Brainstorming my next rig. How to fit 4 mountain bikes inside a 4x4.

[sixstringsteve]

I don't think my ideal rig exists. Or, if it does, it's probably what I own now (my 4x4 van). Regardless, I'm going to be using this thread to document my ideas and hare-brained schemes of what might work for my next rig. Feel free to offer your crazy/creative/out of the box ideas here.


Requirements:

For those who don't know us, my wife and I are nomads. We sold our house and now we travel the US full-time in our Airstream. We only have one vehicle. It needs to be dead reliable. We travel a lot and I'm often in the middle of nowhere and I'm the only "mechanic" around. I use that term loosely.

• It has to be able to tow 8000lbs regularly (weekly). Extra points if it can tow up to 10k. It will tow our trailer (house), a 23 foot long airstream that weighs 6k lbs fully loaded.
• My wife has to be comfortable driving it.
• It has to be easy to load a kid and car seat in and out of it every day.
• I would really like it to be 4x4
• Extra points if it's comfortable for long 6+ hour drives
• Here's the tough one: it has to be able to fit 4 mountain bikes in a locked/covered area. My wife has a women's mountain biking media company and bikes are the main reason we live a nomadic lifestyle. Getting rid of the bikes isn't an option. It would be fantastic if I didn't have to take the front wheels off the bikes, but I'm willing to remove them if needed. A 6.5 foot bed should be barely long enough.
• I prefer gas engines over diesels. (I don't know much about or understand diesels very well). I realize they're simple for a lot of people to understand, but I'm intimidated by them.
• I don't finance vehicles, so I'll be paying cash. That means I'll be buying used.

If'm coming from a 4x4 7.3L Ford E350 van and it has totally spoiled me. It has a fridge, bed, auxilary batteries, etc. I'm going to be losing a lot of livability in a pickup, but if there were a way to sleep in the rig, that would be amazing. I'm ok without a fridge or big battery bank or a permanent bed, but I love the idea of just taking the truck up into the mountains to live in for a few days when I don't want to haul the airstream.

I'm 99% sure I want to go with a 2007+ 5.7L 4x4 Tundra double-cab (the smaller of the 4 doors with the longer 6.5 bed). I'm open to the idea of the ideal van, but I haven't found an ideal van with my reliability/maint cost requirements.

 

[Kevin B.]

So, a Tundra, did I hear that right? What length bed? I'm feeling a high rise camper shell and sliding tray with mounts for the bikes.

 

[sixstringsteve]

While I'd love the rear interior space of the crewmax, that leaves me with a tiny bed. I'm thinking doublecab with the 6.5 foot bed. They make an 8' bed with the doublecab, and I'm open to that idea, but it might be a bit of a handful for daily driving to pick up groceries, etc. The wheelbase is just a mile long on that thing.

Some ideas I have:
- decked drawer system in the bed (for recovery gear, mtb gear, tools, backpacking gear, odds and ends)
- I'd love a sliding drawer on top of the decked system, but I'm not sure how that would work. I don't have the time or energy or tools to build something from scratch, so I'll probably be buying a readymade solution
- Tall shell on the back. ARE makes some awesome spacekap shells that are fiberglass with some awesome features. I'd love to ditch the tailgate and get barn doors on the back of the shell. If I could keep it lightweight that'd be awesome, but I realize that's a pipedream.

I think something like an empty 4wheel camper would be awesome, but the doors on those are too narrow to fit bikes in.

 

[sixstringsteve]

My friend Ryan Leech has an Earthcruiser shell on the back of his power wagon, and it's amazing. I just wish I could get one empty with a wider door. They're almost as much $ as the airstream though.

I wonder if I could still tow with something like that?

 

[Kevin B.]

What about a cargo box on a hitch mount behind the airstream? Like a bike rack, but enclosed and lockable. That'd give you more flexibility with the tow pig.

Like this, but probably bigger? https://letsgoaero.com/black-box-slideout-enclosed-carrier/

 

[sixstringsteve]

I love the idea of a custom flatbed in the back. I ran into this guy in seattle and really liked his setup. Full thread here.

I love how you can access the bedsides/toolboxes from the outside. That's typically the most difficult area to get to with a truck.

 

[sixstringsteve]

I love that hitch mount idea. Unfortunately the Airstream's frame isn't strong enough to add anything to the rear. People have tried it, but it ended up separating the frame from the shell. The frame is only strong with the shell, and the shell is only strong with the frame. I'll keep my brain going on a good way to do that though, because that would be ideal. I'd just need a way to get the bikes to the trail, but that's an easy one to solve.

I've thought about getting a toy hauler and keeping the bikes in there when not in use, but I REALLY love our little Airstream and I don't know if I have the energy to swap trailers again.

 

[sixstringsteve]

And the habitat is an amazing solution that's high on my list too.

 

[moab_cj5]

I think your best bet is a flatbed with a custom camper on it that is full width. That would give more room inside for bikes and stuff.

I am not a huge fan of the decked drawers. I didn't like how little space you got for how much space they occupy. I had a system in my Tundra and would have been severely disappointed if I had paid full retail for the system. Custom is the way to go on a bed system.

 

[Kevin B.]

I like that hitch mount idea. Unfortunately the Airstream's frame isn't strong enough to add anything to the rear. People have tried it, but it ended up separating the frame from the shell. The frame is only strong with the shell, and the shell is only strong with the frame.

