We bought the ramps with the idea of hauling it around in our pickups too. Honestly, we're a little nervous driving it up into the box. We have plain Ford F150's but they are 4x4 and seem kind of high. In also concerned that we have the 6 foot beds so the machine would have to ride on the tailgate. I've seen ATV's being transported like that but they don't weigh as much as a PT. Any thoughts on hauling in a shorter box pickup?
Can't help you there on the short box. Our's was 8' and I didn't trust the tailgate. It was a 1985 Chevy 4x4 with an aftermarket steel bumper. I welded pipes on the ramps and pipes on the bumper, then I'd slip an "L" shaped piece of rebar through the pipes, just like a giant door hinge. It is quite steep on level ground, so I'd always look for a berm to back up to, to lessen the angle of the ramps. But at home, we had no such berm. So.... pucker up buttercup... YIKES! :laughing:
If I'd put the rear hitch of the PT just kissing the front of the bed, all 4 tires were well inside the bed. The 60" finish mower rear wheels would rest on the back of the bed, as I recall. The rest of the mower would hang out about 2' at most. The buckets would rest nicely on the rear of the bed, too.
I guess you'd have to measure from rear of hitch to front of front tire and see how long that distance is.
We did that for about a year until I bought an 18' car hauler trailer. I can take the tractor, 60" mower, 48" brush hog, two buckets, pallet forks, 60" power angle snow plow, just plain everything I'd need with me on that one trailer. Even after that for a few years, for single purpose trips, I'd still just load the PT into the truck bed rather than hooking up the trailer. When the truck got retired due to rust and 2nd child, we switched to the car hauler trailer and a 3/4 ton van. When that rusted out, we switched to a Suburban.
