Friend got this last year, he's happy with it:

loadall- Motorcycle loading ramp

 

Friend got this last year, he's happy with it:

loadall- Motorcycle loading ramp

That looks really cool, but I was thinking of spending a few hundred. $3k is a bit out of my budget. Maybe I'm too cheap.

 

I use the wheelchair lift on the "Magic Bus" to load mine...


Braun makes the lift,
Dennis

 

Have you considered a motorcycle wheel chock dolly that is used on flatbed tow trucks ?
Look at the pics here:
Condor Cycle Loader - Motorcycle Wheel Chock - For Rollback Tow Trucks CL-1000 | eBay

You could build your own but would still need a wider ramp and a cheap winch to pull the bike up/into the truck bed.
You could mount that winch on the dolly instead of the truck to make it a self contained unit and only need an eye on the truck for a cable hook point.

Load/tie-down the bike to the chock on the ground, and winch it up, totally a one man operation, and no sketchy ride up the ramp!!

I buy/use cheap worm gear winches from HF ($30) and use my battery drill and a socket to run them.
So no electrical hookup to use a high priced 12v winch.
I have one mounted on a trailer hitch stinger:

2000 Lb. Capacity Geared Winch (harborfreight.com)
I've mod'ed it to freewheel for cable out though.

 

I gotta "engine lift" type attached to the receiver hitch rig, similar to your winch set up @Kenstone...
I use it mainly during Deer Season,
Dennis

Where there`s a Will = There`s a WAY

 

This one is a little longer than most and 17" wide and has a slight arch to it.

Amazon.com

 

That is great, but I'd want two to be able to ride up myself and be able to put both feet down. That would be almost $700 for two, which is quite a bit.

 

I picked up this one at Harbor Freight yesterday. I haven't tried to load my bike yet, but I will one day this week and I'll come back here with a review if I have anything to report.

1500 lb. Capacity 45 in. x 69 in. Tri-Fold Aluminum Loading Ramp

Amazing deals on this 1500Lb 45In X 69In Tri-Fold Loading Ramp at Harbor Freight. Quality tools & low prices.

www.harborfreight.com

I want to take the winch ideas posted above and see if I can rig up a sled or something that I can use to load by myself, but that project can wait for another day. Thanks!

 

Whatever ramp you use, secure the top of it to the truck so it does not kick out. Already too many fail videos out there.

 

always do.

 

i'm reviving this old thread because recently my brother and I re-covered the two boards that he uses for loading ramps, mostly for riding lawn mowers to get those things up into either his pickup truck or a trailer.

Of course if he uses his pickup truck he has to back the truck into such a position that the tailgate is dipped down artificially low like by putting the back axle into a ditch to minimize the angle of the ramps.
(It's a 4WD)

The ramps used to have some peel and stick sandpaper strips on them made for outdoor use on stairs. But it's been 20 years since he made these ramps, so now I have re-covered them with fresh sandpaper and then wrapped them in chicken wire and stapled the chicken wire through the sandpaper to the board-- with hundreds of 11 mm staples from my Arrow T 50 stapler.

I think the boards are much safer to use now with any wheeled vehicle or contraption compared to the Bare, Smooth wood that so many other people use.

pick

:

 

Your sandpaper and chicken wire look good for traction, but better wear gloves when handling. I used traction sand and painted my wooden ramp.

My ramp is home-made, and about 8 feet long by a foot wide. A wide 2x plank with a 2x4 screwed on each side to form an I-beam cross section, which increases load capacity big time. I never ride up, and always rig a block and tackle if I'm working solo, so I can hoist the bike up while standing alongside. Pictured below is the vintage block and tackle rig one wants, in my opinion. The sleeve on the right hand block, is a brake, that locks off the rope so you can suspend operation at any point to make corrections. This takes about 3/8" manilla, over 1000 lbs rated for a single line, plenty of capacity.

 

I bought a 1 Ton - 12VDC winch to load things...

 

The problem with short ramps, intended for things like ATVs, is that a street bike, like a Honda Shadow, don't have anywhere near the ground clearance to handle the angular transition at the point where the ramp meets the bed or tailgate. If you don't plan it out right, you get it almost all the way up, and it hits and sticks. Not only are you stuck, but you are subjecting relatively delicate aluminum underbelly parts to nasty scraping on metal surfaces. Maybe the engine undersurface hooks up on your ramp and wants to pull it off the truck, or gouges a nice rut in your tailgate inside finish. Quite a big percentage of the "fail" videos, feature folks learning this lesson, the hard way.

Arched, multi-segment ramps are better, divide that angle into several smaller angles.

One solution I have used with my home made ramps, is a longer run, divided into sections, with an intermediate support, like a sturdy welded wire milkcarton crate, at the transition.

Another thing that works is to get the bike up onto the ramp, and suspended there, then jack up the ground side a foot and a half. Depending on the length of the ramp, weight of the machine, and the strength of your back, you might be able to lift the back end and kick your milk carton crate under. With the front wheel already positioned on the truck bed, you can get some decent leverage.

It's a lot less painful to plan this stuff out in advance, and have some confidence in your geometry, than to find out the hard way. Park the bike next to the curb and use a couple of sticks held tangent to the tires, to explore the maximum transition angle the bike will clear. Remember that with YOU on it, clearance will be reduced, as the suspension is compressed. The same may well be true when pulled, depending on where you fasten the winch line.