Hmm. I haven't looked at your Airstream closely, could you stretch the tongue and put a box in front? Or would that make it too long?

I do love the idea of a custom flatbed/utility bed.

 

[sixstringsteve]

Since it's bound to come up, I LOVE the idea of a 4x4 dually sprinter short wheelbase, high top. However, their engines are extremely complicated and I worry that I'd need service and have a 6 week wait to get it into a shop 500 miles away. Most mechanics can't work on the newer mercedes motors, and since it's my only car, I can't just not drive anywhere for 6 weeks.

Not to mention the 9 month wait time and the $65k price tag. I'm admittedly a toyota fan (no surprise there), but if toyota made a gasser sprinter with true 4x4, I'd pay $75k for it.


Ecoboost transits are cool, and fairly affordable, but the build quality on the vans is horrendous.

 

[sixstringsteve]

Hmm. I haven't looked at your Airstream closely, could you stretch the tongue and put a box in front? Or would that make it too long?

Interesting idea! I think it would hit the bumper on the truck when turning, but I'll have to think about it some more. Fiama makes a rack for the airstreams, but it's a crappy rack and kind of ruins your trailer. Then there's the seasucker suction cup mounted bike carriers. Not sure I trust those a ton (and they're easy to steal), but it does open some ideas.

I, too, love the idea of a custom flatbed. I'd love to be able to load the bikes sideways. Then I could utilize the rearmost part of the truck for items I want to grab easily. The nice part about my existing van is that I can access storage from both sides: the "front" of where a bed would be, and the rear. That wall on the bed makes it tough to access stuff in there.

If only Toyota made a 5.7L 4x4 van. I have a hunch they'd have a hard time keeping those in stock. I'm racking my brain how I could turn a turndra into a vanlike vehicle.

 

[Kevin B.]

I'm racking my brain how I could turn a turndra into a vanlike vehicle.

These guys say they'll do it. I don't wanna know how much they charge. http://roadmastertruck.com

I thought Ford used to sell cutaway pickup chassis, but all I see right now are cutaway vans (not 4WD) and cab chassis pickups. Maybe one of the other big three has a cutaway pickup chassis?

 

[sixstringsteve]

In another life, if I had more time for projects and didn't have to tow the airstream, I'd consider grafting one of these onto a tundra. I think that would be SOOOOO cool.



I wish I could find a cab-over empty fiberglass shell like that that worked well with the tundra. I think there's a big market for it, but I may be the only lunatic interested in something like that. The bed on a regular pickup takes up a lot of unused space.


Or one of these.

 

[sawtooth4x4]

Double Cab 79 Series Land Cruiser with 4.5L Diesel V8 and Trayback.

Or a

Land Rover Defender 130 double cab, TD5 diesel and trayback

 

[sixstringsteve]

I think your best bet is a flatbed with a custom camper on it that is full width. That would give more room inside for bikes and stuff.

I think you're spot on. It looks like phoenix popus does a lot of custom stuff. I'd love one that completely replaces the bed. Here are a few of their custom solutions. I'd want the door as wide as possible.

There are some cool custom beds I'm finding too. I imagine these are tons heavier than the stock bed and will really affect handling, but it looks like a great way to haul gear.

 

[sixstringsteve]

Double Cab 79 Series Land Cruiser with 4.5L Diesel V8 and Trayback.

Yeah, that would do NICELY! I sure love that 79 series with its custom bed. I don't know enough about land rovers, but that one is sweet. I wonder what it would cost to get a clean LHD one. If I have to ask... I probably can't afford it... I wonder if it could handle towing the airstream. Regardless, I really dig the bed storage system they have back there.

 

[sawtooth4x4]

If your going to go American, why wouldn't you get a RAM 2500 Cummins Crew Cab Short bed. It'll do all you want. Maintenance is changing oil and filters. Reliability is great in mine. Take the bed off and build a custom set-up for the rear. You'll have all the power you'll ever need, good economy (fuel), and a very proven engine.

If I was going to keep mine longer, I'd do that to it. Love my truck. I can't complain about a single thing.

The F*rd, though, was the biggest piece of sh*t I've ever owned.

 

[sawtooth4x4]

Yeah, that would do NICELY! I sure love that 79 series with its custom bed. I don't know enough about land rovers, but that one is sweet. I wonder what it would cost to get a clean LHD one. If I have to ask... I probably can't afford it... I wonder if it could handle towing the airstream. Regardless, I really dig the bed storage system they have back there.

Land Rover Defender 130's are getting damn pricey. Looking at one fully kitted $110K easy if not more. Its not going to like the airstream. The 5 cylinder turbo diesel can be tuned to 300 ft / lbs, but it'll probably blow up later on.

I think it would tow, but pretty slow. There are conversion kits out there. Duramax and Cummins. But you might as well get a RAM with the cummins in it already.

 

[Deleted member 12904]

I've done some longer trips towing in 07+ 5.7 tundra's and have been less then impressed with how they tow. Plus the gas millage is comparable to the GM 6.0 but I can say they do not tow as well as the GM 6.0. Maybe its worth a look at the 07+ Chevy 2500 in a 4 door short bed with a 6.0? Still cheap and easy to fix plus IMO it would be more enjoyable to tow with then a Tundra on a regular basis.