Anyone know of a good design or product that sits in the bed with the sled on top. The ramp manually slides down to the ground, once the machine is parked on the ramp, the ramp is then lifted and manually slides into the bed.

I've seen these in some of the sled magazines, but I can't remember who makes them. Check out SnowTech, SnowGoer or American Snowmobiler.

The product you want is called Lock and Roll. It is made and sold by Brian Jewell near Port Perry. Phone 705 738 2473 Birch Point Marina, they have his phone number. I have used one for 3 years now, and it works excellent. The aluminum ones are around six hundred and fifty dollars.

Originally posted by louis@Oct 3 2003, 09:12 AM
Anyone know of a good design or product that sits in the bed with the sled on top. The ramp manually slides down to the ground, once the machine is parked on the ramp, the ramp is then lifted and manually slides into the bed.
NOW CAN YOU SEE WHAT I MEAN?? ;)

i have a design that works great for around 150 bucks it fits in the box w/ the tailgate closed when not in use and gives you some wt in the truck all you need is some 3/4 plywood and some 2x4s and a old track and some hardware i sell them for 250 getting the track is the key to the whole system a little brain power will save you a few bucks the center part of the ramp comes out and the rest slides up under the sled and then just put the center part up on the side and strap it down ill send some pics as soon as i down size some good luck

Thanks fellow sledders.
Revrnd,
do you have a pic available?

snowmutts idea looks real good.

another good cheep idea is a guy on the rear of the sled and 2 guys on the front. ussually works for us.

Dawg,

This is for when no ones around, the boys are 2 hours behind and I want to load up, go home and take their call from my sofa watching football on Sunday while having a beer ;) .

Hey Snowmutt, when your travelling with your sled and the loading ramp, where do you store the back piece of plywood?

I built my ramp on the cheap with a ladder frame design.

Louis, I made up a diagram of the ramp for my truck. While not a slide in type of ramp, it allows me to drive my sled right into the bed of my truck. I have to be careful as I have a cap and the sled's windshield just makes it under without touching the cap.

As you can see in the scan of the diagram, I bought two 2X4s and two 2X6s, both 8 feet long. I had some spare pieces of 2X4s for the cross members, so I didn't need to buy more wood. I screwed each of the 8 foot length 2X4s to each of the 2X6s and formed an "L" shape beam to accomodate the load of the sled. The skis of the sled will rest directly on the 2X6 and the raised portion of the 2X4 will act as a guide to keep the skis from slipping off the ramp. I proceeded to notch, with a skilsaw, 4 chunks out of each 8 foot length of 2X4 to accomodate the 4 cross members. Make sure that you only cut only 1 1/2 inches down and 3 1/2 inches long as we all know that a finished 2X4 isn't really 2 by 4 inches.

Now measure the distance between the inside edges of the skis on your sled and cut your cross members to that length.

We can now put the ramp together as in the pic. For the top and bottom cross members, I drilled holes, 4 in all, through the cross members and a couple of inches down into the 8 foot legth 2X4s. I then slide a 3-4 inch bolt through the cross members and into the holes on the 2X4s. This keeps the ramp together when driving your sled up it. Make the holes big enough to easily remove the bolts by hand when you dismantle it.

When I have the ramp all put together and resting on the tailgate, I Herc strap the top cross member to the bumper, which keeps the ramp from sliding off. On the underside of each 2X6, I screwed a block of wood about 6 inches from the top to provide a stop to prevent the ramp from sliding up the tailgate when cinching up on the Herc strap.

Now you can load up your sled on your own, safely and easily and take it with you. Oh, and it's dirt cheap too.

Happy sledding!

You might want look up "LoadPro", I am not sure of thier web site but it is a slick unit - all aluminum construction with ball bearing slides, works great and they make them for long and short bed trucks. They also work with the tailgate on the truck.

Originally posted by revrnd@Oct 4 2003, 04:39 PM
I copied a friend's Lock & Roll last fall & made one.
Hey Revrnd,

I know the designer and builder of the Lock and Roll, he will be mighty happy that people are riping off his design. You cheap SOB.

I wonder how you would feel if someone stole your intellectual propertiy. Than again, I assume you have nothing to loose..........

I have deleted my posts.

When I rework the ramp this fall to suit Ski-doo's Precision skis & to make it easier to get over the tailgate/box floor gap, I'll keep those mods under my hat.

There is a company in western Ontario that is making a similiar ramp out of aluminum. They were at the International Center last year.

