today i found some success. i tested out on my wife's mustang first. i measured at the lowest point at the front is 6 inches. on the mustang, the front spoiler is 5.5 inches at its lowest point. removing the spoiler will gain about another 2.25 inches. the lowest point on the front valance is the sides of it which is 7.75 inches.
i bought some rhino ramps today that are made of composite and they say they are rated at 6000lbs per axle (wow, 12000lbs rating). they were awesome today when i had to change oil on the 2011 f150 and the 07 mustang. these ramps are a little bit taler than my friends ramps so they tilted the hitch up a little higher.
the hitch i have lowers the hitch about 2 inches or so and i inverted it so now it sits 2 inches from the receiver. with no load on the truck at all, with the hitch pointed down, the trailer was perfectly levelish. with no load with it inverted it now sticks up a bit (with some tongue weight it'll settle down and be level.
just like the guys are the race track, i drove my rear tires onto my new rhino ramps. (pictured) now my hitch is now 29 inches off of the ground. with no blocks of wood with the jack all the way up, i have the rear of the trailer at 19.5 inches off the ground. with the trailer hooked up to the truck and on ramps, it now sits about 15.5 inches off the ground (pictured).
i have the wire slowly approach the ramps and watch for something to hit, when the tires just come into contact with the ramps, there is ever so slightly a tad rub on the bottom of the front bumper. my wife somehow still kept on coming forward and she started coming onto the trailer. nothing wrong, she got the whole front tires onto the trailer and at a certain point of the middle of the car, the car is about 2 inches from touching the trailer, but as she starts to get the rear tires to contact the ramps the clearance maintains at 2 inches and then the rear tires get up the ramps. she slowly makes it all the way up the trailer (pictured)
now i wanted to test if how level the tongue would be with some tongue weight so i pulled the truck off of the ramps and checked to see how the leveling of the trailer. its almost perfect (pictured. there is a huge difference from the uhaul trailer i usually get thats 14 feet and the front tires have to touch the front of the trailer making all kinds of tongue weight and weighing down the rearend.
with the trailer with no weight on there is angled up a bit and with the car on the trailer it now makes it level, i'm assuming it has enough tongue weight.
i'm going to go ahead and play it safe for the races this saturday and buy some 2x12 boards and give me about 3 more inches. i need the boards to fit into the bed so my longest board will be about 5.5 feet, then a second board about 4.5 feet. place the ramps on top of the second board and lay another 3.5 feet board on top of the 2nd board and offset it a bit and place a top board behind it. that'll lift the ramps up 3 inches and give me a slow ramps before hitting the trailer ramps.
so this beats paying for 410 dollars worth of 8 feet race ramps. i get myself some convienence ramps for oil changes and pay only about 40 dollars or so for wood.
i'll take pictures this weekend on saturday when i make it out to the races. next is to install a winch!!!
i'm still really liking the tilt a hitch, it might be a good alternative to the ramps. or at least eliminate the boards.
the downfall of the tilt a hitch is only its huge and ugly and sticks out the trailer back even further. it is rated to 8000lbs still though.
