Weight on rear doors (E-Series)

[kevman]

How much weight have you hung, or would you hang, on your rear doors? Is there a spec for this somewhere?

Our van came with the stock spare mounted on the rear door. Since then we've moved up to 265/75r16s and have kept the spare on the door without any issues. I'm guessing this weighs ~80lbs.

I've been toying with the idea of a rear swing out bike rack attached to the stock bumper. Then I thought why not on the door like the spare on a lot of vans? It would be much simpler but the door would need to handle about 100lbs for two bikes and the rack. That and the centre of gravity would be further out from the door than a spare tire.

Has anyone done anything similar? In a perfect world I'd just get an Aluminess bumper and be done with it but for the price I'm probably better off buying a new bike everywhere I go.

[JWA]

If not mounting a device to a stout rear bumper just about the only safe way (for the doors/body) is using the door hinge external pivots as your connection points. Those are essentially attached to the van body and will carry your anticipated 100 pounds additional weight well enough. I'm sure this is your plan already?

[86Scotty]

I had a 285 tire mounted to my Sportsmobile rear door with the old style door-mounted tire carrier. For me the tire sat just a hair above the bumper so with any flex it would rest on it. I also mounted a very heavy box with a Honda generator and 3 2.5 gallon cans on top of it on the passenger side. Once, in a rather articulated off road maneuver (professionals only ) I took a pic of the van all twisted up. I looked closely at the pic later and realized my rear doors were WAY out of alignment with the body, badly sagging with the twist. However, I never had any problems. No leaks, no cracks, no wear, no issues with opening/closing. These Ford vans do twist more than you think but they can take a lot of abuse. DaveB is the only person I've heard of that actually has cracked the body on a van but he offroads like no one I've seen in an SMB.

Yo Dave, howbout posting some pics?

[MadScience]

I don't have anything other than a ladder on my rear doors. When driving down unimproved roads, everything flexes enough that the interior lights will flash on and off constantly. Obviously I switch them to always-off pretty quickly in that situation.

I do have a crack in the body that started at the corner of the generator box cutout.

Even parked for camping on less than even ground, I sometimes see daylight through the door seals in back. Not so great when camping in the rain.

It sounds like I should take a picture next time I'm in a spot like that.

[kevman]

Originally Posted by JWA

I'm sure this is your plan already?

Not necessarily. I was thinking about utilizing the existing spare tire carrier that is bolted to the door.

Originally Posted by 86Scotty

I also mounted a very heavy box with a Honda generator and 3 2.5 gallon cans on top of it on the passenger side.

I believe I stumbled across yours in another post but did you mount this box to the door like the spare tire carriers or did you attach it to the hinges? Assuming your generator was around 50lbs. you're close to 100lbs. with 7.5 gallons of gas.

Did you notice any difference between the drivers door (latching top and bottom) and the passenger door (latching in the middle)?