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Buzz

Truck ramps

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Buzz

What kind of ramps are you using to load your tractors in you pick-ups? How long, how much, and where did you get them?

Several times a year I make a one day visit to shows a couple hours away. Sometimes it's a lot of hassle loading and unloading the trailer, parking it at the show then walking back to where you parked the tractors.

When I had my van I had a set of wooden ramps. I'd just ride the tractor up them, tie the tractor down and slide the ramps in next to the tractor. I'd be on my way in 10 minutes. I'd unload in the parking lot and ride my 'Horse into the show.

My Dakota is twice the height of the van so it's looks a little scary plus it has the 5.5' bed and the ramps are too long to fit in the bed.

So what do you guys use? Do you ride the tractor up them? Do you go up forward or backwards?

Oh yeah, the cables or hinges that support the tailgate, has anyone ever broke one while loading their tractor? Trying to decide what to do over the winter.

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HorseFixer

Buzz I had purchased a set of those fold in the center aluminum ramps that have an arc from TSC. I used them a couple times but then switched to solid 6' long style of aluminum ones that were given to me that I strap to the walls of the horse hauler. And yes I drive all my tractors in the trailer if they run! :hide:

Get the heaviest rated ones you can to safely support you and your tractor weight! :hide:

Since my trailer is low I dont have a problem with height like a PU! :D

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Butch

I use the wood also except I only have one 2x10. :hide: I saw a pair

today at Lowes that I liked. They were $150 for the pair and it looked like

they folded. They're also arched so you don't scrape or bottom out the

mowing deck. My neighbor has a pair of those that I borrowed to unload

my tractor. Pretty nice. :D

http://www.lowes.com/lowes/lkn?action=prod...2700&lpage=none

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Nick

Buzz, Dont use them often but I have a set of folding aluminum ramps that I got on ebay but were from discountramps.com My set has plates with bent up areas for traction. Ive had good luck with them but do wish they had longer fingers that sit on the tailgate. Also noticed after a few years of use the welds holding those plates on have started to crack from the plate bending/flexing under heavy weight, like narrow front tires on a Lawn Ranger loader. :D

I did have a set of Steel Ramps from Ohio Steel that had the longer plates for the tailgate but also weighed twice as much as my aluminum ramps.

If you get a set of ramps its a good idea to use the safety cables. I also hate driving up the ramps and back up whenever possible. :hide:

link - Discount ramps I have

Link 2 - All Discount ramps garden tractor ramps

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rustbucket

a pair of 2x12's from home despot and a ramp end's kit from same said place. total coast 30 bucks

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CasualObserver

They were $150 for the pair and it looked like

they folded.

Butch.. the ones in the link you gave are not the folding type.

Length (Feet): 87.00

Width (Feet): 11.50

Folding: No

Oh, and I use wood 2"x8"x6' with the end kit and never ride a tractor up. I always push them...

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rustbucket

I've riden my GT-14 up my board ramps and they never showed sighns of wanting to give out and im a big boy course they prolly 8 or 9 footers.

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Buzz

I'm going to look at the folding ones at Lowes. One of the guys I work with has themand I might borrow them just to see how they work. On my van I drilled holes where the ramp end layed and dropped pins in them so the ramps couldn't kick out. Don't know what the 854 with sickle bar mower weighs but my Lawn Ranger weighs 515 pounds with me on it. My trucks bed is only 5' 5" so my long wooden ones won't fit.

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Butch

Butch.. the ones in the link you gave are not the folding type.

Oh, and I use wood 2"x8"x6' with the end kit and never ride a tractor up. I always push them...

I was a Lowes doing some other shopping and noticed the ramps. I really

didn't look at them. The reason I thought they were folding was because

of the box size. The box was about 4' long. I assumed they were folding

knowing they were not one piece. Those are the same pair I borrowed last

summer to unload my WH. They must have hooked together. They were

nice ramps.

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Butch

I'm going to look at the folding ones at Lowes. One of the guys I work with has themand I might borrow them just to see how they work. On my van I drilled holes where the ramp end layed and dropped pins in them so the ramps couldn't kick out. Don't know what the 854 with sickle bar mower weighs but my Lawn Ranger weighs 515 pounds with me on it. My trucks bed is only 5' 5" so my long wooden ones won't fit.

If ya got a 4x4 strap those wooden ramps to the underside of your

truck! :hide: That's how I brought home my my 32' extension

ladder from Home Depot years ago! :D Look out for that

catalytic convertor or ya mite be haulin firewood. :hide:

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wh500special

Buzz,

I use treated 8' 2x8's with the "ramp parts" end pieces to load into my F250 4x4. It's pretty steep even with 8 footers but do-able. I had to trim a couple inches off the ends of the boards once I mounted the ends, but they measure 97" long overall and fit inside my truck with the gate closed.

