An Aluminum Dog Ramp for Large Breed Dogs

As most of you know I have been shopping for a solid dog ramp that would work for my small English Mastiff dog. Yes, a small Mastiff. At 140 pounds, my 4 year old mastiff is considered small for the breed. She was the runt of the litter.

Anyway, the local Petsmart and Petco stores had several plastic ramps rated at 200+ pounds.  I tried a few of these, but ended up returning them.  It would only be a matter of weeks after purchase and the plastic would start to bend or bow.  The new ramp is aluminum.  Very nice.  The bad news is... I can't tell you where to get it.  I have no clue.  My brother came across it somewhere used.  It has no name or marking on it of any kind. No numbers, nothing!

I like it because it is a single fold, instead of a bi-fold.  Let's face it, hinges are weak points. There is no sense in having twice as many weak points as we need.  This ramp is longer than most, fold to fit easily across my tailgate, is solid for the dog to walk on, and has rubber on top for traction.  Perfect!

Here is a close up of the hinge.  You can see how solid it is built and how nicely it is welded.  The dog actually likes to use it.

Dog Ramp : Rated at 200 pounds? Not So Much.

Note: The picture included here is from PetGear's literature.

About a month ago, I noticed Naly had a slight limp in her stride. I checked her paws and legs and watched her closely to see if she paid any special attention any of her feet or legs. It seemed like she had maybe just caught herself wrong jumping out of the back of the Toyota Tacoma pickup truck. The truck is not unusually tall for a 4x4 truck, but does have a slight ( less then 2 inch ) lift due to some off-road suspension. Naly was about to turn 4 years and at 140 or so pounds, I knew it was time to having her start using a pet ramp to get in and out of the truck. I know that front joints and shoulders take too much abuse from such jumping in these larger breeds. I went to my local Petco store to see what they had. The selection was ok, but not great for larger dogs. There were several options for small dogs to get on and off the sofa, or in and out of a vehicle, but for dogs over 100 pounds there were only two choices. One was a bi-fold ramp about 60 inches long rated for dogs up to 150 pounds. The other ramp was a PetGear TL9371CH trifold ramp rated for 200 pounds. The ramp was priced right around $109 and I was out the door for right around $120 with sales tax.

One of the biggest issues with using a dog ramp is to have it easily available so the dog gets used to using it every time they enter and exit the vehicle.  I would have preferred a bi-fold ramp because I knew if we were going to have strength issues it would be at the hinges, and I had plenty of room for a longer stored ramp.  The storage of the ramp was pretty easy. I simply folded it up, placed it inside the tailgate of the pickup truck and used a bungee cord from one back corner to another to hold it in place.  Naly quickly got used to the ramp concept and would patiently wait for me to setup the ramp for her ingress and egress.  We were all pretty happy with how the use of this pet ramp was working out until a few days ago when it seemed to be getting a bit spongier under her weight.  This morning when Naly loaded up, I noticed that the plastic near the upper hinge point was beginning to flex.  Upon further examination I could see and feel that the ramp's surface was caving down while the sides were flexing out.  It was obviously only going to be a short matter of time until the ramp would be junk.  I dug out the box and receipt and headed back to Petco.  Petco's return policy is 30 days and I fortunately was on day 29.  They took the defective ramp back without issue, but admitted that it was the sturdiest ramp they carried.

I am now in the process of shopping online to find a better fit for our use.  Because we are using the ramp with a pickup instead of a lower SUV or van, we would like to find one a bit longer.  The width of the 2000 Toyota Tacoma's tailgate is 52 inches.  I would love a really strong, fairly light wight ramp that was 90 to 100 inches in length with a bi-fold length of 45 to 50 inches.  The height of the tailgate is approximately 34 inches from the ground.  The 71 inch ramp was just a bit too steep for comfortable strolling up the ramp.  This encouraged the dog to take a slight jog at it, which I am sure is part of what made it fail.  Naly's petite 140 pounds is well under the ramp's weight rating of 200 pounds, but the resultant force of 140 pounds in motion, even a slow trot is a bit higher.

In summary, if you are working with a "stand size" dog such as a 80 or 90 pound Labrador or Retriever, I am sure this ramp would perform very well.  If you have a older, slower moving dog, I am sure the ramp is capable of supporting the stated 200 pound limit. Most of my mastiffs in the past have well exceeded 225 pounds and this ramp would not have worked for them, no matter how slow we approached the ramp.  I will be contacting PetGear directly on Monday to see if they offer a sturdier product that they might recommend.

I really like what I see from Rage Powersports dog ramp line. It looks like a great length and fold size for my Toyota Tacoma pickup. My problem thus far is finding a dealer that actually handles their dog ramp products. I use Summit Racing for other things, but Summit doesn't seem to carry Rage's dog ramps. I really would like a local vendor where I could get a little hands on time before plunking down close to $200. - Pete