Homemade folding ramp design PICS?

[fullmetalbucket]

Hi all, I'm thinking of building a folding ramp for the back of my 1ton dump until I can sell my equipment trailer to buy a landscape trailer. I'll be loading my mini excavator up the ramp and am thinking of a full width expanded metal over angle/chanel trying to keep it as light as possible using hydraulic struts to assist. Anyone have any pics of clever designs I can check out for ideas??
Many thanks!

[jkason]

You are going to punch right through the expanded metal. You need at least 1/4" of plate steel to make that work.

Another thing. How high is the dump body? Any ramp you build will either bend like a plastic straw, or make you overweight without a load in the bed.

Save the money you would have spent on materials, and put it towards the equipment trailer.