Motorcycles hauled in hybrid short beds

boomer18

Has anyone had much experience hauling motorcycles
in the short beds of the new four-doors from
Dodge, Ford, Nissan, Toyota? I now haul 3 on-
road/off-road bikes with trailer pulled by Jeep
Grand Cherokee, but would like to have the
advantages, say, of the Dodge Dakota quad cab of
less licensing, higher speed limit, faster
load/unload, less parking/storage space taken up by
trailer,etc. I also like the idea of using the bed
for miscellaneous hauling, 'have measured my
garage, and Dakota would fit just fine! Reading
anyone's experiences in this regard would be
helpful. Am leaning toward Dodge, because of its
slightly longer bed & V-8 power.
Thanks.
boomer18

gmace

Don't sell your trailer. I have hauled dirtbikes for over 10 years. You will have difficulty getting three bikes in the back of any truck with less than a 6 foot bed.

I used to have a Toyota 2WD short bed (6 foot) and only two bikes would fit. It was easiest to leave the tailgate down.

Now I have an F350 4WD crew cab long bed. Three fit, but you have to load the middle one backwards. I need a long ramp and a step. I played around with trying four but would have to take off some foot pegs to get three KTMs and a YZ426 in there.

I take it that the F150 supercrew is too long for your garage space. I think it has a longer bed than the Dakota Crew cab, but three bikes wouldn't fit unless one was a kid's bike.

Hope this helps.
Greg

boomer18

gmace,
Thanks for your advice. I couldn't get your response to load until today. I've carried these 3 same bikes in a Toyota 4 cylinder before w/o problem other than slowing a bit on upgrades, but I was thinking that on these new 4-door, really-short-bed pickups I might be overloading the rear-end weight balance. I've measured the Dakota Quad Cab bed with the gate down and the bike-length-fit would be fine (your're right-two facing fwd on each side and one backwards in the middle!), but I wonder about being rear-end-heavy.
boomer18

quadrunner500

If you're motorcrossing, no big deal I guess. But we put on more miles than that on our trail bikes, so we need more support equipment, gas cans, tools, etc. Where you going to store your riding gear, ie boots, helmets etc?

I do this quite a bit. 8 foot bed is what works best. Put your bikes, tools, gas, gear...all in the back.

With a short bed hybrid, try it once, next you'll be back to what you were trying to get away from....trailers. Personally, I'm tired of being a motorcycle trailer mechanic. I was constantly fixing lights, hitches, wheel bearings, flats etc. Then you have to store it....

boomer18

Quadrunner 500,
I've always found spaces available around the bikes in the the truck bed for gas cans, tools, and riding gear--I always try to make sure,with towels/carpet remnants, etc. that sharper edges of the bikes don't damage the stuff--I guess that I'd have to work out some way to positively secure the stuff in a hybrid bed with the gate down. But your last sentence about the trailer--ditto! (I think it's Kendon in Orange County, Calif. (Placentia?) who makes a 3-bike tilt-up trailer,with dolly wheels, that, when stored, only takes up the space of a dirt bike!

resqman

Can the QC carry 3 bikes? How much do your bikes weigh?

The Quad Cab has a 1450 lb load rating for the bed with a gross load rating of 6200 for trailer it you get the V8 motor and 3.92 gears. The 4.7 V8 has plenty of power to move your stuff even with the 3.55 gears. Check out the Owners Conference for lots more information about the Quad Cab from owners and users.

boomer18

I weighed (using truck scale and subtracting trailer weight) my 3 bikes including gear (clothing, extra gas, and tools), and it came to 916 lbs. They are dual-sport bikes: 180cc, 225cc, and 250cc. I guess that leaves some 534 lbs. for passengers and any other misc. stuff--that would average 178 lbs per passenger, if there were 3 people. (I'm assuming that your 1450 lbs. is max. cargo wt for whole truck, not just bed).

resqman

The Gross Combination Vehicle Weight is the total weight of the truck, passengers, and cargo.

Dakota Quad Cab weighs 4670 pounds with a 225 lb driver and 1/2 tank of gas. I went by the scales this week. The QC is rated 9200 GCVW. Subtract out the truck weight of 4700 and you have 4500 left. Subtract 1000 for bikes and gear. That leaves 3500 pounds for your passengers.

