Bridging ladders for full size

[fifty]

I am thinking about the next piece of kit to add next to my shovel. It was originally going to be a set of smitty built element ramps, but then thought about the fact that my truck weighs a gazzilion pounds thanks to the 7.3 liter diesel up front...

So I got to thinking, there may be a time when I want to use them to help me climb out of something, maybe not so much over, but out...or up a ledge or something. Who knows...

Anyways, cant really see the smitty builts being too happy with me using them for that. I want to kill 2 birds with one stone, and would like to add some bridging ability to my sand/mud/snow assistance...

Any ideas on something thats good for the weight of the diesels...and also good enough to shove under a wheel once I have shoveled as mush as I can out ?

 

[911regular]

I have an 8000+ lb F 250 and have actually "bridged" small drainage ditches with the smittybilt ramps,, the gaps were less than 2 feet but they did hold up so far... Anything that is gonna be built to support that weight to bridge a gap is gonna be heavvvvvvy,,, just my .02 cents

 

[HenryJ]

I'm not as heavy as you are. I am using the fiberglass reinforced grating mats:

I used the same spare tire winches that came off my old truck. They tuck up pretty nicely and offer a shield for the auxiliary fuel tank too. Hidden out of the way and there all the time if I need them. 36 lbs for the pair mounted.

Mine are the 2" grate from Ken at AMGrating.com. This self recovery helped to sell me on the stuff: Youtube video Here are some actions shots of similar material: Gratemates Keep in mind that the Gratemates are 30mm. That is equal to the 1.25" grating. Quite a bit thinner material than I am using. There used to be a weight table somewhere on the amgrating website, but I can not find it now. It had a picture of a forklift driving up a piece of the grating material. A much harsher test than I did.
I tested a 4" wide scrap that I had leftover. This was done with my old truck.



That piece is four foot long and four inches wide. It did flex, as you can see it bowed in the photo. I jumped on the front bumper to bounce it and rolled the truck back and fourth to see if I could break it. No luck. It held up just fine. Once the weight was removed it returned to shape with no bowing. That one front tire should have around 1500# on it. Somewhere around 30# per square inch. That was enough to satisfy me that these should meet my needs, even though the new truck is heavier.

 

[Buliwyf]

4x4 lengths of wood.

Check your local small companies. Air Conditioners, Firepumps, transformers, Generators etc. etc. get shipped on custom made pallets made out of 4x4's. Just grab some out of there wood dumpster and cut them short enough to fit in your bed.

Don't steal wood from on construction site on accident.