Trailer as Storage Shed Idea

[MossRoad]

One more question: How long of a pickup bed is required to haul a 425 in it? I know a 425 is 90" long, but practically speaking, can you carry it in a shorter than 8 ft bed with the tailgate down? How short? A crew cab F150 has a 5.5 ft bed plus a 2 ft tailgate to extend it. Will that do if you tie it down well?

I personally would not trust those two tailgate straps to support the weight of my $10,000.00+ investment.

I frequently hauled my PT425 in a full sized pickup bed. I removed the tailgate and used ramps purchased from Power Trac. I welded pipe to my truck's bumper and pipe to the bottom of the ramps so I could slip a piece of rebar through the pipes to secure the ramps to the bumper. Backing the PT into the bed was the best option. That way, any attachments would hang out the back of the truck and I could lower them onto the bumper. With the PT all the way against the front of the bed, the tires were about 6" from the end of the bed. On a short bed, it would not fit without riding on the tailgate. Just don't do it.

Also, as someone mentioned, if you do not secure the ramps to the truck some how, there is the potential for the ramps to kick out and that would be a BAD thing!

With that said, I really liked the fact that I could drive my little beast right up into the bed of the truck. The PT supplied ramps were plenty strong and the PT had plenty of power to go up those ramps. That was never an issue. The ramps are like ladders, so there was no slipping issue either. It was nice if I had a mowing job at the Little League or church I could just take the PT and one attachment in the truck with no need to hook up a trailer. Or, I could take the large bucket with the small toothed bucket and forks nested inside the large bucekt. Very convenient. The PT weighed in around 1500 pounds, add an attachment to that and you will be challenging the weight limit of the truck, leaglly speaking, check your truck for capacity, etc...
As for storing the ramps during transport, I just set them next to the PT on top of the wheel well and secured with strong tie down straps. I also secured the PT with straps rated for that load as well.

For that matter, when we purchased the PT and attachements, it was delivered to a local trucking company. I took two pickup trucks. We broke out the ramps that came with the PT and the pallet forks. I used the pallet forks to load two skids of implements on one truck with the PT and then backed the 2nd truck up to a grass berm. The ramp angle was not too steep and was more like a bridge. I loaded the PT that way and we were gone in 10 mintues. Looking back on it, I should have strapped the ramps to the bumper before loading, because they could have easily kicked out. That was 10 years ago. I have learned much since then. :thumbsup:

 

[ultrarunner]

I would discourage the idea of hauling your 425 in a truck for a couple of reasons, power vs speed to get up ramps into truck bed with attachment on, weight of pt will bend the tailgate upon loading, curousity of local law enforcement, wear and tear on truck axle bearings, storage of ramps during transport,etc. etc. loaded my 425 into f250 4x4 only a couple of times (8ft bed) one close call with a ramp that ''kicked out'' during loading justified a dedicated trailer for the pt. my trailer has a low deck height which allows me to load the pt without ramps (place bucket on trailer lift front wheels onto deck drive forward, rear wheels will climb onto trailer deck)

Got a guy that runs around with one in the bed of his truck... he has no tailgate and put down two 2x12's in the bed and the ramps have locking pins to keep them in place...

He also added timber to the front of the bed since he came in a lot too hot once and did a number on it...