Choosing and Using Your Car Ramps
From loading sports cars into containers to parking classic cars safely on driveways, our car ramps are surprisingly versatile. Because of their versatility, it’s important to know how to use them safely in any situation. Finding the right car ramp and using them safely will keep both your car and your ramps intact.
Why use car ramps
Our TRP40 car ramp series is one of our widest ranges. These ramps come in a variety of lengths ranging from 1500mm to 4000mm. Having such a wide selection means our car ramps can cater to almost any load height and capacity requirement, suitable for all sorts of loading needs. Capable of loading vehicles up to 1208kg and load heights up to 600mm, our customers have used our ramps to load expensive cars into containers for transportation and onto platforms for events and showcasing. They also come with four different connection options, including our simple rest on connection.
Of course, all this versatility can make choosing and using these ramps safely a bit of a challenge. To help clear up any confusion, here are a few things to consider before picking your car ramp and while using it.
Choosing your ramp
All our ramps have their relevant length, capacity and load height information clearly labelled on our website. To figure out the right ramp, simply contact the manufacturer or look up the total weight of your vehicle if you don’t already know it. You can also simply measure the height of the drive, step, platform or container that you’ll be loading onto and figure out the load height. The safest maximum allowable slope for ramp usage is 30% or 16.5°, but you can use a less steep slope if you like.
Working out your ramp length can easily be done by multiplying your load height by 100, and then dividing by the slope percentage.
You should also double check your wheelbase, as this can affect the spread of weight and therefore the load capacity. Luckily, we test all our ramps to three different wheelbases, so the right length for your load height should be suitable for your vehicle’s wheelbase. You can find all three different wheelbase capacities for each product under the product specifications.
If you notice your wheelbase is different to any of those listed, you can look up the right wheelbase capacity for your vehicle or even contact the manufacturer.
Using your car ramp safely
Before using your car ramps, make sure you have the correct connection. This will depend on the platform you are loading onto and you’ll find our car ramps offer a chain, pin and bracken connection. Fortunately, these car ramps are mostly designed for low load heights to support cars with low ground clearance. The simple rest on connection is sturdy and safe enough in most situations.
Here are some other things to keep in mind when using your car ramps:
- Make sure the loading deck and loading vehicle are on even ground.
- Double check that the distance between the ramps is the same as the wheels and that they are straight.
- Never support ramps with any means to increase the maximum carry weight.
- Set loading trajectory before climbing the ramps, as no corrections should be made during loading, and ensure the wheels are placed in the centre of the ramps and not near the edges.
- Use a constant speed and void braking or accelerating. Speed should be below 0.12 Km.
Customised car ramps
If there isn’t a car ramp with the right lengths, load heights or capacities to suit your needs, we can always create a completely custom car ramp solution. Many of our customers who use their classic sports cars for events need a specialised ramp solution to suit their particular transportation or platform needs.
If you need any help finding the right car ramp, our friendly sales team are always on hand to help. With years of experience, they can offer support throughout the entire buying process.
You can also find further usage guidelines and safety information here.