Hydraulic Lift Gate?

[HayesCages]

Anyone built their own lift gate? Our new trailer is about 3' off the ground necessitating either 30' ramps or an alternative method...
Thinking I have a cylinder from a lift gate, 12V hydraulic power pack, pulleys, bearings r rollers etc., but no plans.
Ramp door is about 8' tall. Rear door frame structure is stout.

[Jacobwoo]

transport motorcycle wheels adapted to your cars hubs

[HazelNut]

http://www.5150racetrailer.com

Contact them, they manufacture liftgate kits. My trailer has one of thier liftgates on it. I'm pleased with it.

[Purple Frog]

The "Tommy Gates" i see on some pickups will lift the weight, as will the lift gates on in-town tractor trailers. Just need to build extensions to make them long enough.

The other "off-the-wall" idea... Watching the trucks that deliver septic tanks and coffins.
What about an I-beam that you extend out the rear of the trailer with a "truck" on it and a hoist. We lift thousands of pounds in the shop.

In the world of trucking, 1,000 pounds is not much.

Too reach 36" there is no practical ramp solution that won't get you laughed out of the paddock.

[Sports Car International]

Check MK Technologies.
They can built lift gates to fit.
But on their website they had a image of using one of their A-Frame lifts to lift the ramp and car. Besides they are just a 250 miles north across the border.

[DanW]

Check MK Technologies.
They can built lift gates to fit.
But on their website they had a image of using one of their A-Frame lifts to lift the ramp and car. Besides they are just a 250 miles north across the border.

Exactly what I was thinking. Gary Hickman (ghickman) F1000 builder/driver used a box truck for a hauler. No lift gate. He used aluminum ramps. He would winch the car up the ramps, lift the back of the ramps up using an A-Frame with a winch to about 3' high, then winch the car the rest of the way in. He said it took 15 minutes to load. Ramps weighed 40lbs and the knock down alu a-frame another 40. The A frame did double duty to lift the car up on stands in the paddock.

[RussMcB]

I've occasionally wondered if you could buy a used U-Haul truck and add an inexpensive lift gate to it.

[HayesCages]

I used an E350 box van for years with the Vee. Had 12' ramps and a little tire jump at the top so the middle of the chassis would clear. Edit: also built ramps for the front tires of the van. Had 3 steps with a total of 12"-14" of height.
Not practical with the FC.

[HayesCages]

Exactly what I was thinking. Gary Hickman (ghickman) F1000 builder/driver used a box truck for a hauler. No lift gate. He used aluminum ramps. He would winch the car up the ramps, lift the back of the ramps up using an A-Frame with a winch to about 3' high, then winch the car the rest of the way in. He said it took 15 minutes to load. Ramps weighed 40lbs and the knock down alu a-frame another 40. The A frame did double duty to lift the car up on stands in the paddock.

Great idea...might go that way.
Thanks for the input guys!

[HayesCages]

http://www.5150racetrailer.com

Contact them, they manufacture liftgate kits. My trailer has one of thier liftgates on it. I'm pleased with it.

We're not really on the same level as Bill Elliot here. Home-made is the order of the day.

[R. Pare]

Anyone built their own lift gate? Our new trailer is about 3' off the ground

3 feet is not a big problem with just ramps. Assuming that your car body does not intrude between the wheels ( FC or FF body width), you can ramp up steep to a transition ( flatter ramps) - but only as long as nothing on the car can hit the ramps either during the initial contact ( front wing), or while transitioning on to the flatter ramps ( the sidepods). You naturally would need an electric winch to pull the car up the first set of ramps.

[HayesCages]

That's probably what we'll end up doing. Seems to be plenty of storage room for them under the trailer frame too.
Since we have on-board 120vac I think we'll use a Harbor Freight 120v winch. I hate 12vdc winches...

[R. Pare]

There are always expensive and snazzy-looking solutions to problems like this one, with the less-snazzy ones usually a lot less expensive!