The above numbers are using the V8 4.7l, 3.55 rear end, automatic tranny. Simply changing the rear end from 3.55 to 3.92 with the 4.7 it jumps to 10,500. With the v8 5.9l, 3.92 rear end, auto tranny, the GCVW goes to 10,800. On the low end the v6 3.9l has a GCVW of 8800.

However you configure the truck, it seems to have more than enough capacity to haul your load.

I took 1000 lbs of junk to the dump couple of weeks ago in the bed. Never bottomed out going over speed bumps, no strain on the motor. The back end had a little bit of squat but still plenty of clearance with no steering problems.

modvptnl

....should not be confused with GVW. The "combined" GVW or CGVW also includes any trailer weight. The payload of a vehicle is your GVW minus your vehicle weight. The COMBINED number is not used for figuring payload. The GVW is the one listed on your door frame and my guess is the Dakota is around 6500 pounds leaving an ACTUAL PAYLOAD of about 2000 pounds which includes fluids, passengers and cargo.

quadrunner500

I would have no doubts about handling the load....just fitting all your stuff in there is the issue with 3 bikes, riders, gear etc. I think you'd have trouble with a hybrid short bed like Explorer Sport Trac or F150 Supercrew, Frontier etc. Dakota quad cab is probably okay, since it has regular size bed. Long bed is still the most convenient however.

modvptnl

I'll try this again for the impaired!! The Super Crew or Screw 150 has a 5 1/2 foot bed. With the tailgate down I'm guessing it's near 7 1/2 feet long. With the bed extender aluminum cage it's longer than a standard short bed and pert near as long as a long bed. The "cage" also doubles as a stop to keep things from sliding forward when the tailgate is up. Width is unaffected. What ever M/C's you can get in a standard short bed you will be able to in a Screw.

I think the bed extender is a worthwhile addition even to a long bed.

quadrunner500

A bike is almost 6.5 feet long. That means everything that won't fit in the crevices between the bike has to fit in that 1 foot space to the tailgate extender. As I said, if you just want to make a day trip, to the motocross track, wearing your riding gear to the track, you can get away with it. But on Pee Wees big adventure, no can do pardner!

I travel with my tailgate partially down even with my long bed, due to my tool box uses up the first two feet. If it's just my bike, I can put it in diagonally, and close the gate. But my tools and gear stay dry, and locked. Just having enough length for motorcycles with a gate and cage ignores the realities of how we pack for a trail ride, 3-4 days, in Utah or Colorado. For three riders, you could be looking at 4-5 prs of boots, huge gear bags, 2-3 five gal gas cans, 5-10 gallons water, chest protectors, spare tires, compressor, bike stand, loading ramp, helmets, fanny packs, gas grill, propane heater, tent, and on and on. Sure you can pack like a rat, arrive with your gear soaked, and ride home next to your muddy boots and sweat soaked socks. You put 3 bikes in the bed, you don't have much space to store things properly. You can barely stand up back there, as the middle bike has to go in backwards. Where you were hoping for space, there's a tie down. Agree bed extenders are worthwhile even for a long bed. In that, you make my point for me.

But you try this more than once with a 5.5 foot bed and tailgate extender, you'll be hitching the bike trailer up thereafter. Exactly what I wanted to get away from. If I wanted to do that, might as well just take the Blazer.

modvptnl

My reply to you was based on your comment;

Quote;
"I think
you'd have trouble with a hybrid short bed like
Explorer Sport Trac or F150 Supercrew, Frontier
etc. Dakota quad cab is probably okay, since it has
regular size bed. Long bed is still the most
convenient however."
--------------------------------------------------
Considering the Screw has a tad longer bed than the Quad cab I didn't understand your comment.

And I agree in your situation even a short bed wouldn't work. But I'll rephrase my point. Whatever you can get into a short bed with the tailgate CLOSED you can haul MORE with a Screw AND bed extender. Whatever you can get into your long bed with the tailgate CLOSED you could probably fit 95% into a Screw with a bed extender.

quadrunner500

>>>Whatever you can get into a short bed with the tailgate CLOSED you can haul MORE with a Screw AND bed extender. <<<

I agree with that.

But, the SCrew bed is longer than Quad cab bed? I thought Quad cab was a 6.5 foot and SCrew was 5.5? If wrong I defer. You've proved me wrong on several occasions.

