loading ramp for pick up truck | GTAMotorcycle.com

loading ramp for pick up truck

ifiddles

ifiddles

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Looking for suggestions on a loading ramp to get an FZ1 into the box of a pick up truck...I've seen the ones sold in pairs for atvs and snowmobiles but didn't like them...currently have the FZ1 and FZ07 which we haul around in our enclosed trailer but I'm thinking of getting a Can Am Spyder (don't hate them now) and that combination won't fit the 6x10 we have...we could get a bigger trailer but hubby says he can put his bike in the pick up...any suggestions other than the motorized ramp that costs $3000?
 
It's a hundred times easier and safer if you can load it off of an elevated surface. Loading dock is ideal but I have used garden retaining walls or pretty near any kind of embankment near a roadside that roughly resembles one. I only have 1 of those aluminum folding ramps and lay a board next to it to walk across, loaded and unloaded my K100RS by myself that way several times with no drama. Regardless of what you use make sure you secure it with tie-downs or rope and always remove the tailgate from the truck during loading or off loading.

If you're going to get a ramp and ride it up it, please make sure you have somebody take a video, some of those are awesome funny to watch.
 
I have absolutely no problem with a simple one track folding ramp.....

I would never ride it up, walk beside it and push it up from the handlebars, put a step beside the ramp to step onto for the transition from the ground to the truck tailgate, since the handlebars become too high to hold.

Someone pushing from the back makes it 100x easier for bikes over 400lbs or so

Not exactly hard at all.
 
That's how I got into motorcycling.

A friend was loading his Goldwing onto his pickup, and went to grab the tie-down straps.
A buddy tried to run the bike up a 2x10" alone, and dropped it.

He was going to rebuild the engine in a couple of months and sell it to me, so I took the course and waited, and waited, and waited.
A couple of years later, I bought my own bike.

Anyways, the moral of the story, is to use a longer wider ramp and multiple people, if you can.
 
johnnnw said:
I have absolutely no problem with a simple one track folding ramp.....

I would never ride it up, walk beside it and push it up from the handlebars, put a step beside the ramp to step onto for the transition from the ground to the truck tailgate, since the handlebars become too high to hold.

Someone pushing from the back makes it 100x easier for bikes over 400lbs or so

Not exactly hard at all.
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*I would never ride it up. Walk beside it while pushing from the handlebars.

Your sentence says you would ever ride it up, walk it up, or push it up from the handlebars.
 
Hyperion said:
*I would never ride it up. Walk beside it while pushing from the handlebars.

Your sentence says you would ever ride it up, walk it up, or push it up from the handlebars.
Click to expand...

I guess you're right but realistically I think that was pretty easy to understand, as you did.
 
Hyperion said:
*I would never ride it up. Walk beside it while pushing from the handlebars.

Your sentence says you would ever ride it up, walk it up, or push it up from the handlebars.
Click to expand...
7555364d85c871364981886653605f35--good-grammar-police.jpg
 
CTC and princess auto have ramps on sale every second month. I like the wide ones so you can be beside the bike not reaching up or down. Most have straps so they wont slide back, please use them. It was suggested to find a loading spot closer to level so your not pushing up as steep a hill, thanks very good advice.
 
We're looking for something wider than the ones at PA or CT...I'm not much help at only 100lbs...and we don't have a hill or elevated area to load from which I've seen on YouTube videos...would definitely make life easier...thanks guys...
 
One more danger to watch for: if your ramp is short and angled steep a lot of bikes will run out of ground clearance just as your front wheel clears the ramp, this is a very dangerous situation because now your rear wheel is trying to kick the ramp out (if you are walking it up the ramp under its own power) and once the front wheel is on a slippery steel truck bed it gets zero traction (as you desperately grab the front brake in a hopeless attempt to prevent the thing from rolling backwards.) Same problems will happen when you go to offload. My heaviest bike weighs near 4 times my body weight and has narrow low bars so if it's a gravity war between me and the bike the bike always wins, pushing it up a ramp even if my wife was assisting simply would never happen. Look around the neighbourhood or get creative with some raised garden landscaping, I built loading ramp areas at every home I have owned, it will save you a ton of strain and a lot of grief. As you approach your destination start watching for safe places to off-load, they do exist if you are ready to get a little creative.

[video=youtube_share;T2xpAdKIS74]https://youtu.be/T2xpAdKIS74[/video] <- or get a lighter bike and learn to ride it really really well :D
 
Its a good idea to carry a 4"x4" wooden block to raise up the bottom edge of the ramp to help level things out a bit.
That's assuming you've tethered the ramp to the truck as has been previously suggested.
 
I use 96" arched aluminum ramps I bought at Princess Auto (they've changed the design recently).

Two ramps lets me walk up beside the bike -
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Three for getting the 760lb Harley in the back, with a few other tricks needful due to the weight and ground clearance.
utJljra.jpg
 
Agree the arched ramp is best. Straight flat ramps do tend to cause the engine/frame to bottom out where it meets the tailgate.

Sent from my SM-A500W using Tapatalk
 
Make sure you have a camera running on a tripod. Loading bikes into pickups make great YouTube videos!

On a serious note, you can get hitch mounted carriers that carry up to 600lbs, that would do for an FZ1. You might be able to use the Fortnine or Princess outo version, it's 500lbs which would be at capacity with that bike. Hitch mounts are simple to load with one person.

I need must load into my pickup bed, I use an ATV ramps and a cheap winch to tug the bike slowly up the ramp.
 
We definitely want a longer ramp so the slope is minimal...and yes securing it to the truck is a must...unfortunately the way my house is set up i can't build an elevated loading platform/garden feature...as for the hitch carriers that wouldn't allow us to trailer the spyder...I'm thinking we just need to get a bigger trailer...that or see if there's some way of using our current trailer's ramp door as the gateway to the box of the truck...i see this as loading the FZ1 into the trailer then putting the trailer's ramp door onto the truck box (minus tailgate of course) then wheeling the bike into the box that way...that would leave the trailer free for tge spyder...hmmmm
 
My driveway has a very small incline and a pickup truck backing into the driveway but still on the on the street with its rear wheels just touching the curb dramatically lowers the edge of the box and the angle of a ramp. Leaving the truck in this position for 10 minutes or so can be a pain if someone has parked across the street and you end up blocking traffic.
 
Mad Mike said:
Make sure you have a camera running on a tripod. Loading bikes into pickups make great YouTube videos!

On a serious note, you can get hitch mounted carriers that carry up to 600lbs, that would do for an FZ1. You might be able to use the Fortnine or Princess outo version, it's 500lbs which would be at capacity with that bike. Hitch mounts are simple to load with one person.

I need must load into my pickup bed, I use an ATV ramps and a cheap winch to tug the bike slowly up the ramp.
Click to expand...

Anyone who would use a hitch mount from princess auto needs their head examined.
 
rust0r said:
Anyone who would use a hitch mount from princess auto needs their head examined.
Click to expand...
I used one for 5 years, with everything from 2 stroke dirtbikes to a klr 650, a gsx600. No issues at all.

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