horse box loading ramp

[Turbo]

Not sure if it applies to horse boxes but any new build trailers or trucks for transporting cattle most have a bunded base with a tank to catch any poo or pee that the cattle produce.

There is another option for your body - buy a horsebox trailer with a rotted chassis & transplant that onto your van. Most of the construction already done for you & you could offset the cost of the horsebox by selling the van body.

 

[Migmac]

Or get a cart and get the horse to pull her to the show

 

[Matchless]

Going back to the original post,
I have got the standard stuff like tie-up rings, ramp handles, door handles, rubber mat and so on. Also keep fancy bits like led lights and camera systems in stock as well.
Got a selection of trim, "horses" stickers and that sort of thing.
Most of the major parts like the ramp hinges and closures we make ourselves but the bits like the rubber feet I keep here.
The only mechanical bits I keep are standard stuff like tires and bearings/shoes but only really for trailers although any parts place should have bits for that van.
Most of the fixings/fasteners I have are sized for the standard 14mm side walls.
If you need anything or you want the sizes/dimensions of any bits let me know and I can have a look

thanks for the offer, I may well take you up on it, probably going for a full width rear ramp with side stalls for two ponies, basic build to start with and see how the budget goes, as the rear ramp will be quite heavy at 6-7 foot square I am thinking of a hydraulic ram to lift and lower it a bit like I have on the back of my tranny but 10x smaller, saves trying to balance it with springs and a smallish woman with her daughter may well struggle to operate a sprung ramp, maybe using a porta power hand pump and a single ram in the centre outside to lift it, would probably need a two or three stage ram but does not need to be high capacity, hmmmmmm.

 

[Matchless]

None of that applies for private use, if your license covers it you can drive it. All the bull only applies to commercial travel, private use is exempt. The 3.5 tonner with two ponies, pony clutter and two people in the front will be overweight for sure, if not overweight overall it will be over on one of the axles. Problem is vosa are partial to a horsebox and know where to find them, swmbo has been checked on numerous occasions both on the road and when they turn up at showgrounds. If the driving license permits get a bigger truck and travel light

Bob

She is limited to 3.5 and I think will struggle to drive this! but interesting that the CPC and operators does not apply to private use, I used to go to Germany monthly to collect BMW parts for my restoration / repair business and went from a Transit 3.5 to towing a twin axle box trailer behind it to a Ford cargo 7.5 to a Merc 13 ton painted up as self drive hire (until they compuerised O licences) back to a 5 ton Sprinter down rated to 3.5 as an international O licence and CPC was just not worth the agro, I may replace my tranny one day with a 5-6-7.5 ton race car transporter/motorhome, maybe one day............

 

[hotponyshoes]

Ramps don't need to be ridiculously heavy,
For a pony you would be ok with 30x30x2 box section. Plastic or alloy coated on the outside, 1/2" ply on the inside covered with glued 3mm rubber mat.
The highest load on the ramp is the spring/ram attachments not the horse.
You can go light if you design the lift points carefully.
Or do a 40x40x3 bar to attach a single lift point and outside frame and support the ply with smaller cross braces.
Or go thinner on the ply and back it up underside with a sheet of steel.
Obviously make sure any ply edges are supported not hanging in free air etc.

The ramp needs to be stiff as if the horse feels it bend it won't want to walk on it.
2 decent size blokes should be able to bounce on it without feeling any spring. Flex itself is ok, it's any sort of bounce they don't like.

The problem with a lightweight ramp is:
Ideally you want it to be just "strong enough"
That's fine for the customer you design it for unless they decided to get a bigger horse in a few years when the child has grown a bit. Or a mates car breaks down and they offer to take the mates bigger horse to a show for them.
The other issue is corrosion. You don't need a lot of rust/rot to take the ramp below the original design strength if you have made it right on the limit.
When the ramp is closed you want some sort of guttering/diversion above it so water doesn't get on the top of it and then soak/run down to the hinge end.
It's tricky to design a good one as the simple solution would be to put drain holes in the hinge end for any rain water that collects when its parked up but if you do that then those holes just allow horse pi*s in when the ramp is open and they brush/wash the trailer out.
If you make a long enough ramp the angle won't be that steep and you won't need grip rails/treads. But longer = more weight.
If you have a steeper ramp then water/urine will pool behind the treads when the ramp is open so some sort of sealer will be needed there as well.

