I'm looking for my first motorhome, and need an island bed and a garage big and strong enough for a motorbike up to around 180KG. Does this mean I have to go for an A-Class or are some low-profile vans strong enough for this. Any particular brands worth looking at? I imaging I'll need more than 3500KG...Thanks!
Which chassis for motorbike garage?
- Thread starter jimjam337
- Start date
Hi, payload and a big garage are tricky to find . We have a Carthago C-Tourer twin linked beds over the garage (island bed available but loose a bit of garage bedroom with the double bed) and a KTM 790 Duke inside the garage. You realistically ain't going to get anything at 3500kg that can legally carry a good payload. Ours is plated for 4800KG which we will never hit but it is the back axle load that is tricky with heavy garage weight. From memory our garage floor is plated for 350kg, good luck.
Most vans that are plated at 3500kgs actually have a higher capacity, it’s just so weighted for uk licensing reasons. They can be upgraded fairly easily, and this actually, ironically reduces the VED by over a £100 per year….
you could go further with adding air suspension which may take you way over 4000kgs.
all the German manufacturers are worth looking at, sadly in my opinion they are so much better than UK made vans….
you could go further with adding air suspension which may take you way over 4000kgs.
all the German manufacturers are worth looking at, sadly in my opinion they are so much better than UK made vans….
Thanks guys. Helpful stuff for this newbie...So can 'most' low profile vans be 'upweighted' (wrong term I'm sure...) to more than 3500 or is it case by case?
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Look at sv tech, they are one such organisation that will do the up rating for you, costs about £250
"Up Plated or down plated" is the term. Case by case for sure as it often depends on what has been up plated before. Often it is rear air suspension and higher load rated tyres are enough to get an increase. SVTECH and another company I can't remember the name of specialise in this operation if you are happy to pay them.
Worth doing some extended research on what has previously been up plated and what was involved in terms of equipment and cost in order to do that.
Lenny HB
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An island bed & a motorbike in the garage really don't go together as the island means the garage won't be full height unless you go for a large expensive van like a Morelo or Concorde.
Largest garages are found in vans with twin rear beds. Also you really need a maxi chassis as this gives a rear axle loading of 2500 kg compared to 2000 kg on the light chassis.
You need to check the garage max loading our Hymer is 350kg an their was an option or 450kg. There are some vans with only 150kg not really suitable for a motorbike by the time you have loaded other stuff.
Largest garages are found in vans with twin rear beds. Also you really need a maxi chassis as this gives a rear axle loading of 2500 kg compared to 2000 kg on the light chassis.
You need to check the garage max loading our Hymer is 350kg an their was an option or 450kg. There are some vans with only 150kg not really suitable for a motorbike by the time you have loaded other stuff.
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MAN, RWD, plenty of payload, plenty of power but you doing need a C licence
C tourer wont carry the weight
When I go away again I'll be taking my KTM Duke 390. 149kg dry and is mega fun to ride.. So nice a can't sell it even though I'm having a new Honda Hornet 
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I can’t talk about layout but about weights.
I put my bikes inside my van.
It’s a converted LWB VW Crafter.
It was plated at 3,500 but with the full conversion and a motorcycle, it came back at 3,640kgs
I was able to ‘up-plate’ the weight to 3,900kgs without any physical changes to the van just needed the V5 adjusted by the DVLA.
I used a company called SV Tech, but there is another used by folks on here regularly.
So a 3,500 van should be OK
Good luck
I put my bikes inside my van.
It’s a converted LWB VW Crafter.
It was plated at 3,500 but with the full conversion and a motorcycle, it came back at 3,640kgs
I was able to ‘up-plate’ the weight to 3,900kgs without any physical changes to the van just needed the V5 adjusted by the DVLA.
I used a company called SV Tech, but there is another used by folks on here regularly.
So a 3,500 van should be OK
Good luck
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Last edited:
Richard
The van is rated at 3300kg with the Duke on is 2990 with 3/4 tank of diesel and just me in it...
Lenny HB
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I've just had a look at the C Tourers on Autotrader.
Foget the island bed ones, the garage is not tall enough.
There was one i149 one a maxi 4250 kg chassis all the others were on the light chassis. The light chassis would need uprating to 3850kg and you would probably need rear air suspension and possibly a change of tyres to uprate the rear axle.
Vansflyer, I've seen that quite a few island beds go up and down to change height in the garage. Are you saying that even those have less height than twin beds in your experience?
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stevewagner
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I’ve just part exchanged a Carthago Compactline which I had uprated to 4600kg by Van Weight Engineering who are a bit cheaper than SV Tech. I now have a Carthago Compactline ‘Super Lightweight’ which is rated at 3850kg which I am having uprated to 4000kg but need to have rear air added.
funflair
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I think whatever you are interested in you need to look under the garage to see if there are any chassis rails supporting the garage floor, I know of a Carthago with nothing behind the rear spring hangers so I honestly wouldn't want to put a decent motorcycle in there, In my experience it's not just weight though as you need height to get the bike in.
Good advice Funflair thanks.
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Lenny HB
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Yes the light is 3500 kg.
It will and has done for nearly 4 years. 149LE version, 7.5m long and originally plated at 4250kg. Now at 4800kg and from memory rear axle is 2600kg max and we run at less than 2500kg with everything we need for a two month winter trip. KTM, 2x Brompton bikes and all the other crap we carry... oh and 150l of fresh water to get us through France en route to Spain in the middle of Winter. We could just about fit the 790 Duke in a island bed option but that is very dependent on the bike you want to carry with you? Carthago have some of the best payloads available along with great under floor storage options.
When I weighed our 6.48 metre A class the rear axle weighed 2191kg, rear axle is plated at 3100kg so over 900kg payload.
Lenny HB
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Can't agree with that, even the Compactlines are difficult to run at 3500, I have a 6.67m compactline on order went for the 4250kg as I don't reckon it can be run legally at 3500. The E lines at 4500kg have a poor payload so do the Liner for Two unless on an Iveco. Also nearly every Carthago I've see comes of of the factory 130 kg overweight.
Or a bike trailer?
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