Finally, I designed a replacement tailgate hinge to replace the GM cable. I posted the pics & sketches here for anyone to make. There probably is an aftermarket company out there making them to my chagrin. (Check out Chit Chat if you're interested)

I have made a ramp/bed to go over the wheelwells of my ranger, as my sled is too wide to sit between them. I have a hand winch to pull the thing up into the truck.
Also there is a product callled EZ sled loader

Sled hauler (http://www.cyclehauler.com/new.htm)

Rollo, that's the one I was thinking of. I couldn't remember the name.

This isn't a slidding ramp , but this works good and it is easy to load and unload alone .... hahaha as long as you don't have a Mach-z or T-cat . But it can be done . I'll sell it to ya for a $100.00 plus shipping , $ is Canadian

Who uses a ramp to unload from the back of their truck? A ramp is great for the times where there is not a snowbank, or permanent structure, available for loading. The prettier you want it the more it will cost. I have an ugly ramp that I made out of a partial sheet of OSB and some scrap 2x6's ripped into 2x3's and a couple of old hinges to get it to fold in half. It was a temporary solution many years ago and after one rebuild is still functioning just fine. Maybe one of these days I'll make a fancy ramp when I have more time.

Thanks for the input. Checked out the LoadPro and its slick. Waiting to hear the cost. If its well over $600 I will fashion something similar that my neighbour made
out of wood.

Originally posted by SDH@Oct 7 2003, 08:09 PM
Hey Revrnd,

I know the designer and builder of the Lock and Roll, he will be mighty happy that people are riping off his design. You cheap SOB.

I wonder how you would feel if someone stole your intellectual propertiy. Than again, I assume you have nothing to loose..........
Well, I guess I'm a cheap SOB also.

here I always thought I was just handy, and saved myself some money by making some things myself.

But I'd be willing to bet that your friend looked at the others on the market for ideas before he started building his units. So really, hes not much better than Revrnd and myself.

Originally posted by FishHog+Oct 9 2003, 11:07 AM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (FishHog @ Oct 9 2003, 11:07 AM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> <!--QuoteBegin-SDH@Oct 7 2003, 08:09 PM
Hey Revrnd,

I know the designer and builder of the Lock and Roll,* he will be mighty happy that people are riping off his design.* You cheap SOB.

I wonder how you would feel if someone stole your intellectual propertiy.* Than again,* I assume you have nothing to loose..........
Well, I guess I&#39;m a cheap SOB also.

here I always thought I was just handy, and saved myself some money by making some things myself.

But I&#39;d be willing to bet that your friend looked at the others on the market for ideas before he started building his units. So really, hes not much better than Revrnd and myself. [/b][/quote]
[quote]

Everyone build away, If you are not planing on reselling it there isn&#39;t a problem with duplicating it for your use. :hallo5:

My cousin just bought his first sled. He has rode ours a few times in the past and decided its time for one of his own. Found him a 01 500Mtncat 136 holdover for 3500. So anyway he doesn&#39;t have a trailer and will be going with us most of the time but would like a ramp setup for the rest of the time. He works for a shop that does alot of aluminum fab stuff so getting a light weight ramp made will be easy. So I got a few questions one is how long a ramp do you need to make it so the angle getting in the pickup isn&#39;t to steep. Also what system do you use to secure the ramp to the tailgate so it doesn&#39;t come unhooked or fall off. My other question is i&#39;ve heard of guys using a 2X4 and plywood system as a storage system under the sled for the ramp. Any help, pictures, drawings, or dimensions would be great. Thank you in advance.

Well I can tell you about the 2x4 plywood way cause my dad had a ramp like that for years. All you do is take 2x4&#39;s and stand them on edge on the side and in the front and leave the back open for the ramp. Then take a sheet of 3/4 plywood and screw to the 2x4&#39;s. Then for the main ramp if you want to use wood take the 2x4&#39;s and lay them flat and all the way around and even a few in the middle doesnt hurt and then take like a peice of 1/2 inch plywood and screw to that. And as far as a ramp length I would go 8 foot for sure with someone that doesnt have alot of time riding. I made a eight foot ramp for my deck on top of my bed rails on my truck and yah its steep but I have alot of years riding and now what it takes to get to the top. But most people dont realize that you can let off the throttle going up the ramp and just coast to the top. Hope that helps.

I saw a diagram and pic for what mxzx just described. I actually built a set of the ramps late last year. I will build the platform so i can stow them under the sled instead of along side. I only used them to unload the sled at home. Everywhere else i could unload onto a snowbank. It&#39;s a good cheap way to go. We used stock laying around. I used the ramps to load up the sled for the first time a month ago. Worked great. mine are about 8 feet long. I used tie downs hook to the bumper and hooks on the underside of the ramp to keep them in place. I&#39;ll see if i can dig up the link.

