My lovely new-to-me trailer rear ramp has quite a steep angle to it. I purchased a coco mat to help with some of the slipperiness that I worry about.
However, is there anyway to lessen the steepness of a ramp other than having it taken off and a longer one installed?
I can’t seem to figure anything out, but thought I’d ask!
My trailer had a very a steep ramp. It is a 2H straight load. All my horses were much harder to load and frankly, I did not think I would care but I always had a step up and wished I never had the ramp. It is a heavy ramp. So I took it to a trailer place and they were able to split the ramp down the middle into 2 little doors, lower the trailer since it was too high to be a step up and voila, I now have a step up. Horses load great and it was so worth it. I even tried to sell this trailer but no one wanted a ramp. Now if for some reason I wanted to sell, the cost of the remodel would pay for itself.
We put cleats, small strips of wood across the ramp, to give horses grip on the short ramps. Strips are 3" wide by 1" thick wood, screwed into the ramp, so they are always in place for loading or unloading.
I think there are 3 of them on the ramp, which is a bit steep, but horses have no issues with slipping entering or backing down the ramps. They KNOW their hooves will catch on the cleats, prevent slips or falls. They are all very comfortable getting in or out of the trailer.
Cleats are there to be abused with hooves, shoes grabbing them. If they get chewed up, we just replace them. Cheap cost for such good insurance of footing for the horses.
I never did the coco mats, didn’t want to have to roll them up, give them a storage place while hauling or deal with them on messy days of rain or poopy horses.
Cleats are always in place, ready to use.
We have a mound that we back our trailer to, making the ramp more or less level.
I have had the discussion about short ramps before with other folks, with their home ideas. Problem comes when you leave home, there are no helpful mounds or a rising hill at the destination point, to level up the ramp.
So for us, the added cleats are best to offset the various angles, in having dependable footing to load or unload. Our semi trailer, side ramps are VERY steep, we always lead the horses out and down them. But with cleats on ramps, horses never worry about their footing or the angles. Sometimes that ramp has ONLY been able to be dropped where it is downhill from the trailer, so STEEP takes on a new meaning! Size of the trailer limits parking places to “anywhere we can fit it” in some show places.
There is no changing the ramps into doors, floor of semi trailer is way too high for stepping up, it would be a BIG JUMP to get horses in! So ramps will stay where they are.
I don’t know what a coco mat is… sounds like a door mat?
My ramp has a thin but very textured rubber mat on it that is glued down.
Great idea with the cleats! It does have a textured rubber mat that when dry works great. The problem I am finding is because the horses poop is at the rear when they back down the ramp it makes it slippery. Even if I scoop the poop before unloading it still makes it slick.
I am going to install some wood cleats…
Coco mats kind of look like the brown liners used for hanging decorative flower containers, just thicker. You would always see them with the horse vans hauling TBs, grooms would roll out the mats on the ramps to give footing a bit more grip. Sometimes mats worked, other times not so well with the exuberant horse coming off!
Then having to roll the poopy mats back up, find a place to carry them while traveling, just was kind of “too much” for my way of doing things. Have always used horse trailers, so we just went with the cleats when we got ramp model trailers instead of the coco mats.
I used to have a trailer with a steep ramp. Hated that part of it. I got a 4x4 cut to the length of the ramp that I carried with me. I would just stick that under the end of the ramp and that lessened the slope a little bit. The horses just had to step up or down it.
[QUOTE=LookmaNohands;7751680]
I used to have a trailer with a steep ramp. Hated that part of it. I got a 4x4 cut to the length of the ramp that I carried with me. I would just stick that under the end of the ramp and that lessened the slope a little bit. The horses just had to step up or down it.[/QUOTE]
This is what I did
For a less clunky solution you could get 4" or 6" legs fabricated onto the underside of the ramp near the top/back edge so that there is a small step up onto the ramp and the slope is reduced.
We bought a big 4 h, WB slant trailer to use as a moving van…then sell after we move. The trailer had been raised to make navigating back country roads in Montana which made the ramp steeper. Previous owner put rubber bumper wheel chocks (like you’d block your wheels when parking or changing a flat.) on the ramp (they are super light) to lessen the angle. Being rubber they bump the ground gently when the ramp is lowered. It only makes about a 4" step, but is very helpful.
let the air out of the tires?
I put shaving down on the ramp before backing my horse out. I like the ideas of the chocks and and cleats. Goodhors, could you share a pic?
By submitting your email, you agree to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. You may also receive promotional emails from The Chronicle of the Horse. You can opt out at any time.
For Customers
Company
Terms of Use
