Gentlemen, They say that "necessity is the mother of invention" and because of necessity I have found a method of loading my Lister L into my Van. As most of you know I have the use of a company van which I can also use, subject to me putting the diesel in the tank, for private reasons. This year I am displaying my Lister L at Dorset and have had devise a method of getting it into the back of the van. Modern vans are fitted with crash absorbing bumpers which don't have any strength in the vertical plane therefore I cannot expect to place ramps, in this case those off of my Ifor Williams trailer, onto the bumper and then take the weight of the engine. I have already tentatively tried my weight on the bumper and it flexes to well for my liking and before any of my so called friends chirp up I am in excess of twenty stone at the moment. If you go to my usual picture spot you will see what I have created. I have welded some 40 x 40 box to a plate which can be bolted to the spare tow ball holes on the tow bar, I have then fitted two outrigger legs to each end to take the weight rather than rely on the towbar which also has a vertical loading limit. I have also welded a length of 40 x 40 x 6 angle so that the ramps can hook onto the device and to bridge the gap I have a piece of checker plate supported by the device and van. I tried to make so that it only takes a few minutes to assemble this includes the outrigger legs sliding onto .5 in bar and using a variety of holes to allow for ground not being level. I can see no reason why this could not be adapted for use on an estate car either.
Martin P