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ZF Ramp Assist: AI-Powered Trailer Loading

This new app for iOS helps load your boat onto its trailer with video game-like augmented reality guides overlayed onto your smartphone camera screen.

Video display on an iPhone showcasing a boat loading on a trailer.

This new app for iOS helps load your boat onto its trailer with video game-like augmented reality guides overlayed onto your smartphone camera screen.

There are other boat launch ramp locator apps out there, but only Ramp Assist calculates speed, distance, and angle measurements, then overlays Augmented Reality (AR) onto your smartphone screen to help guide you onto the trailer — a welcome helping hand for the inexperienced trailer boater.

Surprisingly, the app comes from ZF Marine Propulsion Systems, which specializes in marine transmissions and thrusters – an odd fit for the outboard-dominated trailer boat market.

“It’s a shrinking market for inboards, so we’re always looking to diversify our portfolio,” explains Lars Hoffmann, digital product manager for ZF Group. “This technology guides users to the optimal path, ensuring smooth and safe loading, even in busy conditions. No additional equipment is required, making it easy to use.”

The app is brand agnostic, so it works with any boat engine/trailer configuration. 

Two iPhones side-by-side displaying the details of a ramp assist application.

The Ramp Assist app is free and works on iPhones.

Additional data incorporated into the app include a comprehensive ramp locator and real-time ramp traffic, tide, and weather displays, as well as the number of launches at a boat ramp. Ramp Assist is available for download on the App Store and at ramp-assist.com.

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Author

Rich Armstrong

Senior Editor, BoatUS Magazine

A journalist by training, BoatUS Magazine Senior Editor Rich Armstrong has worked in TV news, and at several newspapers, then spent 18 years as a top editor at other boating publications. He’s built a stellar reputation in the marine industry as one of the most thorough reporters in our business. At BoatUS Magazine, Rich handles everything from boat and product innovation and late-breaking news, to compelling feature stories, boat reviews, and features on people and places. The New Jersey shore and lakes of lower New York defined Rich's childhood. But when he bought a 21-foot Four Winns deck boat and introduced his young family to the Connecticut River, his love for the world of boats flourished from there.