Truck Decks

[win]

Just purchased a new deck from Marathon 7' with 10' ramp, polished aluminum
Jay was very helpful and good to deal with,but i have a question for all deck owners, i have never landed a sled on a deck before, so any tips would be helpful, mounted in a 07 ram 2500 short box and shimmed to clear the truck box rails so its about 3'' higher than normal

 

[evan3000]

just close your eyes an pin it. LOL There really not that bad to load onto once your track catches the ramp she climbs right up. try loading up onto a truck with an 8" lift and 39" tires with a 8' ramp, now thats scary!!!!

 

[win]

Nice unit you have there evan3000,my nightmare would be launching on the cab, most everyone says nice even pace at 5km and up she goes, cant wait to give it a try.

 

[shoppingcart111]

Just purchased a new deck from Marathon 7' with 10' ramp, polished aluminum
Jay was very helpful and good to deal with,but i have a question for all deck owners, i have never landed a sled on a deck before, so any tips would be helpful, mounted in a 07 ram 2500 short box and shimmed to clear the truck box rails so its about 3'' higher than normal

I just bought the same deck from Jay and I was kinda worried myself but I tried it on the weekend and its cake, I didn't even take a run at the ramp just a bit of gas to get the track to bite the ramp and she crawls up, just have to be ready on the brake cause the deck is alot shorter than a trailer.

 

[Stg2Suby]

I've got a 9' ramp and 7' deck on a 2500 Cummins.

First thing is make sure you park the truck on flat level ground, or better yet find a spot with the rear wheels in a bit of a dip so the angle between ramp and deck is less. Avoid parking with the rear end up.

For loading I don't like having to grab throttle and be dealing with clutch engagement on the ramp itself. I get a decent run from maybe 30' back, accelerate the sled just past clutch engagement (maybe 10kph?) and feather the throttle so you're hitting the ramp nice and smooth with enough momentum to carry the sled up under even throttle.

Done correctly you approach the ramp and up the ramp nice and smooth at a constant speed. Once the sled hits the pivot point and noses over you chop throttle and hit the brakes if necessary. Note you don't have a large landing area with 7' deck.

Another thing is you'll likely end up loading everyone else's sled too because 1) they don't have a deck of their own and the confidence and/or 2) you don't want to witness them wipe out their sled and/or your truck/deck. So drive their sled a bit before loading to get a feel for the throttle and clutch engagement.

Good luck, once you do it a few times and get confident it's kind of fun watching others as you seemingly pull off the impossible.

 

[win]

taking this all in ,Good info, keep it coming

 

[foothills m8]

Some parking lots have unloadng ramps made out of snow.A good snow bank works good to.

 

[thump]

As Stg2Suby quoted, I think the key is to approach the ramp at a constant speed, not gaining speed!

 

[tko sled ed]

I don't load on my buddies deck any more. Just about put it on the cab of his 09 chev and that was with my old 583 no way i say with the new xp it's quick and stop fast. You will get the hang of it i'am sure , but you'll always be loading the other sled it's, better for all involved. Have a great season.

 

[bbtoys]

I hit the down button and lower mine to the ground, superclamp it and hit up button, done.

 

[tko sled ed]

Where is that deck from i have seen them a long time ago but haven't heard of them since. How much room is left under for gear?

 

[evan3000]

Nice unit you have there evan3000,my nightmare would be launching on the cab, most everyone says nice even pace at 5km and up she goes, cant wait to give it a try.

Not my rig, it's a buddy's, I had a similar set up on a 2500 Ram with half the lift.
I have had a few near misses loading/unloading sleds or quads, and have heard a ton more bad stories, but they are a really handy way to haul your toys a guy just has to be careful!!!

 

[senorjeem]

Best advice I heard here was easy does it, and make sure the truck is level. Hurts like hell dropping one off the side and having it land right on you.

 

[2003Summit]

Had mine for 4 years now. Had 4 or 5 sleds now. First few years I was doing it all wrong. Would spin at the bottom, fly up and land at the top. Never broke anything or fell off anything, but I was lucky. All wrong. Here is what I have learned.

If you see a guy do it well, it looks like a piece of cake, its smooth, no stops, no belt burning, no lifting of anything off anything, no spinning, no bangs (no ski's slamming on deck), only a little truck rock. They just seam to go up and park like it's nothing.


