Carry your trike anywhere on the roof of a hatchback, sedan or station wagon with this economical recumbent ramp. Make it yourself with $50 worth of components. You won’t have to lift the trike – a difficult task for us ageing ramblers. The same ramp is all you need if you have a ute (utility vehicle or truck in American vernacular). This article describes the building of the ramp. Read “How to Transport a Recumbent Trike on a Town Car” for trike loading and unloading in action
Don’t feel left out if you have an SUV, 4×4 or tray-back. I have ramps that work for those too.
There are many ways enthusiasts have used to transport their trikes.
- The most common and expensive is to buy a larger car/Ute/truck/van/bus.
- Alternatively, many trikes are folding.
- Laid Back Cycles, as always, has a solution that sits on your towbar and, as in the name, it is Easy Load.
Pinterest shows images of many solutions. They all (including mine) are examples of my favourite saying.
For every problem, there is a solution, and for every solution, there is a problem.
Some cost too much, while others require too much lifting. No solution fits every situation. In that light, here is one more.
Materials
You can get everything you need from your local hardware store.
- Three planks 180mm (7″) wide x 1.5m (5′) long. The width works between 6″ and 8″. Any narrower makes it hard to use.
- Two 64mm wide x 950mm long for cross-pieces. The width can be anything that is at least as wide as the hook-and-loop tape. The length is the front wheel track width plus 180mm.
- One 64mm x 180mm riser for central ramp. Most vehicles have a bonnet (hood) with a raised centre.
- Two metres (6′) of contact hook-and-loop tape for connecting the planks and cross-pieces. I have found that the Velcro brand extra-strong version works best – not so much for the hook and look as for the contact used to stick it to the wood.
- Depending on the vehicle, a ratchet strap of either 2 metres (6′) or 4 metres (12′) length. A car with roof rails only needs a 2-metre strap. I prefer the spring-loaded self-rewinding sort.
- A short locking strap to tie down a wheel to reduce forward and backward movement.
In Australia, the boards come in 1.8-metre lengths. I will show you how to use the offcuts in a later blog when a longer ramp is needed.
Once assembled, the ramp will look like these photographs. Click on one to see it in more detail. I used hook-and-loop so that it is easy to take apart and put in the car for the trip. As you will see in later blogs, I often leave assembled and locked under the trike on the roof. It is the main reason for limiting the length to 1.5 metres of 5 feet.
Notice that the strips on hook-and-look on the cross pieces are longer than the recumbent ramp width. If you have trikes with different track widths, you may need to reduce the distance between ramps.
It is unusual for a car or truck to have a completely flat bonnet. By putting a spacer under the central ramp, all three will make contact while in use. Again, hook-and-loop allows for differing heights by having one or more spacers.