Tacoma and other small pu owners.

can you fit two bikes entirely in the box and below the top. I am having issues with my current vehicle fitting two bikes inside. I require the security of the bikes being inside a car due to my circumstances. I need to leave my bikes in my car at work in the underground a couple days a week. My thinking is that a small pu with a hard cover, don't want a canopy, will fill the bill.

I want decent power too as well as some creature comforts and I require all wheel drive or four wheel drive. I think a Venza will have the interior space, or a Pilot or something similar but I am not sure how well their 4 wheel drive system works.

Wife has a Volvo XC which is an excellent snow car. My Acura RDX is only OK. There have been a few days this winter when I was not able to get out of my driveway until I cleared it. I do think the Tacoma 4 wheel drive would be better in deep snow that any car all wheel drive.

To get 2 bike to lay flat under a cover (I have a roll and lock) you need to mash them together fairly well and often have to pop the wheels in the cab. So, yes it can be done but it ain't pretty.

FTR: I'm in a Taco S/C. I don't know if it'd work as well in a quad cab with the tiny box.

i can get 2 in no problems in my 96 dakota bed… pop the front wheels off, lay one bike in, throw down a blanket to keep the damage to a minimum, lay the other one on it on the opposite side of the bike, IE if one bike has cranks on the drivers side, lay the other one cranks to passenger side. i get 2 and occasionally 3 in my truck under the tonneau (hard cover ARE brand) i just stick the front wheels wherever they fit in the bed…living in the ghettos of chicago means you gotta keep your stuff locked up 100% of the time…LOL

We don't use hard tops on the NSMB truck but the long bed does make it easy to fit bikes back there. Whether or not you'd be willing to take the front wheel off regularly will probably be a key factor - though if you're talking about Venza or Pilot it sounds like you're willing to do that.

Re: AWD/4WD - none of them will help you get out of a challenging driveway if you don't have the right tires…was your RDX letting you down in combination with snows or were you using all-season tires?

Yeah Pete four proper heavily siped soft rubber Pirelli ? snows. The wifes volvo has more clearance and Gislaved tires which may be better? No problem taking a front wheel off. Generally it will be a road bike and a 29er hardtail.

Re: AWD/4WD - none of them will help you get out of a challenging driveway if you don't have the right tires…was your RDX letting you down in combination with snows or were you using all-season tires?

Came here to say this. I had a 4wd pickup that absolutely sucked in the snow unless it had snow tires and weight in the back. The reason 2wd cars are good in the snow is because the engine keeps pressure on the drive wheels.

Snow tires are key.

Also, car all-wheel-drive is different from truck 4wd.

Yeah Pete four proper heavily siped soft rubber Pirelli ? snows. The wifes volvo has more clearance and Gislaved tires which may be better? No problem taking a front wheel off. Generally it will be a road bike and a 29er hardtail.

Figured as much. Nah I'm sure your Pirellis were just fine. I have Gislaveds on my WRX and it's bomber in the winter, but you couldn't put two bikes in the back - only on top.

Like Craw said, with any truck, you'll need extra weight in the back even with 4by engaged. When I drove the Tacoma I left 4-6 sandbags back there for winter driving and it made a big difference.

My Nissan Frontier is a 4 door long box. For the small truck, the long box is 6'3". You could get bikes in there but you either take off the front wheel or you loosen the headset and twist the bars - Rat used to do this under his tonneau cover when he parked it downtown all day.

Yeah Pete four proper heavily siped soft rubber Pirelli ? snows. The wifes volvo has more clearance and Gislaved tires which may be better? No problem taking a front wheel off. Generally it will be a road bike and a 29er hardtail.

I think it should work. The limiting factor will likely be the width of your bars - but you could just loosen and turn and then it will be no problem at all.

I think it should work. The limiting factor will likely be the width of your bars - but you could just loosen and turn and then it will be no problem at all.

The road bars would fit fine. Mountain bars is easy with front wheel off. No way would I loosen and tighten the stem that much. Just looked at a Pilot. $5000 off for cash sale. Less trade in. Might work. It's big inside but it has that stupid carpeting in the luggage area. Why do they do that? My duffle bag could care less.

I've got a Tacoma with a 6 foot box and a roll-up tonneau cover. Take the front wheel off and you're good to go.

You could fit a large family in the box of the F150s. With Ecoboost the fuel isn't any different than a V6. Good luck filling the 131L tank though

Bummer on the 4 wheel drive. Im going to be putting a 2009 Tacoma with a ARE contractor canopy up for sale in a couple of weeks, that only has 63 thousand km on it. No issues getting at least 3 bikes with wheels on and more with out the front wheels on. Unfortunately its a 2 wd.

Bummer on the 4 wheel drive. Im going to be putting a 2009 Tacoma with a ARE contractor canopy up for sale in a couple of weeks, that only has 63 thousand km on it. No issues getting at least 3 bikes with wheels on and more with out the front wheels on. Unfortunately its a 2 wd.

Yeah but two wheel in Whistler and I go up the Callaghan to XC all winter, 4 wheel is safer. I've been up at Callaghan where it snowed 5 to 10 cm in the hour or two that I've been skiing.