I'm a buyer/I've bought

Pretty early in the search process, but it is going to happen in the next few months. I'm trying to sort through needs and wants. The biggest question is if I can load a full size adventure bike in the bed? The 650 is about 450lbs and the 1200 is probably 550lbs. I'm assuming that the tailgate will not close on either of those. Are there mods necessary (airbags) to carry one of those and possibly pull a small trailer with other? Is the tailgate strong enough to not bend under that weight during loading?

 

I haven’t hauled a bike in my 23
In my 02 Access cab, I picked up a friend in the middle of Kansas and took his bike to St. Louis. wasn’t really confident in the tailgate. I used a few tubes of construction adhesive and glued two 5/8” plywood sheets. It helped the spread the load over the tailgate.

Was able to use a shop’s loading dock ramp to load. Was unloaded at a dealer’s loading dock. That was about 6” higher than the tailgate

 

This is what you seek

 

Why would you not get a trailer that would accommodate both bikes?

 

You sound like my wife.

It's a good question and difficult to answer because there are a bunch of reasons, but mostly because I want a Tacoma and don't want a 2-bike trailer.

Steve's idea is also valid, but the Tacoma would be my DD. I don't really want to DD a Tundra.

 

I'd look for one with a long bed, even though there seems to be a lot of people who have hauled motorcycles with the short beds.

I love my long bed and wouldn't hesitate to haul a motorcycle, I believe we have 950lbs payload (passengers & stuff).

Google images of Tacomas with motorcycles in the bed.

 

While not in the exact same boat I can share my experiences thus far.

I have a DCLB Tacoma and a R1250GSA.

I would never consider loading and hauling a full size (or even 700-900cc) adventure bike in the bed of the truck. My only exception would be if you were always going to unload and load the bike at a location where the area to unload/load is at the same height as the truck bed. If I had to guess I would say this is not likely.

The big adv bikes are simply too large for me to safely load and unload them. I am 6'3" with a 36" inseam, so I can straddle the 1250, even at the max suspension setting, and I still had trouble and concerns when loading the bike onto a trailer.

We originally opted for a small tow behind trailer, just big enough to haul the bike.

We have already ditched it. Even with (6) straps to secure it, we still had to drop our off pavement speed to around 5 mph. The bike just got too wild.

Diesel Heater Install and Slider Repaint by Michael Rickerd, on Flickr

For a size comparison, as I doubt there are many of these types of images floating around. The GS is just fucking massive.

Trailer for R1250 by Michael Rickerd, on Flickr

We now simply pilot both vehicles at the same time (for full transparency, my wife and I live out of our Tacoma, and she is a competent driver of the truck and currently building up her skillset for offroad motorcycle travel). This is the way to go for us.

Vail AZ - Tacoma and GSA by Michael Rickerd, on Flickr

Tacoma and GS by Michael Rickerd, on Flickr

If you have any other questions just let me know.

Also, your tailgate won't have a problem supporting that load while loading and unloading the bike, or while transporting it.

If you do decide to simply load it into the bed of the truck, film that shit, as I want to see how tough it is. Just getting ours onto the trailer was interesting.

 

I have a 2019 Tacoma DCLB and hauled 2 dirt bikes in the bed while hauling a 6x10 cargo trailer with 2 more dirt bikes inside from Oregon to Arizona. Loaded trailer weight approximately 1800 lbs. 2 dirt bikes in bed approximately 500 lbs. total. 65 mph average for trip about 12 mpg. Truck had no problems. For loading motorcycles into a truck bed the StepRamp made in Idaho is the safest method in my opinion. I do have Sumo Spring bump stops blue version on my truck. I towed with the tailgate down but the wheelbase of the bikes were short enough no weight was on the tailgate.

 

I confidently hauled a 2014 Yamaha Fz09 500+ miles when I moved from Ohio to New Hampshire. Plus I sit on my tailgate all the time and at 230lbs I never worry about it so I doubt it’ll be an issue for a 500lb bike. I wouldn’t be scared to put my Husqvarna Norden in as long as the bike isn’t too long for my short bed.

 

Sweet Penton!

 

This is great info. Thanks for the response. Yes, the DCLB is definitely my target.

I really like that trailer - I could see adding it to the collection.

Interestingly, I'm far more optimistic about loading vs the tailgate handling it. But I might be naive. I have 3 Black Widow 7.5' ramps bolted together, so it's something close to 34" wide to walk up. But I haven't been able to get the incline angle in my head yet. That could be an issue.