Here You go

http://www.cheetahfactoryracing.com/magazi...nter2002-03.pdf (http://www.cheetahfactoryracing.com/magazine/skimobiling_winter2002-03.pdf)

no pic but good directions and stock list. Don&#39;t get confused by the directions for the truck bed. you want the sled deck.

Hey louis I got great idea for you IT CALLED a Trailor! you should check one out their cool- they have two wheels with a large flat area that tilts, very easy to load your sled. It also hooks up to you truck so you can pull it home.

How do you guys do it? What type of ramps have you guys built to do this task? I&#39;m new to sleding and need some advice.

Originally posted by SDH@Oct 8 2003, 02:09 AM
Hey Revrnd,

I know the designer and builder of the Lock and Roll, he will be mighty happy that people are riping off his design. You cheap SOB.

I wonder how you would feel if someone stole your intellectual propertiy. Than again, I assume you have nothing to loose..........
Any body can "rip off" a design. As soon as you change one little thing, it is no longer really ripping it off, you are building it to your specifications. Maybe the man wasn&#39;t happy with this design, and changed it to his own needs. Live with it. It happens every where. Sleds, farm machinery, vehicles, atv&#39;s, you name it. Every company in competition with eachother is essentially "ripping eachother off." So, as i said, live with it. Every one else does.

Ive watched some guys just back up to a snow bank and load and or unload,,,,,,

i use the tilt trailer as a ramp

here&#39;s a pic from last saturday of my ramp!

All I got to say, its a real pain in the %$#...But its real easy when there is a snow bank around

When possible we use snowbacks, but at our house we have a loading ramp made for the sleds and atv&#39;s. I find the snowbanks are the best since they are easier on the belt but I just use an old belt when I&#39;m loading the sled by a ramp.

There is a ditch on almost every road where I live, so we just back into the ditch. But if there is too much snow, then that means there are snowbanks around! :)

The worst is ripping it off of there backwards "IF" you don&#39;t have reverse. But basically every decent sled now has electronic reverse, which is a lifesaver!

Just do a search here on sled ramps and you might find what you&#39;re looking for. I did up a diagram of a ramp that I made out of wood super cheap. It should be in one of the posts somewhere here. Then there are ones that you can weld up or even buy.

Originally posted by 87gtNOS@Nov 20 2003, 07:38 AM
here&#39;s a pic from last saturday of my ramp!
Last Saturday? Damn you :p :D

3 guys can do it easy if you don&#39;t have a ramp or snowbank handy.

How safe is using a tilt trailer? Never thought of that one...

I bought a folding aluminum ramp made by Fulton. Its made for sleds/atvs, or what ever else. I added some garage door jams for the skis to slide in, and when the sled is in the truck the ramp folds up and slides underneith my sled. It also has two straps that attach to the bumper to hold it in place. Only takes a couple of seconds to hook it up. I haven&#39;t taken pictures of it hooked up to the truck yet.

folded

I have a ramp and plateform for a short box full size sitting beside my house. Enclosed my trailer last year, bought a cap for my truck, haven&#39;t used the ramp for the past 3 years!!
Plateform hinges, so the tailgate can be closed when the sled is not in the back. It&#39;s made out of 2x6 on there edge, 2x4 bridging the width and a sheet of 3/4" plywood. The ramp is made up of 3 - 6 1/2 foot long x 8" wide industrail steel stair steps. At each end has a 2"x2"x1/4" steel angle welded on it. On the one end, There is 2 - 1/2"dia. x 6" long pipes weld on... same on the 2"x2" angle on the plateform... then a 3/8"dia. rod... 49" long goes through the pipes to hold the ramp.
Simple design... but someone make me an offer and get it out of my back yard!! lol
One down side... it&#39;s a pain to load something like a ZL or newer ZR with 43" c/c. Works awesome for my ZR 41" c/c
We use to carry 3 sleds, jack knife the truck, load 2 on the trailer and one in the truck!
Hardly any road rash either... just on the top of the windshield!

HEY MAYNE800, I THINK YOUR COMMENT WAS BULLS##T. I HAVE TWO TRAILERS AND THERE A BIG PAIN IN THE A## TO STORE AND KEEP UP!! IF MY FAMILY DIDN&#39;T GO I WOULD BASICALLY HAVE NO NEED FOR A TRAILER. THE REST OF YOU KEEP UP THE GREAT POSTS.. I LOVE THIS SITE AND ALL THE GREAT INFO.

DGZRT

Howdy All,

You might be thinking of the &#39;Buddy Ramp&#39;.

Check out:

http://www.intermountainramps.com/

There are dealers all around Ontario:

http://www.abcinfonet.com/truckramp/info.html

There is a kit you can get to easily modify the ramp for Snowmobile use.

