Thread: Dog car ramp

This is the first "project" I have completed since my wife died about six months ago so even though it's trivial as far as projects go it's significant for getting me back into the shed.

We have two Border Collies, Willow is 11 and the Skye is 10. Skye being younger and also far more active than Willow easily jumps into the (highish) back of the 4WD irrespective of what angle the vehicle is parked at. Willow will jump down with the vehicle parked at any angle but will only jump up into the back of the 4WD provided it's parked facing down hill where she she can get bit of run up and the vehicle angle favours her jump. With the 4WD on the flat or facing uphill I recently have had to pick Willow up to put her into the back of the 4WD. She only weighs 20kg but occasionally she scrabbles when I put her down and her nails usually end up tearing strips off skin off my forearms.

So I decided to make the dog ramp.

The first question is size.
Plastic ramps from Kmart are 1.5m long which generates a high angle for any ramp propped up against the back of the 4WD - I thought I would need at least 1.8m.
The Kmart ones are also a fixed length so will not fit easily into the back of the 4WD. They can be disassembled to fit into a small box but who wants to stand round making and breaking a ramp every time.

So this is what I came up with.
It's made of 2 x 900mm x 400 mm pieces of 5 ply attached to a 28mm square pine frame with a HD piano hinge in the middle and covered with some ribbed indoor/outdoor crpet.
Even though it's strong enough in this form, when the dogs walk on it the ramp bends at the hinge and bounces up and down which unnerves the dogs and they won't climb any further and jump off.
To remove the bounce I joined 800mm lengths of 40 x 40 x 5 mm Al angle together to form a pair of U-channels that tight fit on the sides of the ramp. The two pieces of angle are held together by CS M4 screws (CS holes in one piece and threaded holes in the other)
I could have used premade U-channel but then I would have had to make the free/ply/carpet of a precise thickness to get a tight fit.
Using angle means I can make the U-channel to exactly fit the ramp edges which is easier.
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To store the ramp the sides easily pull off and the ramp folds in half.
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The U-section pieces clip onto the edges of one of the ramp halves like this.
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And into the back of the 4WD
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The ply came from an old Appliance Box - the first piece of ply I sliced into was rubbish.
I have never seen anything like it before
Only the outer edges of the sheet were real ply the rest was garbage.
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Fortunately the second sheet I had from the same box was decent solid ply.
The pine is from some offcuts of Norfolk Island Pine I milled last year.
For covering I initially used the hard plastic roll material from a running machine belt but the dogs found it too slippery to get any purchase on this and scuttered around on it like being on an ice rink.

It took about 2 dozen pieces of Shmacko treats to train Willow to use it - it would have been quicker but she had to unlearn the slippery feel of the running machine belt
First I lay THE RAMP on the ground and restricted access to the sides of the ramp with patio chairs and put small pieces of treats on the ramp so the dogs walked along it to eat the treats and get the feel of the carpet.
Then I raised one ramp end to chair height and repeated the previous steps.
The raised the ramp to patio table height and then finally the 4WD.

Skye ignored the ramp still just jumps directly into the back of the4WD as it's the quickest way to get to the treat - typical!