Ramps for Tractor Hauler

I have a F350 with a 12 flatbed. Id like to be able to haul some of my tractors with it. The bed is about 44 off the ground. I can find a spot on the farm where I could park the truck so the bed
would be closer to the ground. How long would the ramps need to be (assuming the bed is 36 off the ground)? Also, to handle up to a 4,000 lb tractor, what would you recommend I use for steel to build the ramps? Any advice is appreciated.
Thanks

Not likely to have an unloading ramp at all of your destinations. Ramps are always a bit of struggle especially if you pull it on and back it off. 1 ton trucks are great tractor haulers. I encourage you to consider a trailer
Don

Have you followed any of SV's threads on here? Ditches and cut-banks can be your friends.

What Im looking for is a set of ramps that I can carry on the truck to my destination. I would like a trailer, but thats not in the budget right now.

Yes, thats what Im thinking, but Id like some ramps for places where I cant back up to a hill.

The longer the better.
I made 10 ft ramps for my dump trailer. It's less than 36 inches. It feels like a step climb when I drive the Kawasaki 4010 mule on the trailer in 4 wheel.
If you know the steepest angle you can climb, you can work the math and determine the safest length.
When I drive my terramite might on my implement trailer my front wheels are very light. The back bucket acts like a wheelie bar to keep it from going over backwards. I put knees on my ramps to prevent back of the trailer from going down and lifting back of the truck up.
Longer the better.
George

I can't really give you dimensions and specs, but they will be long, long means deeper construction to carry the load.

In other words, they will not really be practical to manhandle by yourself!

A trailer or a roll off bed is much safer and more practical.

If you put a winch on your truck and winch them on you can use shorter rams and is safer than driving them on the truck.

36 off the ground I would say 8-10 ft. If you can make out of aluminum at least you could Cary them. I would have some sort of hook on to the back of the deck so they cant fall out and ad a swing and pin in place foot in the middle of the ramp. If you have a winch in front of deck if you make them out of metal and heavy you can always slide to the side and winch the up. More time but might save manual labor.

The farther the rear wheels are toward the back od the bed the better. If the wheels are more centered, the front is going to be very light when the tractor weight is at the top of the ramps, and some forward of that. Be prepared to have hinge pins on the top edge of the ramps to keep the ramps in place, not just slots and tabs. The ramps may need to have a center support strut that stouches the ground to keep them light enough to move around, and stiff enough to not bend. Jim

My stepdeck trailer is 41 inches deck height. Mine are 4inch channel 9 feet long and heavier than I like to lift. I just welded 2 inch angle iron between the channels. I have tabs of 1/2 inch welded on a 4 inch angle iron across the back end to pin the ramps onto with a 1 inch shaft through both ears on the ramps. With these ramps I have loaded a 1466 with the duals on without bending them. I also have supports for heavier equipment loading like dozers. I also put a couple tires down for loading steel tracked equipment. One on each point where the machine has to do the break over at the end of the trailer. That is where they will tend to get squirrely as they tip over the angle from ramp to trailer deck. I have loaded countless pieces this way. I just slide them onto the trailer from the rear so as to not have to lift /carry them far and chain them down right there. they will fit between the tires on a tractor with a 60 inch tread center or set for 30 inch rows. The angles for cross bars work well for self cleaning in wet dirt loading. I put the back bone or closed side up so the dirt does not collect in the cross pieces. They probably weight right in the 100-200LBS range so not for the faint of heart. Expanded metal would be an option if needing to load a car so it didn't high-center at the trailer tail. It will need to be a fairly heavy strip though to not bend between the cross pieces. I do have some for that purpose I can use. Dirt banks will work as long as the bank does not cave away while loading or unloading. I have since built a dock for loading here at the house from some old cement and some dirt pushed up to hold the cement piece.

Some simple trigonometry, a ramp at 45 degrees would be 62" long, and a ramp at 30 degrees would be 88" long.

