Getting Raised Shed - Lengths of Ramps for 28" RER?

You are going to need a ramp around 8 feet long.

deereboy55 said:

You are going to need a ramp around 8 feet long.

Click to expand...

Have you tried this or know someone who has?

Thanks

deereboy55 said:

You are going to need a ramp around 8 feet long.

Click to expand...

I would think you could get by with less than half that. We loaded mowers in the back of pick-up trucks for decades with 8' ramps and that was with a rise of around 30". 8' is what would be needed to be ADA compliant.

With the mower deck installed ,you will need around 8 feet to not hit the top of the ramp with the mower deck. I have loaded tractors on a trailer with 8 foot ramps and a 2 foot rise,and the mower deck hit almost every time and had to push the tractor my hand when the rear wheels started spinning. If this is a permanent ramp you want to avoid such problems.

my trailer has a 5' ramp and the deck is 12-14" high and my old L130 the deck would drag and almost hang up, so I would say something close to 8' sounds right to me as well.

deereboy55 said:

With the mower deck installed ,you will need around 8 feet to not hit the top of the ramp with the mower deck. I have loaded tractors on a trailer with 8 foot ramps and a 2 foot rise,and the mower deck hit almost every time and had to push the tractor my hand when the rear wheels started spinning. If this is a permanent ramp you want to avoid such problems.

Click to expand...

My rise is only about 1/3 being roughly 8"....I am thinking 6' should do it

Try using some scrap 2"x4"x8' studs mocked up as a temporary ramp just for measuring purposes. Even a scrap half sheet, 4'x8', of plywood might suffice. I built my ramp out of concrete after getting the dimensions straightened out. The concrete will out last the shed & will not rot like wood. 8' should be plenty long for a ramp with an 8" rise.

HOPE THIS HELPS.

Take the wheelbase in inches. Measure the clearance at the middle of the wheelbase. The arc formed by a circle drawn between the wheels, just clearing the bottom of the mower deck, will give you the radius length of a circle that the mower can traverse without hitting bottom. I leave the details to the casual reader.... Heh.
Truly, it is an arc that determines the clearance, as I have seen pictures in auto/truck mags showing such.

Try this site:

http://www.ramp-master.com/calculator.html

Fill in the blanks, and press somthing...
tom

I built steel ramps for my lil trailer.... have used them a thousand times.. I built them with a bend in the middle.. the ramps r 7 foot long.. with the upper section settin on a 4 inch spacer.. the lower section made the incline to that.. my trailer bed is 18 inches off the ground

I added a drawing of what I did.. u can do this but u may b able to have less hump in them

NOVAZ27 said:

Try using some scrap 2"x4"x8' studs mocked up as a temporary ramp just for measuring purposes. Even a scrap half sheet, 4'x8', of plywood might suffice. I built my ramp out of concrete after getting the dimensions straightened out. The concrete will out last the shed & will not rot like wood. 8' should be plenty long for a ramp with an 8" rise.

HOPE THIS HELPS.

Click to expand...

Do this. It is probably a lot less than you think. My 28 rider goes into my shed just fine with the deck raised all the way. It is probably a 4 or 5 inch height with nothing more than a a landscape timber (4 inch wide, 3 inch high with rounded edges) as a step up.

I'm guessing 3 or 4 feet is plenty for yours.

oldstick said:

My 28 rider goes into my shed just fine with the deck raised all the way.

Click to expand...

This statement brings up an interesting question I've wondered about. Do different RERs have different maximum deck heights? I'm referring to the height on level 6 when the deck is properly adjusted. (this has to take into account that different owners may interpret "properly adjusted" differently).

My rer (33" deck) has my front deck adjustment in the higher adjustment and the rear of my deck is slightly higher than the front. With this in mind, when at level 6, the front of my deck is about 1.75" off the ground. To raise this level I'd have to modify the stock version, meaning I'd have to drill some new holes.

I could be wrong but I'm guessing the front edge of most 28" decks might be adjustable to be higher than 1.75".

With 1.75" at the highest level, loading into a truck or shed can be a pain in the butt.

1. If you use straight boards, you can buy Ramp end kits at Menards or other box stores.
2. I got another idea: measure the middle point between the front and rear tires where the mower deck would bottom out. Take that measurement and attach a wooden block to the top of the straight board at that same length from the top of the ramp boards. You could add shorter boards on top of the ramp board leading to that riser board from each direction.

Drawings from what I described above in connected photos. 2nd picture is of ramp boards. Red ones are 2nd boards attached to the top of the main board. You can raise the height of the hump by how many spacer boards you put under the boards drawn in red.
If you can attach some anti slip strips to boards that might help with traction.

If I didn't know better I would say it sounds like we are all a bunch of engineers on here.....

:thThumbsU

I have never owned a RER but I have a X729 Deere with a 62C deck and I had a Scag ZTR with a 48" deck and neither one had any trouble getting in and out of these sheds. The first shed has a ramp that is about 4.5' long and is at a 10 deg. slope. The shed is about 12" off the ground. The shed with the roll up door has a 3' 3" ramp at 13 deg. and the shed is about 8" off the ground. Sounds like maybe the RER's deck won't raise as high as my Deere or Scag.

oldstick said:

If I didn't know better I would say it sounds like we are all a bunch of engineers on here.....

:thThumbsU

Click to expand...

not quite yet.... I think it is some guys tryin to explain to a few guys on here that don't have the foggiest idea on how to put to good use of what we learned in high school some 50 + years ago

ya... I did take Industrial Arts in high school 55 years ago...we learned how to picture in our minds how some things should look & how to put that idea on paper in the form of a blueprint..

now if u can do a better job to solve the guys prob he wants an answer for.....be our guest...

OK, I was just joking around some.

All I was saying above was mine drives right into my shed without any ramp to speak of. Only a single timber placed sideways on the ground next to the opening. So sort of a "step up" ramp 4 inches long and 3 inches high with another inch or so to step up to the shed.

Now does my deck touch any, I don't know maybe it does touch a little but it is flexible so the mower drives right in and out no problem. It is a around a 2000 model 28 inch rear rider with no adjustments ever to the facory deck settings.

But for an 8 inch rise as in the OP, you will need a little more obviously.

Whirly said:

I built steel ramps for my lil trailer.... have used them a thousand times.. I built them with a bend in the middle.. the ramps r 7 foot long.. with the upper section settin on a 4 inch spacer.. the lower section made the incline to that.. my trailer bed is 18 inches off the ground

I added a drawing of what I did.. u can do this but u may b able to have less hump in them

Click to expand...

What's a Trailor?:hide:

the threshold is where you will have the issue. like suggested just find some junk lumber and make a mock up. used pallets might even work.

I was going to go to school to be a mechanical engineer but school and I are not compatible. My oldest brother has degrees in mechanical & electrical engineering and knows computers extremely well. A female cousin of mine is an engineer too.