What’s the Over/Under on How Much Pete Rose Can Bench Press?
A funny moment about lifting weights came during the pre-game show for Game 3 of the 2015 World Series. With the Mets’ Noah Syndegaard set to pitch, the talking heads—including the elder Pete Rose and the mountain Frank Thomas—were marveling at Syndegaard’s ability to bench press 550 pounds.
A couple “experts” joked that Kansas City pitcher Yordano Ventura would have a tough time pressing his own 150-pound weight. Then Frank Thomas said to Pete Rose something like, “So Pete, how much did you bench back in the day?” Pete just stared back and said, “I didn’t need to bench anything. I just needed to lift my bat.” I’m not a big admirer of Rose, but that was priceless.
For the record, Rose used bats ranging from 33.5 to 35.0 ounces during his career.
And there’s our yard ramp connection…
Carry the Weight
Just as Clint Eastwood’s Dirty Harry said, “A man’s got to know his limitations,” The Yard Ramp Guy says, “A yard ramp needs to know its ramp clamp’s limitations.” Simply put: Use a ramp clamp to help MOVE your mobile yard ramp. Do not use a ramp clamp to LIFT it!
Most yard ramp and/or platforms weigh between 5,000 – 8,000 lbs. A ramp clamp is rated to move as much as 15,000 dynamic lbs. – weight in motion. If being used to lift even as little as 3,000 static lbs., the ramp clamp will break. If you are an engineer, you’ll understand the “why” of it; if not we can all understand the “yeah, yeah, I get it.”
Clamping Down
The versatile ramp clamp: always at the ready, helping your operator move that yard ramp over short distances.
That said, it’s amazing how people have tried to use ramp clamps for things they’re not designed to do. Keep in mind they’re designed for mobility, NOT LIFTING. Even ramp clamps have their limitations.
They’re designed strictly for maneuvering a ramp equipped with wheels or casters. Once the ramp clamp vices down on the fork tine, the ramp and the forklift become a unified object. The forklift operator now moves as a single dynamically mobile piece of equipment.