PREP

Three words: park level, level, and level. Move the truck if you have to. You want it no more than an 1" or 2" difference across the width of the ramp. Front to back is not a big deal, can be bad, no biggie. It's leaning left or right that is bad.

If you are loading on conc. or ash fault, you will find the collapsible ramp nicely collapses for you. You need to pin it so it will stay open. This is for that summer spring stuff going in and out of storage.

Step 1

Take a nice little 15 to 20 foot run at it. You should do a longer more controlled run if you are not practiced up. The idea is to get the sled mostly up to the top of the ramp using the sleds momentum without spinning. You will learn how hard you have to hit it to do this - you want to hit it just right. If you spin, you will make a dangerous situation and damage the ramp. If you arn't going fast enough you wont make it high enough up. If you go too fast you will be using the ramp as a jumpers ramp and that how sleds fall of trucks and hurt you and the next truck beside you. All you want out of the momentum is to end up with full track contact at the bottom of the ramp just as you are running out of momentum. And without spinning.

Step 2

If you have done your little run right, you will be very near the top of the ramp just running out of momentum. You should have had some throttle on while climbing the ramp (not enough to spin), but now that you got full track contact, and are near the top of the ramp you will need quite a bit more throttle to climb the sled up. Let the sled climb slow, don't lift the ski's up. You can smoothly climb it up the rest of the ramp fully under control. Stop when you are about where you think you want to be. If you can transition well from the initial part of the climb to the top part of the climb it will be nice and smooth. Note: you have to quickly back way off the throttle when the sled is fully up on the deck.

Tips:
If you run up the ram and loose track contact and cant climb more, then back down and try again with a little more approach speed. DO NOT SPIN IT! IF it spins, abort! Spinning bends ramps and takes chunks out of your track.
If you get near the top and your burning the belt getting the rest of the way up, you could try a little more approach speed or a little more throttle on the way up, so you have a little more momentum to help you with the last bit.
If you skis come up in the air and slam down on the deck, you had too much speed. Or you stalled on the ramp and honked on it to get to the top.
If you have a Ski-Doo and haven't cut your snow flap shorter yet, cut about 2" off so you don't run over it in the way down each time and bend the tunnel.
If you need to adjust the sled back and forth on the ramp to get the clamps lined up, go to the back of the sled and grab a track paddle/lug above the wheel and move it forward, back, (push/pull) you have a 2:1 ratio over the sled here as the track is acting like a pulley system for you. It's easy.

I think thats all I know about this subject.

A couple of tries and you will be a pro.

 

[RaspberryNytro]

be real careful if you have let your sled thaw out the night before then freeze again. It makes for very interesting when loading the next day on an icy deck!!! Like said before, make sure truck is level! hit it straight as you can(i've seen guys try to load even at a bit of an angle & over the side they went) be careflu & have fun!!!

RN

 

[win]

Wow good info guys i appreciate this,i think this is going to take some practice, level ground and enough speed to get the whole track on the ramp and then some throtle to power onto the deck and hit the binders, EASY I THINK.LOL

 

[win]

2003SUMMIT Thanks for the snow flap tip.

 

[meadowmuffen]

--O3 summit pretty much covers it.--One screw-up I did,is I forgot to put up my ice scratchers first.--hit the deck,panicked from the noise,hit the brakes & got hung up on the ramp till 4 big young fellows showed up & lifted my sled.--cost me $ in the pub that night!

 

[SLEDBUNNYRACING]

Had a deck for years...I did just about land on the ground once when I had my truck "off level". Otherwise it was awesome, convenient and really easy to load. I too had one of the rather vertical ramps. Really, once the track grabbed you just idle up.
If I were to get another one it would have retractable sides.

 

[takethebounce]

One item I have seen out there is a section about 20" wide that hooks onto the lower two rungs of the ramp. I know with my Summit when the ski would make contact with the ramp and I didn't have enough speed to continue up the track wouldn't catch the ramp. This section I think would cure any of those times when the truck is sitting higher.

When loading two sleds the second sled is obviously going to have less room for error which I almost made the mistake of sliding a ski over the side once. Luckily it didn't turn out as bad as I thought it was going to.

Last year I found some pics of guys who landed their sleds onto their trucks and off the deck. I wish I could find those!