Formula Car Ramps - cheap

[Purple Frog]

It was with great indignation that we had to endure Coop's derogatory remarks about the "Purple Frog non-patented el cheapo Ramp System for low ground clearance formula cars without expensive paddock wheels." (PFNELCRSFLGCFCWEPW for short )

The nerve of that guy after at the same most outstanding event he unveiled his own non-patented rubber jack stands and human powered car lift!

So how does one cheaply make it easy to load a car with 3/4" of clearance into a trailer without shelling out over $700 for paddock wheels, or carrying half a lumber yard of 2-bys????

First, consider these are not T1 Corvettes. The heaviest corner on the car is only ~360 lb. It doesn't take the Brooklyn Bridge to carry that load.

Simple says I. A small bit of 1/2" plywood, with 1/4" plywood top surfaces. Pick it up with one hand. Monocoupe construction. Pull 4 pins and it comes easily apart. The two black AL ramps are the center sections of my scale pad. I have less than $10 in the project. Car rolls in and out without dragging bottom.

For your consideration....

[tstarke4]

I like it. Simple, cost effective, and stylish.

[Beartrax]

C'mon Frog, there's gotta be $10 in purple paint on that thing....
Perhaps the cost of the paint had already been amortized in another project.

Nice job!

[starkejt]

How close together are the fasteners?

[Purple Frog]

6.5"

FIA crash test certificate available for inspection. (Florida International Amphibians)

You have to realize everytime Home Depot mixes a gallon of purple paint wrong. I buy it for $5 no questions asked.

[jerry freeman]

Mike,

Do you load your car nose first or backwards? I gotta get a way to load my car on the open trailer without taking the diffuser off and don't want to turn it around with the rear wing going the wrong way.

Jerry

[Purple Frog]

Nose first. But i have done it both ways with different cars.

One key to success is the relief scallop cut into the center bulkhead.

[Bob Wheless]

I WAS GOING TO COMENT ON THE PURPLE PAINT , BUT SOME ONE BEAT ME TO IT. Very nice and, this is some thing i can do myself without an engineer and a fabricator!!!! bob

[rmccown]

Neat idea. $10. Plus a grand for the scales...

[lancer360]

Very nice! I wish something like that would work for F500/F600's. Side pods being the same width as the wheels makes it a PITA. I have to roll the car up until it high centers. This puts the rear wheels just on the door. Then use a floor jack to raise the door up level and roll the car in. Effetive, but slow and tedious.

[Steve Demeter]

I jusat use 2 by 10's long enough and they fit heatly in racks above the wheel wells on one side which would be little used space anyway

Buut mine are plain old blue and not the exotic purple.

[DB4 Tim]

6.5"

FIA crash test certificate available for inspection. (Florida International Amphibians)

You have to realize everytime Home Depot mixes a gallon of purple paint wrong. I buy it for $5 no questions asked.

They have got to love ya.....and way cool ramps

[glenn cooper]

if properly motivated/goaded/chided/shamed/praised (It happens ALL the time 'round here, doan laugh), you'd post pics, and Frog, ya didn't let the assembled and oft unwashed Reynard owners down...

A true THesbian!

[Ralph Z.]

Frog:

How do ya store 'em? They look big.

Ralph Z

[Northwind]

If he was really dedicated to the color purple he would paint the house too.

[Purple Frog]

Ralph,

For a while i hung them from brackets on the trailer ceiling. Now i have found they fit well laying on their sides beside the car with the narrow ends between the front tires and the trailer wall.


OBTW, Janice's home was in the background of that shot... mine is farther back on the property.

[Northwind]

[starkejt]

No way you built that. Windows are too straight.

[SOseth]

Monocoupe construction.

I thought this type of hybrid construction was counter to the philosophy of the class of trailer your pulling. Once again, another example of Frog "killing the class".

SteveO

[Purple Frog]

Steve,
In complete defiance of the rule set... Notice, not only is the front bulkhead not made of steel tubing, it isn't there at all.

[Hawke]

Frog,

What is the little door on the bottom left corner of your garage door?

[Purple Frog]

Her Highness the Cat (whom all must pay homage to) makes her royal entrances (and exits) through that door.

[beachguy12]

Brilliant. Simply brilliant.

[mwizard]

Wow. More reason to be happy I have an open trailer with no deck up the center. I use 1 1/8 in plywood, 5 ft long and with 2 alum. angle irons screwed to the bottom. It helps that I have 1 3/4 in ground clearance. The ramps still flex when the rear rolls up And no purple paint!
Mark

[Top]

Here I go bringing an old thread back from the dead. I've been banging my head against the wall trying to figure out a way to get my car in and out of the trailer. Something like this, extended for the dovetail might just work. I should have known Purkley Frog would have the idea!

[JerryH]

why not just put jack stands under the door at what ever height is needed.....along with the extra pieces (scale platform centers or lumber) attached to the back edge (same as the frog did). I did that for years.....worked great. Nothing to build or store....need the jack stands for the car anyway.

With an open trailer, I just jack up the tounge as high as I can (wheels blocked fore and aft....or usually atached to the tow vehicle) and add a pair 2x10 to the back edge of the trailer floor. these store under the trailer.

Jerry

[Top]

Jerry, I added folding ramps to the trailer door and set the door and ramp heights at whatever level was needed much like what you ars saying and it worked great for the Swift. In fact I could drive it in the trailer. My current car is a different story. It high centers almost as soon as the tires roll over the beaver tail. The only way I've found to get it in and out so far is to have a rolling jack under one end or the other.

[F five hunj]

Where did the pictures go?

[Top]

Where did the pictures go?

I 2nd that. I very well may copy Frogs design.

[Beartrax]

Where did the pictures go?

I think Apexspeed members (even Grand Pooh Bahs) are limited on the number of photos in their profile. Frog posts a lot of photos... He may need to occasionally delete older ones.
I bet if you pm him he'll email a photo to you.

[Purple Frog]

Unfortunately to post new pictures, i have to delete older ones.

[Rick Kirchner]

I used a toyhauler for my race trailer from 99 to 2011. I never had trailer wheels for the supervee or in the beginning with my FC. The floor of the toyhauler was more than 24" off the ground and there was no beavertail.

We mounted trailer leveling jacks on the top edge of the door. I then propped 12' 2x12's on the door edge. Those had to be supported in the middle with stacks of 4x4s or junkyard surplus scizzor jacks. Ocasionally we had another 6' of steel ramps off the end of those.

Not for the faint of heart, and no way could I fabricate ramps that were storable with the rest of the load, so I bought trailer wheels.

Nice to have an RV with a simpler trailer, but I can't go camping in as may remote places and the maintenance is sure higher on the RV, but I can load and unload now in 10 minutes!

[starkejt]

Can't believe someone with over 7,000 posts doesn't know how imgur works.

[Purple Frog]

Josh,

Its the "old dog, new trick" problem.

Sean O'Connell has been bugging me to learn the new online storage stuff for about 5 years.

Unfortunately I have deleted thosands of pictures in the last 12 years. Some (maybe 15) that would actually help somebody solve a problem. And I have had to post some really great shots in low res.

imgur? How do you spell that?

[starkejt]

I don't think I spend even 30 seconds uploading and posting a pic using imgur. Just food for thought.

[Purple Frog]

My first imgur image from a 2006 file.

[starkejt]

You figured it out on your own. Now you have no excuses.

[Purple Frog]

Unleashing me with unlimited picture capability could be dangerous...

[Steve Demeter]

Hide the women and children.