twocicle

2018 Pacifica

Swallows tandems and asked for 2nds, 3rds, +. Even the Ventana ECDM (10" longer than the Calfee) has room to spare. Pacifica interior is longer but narrower than the Grand Caravan we previously had. In that, the Calfee just barely sat behind the driver seat, but in the Pacifica the Calfee leaves a lot more room between the tire and seat.

Prefer bikes inside vehicle for winter travel, but also have a 1UP hitch rack for tossing on dirty bikes in the summer. I hacked a 1UP tandem roof rack to work as a fork mount/rear tire holder rack on the 1UP hitch rack (mtb tandem measures vehicle width + 6" on passenger side). Will post pics of this next time we use it.

DT Tandem

We have put our Trek T900 in our 2018 Subaru outback a couple times. the first time we did it we also had a weekends worth of camping gear and I dont think most people would say we travel light.

Naturally the wheels had to come off. I'm not a big fan of that. We have since picked up a sidewinder rack.

Don

jethro00

Ford is coming out with a 2020 "crew" version of its Transit van this fall. It will offer AWD and a second row of 3 seats. It sounds like it will compete with the Mercedes Sprinter crew van, but at a much lower price point. Depending on whether there is a gap between the rear seats or space on the ends of the seats, this might be a good option for transporting a tandem intact.

Krenovian

balesmachine

Your not going to believe me, but a Honda Fit will do the trick. You can stand it up too. I do it all the time. I've had three Honda Fits, so that makes me sort of an expert, I guess.

Three Honda Fits. 2009, 2013, 2016


Honda Fit with two single road bikes


Honda Fit with tandem inside

dwmckee

We used to be happy with our 2002 Honda Odyssey, but we sold it (280,000 miles on it) and just bought a 2017 Ford Transit 350 XLT. With a few seats removed the Transit can fit in 3 fully assembled tandems and STILL have seats for 8, tons of luggage and cooler room and still have standing height for all! Ride is not as smooth as the Odyssey, but heck it is worth the tradeoff...

CaliTexan

Winnebago Revel - slides right in from the back, fork into a regular fork clamp on a piece of wood and strapped down to the rings on the floor.

bikehoco

Wouldn’t it be significantly less expensive to install a hitch and pull a small trailer?

Kat12

Does anyone use a rear rack? My friend just bought a tandem and is feeling ambitious and like she wants to go riding (paved) park bike trails... which will mean transporting the bike as none of these parks are within riding distance (at least for us). That means my car. I have a Civic sedan; no way the bike's going inside. We'd never get it onto a roof rack, nor do I want anything permanently mounted to my car. I'd rather not disassemble the thing at all (it's vintage, no quick-releases, I'm no bike mechanic, it would be extremely tedious). I know that means bike will be well wider than car. I admit to being a bit nervous about that, but what can you do?

A friend of hers told her any car rack would do (this friend uses a hitch-mount rack on an SUV, but her tandem is also lighter in weight; we have had both her bike and my friend's bike on this rack at the same time though)... someone else told us it would be too heavy for any sort of temporary-mount rack (which is an apparatus I have not seen in person for years so I don't know what's out there these days). (I'm not that big about putting a rack on my car at all; have heard a few horror stories about damage to the finish, but not much to be done about that; we'd just have to be careful and I'll cross my fingers.)

morganmarie19

We just bought a used tandem and fit it into our 2008 Volkswagen Jetta sedan for the drive home. The backseats were folded down in the car. After taking the wheels and captain seatpost/stoker handlebars off, the tandem was able to fit lying down stretching from behind the driver/passenger seat to the end of the trunk. We used blankets to support the frame on its side so that the weight didn't fall on the cranks. The wheels and seatpost/handlebar went on top of and around the frame with some padding and the trunk closed without a problem. I reckon we could also fit one suitcase in the car too if we wanted, though I don't think I'd recommend this as a frequent way to transport. But we were excited that we didn't have to rent a larger car to bring the new bike home..

Gride

By removing the front wheel we get our full size large tandem bicycle including rear rack and top case inside the cargo compartment of our 2020 ACURA RDX with the hatch comfortably closing. On top of that (and in, and under), we can pack the car further for several days worth of luxury camping as well. if not camping the configuration is that the front fork is straddling the top of the passenger headrest and the handlebars occupy part of the airspace between the front buckets seats and the rear slopes down wheel touching deck. If camping we raise it up higher, removing stoker bars and a pedal so it lays high up near roof, so we can pack under it. Because my stoker wife is not a tall person, none of this high fork and cockpit conflict with her head or hair. I am tall with broad shoulders but none of the bike touches me either.

alphaphoenix

That strikes my interest for my next car - then saw the starting price of $174K. Now eyeing a Subaru Ascent with captain seats.

CaliTexan

Right. You're not buying a Revel for tandem hauling alone. But, we wanted a camper van that could hold a tandem and this one was the best "package" of features since the "garage" portion is back is very flexible. The advertised retail price is a strange fiction in the RV world. A 25-35% discount off of the sticker price seems to be typical.

PaulGrun

Revels are in very high demand these days. Not sure if that has impacted the price or not, but my sense is that they are becoming hard to get.

sdodd

Just posted my build of a rack to hold our tandem in our 2012 odyssey. No front wheel removal needed.

Built a rack to fit Tandem into our 2012 Odyssey - no front wheel removal

VinCox

I have always found a way to put a tandem in even the smallest cars I've owned. It depends on the tandem as well as the car, and of course it depends on if anyone is getting in the car with you (my stoker has often had to travel in another car!). Wheels out, with one end of the bike on the passenger seat (headrest off, seat reclined a bit) the other end usually can be made to get in a hatch back. The hardest was when I had an S class Merc - but thankfully it was the long wheelbase version and it's a wide car so I got the tandem in somehow!

rmrs

Our honeymoon getaway car was a '73 pinto wagon. Due to weather, we could not ride away on "Tandam". However we did load it inside many times into many cars ... with a shoe spoon and some ingenuity.

The point is you can fit it in where you have to. If your stoker or anyone asks: "Old Dan" said you can. ;-)

dstke

We're planning a trip to South Korea and most rental companies offer the Kia Carnival. Anyone know if a tandem will fit inside? Do the 3rd and 2nd row seats fold down? Thanks.

richjac

For our trip to Florida recently I was very happy to leave the hitch mounted rack at home and was able to fit our new Santana inside the car by removing both wheels and lowering the captain’s seat, and rotating the stoker bars to provide support. I also strapped the frame to the seat latches on each side to prevent and shifting during the trip. It worked flawlessly and was not much more work than fitting the bike on the rear rack.



Large Santana Sovereign inside 2018 CR-V

hph

2023 Toyota Highlander

You can do it, but you'll probably need to remove one or both wheels, especially if you dont want to scuff the interior.

dstke

Follow-up from our trip to South Korea. Our Tandem fit in Kia Carnival. I had hoped to be able to remove the middle seats and set them to the side but the car that we rented only allowed for the seats to be folded forward which worked OK.





Separate question, anyone have an EV that can fit a tandem vertically? A friend easily got his tandem into his Tesla Model S and in his new Rivian SUV but only on it's side although in both cases with both wheels on. Wondering if there's an EV that can fit a tandem inside in a fork mount.