Personally, if I was making on on a budget, for somebody i know, then I would be giving some thought on how to make it easy to replace the plywood every few years.
Design it to the size of a sheet so there is a minimum of cutting and pocket the ply so there is a minimum of fixings needed.
I wouldn't be using stainless pop rivits at 50mm spacing if I thought it might be me who would have to drill 68 of them back out again in a few years time!

 

[hotponyshoes]

You also want to trim the outer edges (of the horse surface) of the ramp with something like aluminium angle so the horse can see it in the dark.
If you fit loading lights have them pointing in rather than out or if you have both make sure the inner ones are brighter than the outer ones.
They don't like going into a dark hole and don't like anything they cant see if a light is shining in their eyes.
You want to go and stand next to the pony and get a feel for what height its eyes are but get the owner to show you the range of movement on its neck so you can judge the entry from the horses perspective.
A ramp that looks fine to you standing by the side of it might look far to steep for a 2' pony standing at the end of it.

 

[Bobupndown]

Look at the GVW a large number of small boxes are over weight with the GGs in & the powers that be are targeting just that at present, also do they have correct license endorsement for the weight.
Friend bought a lwb hi top twin wheel Transit bus thing even with all the seats out it was 2800Kg think max GVW 48000Kg forgot the license requirement going to move it on but sold the seats before he realize
Agree about tail lights @bricol

Bloody he'll thats one heavy duty transit, 48 ton capacity .

would a std. stable door be expected to take a full sized horse? anyhow we can look at it when it turns up, I am really doing this as a favor for her and she has a very limited budget, maybe I need to meet the pony and ask it some questions? what about a bag of carrots tied to the front bulkhead?
I mean these two look quite happy!

View attachment 290044View attachment 290045

Reminds me of an acquaintance of my dad, went the auld lamas fair in Ballycastle and while there bought a pony for his daughter, trouble was he'd driven there in a Mazda 323 3 door, he then buys a socket set from one of the tool sellers stalls, removed the passenger seat, 'persuaded' the pony to get into the back, bolts the passenger seat back in and drives 60 miles home. Would have loved a picture of that, sadly long before smart phone cameras.

 

[Matchless]

Ramps don't need to be ridiculously heavy,
For a pony you would be ok with 30x30x2 box section. Plastic or alloy coated on the outside, 1/2" ply on the inside covered with glued 3mm rubber mat.
The highest load on the ramp is the spring/ram attachments not the horse.
You can go light if you design the lift points carefully.
Or do a 40x40x3 bar to attach a single lift point and outside frame and support the ply with smaller cross braces.
Or go thinner on the ply and back it up underside with a sheet of steel.
Obviously make sure any ply edges are supported not hanging in free air etc.

The ramp needs to be stiff as if the horse feels it bend it won't want to walk on it.
2 decent size blokes should be able to bounce on it without feeling any spring. Flex itself is ok, it's any sort of bounce they don't like.

The problem with a lightweight ramp is:
Ideally you want it to be just "strong enough"
That's fine for the customer you design it for unless they decided to get a bigger horse in a few years when the child has grown a bit. Or a mates car breaks down and they offer to take the mates bigger horse to a show for them.
The other issue is corrosion. You don't need a lot of rust/rot to take the ramp below the original design strength if you have made it right on the limit.
When the ramp is closed you want some sort of guttering/diversion above it so water doesn't get on the top of it and then soak/run down to the hinge end.
It's tricky to design a good one as the simple solution would be to put drain holes in the hinge end for any rain water that collects when its parked up but if you do that then those holes just allow horse pi*s in when the ramp is open and they brush/wash the trailer out.
If you make a long enough ramp the angle won't be that steep and you won't need grip rails/treads. But longer = more weight.
If you have a steeper ramp then water/urine will pool behind the treads when the ramp is open so some sort of sealer will be needed there as well.

