Hyundai Iload Moto/Mtb Van

While sitting in quarantine when moving to Australia I was wondering what I was going to get for a van or truck/ute without putting a hurting on our bank account having to buy a house right away. Luckily, I had my younger brother in-law Luke Reardon to help me find a van. The first day out of quarantine Luke and I drove to a used car yard where I would purchase this Hyundai Iload Van that I wasn’t really that pumped on if I’m being honest. It was a bench seat 5 speed Hyundai Iload. Once I got home, I was wondering what I was going to do to make it my own. I did some google searches and there wasn’t much inspiration to work with. The iLoad is great sized van because you can put two full size motorcycles in the van with the bars just barely missing the ceiling. You can go into undercover garages and park anywhere you would like with ease. The 4-cylinder manual wasn’t winning any drag races, but it runs smooth. The van had dual sliding doors and I was pumped on that.

Exterior: I got home, and spray painted the wheels black, booked it in for some tint work on all the windows and it was coming together. I felt like it was more my style not a delivery van now. I had an idea to get some Method Race Wheels for my van because it would make me feel like a little piece of home “as in California”. I quickly learned they don’t make Method Race Wheels for the Iload. I was bummed but the crew at Method Race Wheels came in huge and made some one-off custom wheels for my van through the Australian distributor Michael Taylor at Race Wheels Australia. Michael and his crew did some measurements, and it didn’t’ take long for the team at Race Wheels Australia to give me a call to let me know the wheels were in stock. Once We put the Method’s wrapped in Toyo’s this little Van started to look tuff for a little 4-cylinder van.

The lenses on the driving lights were very yellow dull so I ordered a Bush Ranger light bar for the front bumper to give me some more light on the dark roads. It had a dimmer on the dash as well and highly recommend the Bush Ranger light. I also used the Bushranger awning on the van and annex room to get us out of the sun or some a camping trip on occassion. The quality of the Bushranger product is great and highly recommend it. To hold on the Bushranger awning on I used the Thule rails and added one Thule bike roof mount when I needed some extra space I could throw a bike one the roof. I used this a handful times and although it wasn’t used every day when I needed it it was great to have and easy to use.

Interior: The size of the van doesn’t leave you much to do because you can’t lose volume, or a big bike motorcycle won’t fit. I had Ryan Maher from Custom Van Conversion on the Gold Coast do a stretch carpet on the entire inside of the van. I wasn’t planning on sleeping in it, so I didn’t do any insulation. Ryan just sprayed glue on the walls and ceiling stretched the grey carpet throughout the van. The Van was quite but I didn’t have storage, so I went to 4-wheel supa center and got one of their slide out boxes with a stainless steel cutting board/table that would pull out the side of the van. This set up turned out great for me storing so many essentials for moto and mtb that stayed in the van. on top of the slide out I used the Kings fridge. The fridge was really handy to have in the van for lunch and water bottles ready to go. While I was buying the box and fridge I bought a Kings invertor, battery, and solar blanket to have power. This was a plug and play set up and worked really well for me. Charging E-bikes, and other low power needs.

Remember this van is only a 4-cylinder gas powered so I had to keep it light and not do a complete build out on so it would be able to move down the road still. I added some Ballards helmet holders which came in handy to keep the helmets from rolling around the ground. Speaking of ground and space with two bikes gear bags take up a ton of volume so it was important to not have a gear bag if I didn’t need one. A great edition to the van was the Risk Racing fuel can and mount so there wasn’t a chance of my fuel spilling over in the van while driving. Another tip you are using a small van for moto check out the Polisport foldable stands. They work great and take up no space.

I had this van for about 2 years, and it worked well. The negative for me is having a family of 5 the van wasn’t ideal but if you don’t have to take a family around with you the Hyundai Iload can be very effective for an active living van life.