Car Ramps

[Brent Dowell]

Silly little project, but the ramps I have for my auto trailer are not long enough to get the lowered vehicle down off the trailer. Heck, they were 'barely' able to get the car on the trailer. Lets just say it's a good thing I have a powerful winch on the trailer and there were a lot of cinder blocks in the garage where I picked it up.

Figured if I made some ramps about 8' long it should do the trick. Only problem is they are heavy as heck. Sturdy too though.

Haven't made anything out of wood in some time, so thought I'd post it just for kicks, lol.

 

[Vaughn McMillan]

After you install the lift kit, 1-ton axles, 37" tires, and low range transfer case, you won't even need ramps to put the car back on the trailer when you take it to Moab for some rock crawling.

 

[Jonathan Shively]

A pair of after market car ramps, set them in front of your truck's rear tires and drive up on them. That will put the trailer at a good angle and lessen the transition from trailer ramps to trailer.
Edited to add: ALWAYS use parking brake when loading and unloading from a trailer.

 

[Darren Wright]

Looks like those would work. Couldn’t use the steel trailer ramps for the first part of it and land them on the extended ramp to cut down on some weight/length of the extender ramps?

 

[Brent Dowell]

A pair of after market car ramps, set them in front of your truck's rear tires and drive up on them. That will put the trailer at a good angle and lessen the transition from trailer ramps to trailer.
Edited to add: ALWAYS use parking brake when loading and unloading from a trailer.

I like that idea. That would really help the approach angle quite a bit. I do always put jack stands under the back of the trailer to make sure it doesn't change the trailer angle when putting weight on it.

Looks like those would work. Couldn’t use the steel trailer ramps for the first part of it and land them on the extended ramp to cut down on some weight/length of the extender ramps?

I thought about it, but just liked the idea of a one piece better, for whatever reason. Can always use these to raise the vehicle up a bit to work under it for changing oil, etc too.

 

[Charles Lent]

What thickness are the sides and top of the ramps? I would have used 2 by construction lumber and 3/4 plywood for the sides with glue and screws. How did you join the pieces together? Are there any internal blocks to prevent side shifting? You don't want them to become a trapezoid on you as you apply the weight. That's a lot of weight that you will be putting on them.

They are kind-of narrow. I hope you don't back off the edge. I have always made the ones that I had at least 2 times the tire width and they were for tractors and machinery, not a precious old car. You need to make certain that they are secured somehow (cross bracing between them?), so they can't shift under load. Have someone watch for problems as you slowly back down them.

I too would have made them shorter and used the trailer ramps, maybe sitting on blocks, for the first part of the ramps and with the shorter and lower shop made ramps added to them (less distance to fall if they fail). The ramps on the trailer have proven that they can handle the loads many times, but your ramps have never been tested, yet.

Charley

 

[Brent Dowell]

It's all 2x lumber, 10" wide. as wide as the tires. They are as wide as the standard ramps I have as well.

I have blocks on the insides to keep it from going sideways, screwed and glued. I like that they are one piece in that its fewer things to line up and move around.

Thanks for your thoughts, but I'm confident these will hold up to the load.

 

[Ted Calver]

I gotta wonder. How often do you use your hauler for cars? Couldn't you have used Bob to create a temporary ramp for offloading?

 

[Brent Dowell]

I gotta wonder. How often do you use your hauler for cars? Couldn't you have used Bob to create a temporary ramp for offloading?

Probably could, but the car isn't really running, so once it's off it would be tough to move it around.
I will be needing to trailer this car around a few places anyway, i.e. to get the muffler pipes bent and run, and that sort of thing.

I also thing these will be useful for just getting it up in the air a bit for doing simple things like oil changes, etc...

I know my FIL had some super long ramps he had in his driveway just for doing maintenance. I would have grabbed those when we go the car, but my hoarding brother in law (completely different BIL) got there a few weeks before the rest of us did and swiped them, lol.