Angle Iron???

[HONDA_508]

Hey would this work, angle iron used to make a replica ramp of the REV 1, my friends dad owns a construction company that like puts up gaurd rails or somthing so he has some metal or whatever, i havent seen it but my friend said all he has is angle iron that we can use willit work?. and if not can you weld to pieces of angle Iron together to make a tube? will that work, ya i know sounds kinda silly but youll do anything when you dont have the cash...

[ont.freerider]

me and mikey B just put our ramp together today, we used 2X4s. we thought it would be a little flimsy cause its wood and all but with our craftmanship its darn sturdy, not one cm of play in the bugger, there is a cheap alternative, ours is 6ft high and 14 feet long, angle iron is weak, it will bend, and if you want to weld peices of angle iron together into tubing, you will be welding you A** for weeks, i'd give the wood a try, we made ours 6 feet tall cause we figured 8 ft would sway in the wind hahaha, seriously we did, but the ramp we made is super strong, we'll see how it holds up in the spring.

[crustyfmx250]

hell no!!!

when i made my ramp, we used angle iron for every 2nd rail on the face of the ramp. when we went to screw the plywood to it, it bent the rails!! they are way too weak for a ramp. (so we ripped em out and put real metal in there ;)

and can u imagine how long it would take to weld all the angle iro together to make tubing?? It would be a fairly worthless thing :D

[slider]

and... don't build a ramp out of wood. Your life depends on it. I know several riders that had a 2x4 and 4x4 break and some of them got busted up.

I also know of several people that have built AND BOUGHT ramps with plywood for the surface only to have the plywood fall apart in only one outing. One ramp bent, then busted the metal cross supports off while the ply fell apart. NOT GOOD.

It is possible to build ramps out of wood, and angle iron, with success. There is a higher risk of failure with these.

The new IFMA ramps have some angle iron in the angle but there is such a strong infrastructure under the angle that they can get away with it. But, these also cost over 6 grand each.

The biggest problem I have found with angle iron is it flexes. This can be overcome but there has to be so many supports added that they are too heavy to move unless you dismantle it into several parts. When a ramp flexes, the rider has a hard time feeling the hit and will launch wierd some of the time.

[ont.freerider]

6 grand a peice!!! wow.

i'll see how the wood holds up. we are using 3/4 inch plywood and we have cross members in close intervals, it doesn't have any play in it, but if it gets play in it, i geuss that will be the end of that ramp,

[MIKEY B]

yeah......wood is taking a gamble....but im not made of money so im stuck.
if anyone wants a wood ramp i wouldnt reccomend anything higher than 6 ft....its way to risky....

but i got a master plan to make it 8 ft high

the first day i hear a crack in this thing.....its being replaced!

[localboy]

on our ramp, we used all angle iron except for the vertical and horizontal main peices, and the curve. we used it cause you just gotta drill through the metal once to put on the wood and it cost 1/2 as much. but we really screwed it up good, on sliders site, i coulda swore it said cross peices every 2 feet. and but i guess its every foot. so when my plywood gets to tore up im gonna go to expanded metal anyway and weld in some more cross peices.

[slider]

Best to put a layer of sheet metal down first so it ties it all in. Otherwise, it may bend the expanded and cross members over time.

[localboy]

okay, do you weld on the expanded mesh or bolt it?

[slider]

Weld sheet metal to frame, mesh to sheet metal. Hundreds of welds but worth it.

[localboy]

great, that'll probably keep the ramp from twisting too, what gauge of sheet metal?

[slider]

best to use 14 gauge with 3/4" #9 Raised Expanded Metal. I used to use 16 gauge but had a crack next to a weld after about 4,000 hits so I use 14 from now on. Also, I use 5 welds per cross member and 9 welds every 6" on the expanded metal. It used to take me 2 days to put that stuff on but now I have 2 welders and my 16 year old is my partner so it is only 1 day now.

[localboy]

jezzus thats alot of welding

[localboy]

slider, you rule. before i built a ramp i thought that i knew what i was talking about, but now after i built 2, i realize i know hardly anything.

[vincemorgan]

yes ,,,, he definately knows his stufft!!!!!! he works on computers.......know you know why!!!!LOL!!!! yep, it took me 2 days to get the metal on. and quite a few burns on my hands ###mit!!!! hehe, anyway, mine is a rev.3 with the sheet metal and exp. metal surface. it is seriously the best ramp there is , i guarantee they are!

[HONDA_508]

So angle iron would be a no go? I mean im sure he has other metal, but its for heavy construction so i assume its heavy so we would have to cut it into 2 pieces , the only problem would be is bending it by ourselves...