Of course, the notion that it's fair to compare one truck with tail gate closed to another one with tail gate down is moot for me, and judged with skepticism since even with my long bed and three bikes, the tail gate closed is not an option. I guess the tool box is the difference, but if you don't have one, you're going to have to decide which stuff you don't mind getting wet, rained on, or unsecure. Not that you can't do it, but I can't do it!

modvptnl

http://www.autorevista.com/articles/00dakota.htm


You know what's funny, Quad? As a Super Duty advocate I had really no desire to even consider a Screw until my buddy wanted one. After seeing how the rear seat will split into half storage half seat or all storage(I know that extended cabs do this, not sure about the split, but I thought it was cool a full 4 door truck did this) and the actual length of the bed with tailgate down with cage I was nearly convinced. The SD was still only $2000 more for the same features(4x4, biggest motor, XLT etc.)Then with the $1000 rebate AND 7.9% for 60 months I really could see how functional these trucks really are. I was surprised!!!

boomer18

Modvptnl & Quad (& y'all),
How do you put motorcycles in the bed when you're using an extender? (With a crane?) I thought that extenders were fixed in the bed and flip back and forth, either inside the bed, or out on top of the open tailgate. Or if the extender removes from the bed, how easily does it? Also, Doesn't the Dakota Quad Cab have split-fold-up back seats? And isn't the Dakota more garagable and parkable than the Screw? I have a luggage rack on my Jeep GC (standard equip on a lot of SUV's); some hybrids also have---'last I checked, it wasn't available on Dakota QC---has that changed?
boomer18

modvptnl

Excellent question on the extender. It comes out in about 10 seconds! Two metal tabs and it slides off. Can't answer anything about the Dakota.
If you need the truck to fit in the garage the Dodge is probably smaller.....the Nissan and Explorer are even smaller yet, depends what's important to you.

markbuck

Get a real crew cab long bed and have best of both worlds?

modvptnl

While I tried to talk my buddy into such a vehicle there was a $3000 difference. He was concerned with economy and the 7.9% was about 1-2% less than the best rate he could get through the CU/dealer. All told about a $75 difference a month in payments plus gas mileage.

Believe me, I tried to talk him into the Super Duty. It just wasn't right for him.

resqman

The Dakota Quad cab rear seat is split and folds up. A roof rack is available from Dodge from their accessories catalog. The bed length is 5'3" with tailgate closed.

quadrunner500

How to get bikes in without crane? You just pin the throttle, stand up on the pegs, yank on the bars, pop it up 'n over! No problemo!

boomer18

What if you only have a lower displacement, more sedate rig than what yours sounds like? (your rig is the same as your nickname, right?)

quadrunner500

Quadrunner500 just a handle.

Do have a '98 Suzuki Quadrunner500 4x4 to get around, do ranch chores etc.

My current 2 wheel mount is Suzuki DR350 trail bike, MUCH more exciting, and goes more places with less effort, but doesn't pull a trailer or carry much stuff, but when time matters, it gets you there fastest.

nissancrewcab

Hi all,
Have you heard about a company called Timbren? They make a product that helps with keeping the rear of your truck from sagging when loaded with great results. The website address is www.timbrem.com I think it's worth you while to check it out.

nissancrewcab

it should have read www.timbren.com

steve234

The Quad is a great truck and can haul the weight of the bikes no problems. The length is a minor question (83 inches w/tailgate down). The main advantage a Screw would have is the same reason it is not as garageable, it is wider. The Quad is only 45 inches between wheel wells. If you can get the bikes in that width, you are home free.

boomer18

I used to haul my 3 small-to-medium-size bikes in a small Toyota pick-up, so the QC should be fine as far as bed width. Two bikes forward-on either side of the bed, and the middle bike faces backward.

gmace

The tailgate has cutouts for the rear tires. The prototype is a shortbed crew cab. Not my choice. I'd rather trade for extended cab and long bed; crew Cab long bed optimally. Blown 6.0 with 429 HP. Just fill the truck with race gas and siphon out at the track for premixing. 4WD for those slippery paved parking lots at the stadium.


http://www.chevrolet.com/silverado/foxracing/

pocahontas

Since the activity here does not warrant a discussion by itself, let's please continue this subject in either one of these active discussions: Pickup Weight/Cargo Capacity and Short Bed Crew Cabs..

This discussion will be closed, and archived in several days. Thanks for your participation. ;-)

Pocahontas
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