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Ramps

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Christmas card photo 2020?
 
Has the original heavy ramp been removed in the second image or am I missing something here?
 
Hey heavy hauler, is the concept of the ramps to protect the back end of the tractor when backing into a trailer or does it function to raise the trailer to match the fifth wheel without having to raise the trailer jacks? Likely a little of both and a lot more although I'm guessing.

The one you set on the frame looks solid, nice job.
 
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Couple reasons why I want them- like you pointed out they help pick up the trailer so you don’t have to raise the trailer jacks. Most trucks in most regular flatbed company’s will run 11R22.5 tires whereas I run 11R24.5. So pretty much any trailer that someone else has dropped is already low for me. “Most” drivers when they drop a trailer leave the trailer jack feet an inch or two off the ground, drop the air in the truck then walk out from underneath it. So an inch in tire height, plus an inch or two for dropping it....starts to add up

I can do the opposite, with a low trailer, drop my air out of the suspension, back under, air up, then hit the pin to lock the fifth wheel but it’s annoying.

Then to really over explain this some trailers don’t have trailer jacks at all and the truck has to pick them up all by itself
 
That last sentence of yours Chicken is the reason the ramps on your Ab. truck are probably heavier than you are used to seeing. Crank-up dollies were very rare in our heavy haul operations back in time, they just weren't built heavy enough to stand the abuse and we didn't have any air bag height adjustments to use. All our suspensions were rubber block or almost solid ride springs.
Our "oil field float, 16 wheel" trailers had solid "swing up & pin" legs that were a B!tch for two men to raise or lower let alone someone by themselves. For this reason, if we had a winch tractor the legs remained up all the time & the trailers were pulled up, from the ground, over the live roll with cable assist. However sometimes these trailers were dropped by a high-way hauler without a winch and the legs had to be used. These legs are purposely short so that when the trailer was on the 5th wheel we had clearance to pull it without bottoming out unless the terrain got real uneaven (we didn't want to have to lift those damn legs unless we absolutely had to).
This is why your ramps are so heavy built, some of those trailers were front-loaded to well over 100 thousand pounds weight on the horse-cock, so, because we had no air bag lowering capability available, a very violent "hit & lift" action was proper procedure for a hook up...line up...and about 5 feet rom the trailer nose...pin the throttle!

That is how it is supposed to be done...now for one of my "old trucking stories on how there is an exception to every rule...
Bunch of us were in the Airliner hotel enjoying the company of some of the local lovelies one evening (mid-winter) when one of us suggested we better go out to the lay-down yard beside the hotel and hook under our trailers before their company became more important that delivering those loads the next day...good idea.
One of the guys had to hook under a trailer with standing legs as I described earlier...now remember we just came out of a bar full of "lovelies" that didn't like to drink alone so regular driving skills had been "altered"... a bit...
Dude with the legs-down trailer lined er up and give it the 5 or maybe 8 ft run at er...and missed the pin guide of the 5th wheel totally...that pin hit the wheel plate as far to one side as it could have, slide up the plate until it leveled off then slid over the front of the plate...dude was pined to his trailer but sure not inside the jaws. Now he's got well over a hundred thousand pounds of weight anchoring that pin to the front of the fifth wheel.
After a very short discussion by all of us on the amount of work to assemble a few 40 ton bottle jacks & blocking to lift that trailer about 8 inches...it was decided to find the drivers inside the bar of a couple of 400" bed trucks with "Texas Rigging" gin pole set-ups in the parking lot and bribe them with pre-paid bar tabs of a significant amount...to lift that trailer, one on each side.
Bribing the one driver was easy, he was still in the bar...however the other had "sort-of-paired-up" and was already in one of the rooms...considerable bartering was needed to roust him from that room...I think a phone call to his wife even entered the conversation at one time...we were desperate to get that horse-cock were it was supposed to be...so we could get on with....the final monetary figure was $150 pre paid bar tab for each of them, a lot of money when hi-balls were $0.85 each at the time.
 
The guy I got the truck from had the old ones made up out in AB, he was not happy how overkill they were. Probably like @historicalarms is explaining, that’s just what the shop was used to building. It was also pointed out to me that having them curved like that, if you get under the trailer only so far and don’t hit the pin, the curve will spit you right back out
Dropped them off at a welding shop this morning to fix the overhang and tack it all together for me. See what happens
 
Swing and a miss. They did a nice job but none of the holes line up and they’re too tall how they had them mocked up.
Even though I told them the truck is a 1/2 mile up the road if they needed to mock anything up, and drove the one guy to show him where it was and to take measurements Monday morning
So I drove the grey truck over, I was hoping to avoid that. They were kind enough to let me hang onto the side of a tractor for a ride home.
 
Chicken lights said:
I assume so? There was various phone calls the other morning asking about priming before welding and what final colour should be. I should know more this aft.

Need to call a bolt store and see if I can get some 5/8” NC grade 2 or weaker bolts too
Click to expand...

I'm lost again. What was the welding shop supposed to do?

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This image made it look like they were getting welded on. Sounds like you're bolting them on now?
 
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Hey heavy hauler with me not being a trucker I find it hard to follow your remarks sometimes after viewing posted photos. That said some of us are very interested in what you are trying to achieve and the reasoning behind same. Help us understand because we definitely appreciate your insight.

Safe trucking!
 
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YYCHobbyMachinist said:
I'm lost again. What was the welding shop supposed to do?

e80d8118-f17d-4d1b-a607-b372720636a4-jpeg.12075


This image made it look like they were getting welded on. Sounds like you're bolting them on now?
Click to expand...

I have seen them installed both ways, welding or "bolt-on's" .

I also am curious as to if these wanted bolts are for mounting the ramps. If so, I am curious why you would spec a shear-pin quality of bolt to mount something that may be required to withstand a beating sometime during its life where failure isn't an option I would want at all.
 
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Ok- one at a time-

The white truck ramp measures 32” from front to back. Middle picture might be sideways but it picks up that crossmember at the rear frame.
New ramps on the grey truck at 32” that back flange is 3” too far back, they cut it off and welded on a 1/4” plate.

That leaves 3” between the front of the ramps and the fifth wheel
 
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