Tiger storage ?

[ThomD]

I dream of buying a Tiger XL, but I wonder about storage. Along the back wall, next to the head, the seats form an L. What's under that rear seat?

Since we will only be a party of two, I wonder about pulling out that rear section of the seating to reconfigure storage.

 

[suntinez]

In the corner on the passenger side is the fresh water storage tank. In the center section is the water pump and associated plumbing which runs under the shower pan. If there is a generator, the wiring for that is there. Plenty of room for storage in that center section, but none in the corner.

 

[ThomD]

Thanks. The only obstacle (other than funding and spouse approval) to a Tiger for us is where to put two road bikes inside. If the back seats were taken out, I wonder if they would fit up right.

 

[FurthurOnTheFly]

I can personally attest to storing two mountain bikes inside our Tiger while it was parked outside of San Fransisco. We were not sure we'd be able to fit them, but there was so much room we probably could have fit a third if we really needed to.

These things look small but they truly have more room inside than one could imagine. I would not worry a bit about storage, especially for just two people. Personally I don't think would would need to, or want to, take the rear couch out for more storage if you get a hard top.

On that note, personally I would get tired of having to store the bikes inside. We only did it once because we were afraid they'd get stolen in the big city, but part of the fun of the Tiger is being able to pull over and walk to the back and relax, go to sleep, make a coffee, etc....if you store the bikes inside then you have to pull them out and keep them outside all the time anyway! We only felt paranoid enough to do this once on a month-long trip...with three integrated locking mechanisms on our Yakima hitch rack we didn't worry much.

 

[DiploStrat]

Thanks. The only obstacle (other than funding and spouse approval) to a Tiger for us is where to put two road bikes inside. If the back seats were taken out, I wonder if they would fit up right.

Would be a bit of a pain, but you could mount fork clamps to the floor and fit two road bikes in the main passage that way. Would probably need to aim one to the back and one to the front. The central passage way is remarkably wide, but you would run the risk of stubbing your toes on the mount(s). Beloved Spouse and I are not looking to carry road bikes but rather folders or some sort of transport bike - trips rather than rides and under five kilometers.

A Tiger owner tipped me to this rack, which seems to be well made to carry serious bikes: http://www.swagman.net/products/platform-racks/g2/ As with all external mounts, you would need to look at security and protection against road grit, etc. And, if you spent much time on dirt, I would expect a single hitch mount to fail.

The Tiger's exterior shower might be very nice after a summer ride!

 

[ThomD]

Thanks guys. A viable option for bike inside is a must and it sounds like we could make it work. Mountain bikes may come out when we get the North Rim, but the wife's race bike does not live outside.

 

[DiploStrat]

You really need to see a Tiger for yourself.

Contact Provan or the Tigermotorhomes user group on Yahoo. There are several on the West coast.

Been a biker, tour, road, and even some very minor racing, for years and have never liked external mounts - crud, damage to the bike, etc. That said, the Swagman is specifically shown with a carbon fibre road bike. You might want to consider a combo system - some form of fork mount inside for actual travel or parking in difficult places and, counterintuitively, an exterior rack to use when parked/camping. I haven't measured, but I am pretty sure you could get two road bikes mounted as I described, but you couldn't camp that way, so you would need somewhere to stash the beasts when cooking, etc.

Good luck!

 

[ThomD]

Thanks for all the input. I think a more useful option would be some sort of box mounted to the rear bumper.