Are 4 X 4 Ramps Any Good At Demonstrating A Truck's Off-road Ability?

Surprisingly, these trail ride and truck show favourites are actually not a very accurate indicator of 4 x 4 performance. While the ramp travel index ramp (RTI ramp) may show off axle articulation to good effect, it does not always follow that a truck performing well on a RTI ramp will automatically cut it out on the trail.

Firstly, a RTI ramp cannot recreate the forces acting on a four-wheeler when it is driving a trail. Unlike true trail conditions, there is no way a ramp can hope to reproduce the full range of suspension movement a 4 x 4 may be capable of, or not. In the absence of these dynamic forces, all a RTI ramp can tell us is how bad a truck may perform off-road. What it cannot tell us is how good a truck may really be.

Just because a truck performs well conducting the limited range of tests available on a ramp does not mean it will be good when it hits the ground for real.