moving a bike in a box truck?

[bschur13]

In about a month I will be moving from va to co.  I will be using a uhaul for the treck and I will have to put the bike in there securely.  I am assuming it will be easy to do with a canyon dancer or some tie down straps?  Anyone have any suggestions since I have never done this. 

Thanks in advance.

Brian

[Speeddog]

Make sure you tie the front wheel so it can't turn to one side.

It depends how you can do the tie downs, and how packed your truck ends up...

[bschur13]

I did transport my bike when I bought it but that was the first and last time.  I tied it into a trailer and I assume I would like to do it the same way but I dont know if the truck will have anchor spots in the correct place.  The situation I had visualized in my head was put the bike all the way to the front of the truck, pushed tire first up against the back of the cab area.  Tie the bars down and just support the rear tire.  My concern is that the truck will not have anchor points in the front corner or area that allows me to compress the forks enough for a snug fit.  I am not too concerned about room in the truck.  I only have bedroom furniture to put in there along with clothes and sports equipment.  Nothing too big.

[WetDuc]

Just tie the handlebars and tie the back of the bike too.  I also tie down the wheels for support.  Once you tighten the handlebars down, though, it shouldn't move hardly at all.  Make sure you cinch down the handlebar tie downs enough that you compress the fork suspension at least an inch or so.

[SeaS2R]

From personal experience, a typical uhaul truck has horizontal 'rails' every foot or two but they're not very deep.  Make sure that the tie down straps you bring can slide into the rails or bring something like http://www.motorcycle-superstore.com/4/22/275/26099/ITEM/Ancra-Tie-Down-Extension.aspx, which you can slide into the rail and then attach your tie-down to.

[Yellow Meanie]

I moved my Monster in a truck a few months ago. There were no tie down points on the deck, only on the sides of the truck.
You can see the bike is backed in, so the rear wheel is up against the front of the wall. I then used 6 straps to tie her down as best I could.
Just in case, I took off my pipes, rear cowl and foot-pegs, and surrounded the bike with "soft" cardboard boxes.

The move was about 400km down a hilly, bumpy highway. The bike didn't move at all 

[aaronb]

you can buy a $30 wheel choke from harbor freight, make an 'H' out of 2x6's, 4 eye bolts, and some ratchet straps.  put it all together and you have a very stable shipping pallet for about $50.  

[erkishhorde]

I had to put my bike in a Uhaul box truck one time before I got my pickup. It wasn't cool. As stated before, there are no tiedown points on the floor. The truck I got had wooden rails bolted to the walls and those were the only tie down point. And they were high.   You will likely need some kind of soft tie to get around the rails because hooking straight onto the rails just isn't a good idea. If you can, put it on a rear stand and then strap it down like YM did. Another thing to note, is that I had clearance issues on the ramp. Supply was limited and I ended up getting one of the big Uhauls that has a built in ramp that slides out of the back. Clearance was very close for the header on flat ground but at my house the ground isn't flat and I scraped pretty hard unloading the bike.

[aaronb]

oh, here's some loading tips from our friends at SBN   

http://www.sportbikes.net/forums/fz6/384918-moving-day-yes-there-pics.html

Unfortunately we arrived in Atlanta after the huge storm came through and everything was wet. I had researched loading the bike onto the truck quite bit including watching a fair few YouTube videos. The common problem seems to be falling off the ramp when near the top, I was not about to do that...

Riding out of the shed and through my muddy yard was fine, but the road was very wet, the ramp was cold and damp, and the truck had a wooden deck so I expected issues stopping when up there. Tip to from the (now) wise: wooden planks have as much grip as a patch of diesel after a rainstorm even if they were covered...

Getting up the ramp was a breeze. I guess I hit it at 10->15mph which was probably too fast with hindsight, but I was really determined not to fall off the ramp. The 26' truck had a ton of room to stop, but I locked what felt like both wheels for about 10' then the bike went down and slid all the way to the end of truck - it looked and sounded just like a Hollywood movie!

