I-Beam for trailer ramps?

[aczlan]

Have a chance to pickup a 10' 10" piece of 15" tall 5" wide i-beam with 3/8" thick web/flanges:

Various calculators say its around 340# for the whole thing.

Thinking of making it into a pair of flip up ramps by cutting it in half, trimming the upper flange at an angle at the top (going from no flange up to the full flange over 4-8") and the same with the lower flange at the bottom of the ramp.
This will be going on my 24'x8' deckover trailer project (when I get to making ramps).
The trailer has a pair of 6k axles under it, so 13-14k GVW with tongue weight?
Would weld something (rebar, round stock or?) across the web every 6-8" for traction.

Good idea? Too much weight? Better off using traditional angle cross members and channel sides?

Thanks

Aaron Z

 

[Yotota]

Just ran some quick math and I'd guess that it's probably closer to 450lb.

If you thinned out 50% of the flanges as planned, that would cut maybe ~20% of the weight.

Then if you cut some speed holes in the main web for traction, you could probably cut another ~10%.

So down to ~315lb if you are willing so spend hours and hours with a plasma. Not the worst idea, and if the steel is free it could be worth a try.

 

[aczlan]

Just ran some quick math and I'd guess that it's probably closer to 450lb.

If you thinned out 50% of the flanges as planned, that would cut maybe ~20% of the weight.

Then if you cut some speed holes in the main web for traction, you could probably cut another ~10%.

So down to ~315lb if you are willing so spend hours and hours with a plasma. Not the worst idea, and if the steel is free it could be worth a try.

How do you get 450#? Trying to figure out where I am messing up the math.
Using 4" of .375# plus 1" of .75 (to account for flange/web junction) for each web and another 15" of .375 gives me an area of 10.125 square inches of steel for the cross section.
10.125 times it's 130" length gives me 1316.25 cubic inches of steel.
1316.25 times 0.2904 pounds per cubic inch gives me 382.239 pounds which matches with the seller saying he can pick up one end.
​​​The 340# came from the seller's guess and a beam calculator with the length, web height, flange width, web thickness and web thickness.
Not going to cut speed holes unless I have to. Just going to add bars across and slope the flanges at the ground and the top to not gouge the driveway or rip up a tire.
If I go through that much work I will make a traditional ramp with a channel frame and angle crossbars.

Aaron Z

 

[Yotota]

How do you get 450#? Trying to figure out where I am messing up the math.
Using 4" of .375# plus 1" of .75 (to account for flange/web junction) for each web and another 15" of .375 gives me an area of 10.125 square inches of steel for the cross section.
10.125 times it's 130" length gives me 1316.25 cubic inches of steel.
1316.25 times 0.2904 pounds per cubic inch gives me 382.239 pounds which matches with the seller saying he can pick up one end.
​​​The 340# came from the seller's guess and a beam calculator with the length, web height, flange width, web thickness and web thickness.
Not going to cut speed holes unless I have to. Just going to add bars across and slope the flanges at the ground and the top to not gouge the driveway or rip up a tire.
If I go through that much work I will make a traditional ramp with a channel frame and angle crossbars.

Aaron Z

You gave the 3/8" web thickness, and with the 15" height, that sounds just like standard 36a I-Beam. The weight of 36a is 60kg/m so around 40.3lb/ft.

So more like 437lb. Meh, I was off a hair the first time when I rounded the numbers for easier math.

 

[arse_sidewards]

It's gonna be stupid heavy for how strong it winds up being. If you have an I-beam kicking around there's a lot of better things than ramps to use it for.

 

[GLTHFJ60]

Agree, will be too heavy. Imagine lifting two ~300# ramps by yourself in the rain.

 

[aczlan]

I will abandon the idea and keep an eye out at the scrap yard for channel to make ramps out of.

Aaron Z