DIY Motorcycle-to-Pickup Loading Ramp

[prince666]

Found this on the internet consider it a very good idea for transporting our Bikes around China
cheap to make , just need to find a cheap pickup or a van ???

ramp1.jpg


ramp2.jpg


ramp3.jpg


ramp4.jpg


Sorry the snap shots pictures you can't see good details but here is the link to download the full
PDF files

http://www.bikercamps.com/wp-content...-bike-Ramp.pdf

[artedesenyo]

first need to get a pick up.... which is not available when i tried to get one.... what they have are the ugly vans they called mian bao (bread) ..... tried to get the cheap knock off of the ford f150 pick up from kaweiauto, or even the nissan..... i end up with a buick regal.

[APrider]

Great Wall Automotive has pick up trucks available as we bought two for a China ride project through a longtime contact based in China.

Somehow the RA post looks very familiar but could be wrong of course http://www.rideasia.net/motorcycle-f...ding-ramp.html

APrider

[ChinaV]

Can you get a pickup in China... sure. Can you register it and use it as a daily driver in 90% of the cities... of course not, that would make sense. Nice ramp, but complete overkill for anyone other than a Harley Rider, then again, it's usually Harley riders that bring their bikes places in trucks.

Cheers!

[zhu]

Get a scaffold plank, cut it so it fits in your deck with the tailgate up, bolt a piece of 5mm steel to the end of it, bend the steel to the correct angle so it sits flat on the deck.
Should cost about 5 bucks and last about 20 years.

[prince666]

Great Wall Automotive has pick up trucks available as we bought two for a China ride project through a longtime contact based in China.

Somehow the RA post looks very familiar but could be wrong of course http://www.rideasia.net/motorcycle-f...ding-ramp.html

APrider

Yes did say i found it on the internet , but most people on here don't visit Rideasia so you are not wrong?? most of people post are duplicated information from other web-sites.

first need to get a pick up.... which is not available when i tried to get one

I need to get my eyes tested ? I think I see 100 pickups a day when I ride about , but you do live in Beijing and you are correct, I think you will find pickups are banned in Beijing and would account for the lack of Pickup available in your area .

Can you get a pickup in China... sure. Can you register it and use it as a daily driver in 90% of the cities... of course not, that would make sense. Nice ramp, but complete overkill for anyone other than a Harley Rider, then again, it's usually Harley riders that bring their bikes places in trucks.

Just give the people a option to transport your bike to a area you wish to ride, and be able to use the toll roads which in many place can cut 100s km of your journey. Just take the new bridge / Tunnel from Qingdao to Huangdao which save over 200km and hours if you can use the bridge/Tunnel, and i am sure there are many many other situation like this all over China

[prince666]

Get a scaffold plank, cut it so it fits in your deck with the tailgate up, bolt a piece of 5mm steel to the end of it, bend the steel to the correct angle so it sits flat on the deck.
Should cost about 5 bucks and last about 20 years.

Sounds great can you post detailed pictures please would love to see how it would work
and in 4 years here never seen a Scafford plank just shit loads of Bamboo......

[Lao Jia Hou]

Like a large percentage of the population back home (North America), I have a pickup (actually, two pickups). I've owned various forms of pickups for the last 40+ years (short-beds, long-beds, 1 tons on duallies, and little imports) and oodles of different bikes.

What I have learned:

1) Loading/unloading a bike into a pickup bed is NOT as easy as it seems. I've seen (and experienced) more than one disaster.
2) If you are going to load / unload into a pickup, make sure the ramp is as wide as possible - preferably the full width of the pickup box.
3) A narrow loading ramp will almost certainly end in disaster, at some point.
4) Trailers are far superior in almost every respect, and can be used behind cars.
5) The price of a trailer is far less than the price of a separate hauling vehicle (e.g., a pickup).

I used to get a lot of flack from people about trailering bikes. Unfortunately, I can't ride > one bike at a time and/or also bring kids and/or also bring lots of gear, luggage, baby stuff, etc. Hence, the two-wheeled toys needs to be on a trailer and/or in a pickup bed.

