Bike Storage

A key requirement which pushed us into a custom van build was proper bike storage. We didn't want an exterior rack for many reasons:

1. Adds another 2 feet or more to the length of the vehicle.
   We're already a few feet longer than the short bed F150 and just barely fit into a normal parking stall.
2. Regardless of how good the bike rack is, they jostle around quite a bit on the back of the 'lever arm' of the van past the rear wheels. 1Up and Kuat make fabulous racks, but this is still going to be wear and tear on the bikes and the rack itself over time.
3. A van bike rack would be very high off the ground - attached to the hinge points on the rear doors. Getting bikes on/off the rack would be difficult, especially for Mary Jo by herself. Probably requires a mini folding step ladder and good balance. A simple hitch style rack isn't viable as its too low and impacts the 'departure angle' too much. In other terms, we'd be dragging the rack anytime you leave out a reasonably steep driveway.
4. Weather protection (esp transient salt spray) would require a cover.
   But covers bring a huge mess of complexity; take a long time to secure so they aren't flapping around, covering brake lights, or causing rubbing spots on your bike frame. It's a frustrating wrestle fest of 10 minutes to add or remove the thing.
5. Security
   We have nice bikes; no matter how big a lock you have, we've read of plenty of bikes stolen off vans. Covering them would help hide them a bit, but see (4) for that.

Instead the van layout uses two 5 foot long, full extension pull out trays that the bikes can be mounted on. The trays are inside the van, mounted to the floor, under the bed. Slip the front wheel off, mount the bike on the tray by locking in the front axle, slide the tray back in and tuck the wheel in. Done. Takes all of 2-3 minutes each. The feature picture above is a friend's van with the same design.

I was going to build the trays, but pricing out the heavy duty drawer glides alone, the commercial variant was a win. Huge time savings, more durable, and much more compact for crucial garage width conservation, super easy to clean out with a drain hole, etc. Here is a shot of us mocking up how we can get both bikes on one pull out tray before we clicked 'buy'.

We ended up with two of the Flatline Van Company pull out trays. They'll fit side by side in the 'garage' in the rear under the bed. We'll use one for the bikes and the other for storage tubs (avoids having to crawl into the garage space to access stuff 4 feet in).

Adventure Van Pull-Out Tray

The Pull Out Tray is designed to stow your bikes, cooler, grill, or other accessories for easy access via the rear doors of your adventure van.

Flatline Van CoFlatline Van Co

Pictures once installed TBD.