• Hi everyone,

    As you all know, Coffee (Dean) passed away a couple of years ago. I am Dean's ex-wife's husband and happen to have spent my career in tech. Over the years, I occasionally helped Dean with various tech issues.

    When he passed, I worked with his kids to gather the necessary credentials to keep this site running. Since then (and for however long they worked with Coffee), Woodschick and Dirtdame have been maintaining the site and covering the costs. Without their hard work and financial support, CafeHusky would have been lost.

    Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve been working to migrate the site to a free cloud compute instance so that Woodschick and Dirtdame no longer have to fund it. At the same time, I’ve updated the site to a current version of XenForo (the discussion software it runs on). The previous version was outdated and no longer supported.

    Unfortunately, the new software version doesn’t support importing the old site’s styles, so for now, you’ll see the XenForo default style. This may change over time.

    Coffee didn’t document the work he did on the site, so I’ve been digging through the old setup to understand how everything was running. There may still be things I’ve missed. One known issue is that email functionality is not yet working on the new site, but I hope to resolve this over time.

    Thanks for your patience and support!

Transit connect hauler

racemx904

racemx904

Husqvarna
Pro Class
Anyone using one as a Moto hauler?

Deciding between transit connect or full-size window van.....


Transit pros:
Mileage (25ish)
Drives good

Cons:
Small
Hauls one bike and a 85?

Full-size pros:
2 bikes easy
Multiple people

Cons:
Bulky to drive
Mileage
 
If it's anything like the ram pro city van, its based on a car chassis and doesn't have the truck frame. Mine said it could take a hitch but when I tried to use it for a bike rack the whole thing bent down! I guess it could handle the tongue weight of a trailer but not 300 lbs bouncing on the back.
 
Personally I’d go for the full size van. I used to have a dodge b350 ext wheelbase and I could throw my bike in and have tons of room for gear and I could sleep in it fully loaded! Just my preference though. Now I have a w250 cummins that gets around 21mpg and will do whatever i want it to haha
 
My city has banned any vehicle over 82 inches tall so I am unable to park my low roof sprinter on any city street. I have researched the Ram City, Metris and Transit Connect. They all suck. Too short in height and length to work. The transit and Metris are longer than Ram but roof height an issue. I have multiple needs for carrying and might have sold my Sprinter but too many tradeoffs. My goal was to be able to simply get my dirt bike and mtb in the van and have a roof rack for carrying a SUP. If I could not fit the dirt bike, I'd use a rear hitch carrier. Then I went and looked at each van. Hitches are way too low and a rail would be dragging, not to mention half my gear outside getting dirty and being a target for theft when traveling. A full size van fits the bill.
 
I'm in the sort of same boat. I want a van for just bike stuff. Either a small van like the Transit Connect, Ram Pro Master City or full size Transit or Sprinter. Full size Ram Pro Master is out, as it is just too tinny and cheap feeling.

New style Transit Connect is too low at rear entrance, you'll have to strap down and compress the forks on a full size dirt bike. If they had kept the old roof height, with the new LWB... perfect! Ram City is a bit taller, but shorter. Too bad they don't sell the LWB/High Roof version of this the Euros get, as a Ram in the US.

In the end I think I'll be getting the M-B Metris for my bike hauler.... It slots in between the small and big vans. After having two M-B Sprinters for a combo of work/dirt bike hauler, it's hard to not like how they feel, work and drive.... warts and all. Ford and Ram (Fiat) have similar mid size vans in Europe(Ford Transit Sport and Fiat Talento), but choose to make a low roof version of their full size vans to sell in the US, instead of the mid size they sell in Europe.
 
Norman Foley said:
I'm in the sort of same boat. I want a van for just bike stuff. Either a small van like the Transit Connect, Ram Pro Master City or full size Transit or Sprinter. Full size Ram Pro Master is out, as it is just too tinny and cheap feeling.

New style Transit Connect is too low at rear entrance, you'll have to strap down and compress the forks on a full size dirt bike. If they had kept the old roof height, with the new LWB... perfect! Ram City is a bit taller, but shorter. Too bad they don't sell the LWB/High Roof version of this the Euros get, as a Ram in the US.

In the end I think I'll be getting the M-B Metris for my bike hauler.... It slots in between the small and big vans. After having two M-B Sprinters for a combo of work/dirt bike hauler, it's hard to not like how they feel, work and drive.... warts and all. Ford and Ram (Fiat) have similar mid size vans in Europe(Ford Transit Sport and Fiat Talento), but choose to make a low roof version of their full size vans to sell in the US, instead of the mid size they sell in Europe.
Click to expand...


The Transit I'm looking at is a 2010 with low miles..... has a high roof (4'11") haven't tried to squeeze in the bikes..... I know Erek Kudla says his 1 bike fits but where I go so does my boy..... I may just end up with a chevy or econoline.... I'm having a small issues finding a non rust bucket window van thats not 10g.... geeeez...
 
Norman... Post any pics if you get a Metris. Been waiting to see if any bike owners find them workable.
 
racemx904 said:
The Transit I'm looking at is a 2010 with low miles..... has a high roof (4'11") haven't tried to squeeze in the bikes..... I know Erek Kudla says his 1 bike fits but where I go so does my boy..... I may just end up with a chevy or econoline.... I'm having a small issues finding a non rust bucket window van thats not 10g.... geeeez...
Click to expand...

It's a long way from Kentucky, but Kearney gets great used vans quite often and has all the resources to ship to you.
 
2 vintage bikes in one with optional left slider.
17800084_10212107717758827_561608239259184298_n.jpg


Full size Husky in another...
22046482_10210240641237249_3807663361334544168_n.jpg

22046951_10210240641277250_5390552661270139065_n.jpg
 
Nissan has a full sized van with a frame. I rode in one, essentially like the 1989 ford van I had a number of years ago. Most of the ones you see are larger. Local Nissan dealer does not carry them have to go to Hartford to the Nissan truck place. The Ford dealer or that particular salesman was pretty disappointing, try and get some windows that open. Was more interested in a hauler for dogs to go to dog shows, not a bad place to walk around the parking lot and see vans.

Post 1 does say full size window van. I never went to the Nissan truck place but the one I rode in had windows half way down the sides and at the rear, not sure what the options are.
 
Just got a 17 Metris.
can fit 3 bikes
taller than ram and ford but some early mid 80s bikes are tall at the bars and handguard make even taller. compress the fork an inch or 2 and viola. Ram and Transit are just under 90 inch long Metris is 111 from back of seats to end. payload of metris is 2500! blows away the other two. Also can tow a lot too. Ram recommends against towing BTW.

Loaded up getting 25 MPG! only like 53 tall but a regular van not much taller. Cant do anything until a full size sprinter high top of box van (yep....we got spoiled) but 25 MPG is awesome for those who go to races/rides solo big van MPG just stinks unless splitting cost with another rider.

Just my 2 cents. have about 1000 miles on it and it drives great!
 
I guess I'll have to get used to banging my head and knuckles a bit but doable. How is the visability? I'v heard some say the rear side mirrors not so good. I was speccing split doors with glass and trying to spec both side slider with glass too but harder to find.
 
rear side mirrors improved with17 model.....has blind spot Perspex in right mirror....good stuff. got no windows but got camera in back....no visibility problems but hey....used to drive tanks in the Army so there it is
 
Have a Nissan NV200, same as the chevy version. Use it for this. Tc250(Austrian) with tall bars was pushing it. Sherco with stock bars, easy. Can without a doubt fit an 85 too. Just another option. Really do wish they were all a little taller.
 
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