Getting a riding mower into a pickup?

navycop · Post by **navycop** » Thu Aug 13, 2009 1:01 pm

I know you use ramps. My problems is: Do you drive up the ramps? How do you stop in time to not hit the back window?

tdubnik · Post by **tdubnik** » Thu Aug 13, 2009 1:06 pm

I use a shallow gulley and back the wheels of the truck into the gulley. (Make sure it is shallow enough to get out of). I then lay out a couple of 2X12 about 8 feet long from the other side of the gulley into the bed of my truck. Then I just drive right on without much of an incline.

nelsonlake81 · Post by **nelsonlake81** » Thu Aug 13, 2009 1:13 pm

put something in the bed of the truck to stop the tractor if you are not driving it in. If you do push it in hook a rope or something to the back just in case the block doesnt work hope this helps

Ed in Tampa · Post by **Ed in Tampa** » Thu Aug 13, 2009 1:30 pm

Give me a break I use to ride my motorcycle up a ramp into my truck and never had a problem stopping and a tractor is a heck of a lot slower.

The biggest problem you will experience is when the front wheels come off the ramp on to the bed of the truck. Usually the ramp (or edge of the tailgate) will then hit the blade housing, as the front wheels and rear wheels (still down on ramp) span the hump. You either need to go up fast enough to bounce over the hump (careful I did this once and spin the ramps out from under the rear wheels ended up in an extreme wheelie with the front tires on the tailgate and the rear wheels on the ground. That cost me a pair of pants

) or make the ramps long enough the angle is shallow enough that the bottom won't drag.

Unless it is an extremely large tractor you might try lifting the front onto the tail gate then lifting the back up into the truck. I loaded many lawn tractors that way.

Getting it off is even more fun you have to over come a bump where the ramp and tailgate meet. They do make aluminum plates that mount on 2x10s that overcome this problem. Again the bottom may drag going down so make sure of your clearances.

nelsonlake81 · Post by **nelsonlake81** » Thu Aug 13, 2009 1:36 pm

what if it doesnt run or he's by himself if you dont do it you dont know what might happen

JPG · Post by **JPG** » Thu Aug 13, 2009 2:44 pm

woodartist81 wrote:what if it doesnt run or he's by himself if you dont do it you dont know what might happen

Just use/think the most used word above. I like the lift and push approach! If it is too large to do so, you need something more(better/safer) than a coulpe of planks!

Ed in Tampa · Post by **Ed in Tampa** » Thu Aug 13, 2009 3:34 pm

JPG40504 wrote:Just use/think the most used word above. I like the lift and push approach! If it is too large to do so, you need something more(better/safer) than a coulpe of planks!

JPG
Don't ever get a job as a Auto Carrier. Ever watch those guys they load and unload all the time using planks ( I will give you they are steel panks but planks nonetheless).

That remains me a time when one of my customers an Auto manufacture in Northern Ohio that had car valets running cars from the end of the assembly line to either a waiting carrier or parking spot. One day the valet jumped in and neglected to do the crucial check (that he had brakes). He started it up and ran out of the factory right up the ramp onto the carrier only when he got to top right over the cab of the tractor did he find out the brakes weren't working. WHAT A RIDE!

Tractors and lawn mowers have been loaded and unloaded using board planks for as long as there were lawn mowers and tractors. You just have to be careful. It looks a lot scarier than it really is. Like I said I often rode up a single 2x6 to load my motorcycle, after the first time it was child's play. Far scarier thinking about it than actually doing it. Never had a problem that I could remember with the motorcycle and only once with a tractor when I kick the plank off the tailgate before the rear wheels got up. Even then it was probably more funny than dangerous. You are only about 2.5-3 feet off the ground.

tom_k/mo · Post by **tom_k/mo** » Thu Aug 13, 2009 5:04 pm

Wow Ed, that sounds like an E-Ticket ride!!! Doesn't say much for Quality Control on the line, does it.

navycop · Post by **navycop** » Thu Aug 13, 2009 6:59 pm

woodartist81 wrote:put something in the bed of the truck to stop the tractor if you are not driving it in. If you do push it in hook a rope or something to the back just in case the block doesnt work hope this helps

So your saying I can push it in or use a come-along?

dusty · Post by **dusty** » Thu Aug 13, 2009 8:45 pm

I have just gotten too old. Just listening to you guys talk about riding up and down ramps on a motor cycle or tractor gives me the willies (what ever they are). I used to do all those things and never thought about it. Now, after having laid around in a hospital for weeks - I think more about how I can avoid doing those things than how.

Good Luck - all of you. Make sure your insurance is paid up.