E-bike and motorbike garage: which vans fit one upright under a fixed bed
· 8 min read
No van fits an e-bike upright under a bed you can sit up in. Under a bed you only lie in, every high-roof large van does (Ducato H3, Crafter H4, Master H3, Transit H3, Sprinter H3, Daily H3), no H2 van does, and a motorbike fits the same list on height but needs a longitudinal bed and an L3 or longer on length. That is the answer. The rest of this post is the table behind it, per van and roof, with every assumption written down so you can move the numbers to your own bike and mattress.
This is the narrow version of the garage dimensions guide: that one covers boards, boxes and lashing points; this one answers a single question that forum threads keep asking in inches — will my e-bike or 125 stand under the bed in this van. The trade-off itself (every centimetre of garage is a centimetre you cannot sit up in) is explained in the bed-height post; here it is applied to 27 vehicles.
The assumptions
- E-bike upright, both wheels on: 1.10 m tall, 1.80 m long, 0.65–0.70 m at the bars. Step-through frames and 29-inch wheels with a raised saddle are the tall end; drop the saddle or pull the seatpost and most bikes lose 5–10 cm.
- E-bike with the front wheel off: 1.00 m tall, about 1.50 m long. The fork sits on the floor in a block; the 10 cm saved is the fork crown to axle drop.
- Motorbike, 125 cc class: 1.10 m to the bars with the mirrors folded, 2.0 m long, 0.75–0.85 m wide, 110–140 kg. A dual-sport with a tall screen is more; a scooter is less.
- Bed frame 7 cm, mattress 12 cm, floor and ceiling build-up 7 cm in total — the planner’s defaults, and the middle of what people build.
- Sit-up bed: 93.5 cm over the mattress (median adult sitting height 91 cm plus the forum’s inch). Lie-only bed: 70 cm, below which the planner calls the bed critical — you roll in, you do not sit.
- Interior heights and widths are the floor-to-headliner and between-walls figures from the van database that drives the planner; the width at deck height uses the same wall taper the 3D shell draws, which is why it is a few centimetres less than the floor width.
So: garage under a sit-up bed = interior height − 1.195 m, and under a lie-only bed = interior height − 0.96 m. Change any assumption and move the column by the same amount.
The table: every base van, clear height under the bed
Verdicts read sit-up bed · lie-only bed: ✓ = clears the load, ~ = within 5 cm (thinner mattress, saddle down, or a shallower frame gets you there), ✗ = no. Bed width is the width between the walls at a 1.17 m deck, which is the longest transverse bed that roof allows above the arches.
| Van · roof | Interior height | Bed width at deck | Garage, sit-up bed | Garage, lie-only bed | E-bike upright 1.10 | E-bike wheel off 1.00 | Motorbike 1.10 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fiat Ducato H3 (= Boxer, Relay, ProMaster high roof) | 2.17 m | 1.85 m | 0.98 m | 1.21 m | ✗ · ✓ | ~ · ✓ | ✗ · ✓ |
| Fiat Ducato H2 | 1.93 m | 1.85 m | 0.74 m | 0.97 m | ✗ · ✗ | ✗ · ~ | ✗ · ✗ |
