Extremely interesting custom ramp truck

[ebinmaine 67,593]

Link to the article:

 

https://www.thedrive.com/news/behold-the-articulating-ford-f-150-ramp-truck-built-in-a-garage

 

 

Excerpt from the sale page describing the original purpose:

 

This 1991 F150 was a purpose built truck, not so much for recovery along open roads but for the use in big city’s; with all those parking ramps, and narrow roads. It’s quite difficult removing cars from those structures, and that is exactly what this one of kind truck was designed to do. This truck was a prototype and the only one manufactured. It was built to fit almost any small to medium size car or SUV. It won’t work on tall pickup trucks or vans ect.

 

This truck articulates just behind the cab approximately 25°-30° degrees to either the right or the left. Hence the round shape of the bed.

 

It has an extreme low load angle for

clearance, which also helps with ground effects, and low bumpers on modern cars. As well as total overhead clearance in parking garages.

 

All functions are controlled with a wireless loadar radio controlled key pad.

 

This truck is highly maneuverable in tight spots, and easy to align with parked cars in ramps. It has a self centering ramp\ floor to eliminate body damage when loading and unloading. The ride height on tail board is approx 12″ in from ground.

[davem1111 2,030]

Very cool. 

[Pullstart 62,905]

Huh.  Interesting to say the least.  Two different lug patterns on the wheels though?  

[ebinmaine 67,593]

1 hour ago, Pullstart said:

Huh.  Interesting to say the least.  Two different lug patterns on the wheels though?  

 

Ford used a 7 lug wheel on a "Heavy Half" truck and the lighter duty F250 approximately 1997 or 8 for just a few years.  

 

Those front wheels on that particular truck could be just a wheel cap or a swap axle from a later model.  

THAT truck in THAT vintage didn't have 7 lugs on any weight capacity.  

5. 6. Or 8. 

 

 

[wh500special 2,184]

I had one of those 7-lug Fords.  Mine was a 1997 F250 4wd that I bought new.  There are pix of it on here somewhere when I traded it off in 2017.  I liked it when I had it. 
 

I happened to talk with one of the engineers on that generation truck development program several years ago.  The reason for the goofy arrangement was that they wanted to use hub-centered instead of lug-centered wheels.  They didn’t want customers swapping lug-centered wheels to hub-centered hubs (and vice versa) so they gave that truck series the unique 7 lug pattern.  
 

it did make buying brakes and whatnot somewhat difficult when work was due. 
 

 If you look at more pix of the wacky ramp truck on  Bring-a-Trailer you’ll see a couple shots of the front suspension.  It’s standard 2wd F150 Twin I-beam design.  Should have 5 lug hubs as the 7-lug trucks had a coil spring/A-arm setup.  So I suspect those are just wheel covers or somehow the spindles were swapped. 
 

sold for $14501
 

there is a shot of the GVW sticker from the donor truck.  It had a pretty light GVWR, so I’m not sure this tow truck would be capable of carrying a lot often.  

A lot of work went into that thing, for sure. 
 

I got a smile out of the author’s last sentence when I (mis)read it:

 

I'll choose to admire it from afar, and maybe even dream of what I would build if I were more skilled with a wrench than a chimpanzee.

 

I read that as him having some particularly mad chimpanzee skills.  

 

Steve

Edited January 9 by wh500special

[wallfish 17,011]

58 minutes ago, wh500special said:

I read that as him having some particularly mad chimpanzee skills.  

I'm all for building crazy stuff and absolutely love the ingenuity to make it work and drive. Very clever indeed!  It has to be made for a show piece type of build thingy because of the light truck front.

Highly doubtful it would actually be productive for those towing tasks mentioned. Hence the for sale sign on it.

[ebinmaine 67,593]

4 hours ago, wallfish said:

I'm all for building crazy stuff and absolutely love the ingenuity to make it work and drive. Very clever indeed!  It has to be made for a show piece type of build thingy because of the light truck front.

Highly doubtful it would actually be productive for those towing tasks mentioned. Hence the for sale sign on it.

 

Agreed on the too light chassis. 

 

 

I read the article but rather quickly. I remember it being a Prototype... but I don't recall if it was ever put to commercial use. 

It was designed to move lighter vehicles only. 

 

Having two axles in the rear is great. Plenty of capacity there. 

The front axle suspension being so light duty seems super sketchy to me. 

Loading a vehicle would NEED to be done with a careful weight distribution.