I&#39;ve been thinking about picking one of these puppies up, if I can find a good price out there.

- Jeff

My cousin has a tailmate tailgate that rocks.. it replaces your tailgate and folds down to make a ramp. and it can also extend out two feet past your truck as an extra bed length and still turn up like a tailgate at teh end. it is a great product. .. I&#39;ll check out where he got it and post it.

I have a tommy lift on my truck. works well, just put a little extention on it to hold up the track and you can drive on the gate, push a button to lift it to the bed, and then drive or push it into the bed. it also helps because it extends the box an extra 6 inches, which allows me to shut the tailgate without the sled hanging out.

The nice thing is I can push a sled on without having to drive it, don&#39;t have to carry a ramp with, and can drop a sled whereever I want (even in a garage).

the disadvantage is they are expensive to buy, especially if this is your only use for one.

Matt Carlson
01 ZR800LE
95 WildCat 700EFI

Originally posted by mayne800@Nov 15 2003, 09:52 AM
Hey louis I got great idea for you IT CALLED a Trailor!* you should check one out their cool-* they have two wheels with a large flat area that tilts, very easy to load your sled. It also hooks up to you truck so you can pull it home.

Two tires to go flat, two hubs to burn out, wiring to go for a #$%^ the night before your trip.

Maybe he doesn&#39;t want the added expense & maintenance.

Originally posted by revrnd@Nov 21 2003, 08:21 PM
Two tires to go flat, two hubs to burn out, wiring to go for a #$%^ the night before your trip.

Maybe he doesn&#39;t want the added expense & maintenance.
haven&#39;t had the flat tires,,, yet. have had the hubs go once just pulled in the laneway after a trip to sudbury when the trailer tire with the hub attached passed me, lucky or what ? i hate hooking up to the trailer the night before and the lights all work because when i am leaving the next day the lights won&#39;t be working. you can blame all this on the climate we torture the trailers in but my wife had a horse trailer with all the same bad habits that only got used in the summer.

try this....

SWRules

:christmas:

:christmas:

Darcon:

How about some text to go with that? Specifically,
a) What keeps the skis on those narrow rails?
b) Where does that ramp goe when the sled&#39;s on board?

To the gentlemen who linked to the site describing the sled deck: that was helpful, but I&#39;m not smart enough to envision all of that--do you have pics of yours? I&#39;m fuzzy on the config. of the ramps and what held them to the bed or sled deck while loading.... That "right angle cut out" to hold the ramps went right over my head....


My Sled Ramps
What I&#39;ve used (exactly once, so far) was my ATV ramps, which I built. They&#39;re 10" x 2", but of hardwood, I believe. They have a full width 2x4, flat, on the tailgate end, to rest on the edge of the tailgate (I have an aluminum tailgate edge protector, and this provides enough "tooth" that they don&#39;t slip off when reversing.)

Oh yeah. Until I added this photo, I forgot I had to use my car ramps under the front of the truck, to get a better angle for the unloading. I forget exactly why that was, but it seemed necessary at the time. Sorry the pic is so fuzzy, but you can just make out the "mini ramps" I made, ahead of the top of the ski ramps, sitting on the tailgate. You can also see the "chin block" under the center ramp, which keeps it from sliding up into the box when reversing. All three ramps have those blocks, as the ski ramps try to enter the box when loading, as the carbides bite in pretty good.

Anyway, those boards are only approx. 7&#39; long--they should be 8&#39; but, hey, they were free, so they&#39;re a little steeper than they need to be. To compensate for that, you find a ditch, hill, etc..., to lessen the angle--the problem with that is unloading. More on that later.

For sled use, I needed a third ramp, obviously. I took a 2x8 and added treads, out of (I believe) 3/4" plywood, full width, approx. every 10-12", and I beveled the outer edges down so there were no sharp angles for the track to hang off of on the sides. Works great for loading. Ga-lump! She&#39;s in. I have a GT, and it&#39;s about 8 1/2&#39; long, so I can&#39;t close the gate.

The other mod, for sled use, is to counteract the fact that the carbides bite into the ramps and push them right into the truck, esp. if you&#39;re using a ditch, i.e., so tht the angle is less abrupt--the skis just take the ramps in with them. NogoodSKI. So I added "chin blocks" on the underside of each ski ramp, made up of two (or three? can&#39;t remember) full width 2x4&#39;s, flat, approx. 6-8" back from the end of the ramp (don&#39;t have the exact measurements here). The idea is, the first crossblocks on the bottom side, I describe above, keep the ramps from slipping OFF the gate. And these "chin blocks" keep the ramps from sliding INTO the bed or ONTO the gate, while loading. They hang down low enough to hit on the edge of the gate as you go up. Effectively, the ramps can move in neither direction. I also beveled the ground edge of the ramps to a point, so they dig into the ground when backing down, which helps immobilize them.