| VW Crafter H4 (= MAN TGE) | 2.17 m | 1.77 m | 0.97 m | 1.21 m | ✗ · ✓ | ~ · ✓ | ✗ · ✓ |
| VW Crafter H3 | 1.96 m | 1.76 m | 0.77 m | 1.00 m | ✗ · ✗ | ✗ · ✓ | ✗ · ✗ |
| Renault Master H3 RWD (= Movano, NV400) | 2.19–2.20 m | 1.71 m | 1.00 m | 1.23–1.24 m | ✗ · ✓ | ✓ · ✓ | ✗ · ✓ |
| Renault Master H3 FWD | 2.13 m | 1.71 m | 0.93–0.94 m | 1.17 m | ✗ · ✓ | ✗ · ✓ | ✗ · ✓ |
| Ford Transit H3 | 2.13–2.14 m | 1.71 m | 0.94 m | 1.17–1.18 m | ✗ · ✓ | ✗ · ✓ | ✗ · ✓ |
| Ford Transit H2 | 1.90 m | 1.70 m | 0.70 m | 0.94 m | ✗ · ✗ | ✗ · ✗ | ✗ · ✗ |
| Mercedes-Benz Sprinter H3 | 2.13 m | 1.71 m | 0.93–0.94 m | 1.17 m | ✗ · ✓ | ✗ · ✓ | ✗ · ✓ |
| Mercedes-Benz Sprinter H2 | 1.92–1.94 m | 1.69 m | 0.72–0.74 m | 0.96–0.98 m | ✗ · ✗ | ✗ · ~ | ✗ · ✗ |
| Iveco Daily H3 | 2.10 m | 1.77 m | 0.91 m | 1.14 m | ✗ · ✓ | ✗ · ✓ | ✗ · ✓ |
| Iveco Daily H2 | 1.90 m | 1.76 m | 0.71 m | 0.94 m | ✗ · ✗ | ✗ · ✗ | ✗ · ✗ |
| Renault Trafic H2 (= Vivaro, NV300, Talento) | 1.91 m | 1.61 m | 0.71 m | 0.95 m | ✗ · ✗ | ✗ · ✗ | ✗ · ✗ |
| VW Transporter H2 | 1.90 m | 1.66 m | 0.71 m | 0.94 m | ✗ · ✗ | ✗ · ✗ | ✗ · ✗ |
| Transit Custom H2 | 1.70 m | 1.70 m | 0.51 m | 0.74 m | ✗ · ✗ | ✗ · ✗ | ✗ · ✗ |
| HiAce SLWB, Vito, Expert (= ProAce, Scudo), all low roofs, Caddy, Berlingo, Connect | 1.24–1.63 m | — | ≤0.44 m | ≤0.67 m | ✗ · ✗ | ✗ · ✗ | ✗ · ✗ |
Vans in brackets share the body; the platform-twins guide says which badge is which by year. Where a row shows a range, the RWD variant or the longer body is a centimetre or two lower inside — the database carries each one separately.
How to read it
- The sit-up column is the mountain-bike column. 0.93–1.00 m under a sit-up bed in an H3 van is exactly the front-wheel-off MTB band (0.95 m) — that is where the 36–39-inch platform consensus comes from, and why it does not transfer to e-bikes. An e-bike is 10–15 cm taller for the same wheel size because of the battery-in-downtube geometry and the upright bars, and you rarely want to take a 25 kg bike’s wheel off twice a day.
- Upright means a lie-only bed, full stop. Even the tallest van in the table, the Master H3 RWD at 2.20 m, leaves exactly 1.00 m under a sit-up bed. To stand an e-bike upright you accept 70 cm over the mattress, and you should try that in a friend’s van before you commit: it is a bunk, not a bed.
- The H2 near-misses are a mattress away. Ducato H2 (0.97), Sprinter H2 (0.96–0.98) and Crafter H3 (1.00) miss or just make the wheel-off e-bike under a lie-only bed. An 8 cm foam mattress instead of 12 cm buys 4 cm; a 5 cm frame with the deck let into the rails instead of on top buys another 2. Do both and the Ducato H2 fits.
- Length decides the motorbike, not height. A 2.0 m bike goes under a longitudinal bed or not at all — a transverse bed covers 1.4–1.5 m of van length, so the bike would stand 50–60 cm into the living area. A 2.0 m garage in an L2 Ducato (3.12 m inside) leaves 1.1 m for the kitchen, the seat and the door; in an L3 (3.71 m) it leaves 1.7 m; in an L4 (4.07 m) 2.1 m. Realistically the motorbike van is L3 minimum, L4 to be comfortable, and the Daily and Sprinter L4 and L5 bodies are the ones with room to spare.
