Cheapest material to make a ramp to hold 2 tonne van?

[old-van]

An idea I had to keep rodents off the van is make a ramp to drive on to elevate the van off the ground. Then they could be on breezeblocks or sucklike but with a flare of sheet metal in between so then the rodents would not be able to get up.

Would that be stable though to drive on? If not suggestions for engineering such a thing to make it stable enough for driving on and off? I would like solutions where I don't have to use postcrete or such to affect the soil underneath, which is just a bare field. Just have it resting on top.

Then also have the initial ramp bit detachable or to be drawn up.

What would be cheapest for this purpose? Thinking of a ramp like in garages that the whole vehicle goes on not those little couple of ft things that are sold at halfords and such that are called ramps.

[smallpaul]

I’m no expert but I doubt a ramp or any structure that raises a van up is going to stop rodents climbing up.

[swisstoni]

I understand the idea the OP has come up with.
But google tells me that rats can jump vertically up to 3 feet.

[Krikkit]

You would basically need to make a steel bathtub 3ft deep and perfectly smoothed to be sure.

[old-van]

smallpaul said:

I m no expert but I doubt a ramp or any structure that raises a van up is going to stop rodents climbing up.

Indeed you aren't. This is a time honored technique which has been used historically to protect grain and other foodstuffs.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Staddle_stones

[swisstoni]

old-van said:

smallpaul said:

I m no expert but I doubt a ramp or any structure that raises a van up is going to stop rodents climbing up.

Indeed you aren't. This is a time honored technique which has been used historically to protect grain and other foodstuffs.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Staddle_stones

The difference seems to be that your metal sheet would provide a nice platform to jump on to .

[old-van]

swisstoni said:

I understand the idea the OP has come up with.
But google tells me that rats can jump vertically up to 3 feet.

They could be the question is whether they would want to vs. just finding something else which is a lower hanging fruit.

It is like how they say they can eat through all plastics and thin metal too but I know from experience they have not eaten through everything I have left out that is plastic. They did a couple of times but I think that is because the bottles were brightly coloured. They seem to have left duller coloured plastics alone. It depends how much they want to get to something.

They will have limited energy and resources so might just go off somewhere else.

It is like with computer security, it doesn't have to be 100% just enough for the threat model.

[old-van]

swisstoni said:

The difference seems to be that your metal sheet would provide a nice platform to jump on to .

No because I said in the OP I would put flares on the parts where the breeze blocks were in exactly the same way as those staddle stones.

[swisstoni]

old-van said:

swisstoni said:

I understand the idea the OP has come up with.
But google tells me that rats can jump vertically up to 3 feet.

They could be the question is whether they would want to vs. just finding something else which is a lower hanging fruit.

It is like how they say they can eat through all plastics and thin metal too but I know from experience they have not eaten through everything I have left out that is plastic. They did a couple of times but I think that is because the bottles were brightly coloured. They seem to have left duller coloured plastics alone. It depends how much they want to get to something.

They will have limited energy and resources so might just go off somewhere else.

It is like with computer security, it doesn't have to be 100% just enough for the threat model.

Fair point. But as I understand it this van is going to be used to live in. So there's likely to be food in it. Which would have to be carefully stored to prevent it becoming an attraction.