I have a 2014 Sundowner 2 horse and the ramp is both steep and slippery. I’ve tried attaching strips of grippy material but they come off easily.
Has anyone come up with a good fix for this?
Here is a fairly recent COTH discussion of the topic.
Yeah, you could look into Coco mats. You could also replace whatever is on there? I replaced the rubber ramp mafieral on my EquiSpirit. I just ordered a new roll of material from Hawk. Got the old one off and installed the new one (required some cutting). It’d also be easy work for a trailer shop/repair place to do, I’d think.
My husband cut up a thick rubber stall mat and cut them into 2" strips. He then spaced them about 6" apart and screwed them down to the ramp. They work amazing and ponies have no issues going up and down the ramp now. Cheap and easy fix and looks good too.
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Like Diamond Jubilee, we added strips. However ours are wood, usually called cleats, screwed onto our ramps. Our cleats are spaced further apart because we have horses with big feet, not ponies. Rubber cleats would not hold against the bigger weight if our horses slipped on the ramps. Our horses run 1100 to 1550 pounds, with size 2 to size 5 shoes. No little horses here.
There are 3 cleats on the 4ft long ramps. Wood is 2 inches wide by an inch thick, screwed to the ramp. Wood is replaced as needed with wear. The horses are usually all shod with pin studs for road traction. Studs are small but still will chip the cleats over time, so cleats will get replaced. There is a foot wide area on each ramp side to make rolling carriages in and out of the trailer easier.
Our horses use the cleats with sharp upward, ramp angle for getting into the trailer. Hooves can only slip down to the next cleat. Any kind of moisture will make ramps slippery, so the cleats make footing dependable for confident loading horses. Cleats WILL stop the slipping! Cleats are easy to make by cutting a board to size needed, cheap to replace as cleat gets worn down.
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Thanks for the suggestions! In a pinch to get a horse to and from the vet, I grabbed an old oversized doormat from my deck and it has worked great! I throw it on the ramp (I guess like a coco mat) and it stays put. Then I throw it in front of horses during trailering.
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My old trailer had a slippery ramp, so I bought a light weight stall mat that had ridges on the bottom and affixed it on the ramp - ridge side up (I can’t remember how). The trailer was older and had a long steep ramp and springs that were shot. So it was hard for one person to lift. BUT - no more slipping.
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