The problem is unloading. The center ramp also gets the "chin block" treatment, so it cannot enter the box, when reversing. (I have reverse--yaye!). The problem is, the back ends of the skis can&#39;t climb up onto the top edge of the ramps which, due to the design, have their top edge some 2 1/2" higher than the surface of the gate.

This could be solved easier by buying those steel ramp ends, which hook onto the edge of your gate and also have a steel ramp reaching a few inches down to the surface of the gate, for reversing. But no! God forbid I spend a buck! I made some mini ramps out of 2x4x8" long, and 2 approx. 8"x8" pieces of plywood--half inch is fine--bevel the front edge. These "mini ramps" are placed up against the top ends of the ski ramps, on the tailgate itself, so that while reversing, the skis climb up onto the main ramps via the "miniramps."

I&#39;ve only used these once for the sled, but when I did, unloading sucked. I was attempting to back up a slight hill, in reverse, as this was the best place to minimize the height differential b/w the ground and the the truck. I ended up spinning in the grass (until it was gone), getting dirt all up under the sled and I&#39;m lucky I didn&#39;t damage the track. I think it would work okay if I&#39;d selected a better spot, but I don&#39;t have a better one here at home.

So I&#39;m ready for an enclosed trailer, one or two place, if anyone&#39;s got one. I&#39;m all over NYS, and I want it to be high, at least higher than those goofy fiberglas bubbles that look to be no higher than the windshields. I want to be able (ideally) to stand up in the trailer, or at least crouch and swear when I hit my head. I&#39;d like to have some DC lights in there, and a little workbench, ideally.

I might want to build a sled deck, as described in this thread, so if someone could explain how the ramps hook on, I&#39;d appreciate it. If I use my existing ramps, I will have the problem, unloading, of the ski tips being tipped up onto the sled deck in the front, while the backs of the skis are on the gate, and it will be that much harder to get them to climb up onto the "mini ramps" I described. If I bought the steel ramp ends, would I be able to reverse down off of a 6"+ high sled deck, onto the gate itself, then climb back up onto the ramp ends? The main ramp ends would be lower, using those commercial, steel ramp ends I described, if I purchased a set of them.

Does anyone think I&#39;m in danger of ripping off track lugs (conservative, stock &#39;95 GT track lugs, whatever height they are, they&#39;re short) or damaging the studs I haven&#39;t yet installed, on my 3/4" high track lugs I screwed and glued to my center/track ramp? I didn&#39;t see any damage so far.

Hope my ramps description helps, and look forward to the more experienced commenting on my questions....

Peter

Darcon, that looks pretty similiar to the lock & roll :devil: You&#39;ve probably never seen one.

I reworked mine so that the Precision skis are centered over them. I&#39;ve loaded & unloaded the new sled only once, but no problems w/ the skis staying on.

Originally posted by SDH@Oct 7 2003, 09:09 PM
Hey Revrnd,

I know the designer and builder of the Lock and Roll, he will be mighty happy that people are riping off his design. You cheap SOB.

I wonder how you would feel if someone stole your intellectual propertiy. Than again, I assume you have nothing to loose..........
like you&#39;ve never copied anybody elses work, give me a break.

My point being that someone 3 provinces away came up w/ a similiar idea. He&#39;s probably never seen a lock & roll. Lots of us use 3 boards to load 3 wheelers in the back of trucks, has Blue 2 copied us?

For the cost of materials & my time, I could have probably bought an original, but I made some changes to suit my usage. I removed my pic & sketch, so I don&#39;t think your friend is losing any sales due to me being a cheapskate.

BTW, has he redesigned it for sleds equipped w/ Precision skis?

REVRND- I wouldn&#39;t let this concern you. If this other fella has a patent on this exact design then maybe its something to be concerned with, but seems you had the same idea ( not against the law here) but you redesigned it better to suit your sled. By doing so you have helped out others who may or may not in the postion to afford one of the expensive commercially made loaders. In this new age many others copy things they have seen in magazines, on the web or at a dealers-free enterprise we call it here in the States.

I&#39;ve never used my ramp to unload my sled from the back of my truck, it would be far to difficult a process to bother with. What i find the easiest is to pull it out and let it drop. I also remember reading about guys with reverse just gunning it out the back while walking beside it. This process is not too hard on the machine either, so no need to worry about that, just a little practise to develop a technique.