16Again

Hi Guys,
I purchased an open trailer for my lowered Vette. Got help loading it on Taking it off the nose scraped the ramps. How do you deal with angles and what not for loading and unloading so as not to damage anything? Please help the trailer noobie
Thanks
Bob

AU N EGL

Bob

Cranck the trailer as high as possible.

Get some long 2"x10"x 4 or 5' boards to help make a longer ramp

When I load my car I have less then 1/4" clearance on my ramp to my splitter

Falcon

Does it have a beaver tail?

How long are the ramps?

Did you jack up the front of the trailer to minimize the angle of attack?

You can buy nice aluminum 6' ramps at http://www.discountramps.com/auto_ramps.htm

16Again

If I crank the trailer up I can actually lift the rear wheels off the ground. Where is the happy medium? Also I assume flat ground is best, and the wood boards should be placed UNDER the edge of the ramp?

Yes has a beaver tail. Ramps are 5' long. As for jacking the front of trailer, what exactly am I trying to accomplish? I did jack it up quite far, when the rear wheels of my car leveled out on the ground MY NEWLY PAINTED NOSE scraped the ramps Will the ramps you linked to make that much difference or am I better of with some type of stepped boards?

Thanks guy's

Falcon

The longer the ramps, the better. I don't know if 1 foot (6' vs 5' ramps) will make that much difference for you. By jacking up the front of the trailer you're trying to minimize the angle, thereby keeping the nose from dragging.

16Again

So if I place some longer boards (2x6) under the ramp and about 4' long, that will minimize the angle more? Maybe i'll try that rather than the longer ramps. How high can I SAFELY jack the front of the trailer?

Falcon

Don't disconnect the trailer from the car when you're loading and unloading, since the tongue of the trailer will not be secure. If you use the tongue jack to raise the tongue (while it's connected to the tow vehicle), you can't raise it a great deal. Eyeball it and you will see the angle decrease as you jack it up. It doesn't take much.

16Again

OK cool, Thanks I appreciate the help.

JRD77VET

You can use a floor jack to raise the tongue ( as Falcon said, keep it hooked up )

If your nose is hitting a cross bar on the trailer, perhaps some boards bolted to the trailer/ramps will help with extra clearence.

Jeff

16Again

I know about leaving it hooked to the truck. How high can I jack the trailer? I think there is a point where I do more harm than good. I'm going to try extending the ramps with some wood and see how the angle changes.

AU N EGL

and you put those 5 foot boards about 1/4 way up your current ramps.

to make a 8 or 9 foot ramp at less of an angle to the ground.

16Again

That's what i'm looking for. EXCELLENT I think i'm going to cut a stepped ramp On flat ground I should get the angle correct just like you guy's are saying. Once I get the correct angle, i'll fab up something light weight that I can use. You guy's have been a great help Thanks very much

JRD77VET

Not quite the same but when I had my '72 Monte Carlo trailered to my friend's place for paint, he came over with his shortbed chevy pick up and trailer.

When I drove the Monte Carlo onto the trailer it picked the back wheels of his truck off the ground and started moving it forward. Chocked the FRONT wheels and it went right on.


With that said, you need to find the angle that works best for your set up.

undertaker

I'd say jack the tongue of teh trailer as much as possible, if that doesn't work, you know yoru good old rhino ramps? put the rear axle of the truck up on those...and chock the front..There are times I'll get full suspension lift out of my truck depending on the ground level with my enclosed. My biggest problem is the end of the door/beginning of the floor area, my nose doesn't hit but the two pipes for teh sts kit will hit at that point (and I thought I was flattening them on the street..)

Racin Jason

Try putting some boards under your rear tow vehicles tires, seems to help a lot for us.

FastZR1

Yep.... this is what I did along with the longer ramps when I had an open trailer.

GS023

You can also use a pair of drive on ramps. Drive the rear wheels of the tow vehicle on to the ramps. This will lower the rear of the trailer considerably. Also put a piece of wood under the rear of the trailer so it will not push down when you drive the car on.

Check 6

As said before the best way is longer ramps. My open Trailex trailer has 11 foot ramps and the Corvette on without scraping the front flexible spoiler at all

16Again

Thanks for all your help guy's Tomorrow i'll tinker with it and see which of your ideas works best for my situation.

c4cruiser

My 18' beavertail trailer has the rear top edge of the deck about 18" off the ground. The 5' steel ramps that came with it would not come close to getting my 87 up and the rampes weighed 50lbs each

The 6' ramps helped but I built a pair of wood ramps to get the car up high enough so that the air dam would clear with no problems.

I used a 2x 12 to build the ramps and added some non-skid tape to the tops. I applied a coat of water seal to the wood and finished it with some marine spar varnish. I glued some rubber mat to the bottom of the wood to keep them from sliding around on my concrete driveway. You could also coat the wood with some of the paint-on truck bed liner from auto parts stores to make it non-slip.




The bottom board is 32" long. The middle one is 20" long and the top is 6" long. The setback at the top is 2 1/2" long and that is for the aluminum ramp to sit without moving. The distance between each level is enough for the tire to sit in place before moving to the next level.

I used wood glue and some 3" deck screws to hold everything in place. The handle came from Home Depot and makes it handy to carry them and also serves as a tie-down point.

I rounded off the front edges so that the tires would get a better grip as the car moves up onto them.

16again-- Hope this helps!!