I found the folding ramps way too short to be of any use with my truck since it is so high off the ground. They seem to be almost at a 45 degree angle. Your 5.5' box poses a problem for ramp storage, but any extra ramp length is really nice.

Unless I can back into a ditch or against an embankment, I never drive a tractor into the bed anymore. I had a close call ONCE, and that was enough. Some tractors seem to have a crown to their tire tread which tends to push the ramps together or apart as you load. pins in the tailgate help, but I've had them splay out on the ground end too. pretty exciting stuff if you're sitting on the seat and then tractor starts to drop between the ramps...

My loading technique might be less safe than riding the tractor up, but I usually let them power themselves into the truck while I assist (wheel slippage) from the side. Then I just kill the ignition when the whole thing is in. Tractors that don't run can be a real SOB to load by yourself if they are heavy. I've hooked a come-along to the front wall of the bed and winched them in, but that sheetmetal doesn't like that very much.

If you do drive the tractor up steeply angled ramps, you probably want to go up in reverse to eliminate the risk of flipping over backwards. You won't have nearly the traction in reverse as in forward since weight will transfer off the drive wheels, but you also won't end up under a 600 pound tractor after your foot slips and you dump the clutch causing the tractor to rear up and flip over. With plain wood ramps I haven't yet found a tractor that can drive itself right in my truck without spinning the wheels. One of these says I plan to attach some type of traction aid to the ramp surface but so far laziness has prevailed.

Your truck owner's manual will tell you the load rating of your tailgate straps. For C-series and smaller I just drop the gate, hook up the ramps, and go. For the D's and GT14's I think you might want to take an extra 45 seconds and remove the tailgate and set it aside. I take my gate off all the time for the bigger stuff. The ramp ends can then rest either on the bumper or hook on the end of the bed.

The rating you find on your OM will be pretty conservative. Probably 300 pounds or so. I have seen gates snapped off and folded over the bumpers when I used to load trucks at a lumber distributor, but that was with at least a ton on them. D's check in at 1000+ pounds though, so you can run into some serious weight with these things.

The slickest ramp setup I have ever seen is the ramp unit that replaces the tailgate of a truck. The whole mess folds up and closes like a tailgate and is composed of a folding ramp surface that is about 8' long when deployed. See it here

If I hadn't wasted so much money on the tractors themselves I'd be tempted to buy one of these things...

The JD dealer in Chambersburg, PA has a contraption that lifts a garden tractor in and out of a pickup bed without ever starting or moving the tractor. awesome machine. i searched the web but can't find one like it. looks big time expensive though.

be safe.

Steve

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linen beige

I'm cheap. I use a couple of plain old 2x8s, 8' long. I screwed a couple of angle brakets to the tailgate end and they hang down into the gap between the bed and the gait. I also put a few rows of drywall screws into them with the heads sticking out a quarter inch or so to give the tires something to bite. The hold up cables on my tailgate are broken and the gait lays down flat against the top of the step bumper with the ramp boards then laying flat atop the gait. That leaves only about six feet or a little less unsupported board. They have held my D-160 when I've loaded it, but they do bend a good bit. I always back my tractors up into the truck. Driving them on front first risks having a back wheel spin a ramp out from under one front wheel while it's in the air. You can't unass the tractor fast enough to get out of the way. It's also a lot easier to see where you're going when you drive off front first, rather than trying to back down while looking over the hump. And because you can start a turn nearly as soon as the fronts hit the ground you can unload in tighter quarters if needed.

Steve: next time you need to use a come along to pull one in, put a 2x2 or a short piece of pipe into each front stake pocket and run a chain between them. Hook your come along to the chain's midpoint and pull away. If you need to pull toward one side more than the other the chain gives you secure hook points along it's length.

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T-Mo

With this talk of ramps and loading, etc., I think it's time to revisit this thread:

How not to Load a tractor!

Be careful, guys.

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Nick

Buzz, If you can test out the ramps your friend has that might really help out your search. The 90" arched ramps can still be a bit steep on some trucks.

Ramps are nice to have around but you might also find a cheap smaller trailer. Dennis has a trailer I put around an extra foot onto so a tractor would just fit. I will say these small single axle trailers can be a pain to back. :hide: But they are also easy to move by hand if needed.

smalltrailer001.jpg

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KyBlue

I think Harbor Freight sells a small trailer for a couple hundred bucks, folds up flat for storage..

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KyBlue

For your viewing pleasure...

too steep and why in the WORLD would you stop...either way good video showsing the perils of Ramps

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T-Mo

Scott,

Go to my link in my post above and you will see that same video in that link, plus another one that shows a tractor being unloaded....same result.

Under edit: Just in case you missed it in the post above:

How not to load a tractor!

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KyBlue

Whoops!

Sorry T-mo

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T-Mo

No problem. It must be like "great minds think alike", or in our case, .....maybe I shouldn't go there..... :hide:

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KyBlue

Prolly Not...hahaha

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