I have been looking for a while for a set of ramps to put the Z on for underbody cleaning and general maintenance work.
I found that the ramps available off the shelf are far too steep to put our cars on - the nose will hit the ramps long before the wheels even get close to start climbing them.
Measurements with a piece of string and square indicated that a ramp with an angle below 10.5 degrees would work for my MC (it has the Eibach lowered spring kit). The only practical problem was that a ramp with such a shallow angle would be almost 2m long if a 280mm height and a horizontal "parking" section of 350mm was provided, making the ramp difficult to handle and store.
After further headscratching I came up with a workable solution: start the ramp with a 70mm height and use 40mm block pavers or 38mm planks to provide a 450mm long "step" in front of the ramp. This solution would give me a more manageable overall ramp length of 1500mm (and an angle of 10.35 deg).
After a few basic structural calcs I selected the appropriate square hollow tubing, angle and flat steel sections that would be required.
The next challenge would be how to manufacture the ramps - I only have a "domestic/handyman" spec MMA welder and my welding skills are not that great. My brother-in-law is however a farmer who owns a proper MIG welder and has built a number of large projects in his time - only he lives almost 1600km away from me. So I had to wait until visiting them over December (our Summer holidays when we all flock down to the beach) - so one day he and I took a few beers and headed to his workshop... 8)
The finished product weighed 21kg each and I had them sent to my home by road courier, which cost me approximately US$ 75. They arrived Thursday night so yesterday I tried them out for the first time. I placed small pavers at the front as the "step" already mentioned, and also two large paving blocks at the back to prevent the ramps from sliding when I drove the car on. Check it out:
I found that the ramps available off the shelf are far too steep to put our cars on - the nose will hit the ramps long before the wheels even get close to start climbing them.
Measurements with a piece of string and square indicated that a ramp with an angle below 10.5 degrees would work for my MC (it has the Eibach lowered spring kit). The only practical problem was that a ramp with such a shallow angle would be almost 2m long if a 280mm height and a horizontal "parking" section of 350mm was provided, making the ramp difficult to handle and store.
After further headscratching I came up with a workable solution: start the ramp with a 70mm height and use 40mm block pavers or 38mm planks to provide a 450mm long "step" in front of the ramp. This solution would give me a more manageable overall ramp length of 1500mm (and an angle of 10.35 deg).
After a few basic structural calcs I selected the appropriate square hollow tubing, angle and flat steel sections that would be required.
The next challenge would be how to manufacture the ramps - I only have a "domestic/handyman" spec MMA welder and my welding skills are not that great. My brother-in-law is however a farmer who owns a proper MIG welder and has built a number of large projects in his time - only he lives almost 1600km away from me. So I had to wait until visiting them over December (our Summer holidays when we all flock down to the beach) - so one day he and I took a few beers and headed to his workshop... 8)
The finished product weighed 21kg each and I had them sent to my home by road courier, which cost me approximately US$ 75. They arrived Thursday night so yesterday I tried them out for the first time. I placed small pavers at the front as the "step" already mentioned, and also two large paving blocks at the back to prevent the ramps from sliding when I drove the car on. Check it out:
