Hey guys, was wondering about driving the front of a truck onto ramps to decrease the angle onto the bed and then winching the car onto the back of a 1 ton pickup? My race car is ~1800lbs.
http://sfbay.craigslist.org/nby/ctd/4433540042.html
http://sfbay.craigslist.org/sby/cto/4443802045.html
Has anyone done something like that? I've just seen a lot of 1 ton flatbeds.
OR A DUMPER!
http://sfbay.craigslist.org/nby/cto/4428720378.html
Ha!
I've done this with some long boards....
Do you mean for one time occurrence, or buying a flatbed to do this with every other weekend?
This sounds like a monumentally bad idea.
But if you do it, at least take videos. It will be an instant YouTube hit, if you survive.
My only comment is that I would tend to look at Dodge trucks. All the Dodge Trucks I have had were under rated in terms of load and towing capacity's.
In reply to SVreX:
That bad, eh? In what way do you see it failing? I assumed a truck rated @ 1 ton in the bed wouldn't mind under a ton in it? My dad's company used to haul more than a ton on most occasions in the bed of a 70's 3/4 ton ford.
I assumed you would just use ratchet straps like they do on tow dollys at several points?
Either way, that dumper is awesome....
The trucks can handle the load.
But the rigged up mess you are about to force yourself to do regarding ramps is an accident waiting to happen, regardless of how you do it.
If it is a one time occurrence, sure. I've done it. Load off a loading dock, or put the rear wheels in a drainage ditch.
But you are talking about needing to do this regularly. One bad strap, a clevis you forget to tighten, a slippery bed surface, a sheared off bolt holding the winch, or a ramp that slips/ bends under load and someone will get hurt.
If you put the body in the dump position, you are effectively lifting the car almost straight up. Plus, the load is not distributed over 4 wheels of the truck, it is a shifting point load on the rearmost point of the frame. Dump trucks jump and dive all over the place when they dump.
Additionally, it's not cost effective. You could easily buy a decent used trailer for the cost of that dumper, and set it up properly for racing. Then you will have maintenance/ repairs/ insurance/ commercial licensing, etc. to keep the truck running. Are you aware that each one of those tires costs about $400 (x6)? That GMC 7000 probably gets about 6 mpg.
You are in CA. Would you be subject to emissions testing?
There is just not a lot of win in this idea. Sorry to be a nay-sayer.
Most ramp trucks and small flatbed tow trucks are built on 1-ton chassis.
Right.
Like I said, the trucks can handle the load.
But a ramp truck has ramps. And a tow truck has a Hook/ arm.
The issue is not the weight. It's the loading/ unloading.
Aside from the (correct) concerns above about loading/unloading, those "cheap" trucks will likely cost a hell of a lot more in the long run (insurance, tires, repairs, fuel) than it would cost to just buy a medium-sized utility trailer and tow it with whatever you have. For a car that weight you could get away with some pretty small trailers, even a single-axle (depending on tow rig).
A good car hauler or landscaping trailer can be had for $1K+.....then go buy a beater pickup, van, or medium SUV (old Pathfinder, perhaps) for $2k and you'll come out ahead in the long run, IMO.
The dumper was more a joke, I think it's so heavy I couldn't drive it with my license (BUT IT WOULD BE SO AWESOME). I also had already thought of tire cost and other maintenance items. My dad's a big rig driver, I think of these things.
I didn't think the angle would be terrible, but I suppose that's open to debate. I was more checking for precedent. So far that's a nay, thanks for the input.
A dove tail and fold up ramps on the back of the truck. Bonus for air bags to raise/lower rear of truck for loading/unloading.
Semi relevant:
Forget the dump bed and get a roll-off. 
More post whoring, tube frame!
In reply to bigdaddylee82:
I've done the roll-off method with a bulldozer. It was...interesting. it would work better on something that doesn't weigh 3 tons.
Or you could be the envy of all your fellow window lickers, and DRIVE the short bus! 
But you are talking about needing to do this regularly. One bad strap, a clevis you forget to tighten, a slippery bed surface, a sheared off bolt holding the winch, or a ramp that slips/ bends under load and someone will get hurt.
Ahh, the life of every professional tow truck driver ever. Dont get me wrong, stuff goes wrong all the time for them too! They have very expensive insurance to cover it, though, and that's where i see the big difference.
I've given a decent amount of thought to taking an older truck set up for an 11 or 14 ft flatbed and converting it to a dovetail. The funny thing is, though, i've also seen a couple of old but functional rollback trucks for 3500-4500 and at that price point it just isnt worth it to build it yourself unless you really want something with less moving parts.
accordionfolder wrote: The dumper was more a joke, I think it's so heavy I couldn't drive it with my license (BUT IT WOULD BE SO AWESOME). I also had already thought of tire cost and other maintenance items. My dad's a big rig driver, I think of these things. I didn't think the angle would be terrible, but I suppose that's open to debate. I was more checking for precedent. So far that's a nay, thanks for the input.
we got our Chump e30 hung up on the lip of our flatbed trailer, which has an 18" deck height and 6' ramps.
the angle on a truck bed 4 feet in the air would be terrible, bet on it ;)
There's one near me that has a two ramp deck for his race car mounted to the back of the truck with essentially a couple of I-beam trolleys. Tool boxes on each side and a winch in the front of the deck.
He pulls a couple of pins and the winch pulls the deck back to the back of the frame until it tips down to the ground. He plays out the winch and pulls the truck forward until the whole deck is a ramp then unloads the car.
Loading is the same deal, drive or winch the car on the deck, strap it down, back the truck, then winch the deck forward in to place. Anyone who has to back up a trailer takes longer to load.
This thread needs more Roadkill
Vigo wrote: Ahh, the life of every professional tow truck driver ever. Dont get me wrong, stuff goes wrong all the time for them too! They have very expensive insurance to cover it, though, and that's where i see the big difference.
AFAIK no one was hurt, but this happened here recently. I'm told some of the blame lies with the CHP though, apparently they were hassling the tow truck driver to get it cleared quickly and reopen the road.
This site makes me chuckle sometimes.. We're talking about an 1800 pound race car on a truck that could haul 5000+ pounds in the bed without breaking a sweat or squatting down at all.. build some ramps, maybe extend and add a beaver tail the back of the truck, add a $100 harbor freight winch and some ratchet straps, and you are golden..
Yeah, a trailer is easier, but this rig is self contained and once you have it you will be looking for junk to haul on it- sometimes to the scrapyard to make money to offset the cost of owning the thing.
In reply to irish44j:
At every event I've been to, while unloading/loading a race car onto a trailer it is always done with the rear wheels of the truck on ramps.
The thing is just how high the back of those flatbeds are. You'd drop it some by rolling the front of the truck onto some Rhino Ramps, I get that, but wouldn't you still need like 40 foot long ramps to get the car from the ground to the flatbed?
I think this is why the car carriers bigdaddylee82 showed up top are so long, you'd need a ton of length to cover the distance between the back axle and the ground at an approach angle an average race car can handle. Of course this means you've got a really long truck, but I bet there's a reason why they're all set up like that.
I wonder where you would get that kind of custom car carrier bed made?
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