Even 30 degrees is pretty steep. From what I can find online it is equivalent to a roughly 58% grade.

A 10' long ramp gets the angle down to about 22 degrees, a 40% grade.

If you've got a long 2x4, set it on the back edge of your truck to simulate a ramp at various lengths and see what you think. Don't cut the 2x4 and waste it, just overhang one end over the truck bed to make it "shorter" to the ground.

I don't know but you may need a trailer to haul the ramps unless you have a place to put them once the tractor is loaded. As a kid I drove combines onto a truck backed into a ditch for a wheat harvest crew and still very scary if something goes wrong such as stalling out in the middle of the loading.

Hopefully the tractor will have a high enough center to make the breakover after the front wheels are on the truck. Ramps at that steep of an angle will be worthless if you wanted to load a mower as the deck will hang up which is why some of those pickup ramps are curved.

You would be better off finding a trailer with ramps on it. With the cost of steel and time it would take to weld up some decent ramps heavy enough to hold a tractor, that may not be in the budget either. A 12' long flatbed isn't going to haul much of a tractor. Even a short tractor may have to be backed on to get the weight right. My little ford 1500 is about 10' long. If you are trying to haul a cub to a show then you can get by with the ramps. Use a little HF winch to pull them back on. I have a bobcat trailer with ramps that slide out from underneath and they aren't any fun to manhandle to hold up, get pinned, and then slide them sideways to line up with the wheels. They are about 6' long to go up less than 2'.

Add a 5' beavertail to your 12' flatbed. Can use shorter ramps that don't weigh as much. Built this gooseneck in 76 and added 5 foot on the rear about 10 years ago....

My ramps are 5 ft long and 16 tall.

Like SV I back into a hill.
10 ft long 32 inch rise
15 ft long for 48 inch rise.
I wouldn't feel safe making 15 ft long ramps.
I would be buying a lower trailer.
I can't see how I could lift 15 ft ramps ramps.

Maybe 37chief or svcummins will post pics of their setups. 37chief loads up routinely an older flatbed truck to haul his mowing and discing tractors. Mark.

Good morning, all: Just a comment, I have a two axle bumper-pull trailer I have used to take my 9N to shows. The ramps are about 6 feet long, and I can move them around by myself, as needed. At shows, you never know if there will be a hill or other place to load without ramps.

Also, a second comment, my ramps can be stored in a rack under rear of trailer. The GOTCHA factor is that the ramps slide in or out from the side. If someone would park too close beside my trailer, I would have to move the rig to access my ramps.

Dennis M. in W. Tenn.

You said any advice is appreciated so I'd advise that you have good life and medical insurance. Consider the good possibility that the front of the truck will come up when the full weight of the tractor is behind the truck wheels. Saw that happen to a guy using a loading dock. The truck was only in gear and when he drove the front of the tractor on the truck the front of the truck came up and moved far enough forward that the back wheels of the tractor were still on the dock and the front wheels on the ground. Also consider if you have enough traction even with 12' ramps. Consider how heavy the ramps will be and if you can move them by hand. Maybe consider a plan B.

No reason you cant contrary to the ytdot .

You wont want to haul 100 horse tractors with an f350 but you get the idea

(quoted from post at 09:24:22 03/31/21)
I can't see how I could lift 15 ft ramps ramps.

Click to expand...

Aw, just eat a can of spinach first. Squeeze the can to blow the top off of it. Seen it done when I was a kid. Will get you through a few brawls with Brutus as well. lol

Just for easy reference, most deckover goosenecks that you see a farmer pull is going to be 3-3.5' tall, will have 5' of dove tail and 5' of flip over ramp, so I'd say 10'+ for you. And I'd be sleeving some square tube to weld to the back corners of your truck to make stands for when you load and unload to keep the front end of the truck down

Caterpillar Guy, that sounds like what Im looking for. Would it be possible for you to post a couple pictures of your ramps (for me to reference)?
Thanks