Made a boarding ladder today for my M925A1

[Truckoholic]

My truck is going to be in a parade next Saturday, and then in another one the following Saturday, and I'm going to have quite a few people needing to get in and out of the back safely and easily. In the past I just brought a little fold up ladder with me, but this dang truck is so bloody tall that the 4.5 foot ladder I have that used to work fine for my other trucks, is just not tall enough, and therefore is not safe to try using. I mean I can get in an out fine without a ladder at all, but can't expect other people to do that.

I wanted to get one of those already made lightweight aluminum boarding ladders, but this was cheaper, and an easy build that looks good, and stores under the bed real nice.



I put hooks on it to hook on the tailgate to keep it from slipping out, or falling over.



Stores great under the bed, and you can see, that when stored with the hooks facing down, they also serve the purpose of keeping the ladder from sliding forward under hard braking.

 

[usaforce]

Nice ladder!

I am glad you posted the photos of your ladder! It looks well made and great storage idea! I think I will have to play copycat.

 

[F18hornetM]

Good job.
I am considering making a boarding ladder as well. Lately we've taken the M813 and M35 to touch a truck kid shows and they all want to get in the back. A 6' step ladder works ok but i worry about kicking out. So i think this winter I'll work on a ladder. I think I'll make mine out of aluminum.

 

[Truckoholic]

Good job.
I am considering making a boarding ladder as well. Lately we've taken the M813 and M35 to touch a truck kid shows and they all want to get in the back. A 6' step ladder works ok but i worry about kicking out. So i think this winter I'll work on a ladder. I think I'll make mine out of aluminum.

I totally read that as "Touch a kid, truck shows" at first. ha ha I was like WHAT?!??! But I get it now!

But yeah, that's one of the biggest dangers of leaning a ladder up against something like the back of one of these trucks especially if the ladder is taller than what it's leaned up against. When the bottom kicks out, down the ladder goes, and the person on the ladder at the time slams their face into the bed or tailgate of the truck. I don't want to be responsible for someone hurting themselves, so I tried to make it as safe as possible. Intend to put some traction material on the steps too.

I would have loved to make mine out of aluminum! I need to get me a spool gun for my mig welder so I can do aluminum welding better. I just can't get the wire to feed smoothly enough with the setup I've got now having to feed the wire all the way through the welding lead.

 

[F18hornetM]

Oh man thats funny. The last show we went to was for march of dimes and over 1800 kids came through. Really cool with bulldozers, fire trucks, dump trucks and all for them to play on.
I do have a spool gun for my MIG, but I really like TIG. Depending on how thick aluminum I scrounge up will determine which I use. Never tried it but have heard its almost impossible to feed aluminum up a normal gun. They make push pull machines but $$.
What you made looks great and gives me some ideas. Thanks for posting.

 

[hotbox]

Great Idea! I need a taller boarding ladder too! I will make it out of aluminum. My spool gun works, OK. (Miller) I just bought two push pull machines just for aluminum!