Harbor Freight loading ramp. HELP!!

[chuckycheese]

Hey guys! I know we've all done business with these folks and I think the quality of their stuff varies. I have an old pick-up truck and would like to be able to haul my bike down the road...once in a while, for a nice ride when I get there.

Harbor Freight has this loading ramp for sale for $113...and it is supposed to support 1500 pounds, based upon their website. I think this would work for me because I could ride it up into the truck bed and back it down, all by myself...what do you guys think? It seems like a pretty good deal but I would appreciate your thoughts! Thanks!!

http://ww2.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/Displayitem.taf?itemnumber=90018

[JSC]

I work at a kawasaki dealership - we find that a longer ramp tends to work better, as you drag less at the transition from ramp to truck.

what we found works very well is two 7' ramps each about a foot wide, one for the bike, and one for you to walk up.

we use ramps similar to these

[Clone]

My only problem with that style of ramp is how far apart the rungs are places, it is not easy to ride up them, they are more for atvs and sleds.

[chuckycheese]

Thanks!

Thanks, guys. Both of your comments seem to make a lot of good sense!:-D

[runewolf]

Before I started borrowing a trailer, I've used that style ramp for my 750. It was rather unpleasant with the wheels bouncing from the spaces between the rungs, so I started using a piece of plywood that was larger than the center ramp section. Made life much easier. Just watch out for your speed and don't hit your back window :shock:

[Kabonkie]

Chucky, I had a 96 Ford Ranger 4X4 pickup that I was hauling some of my bikes in. Had RenoBruce's 1000 in it after he bought it, and my 850 and my 550 and several others. I used a ramp that was made to load a lawn mower, I think, into a trailer. It was 6 feet long, made with two 2 x 12 and held together with a piece of angle iron on the bottom and a piano hinge at the top. The hinge had 3 holes drilled into it and I put the same in the edge of the tailgate. All you had to do was drop the gate, line up the holes and drop in some bolts to hold it.

Okay where I'm going with this, the transition point is a problem because of the short ramp. I just always made sure to back the rear tires into a curb or low point. Here, my driveway, after crossing the sidewalk, goes uphill. So I'd back into the curb and place the ramp on the uphill portion of the sidewalk and this would lessen the angle. In fact when my son killed the tranny on the 550, 500 miles from home and my sister-in-law brought down my brothers truck, a 99 F250 SD 4X4, we used a old pallet and a hill. Backed the truck into the hill and used the pallet on the transition, it was downhill, over the pallet right into the bed, one person.

[Hap Call]

I bought the same one on sale from Harbor Freight for $79. It works fine with my Nissan Frontier Pickup but would not advise its' use with a full size pickup...too short.

Hap

[Planecrazy]

If you like the convenience of dealing with a shorter ramp I'd wait for the tri-fold to go on sale (like Hap did) - Harbor Freight sale prices are cyclical, so it won't be long before it's on sale again. Then I'd simply cut a piece of plywood to fit one section (the one your bike will ride up on, of course) and screw a few wooden blocks to the bottom of the plywood so that they snug up against one or two rungs on the ramp. This will keep them from slipping and give you a nice smooth surface to roll the bike on.

You'll still have to deal with the sharp transition angles, but for some people it's a trade-off worth making in order to keep the ramps more portable. if you go with a longer ramp, you can still use the plywood/block trick to make it easier to use if the rungs are widely spaced. I used this method very successfully for years on a home-made short ramp until Skreemer and Nerobro were nice enough to give me the second of a pair of ramps they had bought for their bike trailer.

Regards,

[chuckycheese]

Great!

I really appreciate everyone's input and understand what you meant by the transition point. My truck is an old Ford Ranger so it's fairly small. After I left my last message, I thought about the plywood idea and already have one that I made for my son's dirt bike. Together, with a metal ramp, it seems like it would work pretty well. I'm glad to hear that I might be able to buy it cheaper so.....I'll wait! Thanks, again!!:-D

[earlfor]

I have basically the same ramp, though not a Harbor Freight brand. There are a couple of problems I had to address with mine. The safety chains still allowed the ramp to move enough that on backing a bike out of the truck the ramp could slip off the tailgate when I was on it with the bike. Not Good.
I drilled the ends of the ramps and put a carriage bolt through the ramp side moulding with 1 1/2" of bolt protruding from the down side. I drilled matching holes on the inside surface of my tailgate for the bolts to "key" into. Ramp cannot slip off now. Also, if the spaces between the ramp cross pieces are wide enough for your foot to go through, that would be real bad to drop a leg through, have the bike fall on top of you and be pinned though the ramp, bent over and a 600 lb bike on your neck. I bought 1/8" thick x 1 1/2" wide aluiminum strap and sheet metal screwed it on top of the ramps with 3" spacing.

Earl

http://ww2.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/Displayitem.taf?itemnumber=90018[/url]

[Atonic]

How about buying 2 sets of these:

http://ww2.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/Displayitem.taf?itemnumber=55424

and tac-ing on some hinges? almost as wide, sturdier, and no huge holes.

[chuckycheese]

Slip and slide!

I have basically the same ramp, though not a Harbor Freight brand. There are a couple of problems I had to address with mine. The safety chains still allowed the ramp to move enough that on backing a bike out of the truck the ramp could slip off the tailgate when I was on it with the bike. Not Good

Earl

I considered that, Earl. Having the ramp slip off the tailgate would definitely ruin my day! Sounds like you addressed that issue permanently.

[SqDancerLynn1]

Go with JSC you do not want to do it by yourself.

I work at a kawasaki dealership - we find that a longer ramp tends to work better, as you drag less at the transition from ramp to truck.

what we found works very well is two 7' ramps each about a foot wide, one for the bike, and one for you to walk up.

we use ramps similar to these

[jforce11]

Atonic has the right idea

Atonic has the right idea, I hav a set of them same ramps I used for my atv before the x-wife got it the b---h thats a differant story. I am going to hinge mine so I can load my GS850 they are very strong and don't sag at all. Just one thing I found out about them though back the truck up to the grass or dirt so the end of the ramp can dig in and not slide off the truck. I did that one time on blacktop with my atv and kicked the left ramp of the truck when I gave it gas. Hell of a ride!