Ram Trucks recently received a patent for a truly brilliant, if so far nonexistent, pickup-truck feature: fold-out ramps integrated into the bed of a pickup truck. Damn, why didn’t we think of this?
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The patent, titled “Adjustable Loading Ramp System for a Vehicle” and awarded on June 30, was noticed by a tipster who forwarded the info along to the Mopar-mad folks over at Allpar, who first reported on the finding. It describes a system featuring two slide-out ramps that stow in the floor of the pickup bed and also lock into channels at the far end of the folded-down tailgate. Sliders allow the user to adjust the width of the ramps to fit the vehicle being loaded in or out.
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Now, there’s a long road between patent and production, and automakers often file patents on ideas that they never end up bringing to market. Sometimes, the design challenges are too great to overcome, while other times automakers patent something simply to prevent competitors from using that particular idea. For instance, Ram’s patent for a two-way tailgate that can hinge from the bottom or the side hasn’t yet appeared in dealerships. And we see at least one unanswered challenge in the design proposed by the patent sketches: It seems like stowing the ramps would be difficult if your cargo was situated over the channels (i.e., if your quad’s tires were resting inside them).
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Regardless, we love seeing automakers come up with novel solutions to make it easier to use hard-working vehicles as they were intended to be used. Here’s hoping Ram can bring this idea to production—and help save the backs of the folks who use their trucks to haul vehicles for work and for play.
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