What To Know About Hauling Snowmobiles In Pickup Truck Beds
Trucks and hauling – is there anything in this world that goes hand in hand as much as this?
Jokes aside, on this blog post i want to explain how the process works for snowmobiles, to be exact.
How to load the sled into the bed
When it comes to actually moving the sled in there, you should begin by getting a ramp first.
The ramps that you use for these particular vehicles are not like ones you may find for ATVs or motorcycles – they are engineered in a way to accompany both the snowmobile’s tracks and skis.
In regards to lifted trucks (4 inch lift or more), you really should considering getting the longer, 10 feet plus kind ramps as the regular 7 footers are simply overly short to be used safely. A stock pickup always works better for this sort of thing, so keep that in mind.
Once you get one, what’s left now is to just get the snowmobile in there. Begin by hooking it up to the truck; make sure to strap the ramp down so to prevent any of the accidental slide-off.
At this point, everything should be self explanatory. All you should do is hit the throttle and ride up the thing – be very gentle, especially if you’ve never done this before, as you do not want to ram into the pickup’s cab.
When you finally park the machine there, you still aren’t done. What i mean by that is you should also tie her down to the bed, for safety reasons of course – doing so becomes even more crucial if you’ll be hauling the thing with the tailgate open.
Running a ratchet strap around the rear bumper right up to your desired tie down points should work, though you can always apply even more straps.
Can i do without a ramp?
It is very much possible to do all of the above without the use of any sort of ramp, though i can tell you one thing, it is not really as easy as you might think at first.
If you want to do so solo, you can only make it happen by backing up the truck to a snowbank, or a hill of some sorts and riding up with the sled in there that way.
Other than that, the snowmobile can be loaded manually, it is just that you will need a friend or two to get it done.
To put it simply, two people have to lift the front, in other words, the skis onto the tailgate. Then both of you have to go to the rear, lift the back end and push it into the bed. In the best scenario, there should also be a person in the bed pulling the thing.
Does the sled actually fit?
Loading the snowmobile into the back of a pickup is one thing – now you have to be sure it’s actually seated there properly.
In this instance, i am talking about how much of the end is sticking out. If your pickup is a short bed and you want to haul a long track, chances are this won’t really work as it is.
I mean, it might seem that it is in there for good, but considering the fact that so much of the back end is now sticking out, this can lead to permanent tailgate damage or even failure.
To find a way around this, get a bed extender. It will allow you to rest a piece of plywood on top of it, which means more of the weight will go on the extender rather than the tailgate itself, and that’s all we want.
What about unloading
Fortunately, getting the snowmobile out of there is not much of a struggle when compared to loading, if you ask me, but hey, it still has to be done.
If your sled has reverse, you just drive off the same way you came in there. If that’s not actually true and neither you have a ramp, there is no pretty method to go about it – you will literally have to yank her out of there, quick enough to not break the skis.