[daless2]

Originally Posted by jkd

That theory doesn't hold water because of the fact that the long wheelbase ATV total weight is about twice the weight of the smaller short WB models. My Polaris 500 is a 715 lb. pig and a short WB Susuki is 400 or less. It's not ramp weight alone causing the problem. Like I posted, I have an aluminum sheet installed on my gate and the other day I bounced my 175 lb. bod up and down as I sat on the middle of the sheet while looking at the metal separation area as best I could. I could see white primer appear off and on as I bounced showing the inner and outer skin working against each other. I'm not saying the top edge can't be bent, but if you pull the black trim off like I did the other day you'll see the outer skin wraps over and is spot welded (not crimped) to the inner in 15 spots along the top edge. Also if you take time to remove the access panel and see how and where the gussets are I think you'll end up with a more well informed idea of just where the problem lies.


My aluminum ramps are 40ft from the back door so I just went out and with one end on the ground and with the other end tailgate height I held the tailgate end up with just my forefinger so that doesn't enter in to the problem to a great extent.
Rather than trying to impress anyone with a theory of angles, weights during loading, and on and on, personally I'll just agree with the service manager I talked to this morning, the tailgate should handle an ATV just like the other brands.

Hi JKD,

Sorry about the confusion here, but it’s not theory.

It is Fact!

Has to be right? This is the Facts thread! LOL

It’s just that my run-on sentence was not as clear as it could have been without adding some underscores to underscore the point I was unsuccessful at making. LOL

I will copy and paste and add my highlights in the hopes of doing a better job of it the second time around.

“It also may help you understand the loads put on your tailgates using ramps, and why one ATV of a given weight might cause a problem (The shorter the wheelbase, the higher the percentage of weight on the tailgate), and another ATV of the same weight does not cause a tailgate issue (Longer wheelbase puts less weight, on the tailgate edge at any moment in time.)”


As for your Polaris and Suzuki, that can all be calculated too, given any weight, any wheelbase and any length of ramps.

While the forty-foot ramp does allow you to pick one end up while the other end is loaded, it also does the opposite as the ATV approached the tailgate, greatly increasing the load on the tailgate when the ATV gets really close.

In fact, with a long ramp like that something close to 95% of the total weight of the ATV would be on the lip of the tailgate just as the ATV approaches it.

That is far more weight on the tailgate lip then would be there if using of a 6-foot ramp and the same ATV.

What ramp length give’th, Ramp length also take ‘th away.

Hope I was able to make this clearer.

Have a great night,

Frank