Personally, if I was making on on a budget, for somebody i know, then I would be giving some thought on how to make it easy to replace the plywood every few years.
Design it to the size of a sheet so there is a minimum of cutting and pocket the ply so there is a minimum of fixings needed.
I wouldn't be using stainless pop rivits at 50mm spacing if I thought it might be me who would have to drill 68 of them back out again in a few years time!

The inside height is about seven feet so the ramp will be just under that, the floor is quite high so it will be a bit steep, what about feet at the top / end of the ramp so it is say 6" off the ground, would that be ok for the average pony? that would lessen the slope a good bit,

was thinking about galvanising the ramp frame but time / cost may rule that out,

Instead of a ram like my truck maybe an old ram but with a big spring inside, could make the upper mount for said spring a row of different holes so it can be fine tuned? problem with hydraulic operation is the risk of her unlatching the rear ramp and finding the hydraulics have failed and getting an uncontrolled fall!

 

[hotponyshoes]

The inside height is about seven feet so the ramp will be just under that, the floor is quite high so it will be a bit steep, what about feet at the top / end of the ramp so it is say 6" off the ground, would that be ok for the average pony? that would lessen the slope a good bit,

was thinking about galvanising the ramp frame but time / cost may rule that out,

Instead of a ram like my truck maybe an old ram but with a big spring inside, could make the upper mount for said spring a row of different holes so it can be fine tuned? problem with hydraulic operation is the risk of her unlatching the rear ramp and finding the hydraulics have failed and getting an uncontrolled fall!

Hydraulics are not that popular for that very reason. Girl killed a couple of years ago.
They don't have a good reputation for reliability either.

Galvanized with drain provision would be the way to go if time/cost allows.
I don't think a row of holes for a spring mount will give you the fine adjustment you need to get it just right. The standard stuff with a threaded ring is the best way and cheap enough.
You also want an "over-center" point, so when you open the ramp it should come down gently under it's own weight until it stops off the floor. You then push it past that point and it then pushes down and sits against the floor firmly.
We set ours about 300-400mm off the ground depending on the height of the owner.

Ramp rubber feet don't want to be much higher than the horses ankles. They normally wear boots for travelling which restricts how much they can bend the legs.
Standard feet are 3-4". I wouldn't go much bigger than that.
Horses will cope with a fairly steep ramp as long as it has some good grip and some treads spaced at suitable centers

 

[Matchless]

Well it was delivered to @Brad93 yesterday, does not seem to be much worse than when I viewed it! had a good discussion with the owner, Brad and Brad's dad regarding a rear full size ramp, then last night she decided a side ramp instead of a rear would be far better for her with regard to loading and turning the pony to get her off again, side ramp and stalled forward, I can see that and the ramp height/floor level/incline would be the same side or rear but less chopping out to start with, more like starting with a clean slate?

Anyhow when she saw the wreck I had bought for her she loved it............ phew!

Swipe a tree or parked car with that second one and you may have trouble unboxing your pony!

 

[8ob]

Definitely needs the ramp on the nearside, if it conks out you don't want to be unloading horses onto a carriagway.

Bob

 

[8ob]

swmbo has a side loader on her box, it uses some kind of torsion tube to assist the ramp,no conventional springs or rams are used . It’s quite a neat and compact system with adjustability..

 

[Matchless]

Definitely needs the ramp on the nearside, if it conks out you don't want to be unloading horses onto a carriagway.

Bob

Butttttttttt the side door would not open with the ramp down, why is life so hard......

 

[stuvy]

That transit uses two external barn doors with a. Ramp inside

extra weight and not needed

if you use springs they can mount under the floor and butt up to the chassis I’d be looking at adding a chassis plate between the near side and off side to stop any flex

 

[hotponyshoes]

Butttttttttt the side door would not open with the ramp down, why is life so hard......

Swap the door hinges to the other side

 

[Justme]

With the side door & mid stalled wont the weight balance overload the front axle?

Might be worth getting each axle weighed before you start.

 

[Brad93]

It’s a 14.2 welsh section D and a Arab do not exactly ponies.

 

[hotponyshoes]

It’s a 14.2 welsh section D

That's 500kg then

 

[Bobupndown]

We set ours about 300-400mm off the ground depending on the height of the owner.

Small owners!

 

[Brad93]

That's 500kg then

You know