adding a dovetail will make half of your ramp problems go away.

I've dug car trailers down jeep trails for recoveries, I don't want to hear "it scrapes":flipoff2:
 
Projectjunkie said:
I know the thread is about ramps, but maybe unless there's a reason you can't, putting some of the time/ money into adding a dovetail will make half of your ramp problems go away.

I've dug car trailers down jeep trails for recoveries, I don't want to hear "it scrapes":flipoff2:
Click to expand...
Thought about it. Don't feel like it right now, since it seems like a lot longer job than just cutting some stock to length in my saw and jigging it on my table. I wouldn't even have to lay on the concrete or weld anything above my head, it would be a vacation of a job compared with the shit I've been doing the last few weeks. :lmao: But maybe it's the better solution in the end. I could just steal the ramps from my car hauler and use them for the time being too.

I don't want to extend the trailer much, if at all, so I'd be cutting it back a bit to do it.

Other than the "it scrapes" crowd, and the massive time/money tied up in converting it, is there any downsides to a dovetail?
 
Scott Cee aka 2drx4 said:
I don't want to extend the trailer much, if at all, so I'd be cutting it back a bit to do it.

Other than the "it scrapes" crowd, and the massive time/money tied up in converting it, is there any downsides to a dovetail?
Click to expand...

Just extra length if you add it, then deciding if you should pull the axles back a bit to match, or not

If a guy has a 20' deck over flat bed for hauling a piece of construction equipment, there's a pretty good chance he's using the same trailer for hauling pallets of material to the job site, and the dovetail is unusable for him, it's why you wouldn't see that many dove tails

Nowadays, for a bit more money, these guys are buying dove tails with fold down ramps that lay flat, beat of both worlds
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Back Refresh