Sliders saved the day and the only damage appears to be:
. Broken left peg
. Scraped windshield
. Broken glass in one mirror
. Need a few new clips to put the screen back-on

Luckily the inner parts of the fairing were removed for battery access during winter storage, so the main fairing could just moved in the crash. Ironically ten minutes before I told my wife I'd re-assemble the fairing parts in Connecticut just in case I wrecked getting it on the truck

[triangleforge]

you can buy a $30 wheel choke from harbor freight, make an 'H' out of 2x6's, 4 eye bolts, and some ratchet straps.  put it all together and you have a very stabile shipping pallet for about $50.   

+1 and then some on using a front wheel chock -- it'll make your life SO much easier. When I moved from Maryland to Arizona in 2007, I splurged on a Baxley Chock (http://www.baxleycompanies.com/Sportchock.html) but you'd be fine with a mounted Harbor Freight one.

With a wheel chock, you can put the bike anywhere in the cargo area you want -- there's no need to string cam straps all the way across the interior, which will considerably reduce your room for furniture & other stuff. That was a huge consideration for me, with the Monster, furniture, too damn many boxes, three kayaks & a canoe to find spaces for.

What I did was to put the bike as far forward as I could on the driver's side with the chock butted up against the front wall. I strapped the front wheel into the chock & then ran straps from the fork tubes/triple trees to the wooden tie-down points on that wall. I put the rear wheel up on a Pit Bull stand; it probably was overkill, but the stand had to go somewhere in the truck anyway. I covered everything liberally with moving blankets & other soft stuff in case something shifted while in transit, and all was good all the way across the country.

Oh, and don't ask for advice about moving a vehicle at the U-Haul, Penske or whatever rental place -- you're not supposed to haul gasoline or other flammable liquids in the cargo are (I drained the tank), and I'm pretty sure there was a prohibition on loading vehicles as well.

And one other thing I learned: if you opt to ride the bike up the ramp into the truck in the middle of a heavy downpour, traction on the ramp is fine, but that plate aluminum floor inside the truck is mighty slick when wet!

[ducatiz]

The best setup is a piece of 3/4" or thicker plywood, at least 2' wide.  Put some eye bolts in the plywood and tie the bike down.  With a 5' long piece you can put both tires on the plywood and have a real pallet.

the floor of the moving truck can be slippery AND the wood guides on the sides of a UHAUL truck WILL NOT HOLD a 400lb bike!

You may get off lucky, but I recommend you don't try it.

ALSO, DRAIN YOUR TANK if you plan to put anything else in the truck with the bike or the entire load will smell like gas.

[bschur13]

thanks for all the replies! 

I got by a truck rental place today (before i got to reading all this) and found out the bad news that there was no legit tie down spots.  Sounds like the best option is to bolt a chock to a piece of wood and then strap the bike into the wood itself and then strap to the wood rails along the side of the truck.  Ill have a 16 footer and will have plenty of room for all my other stuff.  Another idea I am gonna look into is getting a smaller vehicle (van or something) and a bike trailer. 

Any other ideas or experiences are still welcomed.   
I know I dont want to screw this up and find my bike lying upside down when I get to denver. 

[erkishhorde]

For those of you suggesting harbor freight chocks I have a question. I was playing around with a HB chock in my garage today and it wasn't bolted down. I can see how it's easy to get into the chock if you but the chock up against the front of the truck. How do you then get out?  My front tire got jammed in there so good that I had to have 2 people to get the bike out of the chock. Either that or let some air out of the tire. The dang thing just bit into the tire so tight I couldn't get the bike out by myself.

[ducatiz]

The HF chock is adjustable for wheel diameter.  Look at the bolts for the moving piece's hinge.  There are 3 or 4 holes.  Your tire should wedge tight but not too much.  I put mine on the center hole for starters and it was fine.  Also how tight did you tie down the front?  You might have forced it in?

[erkishhorde]

Ah, didn't notice the adjustability. I rode it in with just enough speed to overcome the "door" tilt and didn't tie it down.