I've also owned several different types of trailers, and I am convinced that the Aluma MC 210 trailer is the best if you've room to park it somewhere, or the Kendon stand-up if you are tight on space.

Here is a pic of my Aluma behind my F-150 with a 400 kg Gold Wing in the bed. I had just dropped off a Harley trike that was in the trailer.



Some very nice things about the Aluma 210 is its strength, its light weight, large radial tires, and its stone guard. But the best thing about an Aluma is that you can spin it around to load / unload bikes into a pickup bed. The Aluma has a full width ramp that slides & stows underneath the trailer, making loading / unloading the trailer a snap. But if you unhitch the trailer, turn it around so that the trailer ramp is facing the rear of a pickup, drop the hitch onto the ground and have someone stand on the tongue (leverage weight), then use the trailer ramp between the trailer and pickup bed, loading extra bikes into the pickup bed is super easy, and SAFE. That Gold Wing went in and out of my pickup bed a few times, always by myself, and I never had any concern about safety. I also have a Kendon trailer back home, but find that the Aluma is my go-to workhorse.

Inside China, a trailer makes the most sense, I think. You can use your passenger car, and not need to worry about the pickup hassles in China. Both Kendon and Aluma are now for sale here, and there are also some nice locally made trailers available. I recall that ChinaV found a great 3 bike trailer, sourced out of Tianjin? Can't find the thread.

Oh yeah ... one other concern about using pickups is bed length. That F-150 is a 6.5 foot bed and that requires the tailgate to be down for most bikes. I also have a Chevy 1 ton dually with an 8 foot bed that will carry most bikes with the tailgate up, but that monster only gets about 8 mpg. The following pic shows how I used a 3/4 inch plywood sheet in the F-150 bed for load distribution, given that the Gold Wing's rear wheel wasn't fully in the bed. I also secured a 2 by 4 crosswise, to ensure the plywood didn't slide. And I used a high quality swinging front wheel chock to help secure the bike.

[prince666]

Hi Lao
Thank you for your input into loading motorbikes onto pickups as always your advise is based on good experience and general knowledge, I think the PDF file on how to make a pickup load ramp is a good starting block to work from , that gives detailed information on how to make and what to use with some good advice on how to load the bike, the point about painting the load ramp with a floor paint mixed with some sand was IMO a very clever advise . Now yes a trailer in most ways is better, most can load 2 bikes, easy to load, but if someone has never operated and car/pickup with a trailer hooked up on the back for most people it could be very challenging experience to say the least .
Also it is questionable if trailers are allowed on the Toll roads here in China?????

But IMO the biggest challenge is not finding a trailer but finding a supplier who has and can fit the Tow Bar.

The demand for Tow Bars here in China is virtually no-existing.

[Lao Jia Hou]

Prince, agreed.

A wide, traction-coated ramp is best. Slipping while loading is a common problem. It also depends on how many people can be thrown at the load / unload. Here is a typical bike delivery in China:

1) Bike in back of a truck, resting only on its center stand (no ratchet straps, ropes, tie downs, etc)
2) Get enough guys to lift (always lots of lookie-loos around ... TIC)









Trailers are a grey area in China, right now, but from what I've heard, no one has been refused entry onto an expressway. The argument is usually over how much to charge.

The trailer dealers have means to get a proper hitch installed on almost any vehicle, but it seems they are pricey. From what I can tell, a quality trailer with an installed hitch will run about 25-30k, all in. Once saw a guy towing a Kendon trailer with a QQ. The trailer had a pair of HDs on it.

Certainly if one only has one vehicle, and one can get a pickup registration (most cities do not allow them), then a pickup could be a viable option. Half decent Chinese ones start around 50k-70k out-the-door, last time I looked around (in Harbin), but that was several years ago.

Edit: I asked the shop owner how many bikes had fallen over, moving the bikes from shop to shop in this manner. He said "Oh, not many, no problem."
And I thought "OK, not many = at least one, but probably more"