How to Choose a Golf Cart Ramp

Before purchasing a hitch-mounted carrier, it’s important to understand your vehicle’s limitations, the size of your scooter or wheelchair, and the strength of the person who will be loading it up the most. These factors will determine the carrier that is not only the best fit for your car, but also the best fit for your needs.

Weight Capacity

Because of their low ground clearance and larger size, choosing a golf cart ramp requires more consideration than a standard ramp. You want to make sure you aren’t going to bottom out at the top, and that you have a gentle enough gradient not to hit the rear of the cart against the ground. Here are the most important factors when selecting the right ramp for your needs:

Offset wheels

If your golf cart has wheels with different axle widths, it’s important to factor this in to your ramp placement—your ramps need to be wide enough to accommodate both wheel distances. Otherwise, the front or back half of your golf cart might fall off your ramp as you try to drive it up.

Ground clearance and wheelbase

Many golf carts have low ground clearance (under four inches) and can be as long as eight feet, which means they tend to have a longer wheelbase than most recreational vehicles that need to be transported by truck or trailer. Unfortunately, this makes them prone to bottoming out on straight ramps just as they get to the crest, the spot where the ramp meets the vehicle or trailer. As a solution to this issue, Discount Ramps suggests using arched ramps, which have a convex curve that helps the cart stay above the high-center zone.

Loading Height

As with any ramp application, the distance from the ground to the trailer or truck bed impacts the overall length of the ramp you’ll need—the greater the load height, the longer the ramp should be. Use the convenient calculator below to help you determine the correct ramp length you’ll need for a safe load.