Wednesday, August 27, 2014

Building and testing the sliding elevator for my mini-motorcycle

Read this post to know why I want to have a motorcycle when I shall travel.

You may have noticed that most overlanders put their motorcycles on the outside of the back doors of their trucks. Personally, because of dust and of vandalism, I want my motorcycle to be inside my truck, in an airtight garage! - My spare tire will go on the outside of the back door.

It seemed to me simpler and wiser to first create the sliding elevator (in order to have more room doing so and to finalize design and dimensions) and later, to create the furniture for the inside of my truck.

Over the last few weeks, I made the sliding elevator: an electric winch lifts up/down the motorcycle and drawer slides enable the bike to be inserted/removed from the truck.

I tested the set-up today: it works great, exactly as I wanted – Super happy with my design and work!

It will now be disassembled, painted and re-fitted much later (like next year!) when all the furniture is made.


1/ The motorcycle is driven into the correct spot, 2 quick release hooks are fastened

2/ The electric winch lifts the motorcycle

3/ Stop lifting when fully up!

4/ Push the slides and motorcycle inside the truck

5/ Drop the motorcycle in position

6/ Side view of slides that are in the "extended" position

7/ Close up view of winch and mechanism