First time poster, really long time lurker here... it seems that no matter how obscure my current project is there's a relevant thread on these forums. In this case I was procrastinating on finishing up my pre-winter service on my No Ramp 24U trailer and decided to see if I could find reviews/discussion about it and sure enough two threads popped up from these very forums. See here and here. It's been a few years since anyone's discussed it but I figured I'd share my experience with it and address a few things that were brought up in the other threads.
For those that have no idea what I'm talking about (and don't want to comb through the old threads) a No Ramp trailer it's a heavy duty equipment trailer that has cantilevered axles that swing down (in a kneeling motion) so that the bed of the trailer can sit on the ground, it can reduce the incline to 3 degrees for loading/unloading. It's great for material handling equipment/scissor lifts, in my case I buy and sell forklifts quite a bit for my business but also deal in a myriad of other equipment. I'd been searching for a suitable trailer for quite a while before I was introduced to the No Ramp by a company I work with frequently and realized it was perfect for what I need, and perfect for what they need as well (they regularly need to haul a scissor lift) so we decided to split the rather prohibitive expense and bought our No Ramp 24U (24' triple axle with a 15k max payload) and it's been working out great. We both use the trailer frequently but are also fairly flexible so we haven't stepped on each other toes, and it really helped make the cost far more palatable... with options we were over $15k, splitting that made it hurt far less.
It's hard to guestimate miles we've put on the trailer but I can say it's been easily over 60k, likely close to or over 100k and so far it's been the best non-semi trailer I've used or even heard about... it's not perfect, I do have some nit-picks I'll get to, but overall it's a REALLY heavy duty trailer. It seems like most trailers are built with a really tight margin in-mind so corners are cut whenever possible, and while there's some of that here it's generally the opposite... the deck is thicker, the beams are closer together, the brakes/axles are overkill. Before I gush too much I'll share my dislikes.
Dislikes:
Likes:
I guess my bottom line is it's an awesome trailer, not without some faults but certainly several steps above the large majority of trailers I see nowadays. We're currently shopping for a second No Ramp that's shorter and possibly with the enclosure option, so far the 24' has paid for itself so it would make sense to expand on that. If anybody has any questions I'm all ears... I'll take a few pictures when I get to the shop tomorrow (more so to show how it works, I know that came up in the old thread several times).
For those that have no idea what I'm talking about (and don't want to comb through the old threads) a No Ramp trailer it's a heavy duty equipment trailer that has cantilevered axles that swing down (in a kneeling motion) so that the bed of the trailer can sit on the ground, it can reduce the incline to 3 degrees for loading/unloading. It's great for material handling equipment/scissor lifts, in my case I buy and sell forklifts quite a bit for my business but also deal in a myriad of other equipment. I'd been searching for a suitable trailer for quite a while before I was introduced to the No Ramp by a company I work with frequently and realized it was perfect for what I need, and perfect for what they need as well (they regularly need to haul a scissor lift) so we decided to split the rather prohibitive expense and bought our No Ramp 24U (24' triple axle with a 15k max payload) and it's been working out great. We both use the trailer frequently but are also fairly flexible so we haven't stepped on each other toes, and it really helped make the cost far more palatable... with options we were over $15k, splitting that made it hurt far less.
It's hard to guestimate miles we've put on the trailer but I can say it's been easily over 60k, likely close to or over 100k and so far it's been the best non-semi trailer I've used or even heard about... it's not perfect, I do have some nit-picks I'll get to, but overall it's a REALLY heavy duty trailer. It seems like most trailers are built with a really tight margin in-mind so corners are cut whenever possible, and while there's some of that here it's generally the opposite... the deck is thicker, the beams are closer together, the brakes/axles are overkill. Before I gush too much I'll share my dislikes.
Dislikes:
- Surface rust! Already!! We didn't opt for there super special coating, I guess that may have rectified the issue, but there's rust shoiwng through on much of the deck. While cosmetics rarely bother me when it comes to equipment this does...
- Wiring could've been done far better. They used the standard heat-shrink butt connectors, but didn't protect them enough (considering the enviroment an equipment trailer works in)... dirt would get into the connectors or cheap sleeving and cause lighting issues. I ended up pulling the deck and re-doing the connection with liquid electrical tape and higher quality sleeving/protection. I had to replace whole wire-runs in several spots. It didn't functionally hurt the trailer, but the frequent flickering side-markers drove me nuts in my mirror
- The wireless remote for rasing/lowering was a nice idea but the system they use (or used, maybe it changed) is far too cheap.. it's short range, sub-15 feet, and the fob is fragile/prone to dying. I ended up sourcing a higher quality wireless remote system and swapping it out.
- It came with load range E tires when it should've come with range F or G. This was a recent issue I noticed, I honestly never read the tire sticker on the neck (since trailer tires are generally aired to the sidewall PSI, I figured they put the right tires on so I replaced like with like)... I spoke to them about this and it's not a safety issue since I never get near the max capacity but I would've at least liked to start replacing with F or G tires... they're working with me on this so I suspect it'll be a non-issue soon.
Likes:
- This trailer is AWESOME... there's nothing else out there like it. It's been the single greatest ROI equipment purchase I've ever made for my business. It simplified logistics and made it far easier for me to jump on a potential deal immediately. If I stumble across someone looking to offload a machine tool/forklift/industrial compressor or they get in touch with me I have far more bargaining power/ability to go after that deal.
- The remote raising/lowering makes you a rock-star at auctions/sales/with customers... I get real, pure joy out of it.
- Despite the length and triple axles it's surprisingly easy to maneuver, I haul it with a Savana 3500 6.6L Duramax van and have 3 exterior cameras to aid in visibility (cargo vans are astoundingly hard to see out of...) but generally it tracks the way I want and given the fact that it weighs over 5k lbs empty it's rock solid even without a load. On the van I do have a couple suspension upgrades that certainly help with the towing, like 4-leaf full tapered rear springs (12,500lb rated) and air-bag helper springs/load levelers. The front is also raised 2" and stiffened but even then it's a very stable trailer.
I guess my bottom line is it's an awesome trailer, not without some faults but certainly several steps above the large majority of trailers I see nowadays. We're currently shopping for a second No Ramp that's shorter and possibly with the enclosure option, so far the 24' has paid for itself so it would make sense to expand on that. If anybody has any questions I'm all ears... I'll take a few pictures when I get to the shop tomorrow (more so to show how it works, I know that came up in the old thread several times).