Smart car question from Bill R

[Bob86ZZ4]

Hay you guys, get back on topic. Hahahahah. Henry, just wanted to let you know I checked out Jeff and Cindy's truck a few days ago. I stayed in their park for a couple nights. Bed looks great. Very heavy duty. Good job.

[hjsdds]

I heard, did Cindy got her "drums space" reserved in the drom?
Got another truck coming, has a deck which needs to be "Smarterised", will show the progress.
Jeff sent me a picture of his truck on exhibit among other Smarts, I'll see if I can post it.

hjs

[volvoman]

hjsdds
whats the load rating on the folding ramps? what do they weigh and where did you get them?

[hjsdds]

Volvoman, here's the link Smart Hauler Ramp System for loading a Smart Car
They rate them for 2,000 lb per axle, they are certainly built robust enough to handle a Smart. Few things you need to know, Smart has a varied width between tires, rear tires are further apart than the front tires, which means that with 12 inch ramps you do not have much room for error from side to side going up or down. Positioning the deck anchor points is critical and a spacer bar to keep them parallel at the bottom is essential. That said many people use these ramps without problem, you just have to pay attention and correct the track the car is taking with the steering wheel (split the difference). Discount ramps sells Big Boy ramps which are 16 inches wide which allows you to be "more sloppy".
Note that the ramps are available in two heights (40 inches and 44 inches). Typical Volvo deck will be at 45 inches (with the suspension up), dumping the suspension will lower it 4 inches. I am not a great admirer of "air dumpers", folks who dump suspensions to hitch or unhitch or to load or offload the Smart. It introduces all kinds of issues having to do with safety, skill levels, forgetting things, etc. There are ways to hitch and unhitch and offload and load Smart safely, without screwing around with the truck suspension (my opinion and I'm sticking with it). To do this you would need the 44 inch high ramps.

hjs

[hjsdds]

Volvoman, I have a fairly accurate model of a Smart as a CAD file to do my design work.

You can see in the frontal plane the significant difference between the tire tracks of the front axle vs. the rear axle. Hence the need to space the 12 inch wide loading ramps to split that difference.

hjs

[Jack Mayer]

My truck deck is at 47" with air up. The ramps with the lip on them (the 40" ramps) work just fine. The angle of the lip that rests on the deck is off a little, but it does not matter in the least.

[ky rb]

Originally Posted by Jack Mayer

My truck deck is at 47" with air up. The ramps with the lip on them (the 40" ramps) work just fine. The angle of the lip that rests on the deck is off a little, but it does not matter in the least.

Hey Jack,

I see in your signature that you have a 780, I thought you had a 610 ? What did you do, sell the 610 or something ?


rb

[Buscrusher]

Originally Posted by ky rb

Hey Jack,

I see in your signature that you have a 780, I thought you had a 610 ? What did you do, sell the 610 or something ?


rb

Depending on how long it is before he replies (I don't think he checks in here as often as he does on the "other" forum), I know the answers to this one...
Jack's 610 listing is here
and the 780 story is here

Doug

[Jack Mayer]

Thanks Doug.

Anyone want a REALLY good 610???