- The e-bike sits between the arches, not above them. The wheels are on the floor; the arch boxes (22–32 cm high, 15–27 cm deep per side) are beside the lane, not under it. The lane is 1.42 m in a Ducato, 1.39 m Transit, 1.38 m Crafter, 1.35 m Sprinter, 1.32 m Daily, 1.27 m Master — two e-bikes in all of them if the bars overlap (staggered fore-and-aft, one saddle down), two with clear bars only in the first four, one motorbike in all of them.
- The upright e-bike also sticks out. 1.80 m under a 1.40–1.50 m deep transverse bed means the bars stand 30–40 cm into whatever is in front of the bed. Leave the lane open under a rear bench, or plan the bed 1.6 m deep with a shelf at the head end. With the front wheel off (1.50 m) it disappears under the bed.
The motorbike’s other number
A 125 at 130 kg plus a ramp and a rail is 150 kg parked at the very back. The rear axle sits about 0.7 m ahead of the rear doors on L2 and L3 bodies and 1.0 m on an L4 (the axle positions in the database), so a 2.0 m bike centred 1.0 m in puts its mass on or just ahead of the axle — the lever arm is not the problem. The load is: 150 kg lands on the axle that already carries the water, the garage and the bed, and on a 3.5 t van that is the axle that runs out first. Check the split before you buy the ramp — the weight-distribution post explains why the rear axle limit bites before the gross weight does, and the planner reports both while you drag the bike box around, not after. It comes in through the rear doors, which are 1.53–1.58 m wide and 1.60–2.03 m tall on every large van — the door-opening post has them per model.
Before you cut ply
Measure your bike, not a table: saddle top, bar top, and length with the front wheel off, on a level floor. Then put the real numbers into the bed height calculator with your van’s interior height and your mattress — it returns the platform range that satisfies both the bike and your head, or tells you the roof cannot do both. Standing height next to the bed is a separate question, answered in the standing-height table.
FAQ
Which vans fit an e-bike upright under a fixed bed?
Only the high-roof large vans, and only if you give up sitting up in bed. A Ducato H3, Crafter H4, Master H3, Transit H3 or Sprinter H3 has 2.13–2.20 m floor to headliner; after a 7 cm floor and ceiling build-up, a 12 cm mattress, 70 cm to lie under and a 7 cm bed frame, 1.17–1.24 m is left under the deck — enough for a 1.10 m upright e-bike. Keep 93.5 cm to sit up and the same vans leave 0.93–1.00 m, which is a bike with the front wheel off, not an upright one.
Does a motorbike fit under a campervan bed?
Height-wise a 125 cc bike (about 1.10 m to the bars and mirrors folded) fits under a lie-only bed in every H3/H4 large van. Length is the real limit: at 2.0 m it only fits under a longitudinal bed, which takes 2.0 m of the van, so an L2 (3.1–3.3 m inside) has 1.1 m left for everything else. Plan a motorbike garage in an L3 at the very least, and put the 110–140 kg on the rear axle, not behind it.
Can two e-bikes go side by side between the wheel arches?
In most large vans, yes, staggered. The lane between the arch boxes is 1.42 m in a Ducato, 1.39 m in a Transit, 1.38 m in a Crafter, 1.35 m in a Sprinter, 1.32 m in a Daily and 1.27 m in a Master. Two e-bikes with 65–70 cm bars need 1.0–1.3 m depending on how far the bars overlap — stagger them fore-and-aft and drop one saddle; in the Master they only go in staggered.
How much does an H2 roof miss by?
By the mattress and the bed frame, roughly. An H2 large van is 1.88–1.96 m inside; under a lie-only bed that leaves 0.92–1.00 m, so an e-bike with its front wheel off (1.00 m) fits in a Crafter H3 exactly and is 2–3 cm short in a Ducato or Sprinter H2. An 8 cm mattress instead of 12 cm turns those into a yes. Upright, no H2 van does it.
