Stiftening up car hauler drive up ramp

[RLDSL]

I'd like to stiften up the drive up , drop down ramp on my enclosed 32 ft car hauler so that a small forklift could drive up into the thing if needed.
Any ideas here?
Could I ditch the 3/4" plywood and replace it with aluminum plate in the rear door section? or make some runners with aluminum plate in the door section that maybe go on up into the trailer itself as well.

I'm open to suggestions here.

Thanks--------Robert

 

[discbrks]

How much does the forklift weigh? Forklifts are usually pretty heavy.

 

[towcat]

In short, this is a really bad idea.
the average small warehouse forklift is 4000lb capacity.
that means the actual weight of the forklift is 8000-12,000 lbs
this weight is also concerntrated in 1/3rd the footprint of what a car takes up.
Unless your hauler has a heavy duty deck with 6-12in center crossmembers, you are looking to ruin a good trailer.

 

[RLDSL]

In short, this is a really bad idea.
the average small warehouse forklift is 4000lb capacity.
that means the actual weight of the forklift is 8000-12,000 lbs
this weight is also concerntrated in 1/3rd the footprint of what a car takes up.
Unless your hauler has a heavy duty deck with 6-12in center crossmembers, you are looking to ruin a good trailer.

The deck of the carhauler is made of 2x8" channel on 16" centers This is by the specs( with the REAL heavy steel beams running lengthwise the length of the trailer about under where the wheel tie down E tracks are) with 3/4" plywood deck, I haven't crawled under and measured but there may be quite a bit more under there. The fella I got it from told me that had them custom ordered and the frames were beefed up, exactly how, i can't remember though
But the drop down ramp is a definite no go for sure because it's only about 2x2 framing with 16" centers and the gaps run lengthwise up the ramp. no problem with a car, but I could tell real quick that a lift wasn;t going up there.
I'm not sure exactly what all the extras were put into the structure on the thing, but the trailer weighs about 3000 pounds more than the base model for that trailer. it was custom ordered for a company that was hauling exotic collector cars and high end sports cars. IT's a 32 ft cargo Mate Qualifier gooseneck

I've seen plenty of freestanding aluminum dock plates that can handle a forklift just fine I figure that has to be some way to get one into this thing. Or maybe if nothing else , get a few lengths of that roller conveyor and rig a live floor to make it easier to winch the heavy stuff in .

I've got one side door large enough to poke pallets in sideways if they arent hanging over, but that only allows me to poke in two across there, and do a little creative arranging if needed ( the winch is mounted high at that point so it doesn't do much good from there )

 

[towcat]

16" centers concern me. my biggest concern is the distance between the span with 3/4" plywood. If you do go forward with this, at least make some 1/4" deck plates to bridge the spans so the plywood isn't taking the full load.
I've done more with less over the years, what's kept me alive is common sense. From your writings, I know you have an abundance of common sense too. approach it with both eyes wide open and if it doesn't look right, stop.
good luck!

 

[RLDSL]

I definitely didn't want to be putting the load directly on that plywood as is. Heck, I've seen enough forklifts go through semi truck floors and wind up on the ground to where they had to call a crane out to lift the trailer off over top of the forklift to know to play it cautious

 

[geonc]

In addition to Towkitty's idea of plate bridge....the mast is going to give you fits due to it's projection down and in front of the tires in transition from pavement to ramp and ramp to deck......

One small and light enough to be able to access your trailer will most likely have hard -press on tires with little tire to rim distance and that = no give and lotsa spin!

