Folding motorcycle ramps as sand ladder, repair stand, jack stabilzer...yay or nay?

[Etzu]

After my latest adventure I found myself needing a sand ladder....which y lady's rig did not have. I also found myself needing a par of drive on stands. Also absent.

I'll need a ramp anyway in order to load a bike into the van and was wondering if a set of folding ramps can't serve all those purposes.

Folded up most are around 6-8". Decent enough rise to get my belly under the rig with some extra elbow room.
Folded it fits in the storage bay in the trap door in the back of the van nicely.
It's VERY grippy.

Some are available in a 2000lb weight rating.

Any reason this is a bad idea?

 

[mezmochill]

Youll need to run this by the maxtrax marketing rep.

 

[kbroderick]

Keep in mind that a moto/ATV ramp rated for 500, 1000, or 2000 pounds may be perfectly capable of handling that much weight on the ramp without being capable of handling that much weight at one point on the ramp. I've got a sled/ATV ramp that is rated at 1500 pounds but which shows a bit of deformation from using it to load and unload a 500-pound motorcycle. My working assumption is that the bike being biased towards weight on the front wheel meant that the point stress was greater than the design called for, as even 1,500 pounds of ATV would have been spread to different points on the ramp.

 

[SDDiver5]

Not a bad idea. I bought an aluminum folding ramp for I think $80. Sold my bike since then but still have the ramp.

If its laying flat in the sand you shouldn't have any bending, right?

 

[Etzu]

Not a bad idea. I bought an aluminum folding ramp for I think $80. Sold my bike since then but still have the ramp.

If its laying flat in the sand you shouldn't have any bending, right?

That was my thought exactly. As a ramp with one end 4ft off the ground all the weight is on the two furthest ends. I was thinking if it's in sand the weight is more evenly distributed. I'd add bolts aiming down as teeth to dig into the sand. Bonus, if I come across another stranded rider I can load em in.

 

[SDDiver5]

Plus, if you figured out a quick disconnect type of system you can keep it folded when in the truck, unfold and disconnect, place one in front of each rear (or front) tire and then you have a cheap and easy maxtrax and you would't have to pay an arm and a leg!

I like this idea. I'm going to have to look into it. Thanks for the idea.

 

[Etzu]

LMK how it works for you, the styles I was looking at are pretty cheap at harbor freight

 

[tanuki.himself]

there are a few companies out there selling fibreglass grid/mesh as industrial stair treads and decking that looks pretty strong and light, so I'm thinking of getting some of that for all these reasons and uses. Problem is you probably need to buy quite a big chunk of it and hacksaw it down, advantage is you can cut it to whatever sizes you want that works for where you want to store or carry it. And a company that might be short for mu(lti) pu(rpose) tracks seem to have had the same idea....

 

[rickc]

I think a better approach is to do the reverse; take a good look at bridging ladders and work out if there is a way to modify them for use as bike ramps. Crux ramps kick-butt (https://www.cruxoffroad.com/) and due to their construction, I'm sure it wouldn't be hard to connect several "extended length" ladders together into a single 10' 6" ramp. You would also have to add mini braces the full length not just at each end so that the bike tyres would have more contact.