Ah. I think I understand what you mean by rippling now. I think I ran into something similar when editing the Kung Fu title screen. The title uses a pseudo 3D effect on the letters to make them appear like they are popping out. Trying to use the deform tool to simulate that in true 3D was difficult. The Kung and the Fu used the same texture, but were treated as separate objects. When a deformation was applied Kung it looked different on the Fu since it was a shorter object. Don't know if I am explaining that well...
Anyways, that does sound like a lot of work for the ramps. Hopefully you can get it to work. I wish you luck!