We had a customer years ago ( Lou Cooper) who had an even higher lift to make - up on to the top of work benches that lined his trailer walls. To load the trailer, he had to remove his front wing and nosebox, but that was more because the car would not fit within the length of the trailer with the nosecone still attached!

Don't forget that you can decrease the ramp transition height needed if you raise the front of the trailer as high as it will go.

[xmazdatracy]

I remember one time at Blackhawk there was this jerk that showed up in the pit shop asking where the loading dock was. When the nice lady said they did not have one he freaked out. His car was in a regular box truck and had no way to get it down. So the nice people at the track plucked it out with the track tow truck crane jobers. He proceeded to rent the garage on a beautiful weekend, and bitched at his crew the whole weekend too. Had no driving skills. Had too much money. What a jag.

But I like frog's idea the best. For a FC its very simple, and requires no electric. If its a flat top trailer it should weld in easy with little structure support. If not then yes get the car onto a ramp(s) and winch the back of em/it up. Dont forget to make sure the winch is supported very well too. You might want to keep a nice deep cell battery close to the winch to. And use Issac's theory too and grab at the back of the ramps.

Good luck. Hope to see some pics.

[J Leonard]

Are the 30 foot ramps needed with transport/trailering wheels? Sorry, I couldn't resist posting the photo.

[HayesCages]

Instead of motorcycle wheels we're going to use these and wrap them around the tires:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/igus-flexabl...-/381539837616

not really.

[J Leonard]

We use 19 X 2.75 MC street tires and get a 25 inch tall transport. Maybe a 21 inch rim with knobbies would get you enough for a more simple ramp system.

[Purple Frog]

There is an easy way to get away with fairly steep ramps, if you are loading an open wheel car. Inside the trailer the ramps need to continue up at the same angle as outside the trailer. Then when the center of the car passes the rear edge of the trailer the ramps where the front wheels are need to slope back down.

Most folks don't want ramps built inside their trailer, so they don't do it.

My first 88 Reynard I loaded on top of 36" tall cabinets in a 20' trailer... With 12' ramps. and a Horrible Fright winch. Could only do it because it was open wheel. When the front wheels were 3' inside the trailer the sidepods were still lower than the counter top.

[BeerBudgetRacing]

Lift Concept......

I was looking at the box truck idea a while back and this is a concept I came up with.

A fixed length strap can be used between the cross-bar and the roll hoop.
I was going to use a winch to move/raise/lower the mechanism.
The arms need to be curved so once outside the box/trailer the car can be spun sideways to assure clearance....

Maybe this will give some idea to someone.....

Attachment 67022

[HayesCages]

Your idea would work pretty well on a box van, like you said. The winch would have to be mounted high just fwd. of the landing point of the chassis I suppose. The initial pull from about 4' above the ground might produce a very high tension on the cable.

This is more of what I had in mind:

[BeerBudgetRacing]

Well, I certainly haven't worked out the engineering. Dropped the plan when the box van wasn't being pursued....

The rail lifts is what everyone seems to use. But the few ones I looked into seemed to be $8 to $10k. So I looked at cheaper concepts.

I also was thinking of loading a car with fewer than 4 corners....

Plenty to work out. Just food for thought..

[HayesCages]

Only considering it because: We have all of the spendy parts laying around here; pump, res., motor, cylinder, pulleys.
Things to work out:
1. make the slide rail assys. (3x3 x .188" wall tube slit vertically with a fabricated inner rail. UHMW slide bearings front and rear to take the load)
2. attach to chassis (easy)
3. attach ramp door somehow (hinged at bottom already so not that difficult.)
4. $$ and time - the hard part...

An over-head lift won't work on our trailer as the inner roof is a lot taller than the door opening height and there is a queen bed inside the ramp door that stows in that area.

Probably just use long ramps

[R. Pare]

K.i.s.s.

[HayesCages]

Simple for some is complex for others

[Daryl DeArman]

A little outside the box.

