aluminum manipulation

juanbenae · juanbenae's Garage

i need to bend some aluminum ramps to a more friendly angle for loading and was wondering how best to do it. in the attached photo i need to flatten out the flanges that lay on the trailer that as you can see are about 3/8" thick. can this be heated with a torch to soften the material enough to flatten in a press or by other form of force application? heated steel many times and when it's red it's soft, whats the case with aluminum? can i heat it uniformly and apply force until it moves or will i fracture the material or melt it? i am not going to heat it until it drips, but am i going to damage it, or create some type of blast if heated too much? metal men?

any recommendations are appreciated. TIA

t

on2wheels52 · on2wheels52's Garage

I'd just bend them cold. It's only going to be a 20 degree or so bend, no?
Jim

David · David's Garage

If you heat it, it will lose most of it's strength. Cold bending should be fine.

porsche4life · porsche4life's Garage

It depends on the alloy! We get several different grades of aluminum. Some will bend. Some just cracks. So be careful and consider yourself warned.

Eric Coffey · 09-04-2010, 02:14 PM

Are the "flanges" on the end that goes on the ground? If so, won't the ramp's lower "frame" still interfere if you bend the flanges up? In other words, if you flatten the flanges (decreasing their angle) the ramps are going to have a steeper overall approach angle. The only way to keep the same approach angle would be to flatten AND lengthen the flanges, or take material off the bottom edge of the ramps.

juanbenae · juanbenae's Garage

Quote:

Originally Posted by Eric Coffey

Are the "flanges" on the end that goes on the ground?.

no the plate area at the top of each ramp where it sits on the trailer deck. i need to flatten it out, it causes the ramps to sit 2" taller than the deck. with the dovetailed trailer deck and the fact i have to drive the back of my truck on service ramps when loading and unloading every inch counts. my front chin spoiler is < 4" off the ground, and nearly 30" from nose to front wheels getting ramped up.

the bumper trauma has been fixed, but thats the height I have to work with.

juanbenae · juanbenae's Garage

LWJ · 09-04-2010, 05:17 PM

Porsche4life is correct. Aluminum IF run in a temper that allows bending (t1 or t4 for 6063 extruded) will increase in strength and decrease in ductility over time. Don't quote me on the exact nature of this, but I used to sell considerable amount of extruded aluminum. I think you are going to ruin the ramps. Is there some way to weld/bolt extensions on that won't structurally impact the ramp? Please do not heat it. I don't recollect ever heating anything we fabricated. We did have some rolling jigs that gently slowly worked bends in the metal. Good luck. I recommend rethinking your plan. For the metal to have the strength to carry a car, it will have a low ductility. Bending = breaking.

Larry

DUK · 09-04-2010, 05:25 PM

I've bent some ramps similar to what you have there. We did it cold and slow in a press with zero problems. Again like has been said, it depends on the grade of aluminum, but should be OK. Are they Featherlite's?

trekkor · 09-04-2010, 05:27 PM

How about sawing off the hanger flange altogether?

Weld on a steel hanger on the back of the trailer to hold the ramps.

Dude...

If you were nearby, we'd do it right now.
I have the steel stock and the welder.

KT

A930Rocket · 05:37 PM

I used a pair of wood ramps made of built up 2x10's to transition from the ground to my aluminum ramps. They were about 2 '6" - 3' long. I drilled a hole in the end of the wood ramps to lock in the aluminum ramps.

EDIT: Picture should show 2x10's

Zeke · 09-04-2010, 06:14 PM

I think the trailer modification is called "beaver tail" not dovetail. Whatever.

Don't heat AL to bend and don't even think about red hot steel as an ala logy. AL does not change color even as it is dripping onto the floor.

Rocket, that setup looks good except it would be better if you ran a 2 x 10 out to the right in the diagram. Another 6' ought to get you a real gentle slope.

Then you get to an autoX venue that doesn't have enough room or enough flat area to unload. You always need more of what's good.

A930Rocket · 09-04-2010, 07:14 PM

You're right. Car 311 will need to adjust the ramp length and height to suit his setup.

Quote:

Originally Posted by milt

Rocket, that setup looks good except it would be better if you ran a 2 x 10 out to the right in the diagram. Another 6' ought to get you a real gentle slope.

porsche4life · porsche4life's Garage

I've always heard it called a dovetail Milt...

Our trailer has 4' of dovetail and I still need a good length of ramp to get the 944 at stock height up on the ramps... Thats one reason I'm not lowering it much with the suspension redo.

juanbenae · juanbenae's Garage

Quote:

Originally Posted by porsche4life

I've always heard it called a dovetail Milt...

Thats one reason I'm not lowering it much with the suspension redo.

milt in the LBC may find a beaver more to his liken....

low is go syd.....

coolngroovy · 09-05-2010, 02:51 AM

Scribble some marks on the area to be bent with a permanent marker.

Wave the oxy/acet over the area [ dont try to heat it locally like steel] until the marks fade, it's ready to be bent.

Zeke · 09-05-2010, 10:46 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by porsche4life

I've always heard it called a dovetail Milt...

Our trailer has 4' of dovetail and I still need a good length of ramp to get the 944 at stock height up on the ramps... Thats one reason I'm not lowering it much with the suspension redo.

Yep, you're right. Lots of hits on Google for dovetail. Maybe it's regional thing as there are tons of hits for beaver tail, too.

Excuse me.