It was with great indignation that we had to endure Coop's derogatory remarks about the "Purple Frog non-patented el cheapo Ramp System for low ground clearance formula cars without expensive paddock wheels." (PFNELCRSFLGCFCWEPW for short )
The nerve of that guy after at the same most outstanding event he unveiled his own non-patented rubber jack stands and human powered car lift!
So how does one cheaply make it easy to load a car with 3/4" of clearance into a trailer without shelling out over $700 for paddock wheels, or carrying half a lumber yard of 2-bys????
First, consider these are not T1 Corvettes. The heaviest corner on the car is only ~360 lb. It doesn't take the Brooklyn Bridge to carry that load.
Simple says I. A small bit of 1/2" plywood, with 1/4" plywood top surfaces. Pick it up with one hand. Monocoupe construction. Pull 4 pins and it comes easily apart. The two black AL ramps are the center sections of my scale pad. I have less than $10 in the project. Car rolls in and out without dragging bottom.
For your consideration....
Last edited by Purple Frog; July 19th, 2012 at 11:35 PM.
Do you load your car nose first or backwards? I gotta get a way to load my car on the open trailer without taking the diffuser off and don't want to turn it around with the rear wing going the wrong way.
I WAS GOING TO COMENT ON THE PURPLE PAINT , BUT SOME ONE BEAT ME TO IT. Very nice and, this is some thing i can do myself without an engineer and a fabricator!!!! bob
Very nice! I wish something like that would work for F500/F600's. Side pods being the same width as the wheels makes it a PITA. I have to roll the car up until it high centers. This puts the rear wheels just on the door. Then use a floor jack to raise the door up level and roll the car in. Effetive, but slow and tedious.
__________________
Chris Ross
09 NovaKBS F600 #36 Powered by '09 600 Suzuki GSX-R
"If all else fails, immortality can always be assured by spectacular error." John Kenneth Galbraith
if properly motivated/goaded/chided/shamed/praised (It happens ALL the time 'round here, doan laugh), you'd post pics, and Frog, ya didn't let the assembled and oft unwashed Reynard owners down...
For a while i hung them from brackets on the trailer ceiling. Now i have found they fit well laying on their sides beside the car with the narrow ends between the front tires and the trailer wall.
OBTW, Janice's home was in the background of that shot... mine is farther back on the property.
Last edited by Purple Frog; July 16th, 2012 at 10:36 AM.
I thought this type of hybrid construction was counter to the philosophy of the class of trailer your pulling. Once again, another example of Frog "killing the class".
Wow. More reason to be happy I have an open trailer with no deck up the center. I use 1 1/8 in plywood, 5 ft long and with 2 alum. angle irons screwed to the bottom. It helps that I have 1 3/4 in ground clearance. The ramps still flex when the rear rolls up And no purple paint!
Mark
__________________
1990 Van Diemen, the Racing Machine, CM AutoX, WRX(retired)
You can try to make a street car into an autocrosser or you can do a lot less work and make a race car into a great autocrosser
Here I go bringing an old thread back from the dead. I've been banging my head against the wall trying to figure out a way to get my car in and out of the trailer. Something like this, extended for the dovetail might just work. I should have known Purkley Frog would have the idea!
__________________
Topper
Dallara F394 F3
Swift SE-3 FC sold
why not just put jack stands under the door at what ever height is needed.....along with the extra pieces (scale platform centers or lumber) attached to the back edge (same as the frog did). I did that for years.....worked great. Nothing to build or store....need the jack stands for the car anyway.
With an open trailer, I just jack up the tounge as high as I can (wheels blocked fore and aft....or usually atached to the tow vehicle) and add a pair 2x10 to the back edge of the trailer floor. these store under the trailer.
Jerry, I added folding ramps to the trailer door and set the door and ramp heights at whatever level was needed much like what you ars saying and it worked great for the Swift. In fact I could drive it in the trailer. My current car is a different story. It high centers almost as soon as the tires roll over the beaver tail. The only way I've found to get it in and out so far is to have a rolling jack under one end or the other.
__________________
Topper
Dallara F394 F3
Swift SE-3 FC sold
I think Apexspeed members (even Grand Pooh Bahs) are limited on the number of photos in their profile. Frog posts a lot of photos... He may need to occasionally delete older ones.
I bet if you pm him he'll email a photo to you.
__________________ "I love the smell of race fuel in the morning. It smells like victory!"
Barry Wilcock
Pit Crew
Fat Boy Racing
I used a toyhauler for my race trailer from 99 to 2011. I never had trailer wheels for the supervee or in the beginning with my FC. The floor of the toyhauler was more than 24" off the ground and there was no beavertail.
We mounted trailer leveling jacks on the top edge of the door. I then propped 12' 2x12's on the door edge. Those had to be supported in the middle with stacks of 4x4s or junkyard surplus scizzor jacks. Ocasionally we had another 6' of steel ramps off the end of those.
Not for the faint of heart, and no way could I fabricate ramps that were storable with the rest of the load, so I bought trailer wheels.
Nice to have an RV with a simpler trailer, but I can't go camping in as may remote places and the maintenance is sure higher on the RV, but I can load and unload now in 10 minutes!
Sean O'Connell has been bugging me to learn the new online storage stuff for about 5 years.
Unfortunately I have deleted thosands of pictures in the last 12 years. Some (maybe 15) that would actually help somebody solve a problem. And I have had to post some really great shots in low res.
Formula Car Ramps - cheap
)
