How Not to use a Ramp

The Ramp People usually try to help out with the right and best suitable ramp choice. Especially when we receive large orders from the website we double check with customer if the ramp chosen is indeed the best suitable one. How Not to use a Ramp is a quite important factor when choosing a ramp.

And it does happen occasionally that the purchased ramp is indeed not the best suitable one.

However, despite our effort to make sure every customer is happy, it does happen once in a while that ramps or all our products for that matter are not used correctly and the result usually is that the ramp somehow is damaged.

We want to use the blog now to show what could happen if ramps are not used/treated as they should be.

All our plant and vehicle loading ramps are cut for a 30% gradient which we have indicated as max. load height in the website. This gradient can be seen on the footend of the ramps, which in use should completely lay down flat on the ground.

Unless otherwise specified or customised this gradient should not be exceeded, in lower or higher gradients.

What happens if it used on a different height level as recommended?

Well, if the gradient is lower than specified, the footend simply lifts up and creates a gap between the ramp and the floor. As soon as there is now weight on the footend the whole ramp might just flick up on the top end and the top end might lose its connection. On the other hand, if the ramp is used at a higher gradient, the foot end sits in its “toes” and the weight on top of the ramp will sit on a smaller point than when the ramp sits properly on the footend. The result of this that the footend wears out. Another thing that creates confusion in the past is the definition of minimum track width. Track width means that the tracks on top of a ramp need to have a certain width. If you use a ramp with smaller tracks than recommend, the weight is more focused in the middle of the ramp, which creates a loss in the capacity stated on the ramps. An example can be seen here. Clearly the track width was not as recommended that is why you can see the bent in the middle of the ramps. For example, if you have chosen a ramp with 300mm width, you need to make sure that the track width is min 150mm wide. They cannot be much wider than that though as the ramps are only 300 mm wide and the tracks shouldn’t be wider than each ramp. Also not every ramps is suitable for every kin d of tracks. See the image below what happens if you use steel tracks on ramps which are not suitable for steel tracks. If you need help upfront with your choice of the right ramp feel free to ask our advice. Please also have a look at the FAQ page here.