Since I posted this topic, I finally found another thread discussing a similar situation. At least it seems like the overall load/weight of the big GS isn't an issue from those responses. It's not likely that I would ever load that bike in the bed. But the 650 is definitely a candidate.

Also seems like the 3rd gen tailgate is stronger than the 2nd gen, but much of that seems to be anecdotal.

 

This site moves quickly - this thread already drifted back to page 8. Rather than starting a new thread, I'm going to keep posting my buying questions in here and hope that it gets adequate attention.

I'm tracking model availability through Carmax. They're not the best, but I've bought several cars from them and always had good experience.

Of the 10 Tacomas that meet my current search criteria (nationwide, dual cab, auto, 4WD, Limited or Offroad, heated seats, tow hitch, <50K miles, <$43K) all are short beds. How difficult will it be to find a long bed?

Secondly, how difficult is it going to be to find a camper shell for a long bed (used, ideally)?

 

So I don’t have anything to contribute besides forum etiquette. “Don’t start a new thread to get attention” is a pretty universal rule on any forum you may join. When there is a new comment on a post, it gets bumped to the top or back to page one.
Commenting with the word “bump”, “anyone?” or building on your question like you’ve done here is usually sufficient to jump the line and get your post back to the top. Making duplicate posts is spamy and floods the forum, cluttering it with duplicate content, making it hard to navigate or link to helpful information.

 

I purchased a double cab long bed off-road from CarMax last month that satisfies all your requirements. I reside in So Cal and this was the only DCLB available with the off-road package within 500 miles being sold by CarMax.

 

California Carmax often seems to have the cars that I want - especially when no other locations have them. We may have to do a fly-n-drive on this one.

 

You can them delivered for a fee. Might be cheaper in the long run, depending on airfair, cost of fuel, motels, etc.

Being a moto head myself, quit putting bikes in the bed many years ago, with a trailer the bikes practically load themselves. Mine is a Big Tex 5X8 with 3 Pingle wheel chocks, iirc it was $1000 25 years ago. Use my ramp as the tailgate, don’t like those fold ramps since they are basically a parachute and kill gas mileage. I average 18-20 when traveling.

Finding used toppers depends on your area, took me a few months, but found three that were color matched all within a couple hours of me, luckily the one with the features I wanted (windoors) was only 30 minutes away and about half of what retail was.

 

toppers are a crap shoot, but adding there are considerably less long beds, I am going to assume there are considerably less LB toppers, ,making your search that much more difficult.
I looked for a SB topper for MGM on and off for nearly 3 years before I found one at what I considered a reasonable used price and drove nearly 10 hours away to pick it up. Hindsight: next time I get a new truck, I will have the matching topper ordered before the ink dries on the paperwork for the truck.

As far as finding a LB truck? The Carmax site should be able to answer your question. If there are non listed,, well then you have your answer, there are none available, which wouldn't shock any of us, there are so few out there.

 

Double Cab Long Beds are not a common configuration, so finding them will take more time and patience. It may also require adjusting your other requirements. For example, I'm not sure the Limited was offered in a DCLB configuration. If it wasn't getting heated seats would likely mean a TRD Off Road with the premium package, which is again not going to be the majority. The more requirements you have the smaller the pool, so you may have to give up some features or spend more money to get exactly what you want.

Another bit of an important factor is location. Where are you? Certain regions had more of certain configurations. If you are willing to fly and buy then that definitely opens up the options, but some places still charge an arm and a leg for a used truck.

 

Miss my ‘76 F250 at times. Thought of building a 70s F150 Super Cab 6.5’ bed with that 2.8 Cummins aimed at fuel efficiency, like a Dana 44 front and 9” in the rear, try to keep things light….buuuut the Tacoma works very very well and is pretty damn comfortable. Almost dragged an old Ford SC home a few years ago, until I test drove it, then remembered how barbaric those old trucks were. Maybe if you slung a Roadster Shop chassis underneath it, but kiss your money goodbye! Chassis alone is $40K, makes the new trucks look like a bargain. Ya know!?


https://roadstershop.com/

 

Removing the seat heater filter opened it up from 10 to 32, then I eliminated the two white models. Already filtered out SR, SR5, Sport. They don't have a filter for AC vs DC, but I found 2 AC in the latest grouping. So I'm down to 28. Not a single LB in that group. Just seems unbelievable to me.

For the right model, we would fly to pretty much anywhere in the US. Mrs likes a roadtrip. Obviously, some destinations are better than others, but that would usually weigh into a decision if there were more options available. Generally I try to focus on Southern or western states cars. But it looks like I may not have much of a choice.