Camper, dirt bike carrier DIY.

I figured someone else may have had this in their head at one point or maybe it would give someone an option they didn't consider.

My predicament. I sold the Tundra and picked up a 2nd Gen Armada. This was out of our desire to do away with our 3rd vehicle, making the Armada my wife's DD. But in doing so I lost the ability to carry my DRZ on trips that we pull the camper, normally would have carried in the bed of the Tundra (which really stressed the truck out with the weight of the DRZ and tongue weight of the camper).

So I set off on a solution.
-A dedicated toyhauler in the 22' range would have been perfect. Could not find a layout I was happy with, weight I was happy with, and people think an awful lot of them ($$$) in that size and lightweight. We got our current camper for a steal, I could not justify selling/trading and then needing to kick in an additional $5k-$8k to get what I needed, not even necessarily what I wanted.
-A carrier on the back of the camper, ruled out almost immediately due to it's effect on the tongue weight and the catapult motion that is generated behind the trailer axles.
-Installing a larger entry door that would accommodate the width of the handlebars (34").

Ultimately settling on the 36" door and diving right in. I ordered the door a few weeks ago and installed this weekend. I will be securing the bike with the Risk Racing Lock-n-load system. When not in use the mounting baseplate will be covered with a carpet pad (cutout for the plate) then covered with an area rug.

This will not work for everyone. My configuration was the perfect candidate. I am able to roll the bike straight in the door and have 4"-6" clearance with the front and back wheels between the wall and door. My camper has a listed cargo carrying capacity of 2500lbs, bike equals 300-ish, lots of room for propane, water, luggage, etc...

The Risk Lock-n-Load system will be thru-bolted to a backer plate that I made for under the sub-floor.

Overall very straight forward. I put some extra time in to beef up the framing and header, not needed but I feel better. I handled this on my own, total 8-10 hours split between 2 days start to finish.

 

Mounting system installed.
Bike is secure.
Very happy with finished product.

 

Nice job!

 

Nice setup! Also, happy to see you rocking those Kenda Trakmaster 2s . The rear is GREAT for the money. Haven't found a better bang for the buck in 16 years of dualsporting. Never tried the front tho.

 

Trackmaster front and rear. Can't be beat for traction and wear, the dirt cheap price is the icing.

I'm Nitro Mousse front and rear as well...plus Rekluse clutch. She's a pretty unstoppable DRZ.

 

Which door did you buy? I want to do the same to my camper! thanks

 

Thats a great idea! Same question on the door. I have a side entry on my cargo and the bars barely fit through the opening so I normally just push out the back. Would be much easier with wider door.

 

This is the exact door I got. It can be found in a few other places as well. It is made by Lippert and has proven to be solid in the 2 years since I installed it. 36" wide gives plenty of room and makes it easy to load just about everything else in the camper too. This should be a factory option.

Lippert® V000156500 - 36"W x 72"H Polar White Smooth Rectangular Entry Door - CAMPERiD.com

You will need a few pieces of the black snap moulding that covers the screw track around the door frame exterior. For the interior I used some 2" pine lattice strips that I had, cut, stained, and installed.
Anyone that has been in/around my camper doesn't realize it didn't come that way from the factory.

If you can handle small remodeling projects around the house you can handle this. I used a sawzall with a very fine tooth metal blade to cut the siding, I taped off the siding first to keep it from getting beat up. If you need to add any framing after you've cut the hole, mine was standard 2x3 dimensional. I sealed behind the screw flange with a heavy bead of Lexel and then pushed the door into it.

 

Nice work. I'd never be able to do that.
1, I'd hit wires with the sawzall
2, I'd hit water lines with the sawzall
3, I'd cut the opening sideways, in the wrong place or the wrong side.
4, My wife would imprint a mirror image of Wagnerware on my forehead if I parked a dirtbike in her little dreamhome on wheels.

 

So true.