Sliding Bike and Cargo Trays

Our Original Plywood Sliding Bike Tray

Here’s why we needed to build new sliding bike and and cargo trays in our van: Our original sliding bike tray in our camper van was made of plywood and it was designed to accommodate 2 bicycles – our mountain bikes. At the time we designed it, we were thinking of all the off-road, off-grid adventures we would be doing, and didn’t really consider the times where we would be needing to work and commute.

But right before we left on this grand adventure, we threw one more front wheel fork mount on the tray so we could take Shannon’s street bike too, so she could easily get to work and back. And it was tight but we made it fit.

Problems with the original tray

Then we got to Phoenix for Shannon’s first 3-month gig and Tim realized his street bike back home would be much better for getting around than the mountain bike. So we had that shipped to us and for the next 3 months, things were pretty good.

But then Shannon’s gig was over and we were on our way to the next one and, yup – you guessed it – we CRAMMED a 4th bike onto that poor plywood tray. So we knew at this point we needed an upgrade.

And after of months of having to remove everything on the other side of our van’s “garage”, just to get to the stuff behind it, we also knew there must be a better way to store things so they’d be more easily accessible.

We decided we needed some aluminum or plywood trays on super heavy-duty drawer slides. (our first tray was on a home-made slide that worked fine with only the weight of 2 bikes, but with 4, it was difficult to use).

The Solution: Heavy Duty Deluxe Aluminum Sliding Trays on Full Extension Drawer Slides

So we ordered two sets of 450 pound capacity, 50″ locking drawer slides made by Fulterer and set about figuring out how to put something together.

Originally we were going to buy angle aluminum to both mount the slides to the van and to mount trays to the slides (like in the drawing above), but then we found Fulterer Mounting Brackets and this project suddenly got a lot easier.

We also decided to use aluminum instead of plywood – it’s more expensive and a bit heavier, but it will last much longer than plywood and will be easier to keep clean.

Putting it all together

Check out the video to see how it all came together. And see the list of components we used below.

This contains affiliate links. We may earn compensation when you click on the links at no additional cost to you.

• Drawer Slides: Fulterer FR5400 450 lb. 50-inch locking drawer slides: https://amzn.to/2VeXGc0
• Drawer Slides: Fulterer FR5400 450 lb. 50-inch locking drawer slides: https://amzn.to/3YGX0vu
• Mounting Brackets for FR5400 https://bit.ly/2NvG9be
• 6061 .190″ Aluminum Sheet: https://bit.ly/31iaNwO
• Bicycle front fork mounts: https://amzn.to/2Z7li3b
• Bicycle front Wheel Hitch: https://amzn.to/2A1UARh
• Bolts to hold Aluminum to brackets, 1/4 x 20 x 3/4″: https://amzn.to/3hJhA8q
• Front fork mount bolts, 1/4 x 20 x 1-1/2″: https://amzn.to/2AP3B0a
  (we didn’t link fork mounts for the mountain bikes because there are many sizes out there and it depends on the width of your front forks. Check your local bike shop for those 🙂
• Nylon insert lock nuts, 1/4 x 20: https://amzn.to/2ALqeCQ
• Mending Strips: https://bit.ly/3dyrVkj

If you take on a project like this yourself and have questions, drop us a line and we’d be more than happy to try to help you out. info@TimShannonLTD.com

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