We had a small Mitsubishi lift at the stair company and we would hit the 3/4" lip where the shop concrete met the parking lot apron EVERY TIME ----

unless the operator knew to tilt the mast all the way back...even then you had to know ex-zactly where to go to avoid dumping the load

A live floor as you have suggested may be your best bet

 

[02AutoWag]

Would an electric pallet jack lift what you need?
http://www.globalindustrial.com/gcs/prod/30122409/i/productInfo.web

 

[RLDSL]

of course, there is option C which doesn't involve any mods to the trailer, but uses a lot more fuel. I could just get a set of forks for the back of my tractor and take it with me. I've got an International 284 diesel that doesn't have any trouble backing into the thing ( I haven't pulled it all the way in yet because my exhaust pipe is about 3" too tall, but that's easily cured ) I used it to offload the last load with a boom arm, but a set of forks would be safer. It would be easy enough to use the thing and tie it down on the tail of whatever load I have on. I have dual E tracks running the length of the thing. It's just that much extra weight to drag along.

 

[RLDSL]

Would an electric pallet jack lift what you need?
http://www.globalindustrial.com/gcs/prod/30122409/i/productInfo.web

I'd thought of that, because I can get used ones real cheap, but the stuff I'd be getting on occasion would usually be odd shaped and my floor is not level , it's ramped. not a good combination with those things.

 

[OLDBULL8]

Robert, what is the tailgate weight rating now ? Should be a tag stateing that. My 6X12 cargo with rear ramp is rated at 1000 lbs. Knowing that, someone may have an idea of what re-inforcement it would take. Maybe 2-pcs.of 1/8" X 18" X lgth.of ramp steel diamond plate would do it.

 

[02AutoWag]

You mentioned a side door that you can load with a forklift. The electric pallet jack can be utilized to rearrange items once they're inside.

You also say your floor is sloped. Is that the interior of the trailer that's sloped, or just the ramp? Those jacks are used to navigate sloped loading docks, but probably not with the angles of a ramp. Then you run into the clearance problem with a large slope as stated above.

They also make electric pallet jacks with "outriggers" to provide better stability. Walkie Stackers they're called. They wouldn't be as maneuverable as the jacks, but they'd be able to load through the side door and possibly negotiate the ramp while providing more stability than the jacks.

I just see these types of movers around the workplace and thought I'd share, but who am I kidding, you probably already know this stuff...

 

[RLDSL]

Robert, what is the tailgate weight rating now ? Should be a tag stateing that. My 6X12 cargo with rear ramp is rated at 1000 lbs. Knowing that, someone may have an idea of what re-inforcement it would take. Maybe 2-pcs.of 1/8" X 18" X lgth.of ramp steel diamond plate would do it.

I went out and crawled all over the thing and couldn't find any tags listing a weight rating for the rear loading ramp, but I would imagine that it would be at least as much as the initial car payload rating of 4330 lbs, or maybe that figured by half weight, but that's a mighty long ramp. That trailer was custom built for low cars .
I think you have the right idea. I probably just need to hook up and run it by a place nearby that custom builds trailers and see what they think about beefing it up.They sell cut metal out the door there as well so they're happy to have it either way.

 

[RLDSL]

You mentioned a side door that you can load with a forklift. The electric pallet jack can be utilized to rearrange items once they're inside.

You also say your floor is sloped. Is that the interior of the trailer that's sloped, or just the ramp? Those jacks are used to navigate sloped loading docks, but probably not with the angles of a ramp. Then you run into the clearance problem with a large slope as stated above.

They also make electric pallet jacks with "outriggers" to provide better stability. Walkie Stackers they're called. They wouldn't be as maneuverable as the jacks, but they'd be able to load through the side door and possibly negotiate the ramp while providing more stability than the jacks.

I just see these types of movers around the workplace and thought I'd share, but who am I kidding, you probably already know this stuff...

The trailer floor is sloped about a third of the way. It makes it great for loading low vehicles, never have to set down boards to keep from hitting anything, would make pallet jack wrangling a bit fun, that along with the four rows of E tracks embedded in the floor, that plus some of the goodies I'm playing with are on pallets that are about 8 or 9 ft long and those cant go in the side door or be handled with a pallet jack

Yeah, I played with those critters for years, but that was a LONG time ago,been at least 15 years since I've messed with the things.