Tiedown point in the back..?

[TheJoker]

Gents,

I was going to put a few of these in the back of the car. To tie down the bikes with. They seem ideal as I can remove the 'ring' in day-to day use.

http://www.cyclegear.com/lpgm.cfm?L1=5&L2=&L3=&L4=&item=MRX_TDP1



Wanted to have a peek under the carpet, but it's glued to the floor. I also had a quick bend under to see what's there, but I didn't really see much as I was in "normal" clothes and I should have to remove the spare etc.

Does anyone know if I can simply drill through? Or is there some double floor or something like that, that I need to take into account?

I'm thinking one, two or three of these.
- One: Middle
- Two: straight behind the bikes
- Three: Edges and middle.

Anyone know what's under there..?

Thanks!

[Martin Tyas]

Depending were you need or want to drill you can encounter box section chassis members or box sections where the seat mountings are located. If you go through into any of these then you are unlikely to be able to get the nuts on to the tie down ring mountings. So, you may be better getting it up on ramps, find the places underneath where there are no box sections, do the measuring up to check where abouts you will come through inside the car and then drill from underneath.

But here's another idea... why go to the trouble of drilling at all? Why not get some ratchet straps (see attached picture...  they are for up to 400kg loads and only £6.99 each from Screwfix) and hook them under the seat mounting points... after all they are already there and with so many of them to choose from you should be able to adequately anchor your bikes.
Just a thought.

Martin

p.s. Screwfix also do some heavier duty straps with a 1 tonne rating for £12.99 each

[TheJoker]

Martin,

Thanks for that - but I think I didn't make myself really clear. The point about drilling from the underside is very valid. I think that's what I would have ended up doing. However, I'm worried that, for example, the floor might be "double-hulled" or something.

With regards to the bikes I should probably have explained a bit better. I'm already using the seat-mounting points. However, there's only 2 rows of seats meaning that the furthest back row is quite far from the absolute rear of the car. Therefore it's difficult to strap the bikes in tightly on the length-axis. And if they're not strapped so that a strap is pulling the back too, then there's a danger that, in an impact or heavy braking, they will inch forward in to the drivers/passenger seats.
Therefore I'd be most comfortable if I could ratchet down the rear wheel, or pillion pegs, of the bike to  some anchoring points very near the tailgate.

The idea is that we use 4 ratchet straps per bike, so we can adjust all "corners" of the bike. Each ratchet strap pulling outwards from the centre of the bike.

I've got some neat pictures of the bikes in there... My girlfriends GSX-R600 has got a very high tail, and that's only a few centimeters from the tailgate when closed - tight squeeze... 

[jack daniels]

Hi there Joker,
 did you ever get around to drilling thru the floor to install tie down points?
I need something similar rear-most in the car

[TheJoker]

Hi there Joker,
 did you ever get around to drilling thru the floor to install tie down points?
I need something similar rear-most in the car

Hi,

No I never got round to it. It still bugs me a bit, but I've leart to work around it, simply by not tying down at the back. If you proceed, please share your experience!