I wish I could find a picture that I took, but there was a trailer at the boat drags that had been "air bagged" like the low-riders these days.

Dumped the air and the trailer was sitting 1/2" off the ground and dollied drag boat loading was simple. The trailer was kept on the ground all weekend; no climbing in/out up/down steps and stairs to work out of trailer either.

Might be an option worth considering. At least it would/could make your required ramps a whole bunch shorter.

Something like this:
http://engineeredtoslide.com/2011/07...ute-moving-on/

[BeerBudgetRacing]

I think Mr Hayes has a much larger gap with a toy hauler.....

http://airbaggedtrailers.com/
http://www.nevco.com.au/products-ser...alty-trailers/

http://engineeredtoslide.com/2011/07...ute-moving-on/

Look half way down this thread:
http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/s...d.php?t=264215

The amount of space consumed by the mechanics is substantial.....

[HayesCages]

That would be cool. Guess you could leave the front of each leaf, now trailing arms, attached to the chassis to hold the axles and use the bags as the new suspension.
Years ago a local A/X guy used something similar made from VW bug rear trailing arms. Mounted the arm IRS hub assy. to a pivot and used pins to hold the trailer up. When desired he'd jack up trailer, remove pins then let jack down.
It was nearly @ ground level as you mentioned Daryl.

[suzrm121]

lift the car, pull the slides out, set the car down on the "drawer slides" slide back in.

make the lift winch hydraulic to run off the pump. and cantilever the overhead lift off the back of the trailer

[HayesCages]

What about the ramp door?

[suzrm121]

Switch it around and hinge it from the top???

[HayesCages]

We're going to haul a Geo Tracker when we camp as well as the FC. Er, not at the same time.

[Daryl DeArman]

Didn't realize we were talking about a 5th wheel toy-hauler type trailer.

No ramps needed for the Tracker, right?

If the rear door is sufficient strength, or if it is feasible to make it strong enough:

pull the car straight out onto a level door and continue to roll it onto a modified one of these:

http://www.ezcarlift.com/

^^^^ Which you have the means to manufacture yourself. ^^^^

Then lower the FC to the ground and go. Of course you now have a convenient double duty lift for paddock work.

[HayesCages]

The Tracker could almost go in without the ramp door ;-)

[pacratt]

K.i.s.s.

I usually spend WAY too much time planning out how to "keep it simple"...

Glenn

[xmazdatracy]

can a toy hauler carry the weight of a tracker? would that not mess up the hitch pin weight?

[HayesCages]

I believe "Toy" capacity is 3500 lbs. Tracker weighs about 2300.

[HayesCages]

I think Mr Hayes has a much larger gap with a toy hauler.....

http://airbaggedtrailers.com/
http://www.nevco.com.au/products-ser...alty-trailers/

http://engineeredtoslide.com/2011/07...ute-moving-on/

Look half way down this thread:
http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/s...d.php?t=264215

The amount of space consumed by the mechanics is substantial.....

Yes, and bagging a 5th wheel wouldn't be very practical. The "plumbing" hangs pretty low.
Thanks for the many ideas!

[R. Pare]

I usually spend WAY too much time planning out how to "keep it simple"...

Glenn

Complex and expensive is easy. Simple and inexpensive is always much harder!

[Charles Warner]

Flip down ramps on the door with posts to support door when down. Winches at upper corners of door opening attached to outer corners of door. All you have to do is get the car onto the door/ramps and then raise the door level and roll in. I've used that system for 20 years.

[Daryl DeArman]

Flip down ramps on the door with posts to support door when down. Winches at upper corners of door opening attached to outer corners of door. All you have to do is get the car onto the door/ramps and then raise the door level and roll in. I've used that system for 20 years.

Yes, but those flip down ramps would have to be bi-fold or tri-fold and longer than he appears to want to have to deal with as the car wheelbase is longer than the door is long/high and he's dealing with a 30" deck height.