Brett Richmond

I have a 16ft dove tail trailer, my car is a C4 with side exhaust and clearance between the wheels is only 2" to 2 1/4" at most, trailer has the 4ft ramps that come with it. I have made a set of stair step wood ramps to go along with them but do not think they will work as it looks like the car will scape going up. Has any one made their own ramps to get the correct angle on entry right for the trailer. If so how long were they and if you have pics that would be great.

c4cruiser

I have an 18' open trailer with a dove tail and I bought a set of these ramps They are the 6' hook-style and made of aluminum. They weigh about 20 lbs each.

I haul my 87 on my trailer and the car will go up with no real problems but the car is not lowered. I did make a set of stepped wood ramps as an add-on that provides extra clearance. They are made from 2x12s and the base piece is 3' long, the next piece is 2' and the top piece is about 8" long and sits back about 4" from the edge to allow the aluminum ramp to sit up 3" higher which effectively decreases the overall angle of the ramps to the dovetail. The gray stuff is some anti-skid stuff I glued on.

Brett Richmond

I used your pics to make my additional ramps, those other ramps are but but $230 ouch I was thinking maybe 10ft ramps would work out.

c4cruiser

The aluminum ramps are pricey but the 5' ramps that came with my trailer were steel and weighed about 60lbs each. Going to the aluminum ramps was not only a weight savings on the trailer but on my back!

10' long ramps might be a problem as the ramps would have to hold the entire weight of the car. The company has longer aluminum ramps that will carry 8500lbs but they are in the $550-$600 price range for 10' versions.

97C5inSD

if your gona make the ramps 10 ft long you will need a brace that goes to the ground place in the middleof that span if they are steel ramps they would be awfully heavy to not do that with. 6-8 ft should get you in really good shape. you should look what what the extra block you have added gives you for lenght then add 6 inches to that and have some ramps built. and you should be in really good shape.

I went to a rollback trailer so no issues with ramps at all. granted if my car gets any lower it will not go on it either so my front ACP splittleris gona have to be detachable

Z07coupe

Brett,
I have a low C4 and a cheap trailer and have had to modify my rig.

Mine is not only low, but my front valance is quite low. Once on my 6' ramps I need to raise the front of the car high enough to prevent draging my headers on the top edge of the dovetail. So, as you can see, I built up the 'treadline', from dovetail to the front of the treadline'. (My valance was so low that it was also chaffing on my front tie down straps, so I kept the treadine up 3".) On the left side you can see an extra 1 x 10, approx 2.5' long to provide just a little extra boost at the crest of the dovetail (the right side is off). It ends just short of touching the rear tire when the car is in the proper position.
In regards to approaching the ramp from the ground, I require at least one 2 x 10, min 27" in length, laid down at the bottom end of the ramp to prevent my valance from dragging on the ramp.
I'm not saying this is the answer, but I evolved into this design, I didn't plan it this way. But it works. I already required a 1.5" of rise to open my doors.
Note: the small 2x4 sticking out beneath the dovetail was a temporary fix to prevent my ramps from jumping out of the lip when driving up. That will change to a simple tab welded onto the top of the ramp.
The 2 x 6 being held down by the pins are there to retain my 6', heavier than hell steel ramps, on the trailer. Of course that piece of wood and pins are taken off during loading and unoading. Did I mention that my ramps are really heavy so I store them as close to the dovetail as possisble?

Brett Richmond

Here are a couple of pics I found of a members set-up that I think will work just fine