I have a 24' box truck that I'm selling. It has a roll up rear door and no liftgate. I've looked around for some used liftgates and given the construction of the rear, a foldaway liftgate isn't possible. Then I saw the cost to buy one.... yeesh.
I would love to have a walk ramp to make the truck more desirable for the buyer but have you seen what even used walkramps sell for these days??? Try $500+
So, I have access to plenty of cheap steel and a welder. The rear of the truck is dock height so I need a 12-14' ramp. I thought about some 1.5" square or round tubing for the length with some 1" square or round tubing welded in a ladder-type support every foot or so with expanded steel decking.
Can you guys help me design a homebuilt steel ramp that is 14' long and about 18-24" wide that won't be so heavy that its prohibitive? The ramp would slide into a pocket just under the gate on a roller, so it wouldn't be something that has to be carried around, just slide it out and hook it on the dock.
In this photo... the arrow points to a pink box that I can cut out as a "pocket" to slide the ramp in using some rollers.
....Discuss...
Here is my first idea... Of course not to scale. The only thing missing from this drawing is of course the taper at the bottom that will be required and expanded steel between .
In case you can't tell, the grey is square tubing, the blue is angle, and the green is square tubing.
Have you seen the ones on the back of a U-Haul rental? Aluminium sidewalk that pushes in, rides on two pieces of angle iron under the box.
Npt as portable..... but my friend had Bilco doors to his basement (where'd that name come from anyway?) and to get engine blocks etc. down there he bought the mast off a fork lift at auction. Once the wooden stairs were removed he had a huge pit and mounted the mast to one side, plumbed in a 110 hydraulic pump and made a deck on the forks.
Elevator!
Dan
I didn't realize I double posted 
Yes, aluminum walk ramps are sexy... but to buy them new the best price I found was $1200 plus about $350 frieght. Ouch.
Used ones are few and very far between. I found one in St. Louis for $500 that is bent and I'd still have to pay about $350 shipping.
A steel ladder frame of 1" square tubing with aluminum diamond-plate treads bolted on should be reasonable to make and light enough to pull in/out of that slot by one person.
EDIT: Maybe, find an aluminum ladder at a garage sale and just deck it with diamond-plate.
