Morning all.
I am in the process of building myself a bike-van. In it I will have the space to carry 3 bikes width-ways. I have built a false floor, just slightly higher than the wheel-arches, at the rear and this is where the bikes will go.
What I would like to do is use the ‘arm’ bits which clamp the downtube of a bike on a roof-mounted carrier attached to my floor to support the bikes.
So, are there any where the ‘arm’ bits have a suitable flat bit at the bottom to allow them to attach to a flat surface? I shouldn’t need the tray-like bits where the wheels go on the roof racks, just the arms, so any single-pieces designs probably wouldn’t work. I would still need them to fold flat when not in use though. Anyone got any pictures of theirs?
Even better, does anyone have three for sale, and for a real moon-on-a-stick moment do they have matching locks?
Cheers guys.

truck bike rack
how about this?

Why not take the whole thing, with the gutters for the wheels, and bolt that to the van floor?

Consider using a fork mount. Front wheel off and secure the bike down. Zero frame contact and super slick. You could also recess a channel in your false floor so when bikes aren’t in, you retain an uninterrupted floor!

You can get these in qr/15mm/20mm axles

In it I will have the space to carry 3 bikes width-ways.

WTF is it? a luton?

I like that AW, but may be a bit tight for space width-ways (or lengthways to the van, widthways to the bikes. Makes sense in my head)
Good idea BB. If were to use those and have the back wheel supported/strapped would that be enough to prevent sideways motion or would it articulate around the headset? I have a large collection of bikes but all have standard QR dropouts so should make it nice and simple and interchangable whichever bikes I’m carrying. Is that a standard skewer in that mount? If so I could replace them with some of those X-Lite ones where the lever comes off, just a bit of extra security.
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It’s just a Transit Thom, T300 SWB low roof. All lined and insulated now, I’ve put some windows in the back and the lights and speakers are now installed in the rear, just need to connect the power sockets. Got a night-heater and hot running water. No sofa/bed yet, I’m building the bike rack first, obvious priorities there 😳
I’m quite pleased with it, although it’s taken far longer to do than expected. A proper bike/camper van for less than the price of a bike frame 😀

I used to run one in my van they came in a kit with a clamp for the forks, a u shape for the rear wheel and a clamp that bolted in for the wheel. I’ve still got it somewhere and its ace!

It looks like this Kit, but I can’t find a UK supplier for it, I just screwed mine into the wooden floor of my van.

http://holdfast.co.za/?portfolio=bicycle-holders-spares

Thanks Pepper,I’ll send them an email, see if I can mount it how I want to.
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Will holding it by the bottom of the rear wheel and the fork drop out be enough? Just occured to me that my description may have been open to misinterpretation. The bikes will be in accross the van, two with the rear wheel on the left and fork on the right, and one vice versa, sort of top-tail-top. I don’t want them banging into each other as I’m driving along.

How about some wheel recesses in the floor or a vertical wheel holder at one end and then just strap across width ways or from the floor up and over. You could then use a pulley and cleat on the strap to release from the back without fighting your way between the bikes.

not sure how easy that is to follow.

Sorry you did really mean across the width of the van. Thought you meant three bikes wide ie next to each other.

Not sure about recesses, the floor is only 12mm thick so they would have to all the way through to be any good and that would allow water into the storage underneath.
However, I like your strap idea, I think I know you what you mean and that could work.

Not sure about recesses, the floor is only 12mm thick so they would have to all the way through to be any good and that would allow water into the storage underneath.
However, I like your strap idea, I think I know you what you mean and that could work.

Good idea BB. If were to use those and have the back wheel supported/strapped would that be enough to prevent sideways motion or would it articulate around the headset?

Yep, you’d need a rear wheel tie down or slot to drop the wheel into.
That holdfast rear wheel holder is a great idea.. you can however get those fork axle holders that mount into rails.
you coudl install 2 rails flush with the false floor and have the ability to slide the fork holder and rear wheel tiedown along depending on number of bikes, wheelbase etc.
USA shopping would reveal more results though as you’re essentially looking for an off the shelf truck bed solution.

I like the slidy fork mount idea too.Previously I had been think about just a large rear wheel holder which would allow that end to move back and forth but the slidy fork thing may be better.
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It’s like this at present (very much a work in progress!) There will be capacity for three bikes, top,tail,top. Appologies for posting a pic of a road bike on here but it’s just the one which was in the garage at the time. The false floor is supported by the two boxes enclosing the wheel arches and also a long thin cupboard (which I will use for storing long, thin things, like jump leads and a tow rope, wheel brace, warning triangle etc) It’s just 12mm ply with lino on top. It will be trimmed in aluminium around the sides, like the main floor which you can just about see at the bottom right of the pic.
The white box on the wall is the lightswitches, the round white thing on the roof is a smoke/CO detector and the grey pipe sticking up on the left is the filler for the hot water system.

IIRC tuskstore.com used to do something in that line

Just go onto roofracks.co.uk and dig through the spare parts section.
All the Thule parts you want and if you take your time – ridiculously cheap 😉

I use a pair of fork clamps (the Saris version, very similar indeed to the Thule and other ones shown above) mounted to a 5×1″ plank that just sits, unatatched (sp?) in the back of the Berlingo. It very seldom moves about at all. Never at all with two bikes mounted. I don’t bother with any kind of rear wheel retention at all. I’ve been running this set up wholly satisfactorily for over a year now.

If I need to I can just remove the plank/ mounts. Easy peasy- lemon squeasy.

Ambrose

The white box on the wall is the lightswitches, the round white thing on the roof is a smoke/CO detector and the grey pipe sticking up on the left is the filler for the hot water system.

What’s the triangular red thing in the middle?

That’s not part of the van, just something I put in it to give an idea of the size and the space available to fit the rack into.

Ah OK, that explains it. I was just trying to work out its purpose.